Austro Hungarian forces were defeated by the Russians at the Battle of Rawa.
The Germans pushed the Russians back in East Prussia.
The Australians took Rabaul.
Photography had come to advertising.
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Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
The Germans pushed the Russians back in East Prussia.
The Australians took Rabaul.
Photography had come to advertising.
Troops from the French Army and the BEF crossed the Grand Morin and Petit Morin Rivers to engage the Germans.
General Joseph Gallieni began his three day quest to gather about 600 Parisian taxicabs to carry troops to the front.
French forces surrendered in the Siege of Maugeuge.
The Austro Hungarian Army gained a foothold in Serbia.
Japanese aircraft attacked German and Austro Hungarian ships at Tsingtao.
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Giacomo della Chiesa became Pope Benedict XV, the 258th Pope.
Prince William of Albania left he country after a mere six months on the throne. He was a Prussian by birth and was really a remnant of an earlier era, a Lutheran monarch in the Balkans making no sense whatsoever. Having said that, he refused to throw Albania into the Great War as an Austro Hungarian vassal.
He returned to Germany and served in the German Army during World War One under a pseudonym, as his reign had not officially terminated. That termination came in 1925, but when Albania was reestablished as as monarch in 1928, the former Prime Minister becoming its Islamic King, he attempted to be declared the king, which had been his title inside of Albania.
He'd been a pre war Imperial German officer, so that made sense, but oddly he relocated after the Great War to Romania, where he died in 1945.
The Russians exploited Austro Hungarian gaps at the Battle of Rawa.
French composer Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard died defending his property from the Germans. His actions made him a hero in France, but the actions truly would have made him a francs-tireurs.
Sioux County, North Dakota was established.
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Portia Willis, suffragist, pacifist, lecturer, activist, and, oddly, a supporter of US aviators during World War One, at, naturally, the peace parade.
A peace parade was held in New York City demonstrating the naïve American belief, still present to this very day, that demonstrating in the US while it is at peace somehow has an impact somewhere else on other countries fighting.
Elsewhere, more productive, and less noticed, things were occuring.
Taking the parabellum approach, a review of U.S troops took place at Geartheart, Oregon.
The Russian Second Army was caught and surrounded by German forces in open fields near Frogenau, where they were mowed down by the Germans.
Russian troops killed over 60 ethnic Germans in Abschwangen, East Prussia.
A French attack at Saint-Quentin cost 10,000 casualties in an unsuccessful effort which proved costly partially due to a captured French officer having alerted the Germans to the pending attack. The Germans took 7,000 casualties.
The Austro Hungarian Army formed new defensive lines at the Grila River in Ukraine against the Imperial Russian Army.
The British Royal West African Frontier Force engaged the Germans In the First Battle of Garua near the port city of Garoua, German Cameroon.
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British and French forces took Togoland.
Japan declared war against Austro Hungaria.
Emiliano Zapata agreed to accept the Constitutionalist government on the condition that it accept the Plan of Ayala, which had been drafted in 1911, and which had objected to Modero. The Plan stated:
Liberating Plan of the sons of the State of Morelos, affiliated with the Insurgent Army that defends the fulfillment of the Plan of San Luis, with the reforms which it has believed proper to add in benefit of the Mexican Fatherland.
We who undersign, constituted in a revolutionary junta to sustain and carry out the promises which the revolution of November 20, 1910, just past, made to the country, declare solemnly before the face of the civilized world which judges us and before the nation to which we belong and which we call [sic, love], propositions which we have formulated to end the tyranny which oppresses us and redeem the fatherland from the dictatorships which are imposed on us, which [propositions] are determined in the following plan:
1. Taking into consideration that the Mexican people led by Don Francisco I. Madero went to shed their blood to reconquer liberties and recover their rights which had been trampled on, and for a man to take possession of power, violating the sacred principles which he took an oath to defend under the slogan “Effective Suffrage and No Reelection,” outraging thus the faith, the cause, the justice, and the liberties of the people: taking into consideration that that man to whom we refer is Don Francisco I. Madero, the same who initiated the above-cited revolution, who imposed his will and influence as a governing norm on the Provisional Government of the ex-President of the Republic Attorney Francisco L. de Barra [sic], causing with this deed repeated shedding of blood and multiple misfortunes for the fatherland in a manner deceitful and ridiculous, having no intentions other than satisfying his personal ambitions, his boundless instincts as a tyrant, and his profound disrespect for the fulfillment of the preexisting laws emanating from the immortal code of ’57 [Constitution of 1857], written with the revolutionary blood of Ayutla;
Taking into account that the so-called Chief of the Liberating Revolution of Mexico, Don Francisco I. Madero, through lack of integrity and the highest weakness, did not carry to a happy end the revolution which gloriously he initiated with the help of God and the people, since he left standing most of the governing powers and corrupted elements of oppression of the dictatorial government of Porfirio Díaz, which are not nor can in any way be the representation of National Sovereignty, and which, for being most bitter adversaries of ours and of the principles which even now we defend, are provoking the discomfort of the country and opening new wounds in the bosom of the fatherland, to give it its own blood to drink; taking also into account that the aforementioned Sr. Francisco I. Madero, present President of the Republic, tries to avoid the fulfillment of the promises which he made to the Nation in the Plan of San Luis Potosí, being [sic, restricting] the above-cited promises to the agreements of Ciudad Juárez, by means of false promises and numerous intrigues against the Nation nullifying, pursuing, jailing, or killing revolutionary elements who helped him to occupy the high post of President of the Republic;
