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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(1882 - 1945)

1882

LT : Walt Whitman: Specimen Days and Collect
LT : Thomas Hardy: Two on a Tower
VA : Mary Cassatt : Girl Sewing
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : Evening Mood
M : Richard Wagner : Music drama, Parsifal
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, Iolanthe
M : Charles-François Gounod : Oratorio, La Rédemption
M : Léo Delibes : Incidental music to Victor Hugo's play Le Roi s'amuse, ('The King's Pleasure')
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Prelude and Fugue in G major
VA : Edouard Manet : Bar at the Folies-Bergere
DL : Bank of Japan founded
M : Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra founded
RP : Besant: All Sorts and Conditions of Men
ED : Charles University, Prague, divided into Ger. and Czech institutions
ST : Edison designs first hydroelectric plant in Wisconsin
RP : Leslie Stephen: Science of Ethics
DL : London Chamber of Commerce established
RP : Nietzche: Die fröliche Wissenschaft
PH : Prince Milan Obrenovich of Serbia proclaims himself king
DL : Queen Victoria gives Epping Forest to the nation
DL : Recoil-operated machine gun patented
PH : Triple Alliance between Italy, Austria, and Germany
DL : U.S. bans Chinese immigrants for 10 years
RP : Viennese physician Joseph Breuer uses hypnosis to treat hysteria (beginnings of psychoanalysis)
DL : World Exhibition in Moscow
VA : Seventh Impressionist Exhibition
LT : Dante Gabriel Rossetti dies 10 April
VA : Dante Gabriel Rossetti dies 10 April
VA : Georges Braque born
M : Igor Stravinsky born 17 June
VA : Edward Hopper born in New York
VA : Newell Convers Wyeth born
M : Zoltán Kodály born 16 December

1883

M : Johann Strauss II : Operetta, Eine Nacht in Venedig ('A Night in Venice')
M : Richard Strauss : Horn Concerto No.1
M : Bedrich Smetana : String Quartet No.2
M : Anton Bruckner : Symphony No.7
M : Antonin Dvorák : Scherzo Capriccioso
M : Léo Delibes : Opera, Lakmé (including the famous 'Flower Duet' and the 'Bell Song')
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Rhapsody Espańa for orchestra
M : Johannes Brahms : Symphony No.3
DL : Bismarck introduces sickness insurance in Germany
DL : Brooklyn Bridge, New York, opened to traffic
RP : F. H. Bradley: The Principles of Logic
RP : Fabian Society founded in London
ST : First skyscraper built in Chicago, 10 stories
RP : Jr. R. Seeley: The Expansion of England
RP : Lester War: Dynamic Sociology
M : Metropolitan Opera House, New York, founded
RP : Nietzche: Thus Spake Zarathustra
DL : Orient Express Paris- Istanbul makes its first run
PH : Paul Kruger - President of South African Republic
ST : Robert Kock describes a method of preventive inoculation against anthrax
M : Royal College of Music, London, founded
ST : Synthetic fibre produced
DL : U.S. Civil Service reforms begin
DL : U.S. frontiersman W. F Cody ("Buffalo Bill") organises his "Wild West Show"
DL : World Exhibition opens in Amsterdam
M : Richard Wagner dies 13 February
VA : Edouard Manet dies 30 April
M : Sir George Dyson born 28 May
M : Edgard Varčse born 22 December

