The British and French prevailed in the First Battle of the Marne, wrecking the German plan for a rapid defeat of France and effectively causing their ultimate defeat in World War One.
On the Eastern Front the Germans captured Gumbinnen in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
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The German Army retreated from Verdun to the Aisne.
Rebel forces captured Durrës, capital of Albania.
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Chief of the Imperial German General Staff Helmuth von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing German forces were retreating from the Marne.
He informed Kaiser Wilhelm; "Your Majesty, we have lost the war!".
He was quite correct. The German gamble had failed.
He was 66 years of age, not that old by World War Two German standards, but old by the standards of the Great War. His health was already poor. Barbara Tuchman characterized him as a self doubting introvert. He wouldn't outlast the war, dying in 1916.
German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg laid out Germany's war aims, a little late in the day, in the Septemberprogramm.
The war aims were:
The French Fifth Army launched a surprise attack against the German Second Army at Marne, splitting the German forces and disrupting their communications. The Germans determined to retreat.
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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The First Battle of the Marne began when troops of the French Sixth Army encountered German cavalry east of Paris at the River Ourcq.
On that day, the enigmatic and deeply Catholic but imperfectly practicing French poet Charles Péguy was killed in action, serving as a lieutenant in the French Army.
The Japanese Imperial Navy launched three Farman seaplanes from the Wakamiya to bomb German fortifications at Tsingtao in its first combat use of aircraft.
The HMS Pathfinder was sunk by the U-21 in the Firth of Forth, the first sinking of a ship by a locomotive torpedo in history.
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