Taking into consideration that the so-often-repeated Francisco I. Madero has tried with the brute force of bayonets to shut up and to drown in blood the pueblos who ask, solicit, or demand from him the fulfillment of the promises of the revolution, calling them bandits and rebels, condemning them to a war of extermination without conceding or granting a single one of the guarantees which reason, justice, and the law prescribe; taking equally into consideration that the President of the Republic Francisco I. Madero has made of Effective Suffrage a bloody trick on the people, already against the will of the same people imposing Attorney José M. Pino Suáez in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, or [imposing as] Governors of the States [men] designated by him, like the so-called General Ambrosio Figueroa, scourge and tyrant of the people of Morelos, or entering into chains and follow the pattern of a new dictatorship more shameful and more terrible than that of Porfirio Díaz, for it has been clear and patent that he has outraged the sovereignty of the States, trampling on the laws without any respect for lives or interests, as has happened in the State of Morelos, and others, leading them to the most horrendous anarchy which contemporary history registers.
For these considerations we declare the aforementioned Francisco I. Madero inept at realizing the promises of the revolution of which he was the author, because he has betrayed the principles with which he tricked the will of the people and was able to get into power: incapable of governing, because he has no respect for the law and justice of the pueblos, and a traitor to the fatherland, because he is humiliating in blood and fire, Mexicans who want liberties, so as to please the científicos, landlords, and bosses who enslave us, and from today on we begin to continue the revolution begun by him, until we achieve the overthrow of the dictatorial powers which exist.
2. Recognition is withdrawn from S. Francisco I. Madero as Chief of the Revolution and as President of the Republic, for the reasons which before were expressed, it being attempted to overthrow this official.
3. Recognized as Chief of the Liberating Revolution is the illustrious General Pascual Orozco, the second of the Leader Don Francisco I. Madero, and in case he does not accept this delicate post, recognition as Chief of the Revolution will go to General Don Emiliano Zapata.
4. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos manifests to the Nation under formal oath: that it makes its own the plan of San Luis Potosí, with the additions which are expressed below in benefit of the oppressed pueblos, and it will make itself the defender of the principles it defends until victory or death.
5. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos will admit no transactions or compromises until it achieves the overthrow of the dictatorial elements of Porfirio Díaz and Francisco I. Madero, for the nation is tired of false men and traitors who make promises like liberators and who on arriving in power forget them and constitute themselves tyrants.
6. As an additional part of the plan, we invoke, we give notice: that [regarding] the fields, timber, and water which the landlords, científicos, or bosses have usurped, the pueblos or citizens who have the titles corresponding to those properties will immediately enter into possession of that real estate of which they have been despoiled by the bad faith of our oppressors, maintain at any cost with arms in hand the mentioned possession; and the usurpers who consider themselves with a right to them [those properties] will deduce it before the special tribunals which will be established on the triumph of the revolution.
7. In virtue of the fact that the immense majority of Mexican pueblos and citizens are owners of no more than the land they walk on, suffering the horrors of poverty without being able to improve their social condition in any way or to dedicate themselves to Industry or Agriculture, because lands, timber, and water are monopolized in a few hands, for this cause there will be expropriated the third part of those monopolies from the powerful proprietors of them, with prior indemnization, in order that the pueblos and citizens of Mexico may obtain ejidos, colonies, and foundations for pueblos, or fields for sowing or laboring, and the Mexicans’ lack of prosperity and well-being may improve in all and for all.
8. The landlords, científicos, or bosses who oppose the present plan directly or indirectly, their goods will be nationalized and the two-third parts which [otherwise would] belong to them will go for indemnizations of war, pensions for widows and orphans of the victims who succumb in the struggle for the present plan.
9. In order to execute the procedures regarding the properties aforementioned, the laws of disamortization and nationalization will be applied as they fit, for serving us as norm and example can be those laws put in force by the immortal Juárez on ecclesiastical properties, which punished the despots and conservatives who in every time have tried to impose on us the ignominious yoke of oppression and backwardness.
10. The insurgent military chiefs of the Republic who rose up with arms in hand at the voice of Don Francisco I. Madero to defend the plan of San Luis Potosí, and who oppose with armed force the present plan, will be judged traitors to the cause which they defended and to the fatherland, since at present many of them, to humor the tyrants, for a fistful of coins, or for bribes or connivance, are shedding the blood of their brothers who claim the fulfillment of the promises which Don Francisco I. Madero made to the nation.