1884

M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Manon
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, Princess Ida
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Le villi
M : Gustav Mahler : Song-cycle, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer')
M : Edvard Grieg : 'Butterfly' and 'To the Spring' from Lyric Pieces, Book 3
M : Edvard Grieg : Holberg Suite
M : Anton Bruckner : Te Deum for chorus and orchestra
VA : Georges Seurat : Bathing at Asnieres
DL : Le Matin, Paris, issued
PH : Berlin Conference of 14 nations on African affairs
DL : Divorce re-established in France
ST : Electrical precipitation discovered
DL : First deep tube (underground railroad), London
ST : First practical steam turbine engine invented
PH : Fr. Law excludes members of former dynasties from presidency
DL : Gold discovered in the Transvaal, rise of Johannesburg
RP : Herbert Spencer: The Man versus the State
ST : Ilya Mechinikov: Theory of Phagocytes
RP : Kropotkin: Paroles du'un revolte
PH : London Convention on Transvaal
ED : Oxford English Dictionary begins publication
ST : Tetanus bacillus discovered
M : Bedrich Smetana dies 12 May
LT : Gerard Manley Hopkins born 28 July
LT : Sara Teasdale born 8 August

1885

LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Tiresias and Other Poems
LT : Christina Rossetti: Time Flies
VA : Mary Cassatt : The Sisters
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Le Cid
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch : Cantata, Achilleus for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Manfred Symphony
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Mikado
M : Johann Strauss II : Operetta, Der Zigeunerbaron ('The Gypsy Baron')
M : Charles-François Gounod : Petite Symphonie for wind instruments
M : Charles-François Gounod : Oratorio, Mors et Vita
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.7
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Opera, Gwendoline
M : Johannes Brahms : Symphony No.4
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : A Tale from Homer
ED : Albert Sorel: Europe and the French Revolution
DL : First Leipzig Fair
PH : Grover Cleveland inaugurated as President of the U.S.    GO !
RP : Henry Maine: Popular Government
DL : John M. Fox introduces golf to America
RP : Karl Marx: Das Kapital, vol 2 (posth.)
PH : King Alfonso XII of Spain dies; Queen Maria Christina becomes regent
ST : Pasteur devises a rabies vaccine to cure hydrophobia
ST : Sir Francis Galton prove the individuality of fingerprints
RP : The Mormons split into polygamous and monogamous sections
RP : Tolstoi: My Religion
M : Alban Berg born 9 February
M : Domenico Scarlatti born 26 October

1886

LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge
VA : Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas : The Tub
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : Child at Bath
M : Giuseppe Verdi : Opera, Otello
M : Arthur Sullivan : Cantata, The Golden Legend
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Wedding Cake Caprice caprice for piano and strings
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Carnival of the Animals
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Symphony No.3, 'Organ Symphony'
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Piano Quartet No.2
M : Antonin Dvorák : Slavonic Dances, second series
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Souvenirs de Munich for piano duet
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin : Symphony No.3 (completed by Glazunov)
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Suite espańola for piano
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Gladiator
VA : Sir John Everett Millais : Bubbles
VA : Georges Seurat : Sunday Afternoon in the
Park of the Island Grand Jatte
RP : Adolf von Harnack: History of Dogma
PH : Alexander of Bulgaria abdicates after coup d'état; Stefan Stambulov becomes regent
ST : Aluminum produced by electrolysis
DL : American Federation of Labor founded
ST : Aminopyrine and acitanelide discovered
RP : Andrew Carnagie: Triumphant Democracy
ED : Auguste Fournier: Napoleon I (3 vols)
ED : British School of Archaeology opens at Athens
M : Charles Mustel of Paris invents the celesta
DL : English Lawn Tennis Association founded
PH : First Indian National Congress meets
RP : Fluorine produced
ST : Germanium discovered
PH : Gladstone introduces bill for Home Rule in Ireland
ST : Hydroelectric installations are begun at Niagara Falls
PH : King Louis II of Bavaria dies; succeeded by Otto I; his uncle Luitpold becomes regent
ED : Pasteur Institute, Paris, founded
RP : Richard von Krafft-Ebing: Psychopathia Sexualis
ST : Steam first used to sterilise surgical instruments
VA : Last Impressionist Exhibition
LT : Emily Dickinson dies 15 May
M : Franz Liszt dies 31 July
LT : Joyce Kilmer born 6 December

