On the morning of 28 June 1914, a wrong turn in Sarajevo put Archduke Franz Ferdinand's car in front of Gavrilo Princip, and the crisis that ended in world war began. The same day the Tour de France set off from Paris. Within a fortnight either side, Pancho Villa's army won the bloodiest battle of the campaign against President Huerta at Zacatecas, 189 miners died at Hillcrest in Canada, and Britain and Tibet initialled a border agreement that Beijing refused to accept.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are shot in Sarajevo
· Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina · Europe
After a first bomb wounded bystanders, the motorcade took a wrong turn near the Latin Bridge and stalled; Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and Sophie, who both died by 11:30 am, and the crisis that led to world war began.
Why it is interesting. The first bomber's cyanide failed, and the car's stall put the assassin in range.
Notes and dating details
The sandwich-shop story is not supported by a primary source per the article.
The July Crisis begins with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand
· Europe
A series of diplomatic and military escalations among Europe's major powers began after Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. By early August 1914 most major European states were at war.
· Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary · Europe
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, violent demonstrations against Serbs began in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 and grew more aggressive on 29 June. Two Serbs died on day one, many others were attacked, and numerous Serb-owned buildings were razed or pillaged.
The 12th Tour left Paris on 28 June, the day the Archduke was shot. Philippe Thys won on 26 July, three former winners died in the war, and the Tour did not return until 1919.
Why it is interesting. The race began on the day of the Sarajevo assassination, and three former winners would die in the war.
Hillcrest coal mine explosion in Alberta kills 189
· Hillcrest, Alberta · North America
9 days before 28 June
At about 9:30 am, methane ignited and set off a coal-dust explosion in the Crowsnest Pass mine. 189 workers died, leaving about 90 widows and 250 fatherless children, and the disaster remains Canada's worst coal mining accident.
Notes and dating details
Some sources give 189 deaths of 237 men in the mine; infobox lists 228 workers. The spark was never found.
Pancho Villa's División del Norte defeated federal troops under General Luis Medina Barrón at Zacatecas. It was the bloodiest battle of the campaign to unseat President Victoriano Huerta, who resigned on 15 July.
Why it is interesting. The victory demoralized Huerta's supporters and led to his resignation within weeks.
Medium confidence: rests on one source family, or a detail is uncertain.
The Bengali Vaishnava philosopher and reformer Bhaktivinoda Thakur died aged 75.
Notes and dating details
Date agreed (23 June 1914). Place disputed: his Wikipedia article says he died at his house in Calcutta; Wikidata gives Puri, as do devotee biographies cited in the accuracy review.
Medium confidence: rests on one source family, or a detail is uncertain.
Shapour Bakhtiar was born in Dehkord, Iran. He later became the last prime minister of Iran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Notes and dating details
Calendar not stated in source (Persia). Birthplace disputed: the article gives Dehkord (now Shahr-e Kord) in infobox and text; Wikidata gives Isfahan, imported from another Wikipedia without a reference. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center gives 26 June 1914 in a mountainous area of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province; the article says he went to elementary school in Shahr-e Kord and secondary school in Isfahan. Britannica could not be opened (HTTP 403). Kept Dehkord as the better supported place.
Britain and Tibet initial the Simla Convention that created the McMahon Line
· Simla, British India · Asia
5 days after 28 June
Medium confidence: rests on one source family, or a detail is uncertain.
After talks that began on 13 October 1913, British India's Henry McMahon and Tibet's Lonchen Shatra initialled the convention and maps defining Outer and Inner Tibet and the India-Tibet border; the Chinese delegate had initialled a draft on 27 April but Beijing repudiated it.
Why it is interesting. The border between Tibet and British India was agreed only by Britain and Tibet; China refused to sign.
Notes and dating details
Wikipedia's infobox says 'signed 3 July 1914' but the text says only Britain and Tibet initialled that day; a footnote says the map was finalised on 24-25 March.
· Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India · Asia
10 days after 28 June
Medium confidence: rests on one source family, or a detail is uncertain.
Jyotirindra Basu is born in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency. He became a Marxist politician and held the post of West Bengal's Chief Minister between 1977 and 2000.
Notes and dating details
Birthplace disputed within the Wikipedia article: its infobox says Dacca, but its early-life text (citing a BBC obituary and ThePrint) says 43/1 Harrison Road, Calcutta. ThePrint (8 July 2019) confirms Calcutta, and Wikidata lists Kolkata. Calcutta kept as better supported; his father's practice and the family's paternal house were in the Dhaka area.
