What happened in 1917

World6

• Mar 1WWI: The U.S. government releases the text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.
• Apr 26WWI: The Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, between France, Italy and the United Kingdom, to settle interests in the Middle East, is signed.
• Jul 17King George V of the United Kingdom issues a proclamation, stating that thenceforth the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor, vice the Germanic bloodline of House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (an offshoot of the historic (800+ years) House of Wettin).
• Sep 23Leon Trotsky is elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
• Dec 6The Senate of Finland officially declares the country's independence from Russia.
• The True Jesus Church is established in Beijing.

Japan1

• AprImokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki, the first anime, is released in Japan.

North America17

• Feb 24WWI: Walter Hines Page, United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, is shown the intercepted Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico, if Mexico will take sides with Germany, in case the United States declares war on Germany.
• Mar 7"Livery Stable Blues", recorded with "Dixie Jazz Band One Step" on February 26, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in the United States, becomes the first jazz recording commercially released. On August 17 the band records "Tiger Rag".
• Mar 31The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies, which become the US Virgin Islands, after paying $25 million to Denmark.
• May 22The Commissioned Officer Corps of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is established.
• Jun 4The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography, (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history, for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert Bayard Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism, for his work for the New York World.
• Jul 6The Conscription Crisis of 1917 in Canada leads to passage of the Military Service Act.
• Jul 7The Lions Clubs International is formed in the United States.
• Jul 28The Silent Parade is organized by the NAACP in New York City, to protest the East St. Louis massacre of early July, as well as lynchings in Tennessee and Texas.
• Nov 15"Night of Terror" in the United States: Influential suffragettes from the Silent Sentinels are deliberately subjected to physical assaults by guards while imprisoned.
• Nov 17WWI: Action of 17 November 1917: United States Navy destroyers USS Fanning and USS Nicholson capture Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-58 off the south-west coast of Ireland, the first combat action in which U.S. ships take a submarine (which is then scuttled).
• Nov 26The National Hockey League is formed in Montreal, as a replacement for the recently disbanded National Hockey Association.
• Dec 3After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).
• Dec 6Halifax Explosion: Two freighters collide in Halifax Harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and cause a huge explosion that kills at least 1,963 people, injures 9,000 and destroys part of the city (the biggest man-made explosion in recorded history until the Trinity nuclear test in 1945).
• Dec 25Jesse Lynch Williams's Why Marry?, the first play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre, New York City.
• The first edition of the World Book Encyclopedia – simply known as The World Book – is published by the Hanson-Roach-Fowler Company, and is one of the first American encyclopedias to cover the major areas of knowledge to a mass audience.

2 more in the app

Europe37

• Apr 9WWI: Canadian troops win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
• Apr 9WWI: Battle of Arras – British Empire troops make a significant advance on the Western Front but are unable to achieve a breakthrough.
• May 13October 13 (at monthly intervals) – 10-year-old Lúcia Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto report experiencing a series of Marian apparitions near Fátima, Portugal, which become known as Our Lady of Fátima.
• Jun 7WWI: Battle of Messines opens with the British Army detonating 24 ammonal mines under the German lines, killing 10,000 in the deadliest deliberate non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.
• Jul 30The Parliament of Finland is dissolved by the Russian Provisional Government. New elections are held in the autumn, resulting in a bourgeois majority.
• Jul 31WWI: Battle of Passchendaele ("Third Battle of Ypres") – Allied offensive operations commence in Flanders.
• Oct 24WWI: Battle of Caporetto opens between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central Powers near Kobarid in the Austrian Littoral. It is the first major engagement for junior German officer Erwin Rommel.
• Nov 2Zionism: The British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour makes the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people..., it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".
• Nov 15(N.S.) (November 2, O.S.) – The Provincial Assembly of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia declares itself the highest legal body in Estonia, in opposition to Bolsheviks.
• Nov 17WWI: The Battle of Jerusalem (1917) begins, with the British Imperial Egyptian Expeditionary Force launching attacks against Ottoman forces in the Judean Hills.
• Nov 19WWI: Battle of Caporetto ends with Austrian and German forces driving the Italian army to retreat 150 kilometres south to the Piave river. The Italians lose 13,000 killed, 30,000 wounded, around 270,000 taken prisoner (mostly willingly) and 50,000 deserted; the government of Paolo Boselli collapses on November 29.
• Nov 20WWI: Battle of Cambrai – British forces, using tanks, make early progress in an attack on German positions, but are soon beaten back.
• NovNovember 5 (N.S.) (October 23, O.S.) – Estonian and Russian Bolsheviks seize power in Tallinn, Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, two days before the October Revolution in Petrograd.
• Dec 9Battle of Jerusalem: The British Egyptian Expeditionary Force accepts the surrender of Jerusalem by the mayor, Hussein al-Husayni, following the effective defeat of the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group.
• Dec 30WWI: The British Egyptian Expeditionary Force secures the victory at the Battle of Jerusalem, by successfully defending Jerusalem from numerous counterattacks by the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group.