11. The expenses of war will be taken in conformity with Article 11 of the Plan of San Luis Potosí, and all procedures employed in the revolution we undertake will be in conformity with the same instructions, which the said plan determines.
12. Once triumphant the revolution which we carry into the path of reality, a Junta of the principal revolutionary chiefs from the different States will name or designate an interim President of the Republic, who will convoke elections for the organization of the federal powers.
13. The principal revolutionary chiefs of each State will designate in Junta the Governor of the State to which they belong, and this appointed official will convoke elections for the due organization of the public powers, the object being to avoid compulsory appointments which work the misfortune of the pueblos, like the so-well-known appointment of Ambrosio Figueroa in the State of Morelos and others who drive us to the precipice of bloody conflicts sustained by the caprice of the dictator Madero and the circle of científicos and landlords who have influenced him.
14. If President Madero and other dictatorial elements of the present and former regime want to avoid the immense misfortunes which afflict the fatherland, and [if they] possess true sentiments of love for it, let them make immediate renunciation of the posts they occupy and with that they will with something staunch the grave wounds which they have opened in the bosom of the fatherland, since, if they do not do so, on their heads will fall the blood and the anathema of our brothers.
15. Mexicans: consider that the cunning and bad faith of one man is shedding blood in a scandalous manner, because he is incapable of governing; consider that his system of government is choking the fatherland and trampling with the brute force of bayonets on our institutions; and thus, as we raised up our weapons to elevate him to power, we again raise them up against him for defaulting on his promises to the Mexican people and for having betrayed the revolution initiated by him, we are not personalists, we are partisans of principles and not of men!
Mexican People, support this plan with arms in hand and you will make the prosperity and well-being of the fatherland.
Ayala, November 25, 1911
Liberty, Justice and Law
Signed, General in Chief Emiliano Zapata; Generals Eufemio Zapata, Francisco Mendoza, Jesús Morales, Jesús Navarro, Otilio E. Montaño, José Trinidad Ruiz, Próculo Capistrán; Colonels…; Captains… [This] is a true copy taken from the original. Camp in the Mountains of Puebla, December 11, 1911. Signed General in Chief Emiliano Zapata.
The Canadian Arctic Expedition rescue ship Bear was stopped by sea ice 20 miles from Wrangel Island and had to turn around and return to Nome for more coal.
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The Battle of Mons occurred in which the BEF held the German forces, but began a month long retreat to the Marne.
Irishman Maurice James Dease became the first British officer to be killed in action, for which he additionally won the Victoria Cross.
The machine gun crews were constantly being knocked out. So cramped was their position that when a man was hit he had to be removed before another could take his place. The approach from the trench was across the open, and whenever a gun stopped Lieutenant Maurice Dease... went up to see what was wrong. To do this once called for no ordinary courage. To repeat it several times could only be done with real heroism. Dease was badly wounded on these journeys, but insisted on remaining at duty as long as one of his crew could fire. The third wound proved fatal, and a well deserved VC was awarded him posthumously. By this time both guns had ceased firing, and all the crew had been knocked out. In response to an inquiry whether anyone else knew how to operate the guns Private Godley came forward. He cleared the emplacement under heavy fire and brought the gun into action. But he had not been firing long before the gun was hit and put completely out of action. The water jackets of both guns were riddled with bullets, so that they were no longer of any use. Godley himself was badly wounded and later fell into the hands of the Germans.
German troops killed 654 Belgian civilians in Dinant, Belgium in confusion or panic regarding francs-tireurs
The French were defeated in the Battle of the Ardennes and the Battle of Charleroi.
The Battle of Tannenberg began between the German Army and the Imperial Russian Army.
The Battle of Kraśnik began between the Austro Hungarian Army and the Imperial Russian Army.
Japan declared war on Germany. China canceled the German lease of the Kiaochow Bay.
New Zealand occupied the German colony of German Samoa, following an unopposed invasion.
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The Germans took the last of Belgium's military forts after an eleven day effort which was supposed to have taken two.
Serbian forces pushed the Austro Hungarians off of Cer Mountain.
The Austro Hungarian battle cruiser SMS Zenta was sunk by the Allies in the Adriatic.
The SMS Goeben and Breslau were transferred to the Ottoman Navy.
British 2nd Lt. Evelyn Perry of the Royal Flying Corps was killed in a plane crash over France, making him the first British office to die in the war.
John Redmond, in a public address in Maryborough, Ireland, stated to assembled Irish Volunteers:
[F]or the first time in the history ... it was safe to-day for England to withdraw her armed troops from our country and that the sons of Ireland themselves ... [would] defend her shores against any foreign foe.
He was really pushing his point.
The Polish Temporary Commission of Confederated Indepence Parties in Austro Hungaria formed the Polish Supreme National Committee.
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Austro Hungaria mobilized. Serbia already had, in anticipation of being invaded. Russia had ordered a partial mobilization.
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