1887

LT : Thomas Hardy: The Woodlanders
VA : Alexandre Cabanel : Cleopatra Testing Poisons
on Condemned Prisoners
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : The Depths
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, Ruddigore
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Spanish Capriccio
M : Anton Bruckner : Symphony No.8
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song, Claire de lune ('Moonlight')
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Pavane for orchestra (and optional chorus)
M : Antonin Dvorák : Piano Quintet
M : Frederick Delius : Florida Suite
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Opera, Le Roi malgré lui ('The Reluctant King')
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin : Opera, Prince Igor (completed by Korsakov and Glazunov)
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Rapsodia espańola for piano and orchestra (later arranged for piano)
M : Johannes Brahms : Double Concerto for violin and cello
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Women of Amphissa
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Cantata, Blest Pair of Sirens
VA : John William Waterhouse : Merriamne Leaving the
Judgement Seat of Herod
LT : Antoine founds the Théâtre Libre in Paris
DL : Edison and Swan combine to produce Ediswan electrical lamps
PH : First Colonial Conference opens in London
VA : H.W. Goodwin invents celluloid film
LT : I. Donnelly: The Great Cryptogram, Francis Bacon's Cypher in the So-called Shakespeare Play
ST : Joseph Lockyer: The Chemistry of the Sun
ST : Phenacetin, an analgesic drug, discovered
PH : Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg elected King of Bulgaria
DL : Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee
PH : Union Indo-Chinoise organised by France
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin dies 27 February
VA : Juan Gris born
VA : Marc Chagall born 7 July
VA : Marcel Duchamp born
LT : Rupert Brooke born 3 August
M : Christoph Willibald Gluck dies 15 November
LT : Marianne Moore born 15 November
VA : Georgia O'Keeffe born
M : Ernst Toch born 7 December

1888

LT : Walt Whitman: November Boughs
LT : Thomas Hardy: Wessex Tales
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Overture fantasy, Hamlet
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Symphony No.5
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Yeoman of the Guard
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Don Juan
M : Erik Satie : Trois gymnopédies, for piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Russian Easter Festival Overture
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Symphonic Suite, Scheherazade
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Cavalleria rusticana ('Rustic Chivalry')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.1
M : Edward Elgar : Salut d'amour
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Marche Joyeuse for orchestra
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Semper fidelis
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Roses of Heliogabalus
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin : The Vision after the Sermon
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : The Call to Arms
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Night Cafe
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Sunflowers
VA : John William Waterhouse : The Lady of Shalott
DL : "Jack the Ripper" murders six women in London
DL : The Financial Times, London, first published
RP : Bernard Bosanquet: Logic, or the Morphology of Knowledge
DL : Cecil Rhodes amalgamates Kimberley diamond companies
DL : Dunlop invents pneumatic tire
VA : Eastman perfects "Kodak" box camera
DL : First of all beauty contests held in Spa, Belgium
RP : G.J. Romanes: Mental Evolution in Man
PH : Ger. Emperor William I dies in May; succeeded by his son Frederick III, who dies in June and is succeeded by his son William II, the "Kaiser"
ED : James Bryce: The American Commonwealth
RP : James Martineau: The Study of Religion
ST : Nikola Tesla constructs electric motor
ST : Radio waves are identified as belonging to same family as light waves
LT : Mathew Arnold dies 15 April
LT : T S Eliot born 26 September