22 more in the app

USSR / Russia14

• Mar 12The Russian Duma declares a Provisional Government. It is dissolved 4 months later.
• Mar(February 23, O.S.) – The February Revolution begins in Russia: Women calling for bread in Petrograd start riots, which spontaneously spread throughout the city.
• Apr 17(N.S.) (April 4, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin's April Theses are published. They become very influential in the following July Days and Bolshevik Revolution.
• AprApril 12 (N.S.) (March 30 O.S.) – The Autonomous Governorate of Estonia is formed within Russia, from the Governorate of Estonia and the northern part of the Governorate of Livonia.
• Jul 1WWI: Russian General Brusilov begins the major Kerensky offensive in Galicia, initially advancing towards Lemberg.
• Jul 16July Days: Serious clashes occur in Petrograd; Vladimir Lenin escapes to Finland; Leon Trotsky is arrested.
• Jul 20(July 7, O.S.) – Alexander Kerensky becomes premier of the Russian Provisional Government, replacing Prince Georgy Lvov.
• SepSeptember 14 (September 1 Old Style) – Russia is declared a republic by the Provisional Government.
• Nov 7(N.S.) (October 25, O.S.) – October Revolution in Russia: The workers of the Petrograd Soviet in Russia, led by the Bolshevik Party and leader Vladimir Lenin, storm the Winter Palace and successfully destroy the Kerensky Provisional Government after less than eight months of rule. This immediately triggers the Russian Civil War.
• Nov 7Iran (which has provided weapons for Russia) refuses to support the Allied Forces after the October Revolution.
• Nov 23The Bolsheviks release the full text of the previously secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 in Izvestia and Pravda; it is printed in the Manchester Guardian on November 26.
• NovNovember 8 (N.S.) (October 26, O.S.) – Following the October Revolution, Alexandra Kollontai is appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the Council of People's Commissars of the Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the first woman cabinet minister in Europe.
• DecDecember 20 (N.S.) (December 7, O.S.) – The Cheka, a predecessor to the KGB, is established in Russia.
• Russian RevolutionIn a Russia worn out by war, the monarchy fell and a government led by Lenin took power. In 1922 the Soviet Union was founded as the first socialist state.

Middle East13

• JanJanuary 9th – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column.
• Feb 13Raid on Nekhl: Units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force completely reoccupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
• Apr 17WWI: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the Second Battle of Gaza. This unsuccessful frontal attack on strong Ottoman defences along with the first battle, results in 10,000 casualties, the dismissal of force commander General Archibald Murray, and the beginning of the Stalemate in Southern Palestine.
• May 23WWI: During the Stalemate in Southern Palestine, the Raid on the Beersheba to Hafir el Auja railway by the British Desert Column takes place: large sections of the railway line linking Beersheba to the main Ottoman desert base are destroyed.
• Jul 6Battle of Aqaba: Arabian troops, led by T. E. Lawrence, capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire.
• Jul 8WWI: First Battle of Ramadi – British troops fail to take Ramadi from the Ottoman Empire; a majority of British casualties are due to extreme heat.
• Sep 28WWI: Second Battle of Ramadi – British troops take Ramadi from the Ottoman Empire.
• Oct 27WWI: Battle of Buqqar Ridge – Ottoman forces attack British Desert Mounted Corps units garrisoning El-Buqqar Ridge, during the last days of the Stalemate in Southern Palestine.
• Oct 31WWI: Battle of Beersheba – The British XX Corps and Desert Mounted Corps (Egyptian Expeditionary Force) attack and capture Beersheba from Ottoman forces, ending the stalemate in Southern Palestine. The battle includes a rare (by this date) mounted charge, by Australian mounted infantry.
• Nov 1The British Desert Mounted Corps begins the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe, in the direction of Hebron and Jerusalem.
• Nov 6WWI: The Battle of Hareira and Sheria is launched by the British XX Corps and Desert Mounted Corps, against the central Ottoman defences protecting the Gaza to Beersheba Road.
• Nov 7WWI – Third Battle of Gaza: The British Army XXI Corps occupies Gaza, after the Ottoman garrison withdraws.
• Nov 7WWI: The Battle of Hareira and Sheria continues, when the XX Corps and Desert Mounted Corps capture Hareira and Sheria, marking the end of the Ottoman Gaza to Beersheba line.

Africa1

• Nov 25WWI: Battle of Ngomano – German forces defeat a Portuguese army of about 1,200 at Negomano, on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania.

Oceania2

• Nov 13The ANZAC Mounted Division (Desert Mounted Corps) successfully fights the Battle of Ayun Kara, in the aftermath of the Battle of Mughar Ridge against strong German rearguards.
• Nov 16WWI: Battle of Ayun Kara: The ANZAC Mounted Division occupies Jaffa.