On 1 July 1914 the Admiralty formally set up the Royal Naval Air Service as the Royal Navy's air arm. It lasted until 1 April 1918, when it and the Army's Royal Flying Corps were combined into the new Royal Air Force.
Notes and dating details
Formal existence from 1 July 1914 per the lead; French Wikipedia agrees. The aircraft count differs: the English article says 93, French Wikipedia says 39 landplanes and 52 seaplanes (91 in all). The 727 personnel, six airships and two balloons match in both.
Joseph Chamberlain, a British statesman, died in London. He began as a radical Liberal, became a Liberal Unionist over Irish home rule and later worked with the Conservatives as an imperialist leader.
Why it is interesting. His sons by different marriages included Austen Chamberlain, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Neville Chamberlain, a Prime Minister.
Wyndham Lewis's magazine BLAST was dated 20 June but actually distributed on 2 July 1914. It announced the Vorticist movement in British art and writing.
Notes and dating details
The magazine's own article says the first issue was dated 20 June 1914 but published on 2 July after a delay; 1914 in literature uses the cover date.
Lautenschlager wins the 1914 French Grand Prix at Lyon
· Lyon, France · Europe
6 days after 28 June
Christian Lautenschlager won the French Grand Prix at Lyon on 4 July 1914 in a Mercedes, after a tense seven-hour race against the Peugeot of Georges Boillot. Mercedes cars took the top three places.
Australian Norman Brookes beat the New Zealander Anthony Wilding, his Australasian Davis Cup teammate, in straight sets (6-4, 6-4, 7-5) to take the men's title as the championships closed on 4 July. There was no Wimbledon again until 1919.
An anarchist bomb kills four in a Harlem apartment
· Harlem, New York City, USA · North America
6 days after 28 June
Medium confidence: rests on one source family, or a detail is uncertain.
Dynamite being assembled by anarchists exploded prematurely at 1626 Lexington Avenue, killing three of the bomb-makers and a woman renting a room. The 1914 in the United States page says the bomb was meant for John D. Rockefeller; the dedicated article says the conspirators planned to bomb his Tarrytown home.
Notes and dating details
One conspirator later called the bombing a 'gesture of protest' rather than an attack on Rockefeller; the dedicated article does not mention Ludlow.
Built for the typewriter and gun maker Lyman Cornelius Smith's family, the tower opened to the public on Independence Day, and over 4,000 people rode up on the first day. No building west of the Mississippi was taller until 1931.
Notes and dating details
The tower's article calls it 38 storeys; the July page says 35 (visitors rode to the 35th floor).
The highest-ranked events of 1914 that are not already on this page.
War & conflictWidely known
British and German soldiers lay down arms at Christmas
· Western Front, Belgium and France · Europe
Along parts of the Western Front soldiers stopped fighting from 24 December, with some 100,000 troops involved, exchanging gifts and burying their dead; commanders banned a repeat.
French and British forces counter-attacked the German armies advancing on Paris along the Marne. The fighting ran from 5 to 12 September 1914 and forced the Germans to retreat to the Aisne.
British Indian force is routed at Tanga in East Africa, partly by bees
· Tanga, German East Africa (now Tanzania) · Africa
About 9,000 British Indian troops tried to take the port from about 1,000 defenders under Lettow-Vorbeck; swarms of bees disrupted the advance and the British withdrew, leaving behind rifles and ammunition for the Germans.
Battle of Tannenberg: Russian 2nd Army is encircled and nearly destroyed
· Allenstein, East Prussia, German Empire (present-day Poland) · Europe
Between 26 and 30 August 1914, the German 8th Army encircled and almost completely destroyed the Russian 2nd Army, and its commander Alexander Samsonov took his own life. Hindenburg named the battle after Tannenberg, though it took place near Allenstein.
Colorado militia and guards attack the Ludlow tent colony
· Ludlow, Colorado, United States · North America
Colorado National Guard soldiers and private mine guards attacked the Ludlow, Colorado, tent colony, where about 1,200 miners on strike lived with their families. About 21 people died, mostly wives and children.
The Western Front, the First World War's theatre in France and Belgium, opened as German forces invaded Luxembourg and Belgium; fighting there later hardened into lines of trenches.
One email when the Everywhere Then app is ready, and nothing else. Your address is optional, used only for that, and you can ask for it to be deleted at any time. Privacy