1889

VA : Alexandre Cabanel dies

1899

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems

1889

LT : Robert Browning: Asolando
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Esclarmonde
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Gondoliers
M : Johann Strauss II : Waltz, Emperor
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Death and Transfiguration
M : Charles-François Gounod : Méditation sur le prélude de Bach for soprano and instrumental accompaniment (popularly known as the 'Ave Maria')
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Orchestral suite, Shylock
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.8
M : Claude Debussy : Petite suite (including 'En bateau')
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Washington Post March
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Thunderer
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin : The Yellow Christ
VA : Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec : Toilette
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Self-Portrait
with Bandaged Head
VA : Vincent van Gogh : The Starry Night
VA : Alexander Gustave Eiffel designs the Eiffel Tower for the Paris World Exhibition
DL : Barnum and Bailey's Circus at Olympia, London
PH : Benjamin Harrison inaugurated as 23rd President of the U.S.    GO !
ED : Catholic University, Washington D.C., opens
ST : Cordite invented
RP : Henri Bergson: Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience
PH : Johannes IV, Emperor of Abyssinia dies; succeeded by Menelik II
PH : London County Council formed
DL : London Dock Strike
PH : Milan Obrenovich abdicates from Serbian throne in favour of his son
PH : Pedro II abdicates; Brazil proclaimed a republic
DL : Punch card system created
ST : Schiaparelli discovers synchronous rotations of planets Mercury and Venus
RP : T.H. Huxley: Agnosticism
PH : The Aust. Crown Prince, Archduke Rudolf, commits suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling
DL : The first May Day celebration, Paris
ST : Von Mehring and Minkowski prove that the pancreas secretes insulin, preventing diabetes
LT : Gerard Manley Hopkins dies 8 June
LT : Robert Browning dies 12 December

1890

VA : Paul Cézanne : The Card Players
VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Basket of Apples
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Opera, The Queen of Spades
M : Erik Satie : Trois gnossiennes, for piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Mlada
M : Edward Elgar : Concert overture 'Froissart'
M : Claude Debussy : Ręverie, for piano
M : Claude Debussy : Suite bergamasque for piano (including 'Clair de lune')
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Piano Suite, Espańa
VA : Jean Léon Gérôme : Pygmalian and Galatea
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : The Bath of Psyche
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Crows in the Wheatfields
PH : Accession of Queen Wilhelmina; Luxembourg separated from the Netherlands
RP : Alfred Marshall: Principles of Economics
ST : Azoimide produced from organic sources
PH : Cecil Rhodes- Premier of Cape Colony
DL : Daughters of the American Revolution founded
ST : Emil von Behring announces the discovery of antitoxins
ST : First Eng. electrical power station, Deptford
PH : First general election in Japan
PH : Ger. Social Democrats adopt Marxist program at Erfurt Congress
DL : Global influenza epidemics ("Russian Flu")
RP : J.G. Frazer: The Golden Bough
ST : Rubber gloves used for the first time in surgery
DL : Swiss government introduces social insurance
ST : The first entirely steel -framed building erected in Chicago
RP : William Booth: In the Darkest England and the Way Out
RP : William James: The Principles of Psychology
VA : Vincent van Gogh dies 29 July

1891

LT : Walt Whitman: Goodbye My Fancy
LT : Thomas Hardy: A Group of Noble Dames and Tess of the d'Urbervilles
M : Charles Ives : Variations on America (organ)
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : Star of Bethlehem
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch : Violin Concerto No.3
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : Work Interrupted
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Opera, Yolanta
M : Arthur Sullivan : 'Romantic Opera', Ivanhoe
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Africa fantasy for piano and orchestra
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, L'amico Fritz ('Friend Fritz')
M : Antonin Dvorák : Overture, Carnival
M : Antonin Dvorák : Dumky Piano Trio
M : Johannes Brahms : Clarinet Quintet
M : Clara Wieck Schumann : Cadenzas for Mozart: Piano Concerto in D Minor
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Kiss
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin : We hail the Mary
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : The Return of Persephone
RP : Rerum novarum, papal encyclical on the condition of the working classes
DL : All-Deutschland Verband founded
ST : Beginnings of wireless telegraphy
DL : Earthquake in Japan kills as many as 10,000 people
PH : Franco-Russ. entente
RP : Goldwin Smith: The Canadian Question
ED : In Java Dutch anthropologist Eugčne Dubois discovers Pithecanthropus erectus (Java Man)
LT : J.T. Grein founds Independent Theatre Society, London
RP : R.W. Church: History of the Oxford Movement (posth.)
ST : Samuel P. Langley: Experiments in Aerodynamics
ST : Trans-Siberian railroad construction begins
PH : Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria, Italy - renewed for 12 years
DL : W.L. Judson invents clothing zipper
DL : Widespread famine in Russia
PH : Young Turk Movement, hoping to secure liberal reforms, is formed in Geneva
M : Léo Delibes dies 16 January
VA : Ernest Meissonier dies 31 January
VA : Georges Seurat dies 29 March
M : Sergei Prokofiev born 23 April

1892

LT : Thomas Hardy: The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved
M : Giuseppe Verdi : Opera, Falstaff
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Ballet, The Nutcracker
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, En Saga
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.1
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Morceaux de Fantasie for piano (including Prelude in C-sharp Minor)
M : Edward Elgar : Serenade for Strings
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin : Spirit of the Dead Watching
VA : John William Godward : The Betrothed
VA : Edvard Munch : Melancholy
ST : Diesel patents his internal-combustion engine
RP : Emile Fagguet: Politiques et moralistes du six-neuvičme sičcle
ST : First automatic telephone switchboard introduced
DL : First cans of pineapples
PH : Giolitti becomes Premier of Italy
PH : Grover Cleveland elected U.S. President    GO !
DL : Iron and steel workers strike in U.S.
PH : Prince Ito becomes premier of Japan
PH : Tewfik, Khedive of Egypt, dies; succeeded by Abbas II
ST : Viscose discovered (manufacture of rayon)
M : Arthur Honegger born 10 March
LT : Archibald MacLeish born 7 May
M : Darius Milhaud born 4 September
LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies 6 October

1893

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Celtic Twilight
VA : Mary Cassatt : The Bath
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Symphony No.6, 'Pathétique'
M : Jean Sibelius : Karelia Suite
M : Erik Satie : Danses gothiques, for piano
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Manon Lescaut
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, La Bonne Chanson ('The Good Song')
M : Antonin Dvorák : String Quartet 'American'
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.9 'From the New World'
M : Claude Debussy : String Quartet in G-Minor
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Manhattan Beach
VA : Edvard Munch : Death in the Sick-Room
VA : Edvard Munch : The Scream
VA : "Art Nouveau" appears in Europe
RP : F.H. Bradley: Appearance and Reality
PH : Franco-Russ. alliance signed
DL : Henry Ford builds his first car
ED : Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, founded
DL : Karl Benz constructs his four-wheel car
PH : Second Irish Home Rule bill passed by Commons but rejected by Lords
RP : W.T. Stead: If Christ Came to Chicago
DL : World Exhibition in Chicago
M : Charles-François Gounod dies 18 October
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky dies 6 November

1894

LT : Thomas Hardy: Life's Little Ironies
M : Charles Ives : 67th Psalm
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Thaďs
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.2 'Resurrection'
M : Anton Bruckner : Symphony No.9 (Finale unfinished at his death)
M : Claude Debussy : Prélude ŕ l'aprčs-midi d'un faune for orchestra
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : Spring
VA : Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee : The Magic Crystal
VA : Edvard Munch : Ashes
VA : Edvard Munch : Despair
ST : Argon discovered
DL : Baron de Boubertin founds committee to organise modern Olympic Games
RP : Benjamin Kidd: Social Revolution
ST : Berliner uses a horizontal gramophone disc instead of a cylinder as a record for sound reproduction
ST : Cinematograph invented
PH : Czar Alexander III dies; succeeded by his son Nicholas II
DL : Death duties introduced in Britain
DL : Edison opens his Kinetoscope Parlor, New York
ST : Flagstaff Observatory erected, Arizona, U.S.
PH : Korea and Japan declare war on China
DL : New York Jockey Club founded
ED : Pollock and Maitland: History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
ED : Sidney and Beatrice Webb: History of Trade Unionism
ST : Swed. explorer Sven Hedin travels in Tibet
ST : The Plague bacillus discovered
VA : Norman Rockwell born
M : Hans von Bülow dies 12 February
VA : Gustave Caillebotte dies 21 February
M : Emmanuel Chabrier dies 13 September
LT : ee cummings born 14 October
M : Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein dies 20 November
LT : Christina Rossetti dies 29 December

1895

VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Apples
PH : American pressure leads to arbitration of the British boundary dispute with Venezuela
PH : A revolt against Spanish rule breaks out in Cuba
LT : W.B. Yeats: Poems
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : The Abduction of Psyche
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
M : Jean Sibelius : Four Lemminkäinen Legends including The Swan of Tuonela
M : Erik Satie : Messe des pauvres, a Latin Mass with psalms, for voices and organ or piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Christmas Eve
M : Antonin Dvorák : Cello Concerto
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : Flaming June
VA : Edvard Munch : Madonna
VA : Edvard Munch : Puberty
VA : Edvard Munch : Self-Portrait with a Burning Cigarette
VA : Gustav Klimt : Love
ST : Auguste and Louis Lumičre invent a motion-picture camera
RP : Cardinal Vaughan lays foundation stone of Westminster Cathedral
PH : End of Chin.-Jap war
DL : First public film show in Paris, at the Hôtel Scribe
RP : Karl Marx: Das Kapital, vol. 3 (posth.)
DL : King C. Gillette invents the safety razor
ST : Konstantin Isiolkovski formulates the principle of rocket reaction propulsion
ED : London School of Economics and Political Science founded
ST : Machine constructed for the liquefaction of air
ST : Marconi invents radio telegraphy
LT : Oscar Wilde's unsuccessful libel action against the Marquis of Queensberry
M : Robert Newman arranges the first Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall, London
RP : Sigmund Freud: Studien über Hysterie
RP : Thomas Masaryk: The Czech Question
ST : Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays
VA : Berthe Morisot dies 2 March
M : Franz von Suppé dies 21 May
M : Carl Orff born 10 July
LT : Robert Graves born 24 July
M : Paul Hindemith born 16 November

1896

LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Torrent and the Night Before
LT : A E Housman: A Shropshire Lad
M : Charles Ives : String Quartet, No.1 "Revival Service"
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : Hope
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Also sprach Zarathustra ('Thus Spake Zoroaster')
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La Bohčme ('Bohemian Life')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.3
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, Koanga (including 'La Calinda')
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Opera, Pepita Jiménez
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, El capitan
VA : John William Waterhouse : Hylas and the Nymphs
DL : Daily Mail issued
VA : Die Jugend and Simplicissimus, two important Ger. art magazines, appear in Munich
DL : Beginning of Klondike gold rush
ST : Ernest Rutherford: magnetic detection of electrical waves
DL : First modern Olympics held in Athens
RP : Five annual Nobel Prizes established
PH : Further massacres of Armenians in Constantinople
ST : Helium discovered
RP : Henri Bergson: Matičre et mémoire
PH : Nasr-ed-Din, Shah of Persia, assassinated
VA : National Portrait Gallery, London, moved from Bethnal Green to Westminster
ST : Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant opens
ST : Radioactivity discovered
DL : Royal Victorian Order founded
PH : Russia and China sign Manchuria Convention
RP : Theodor Herzl: Der Judenstaat, foundation of Zionism
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton dies 25 January
M : Clara Wieck Schumann dies 20 May
VA : Sir John Everett Millais dies 13 August
VA : William Morris dies 3 October
M : Anton Bruckner dies 11 October
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson born 25 November
VA : David Alfaro Siqueiros born

1897

LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Children of the Night
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Well-Beloved
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Don Quixote
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.1
M : Edvard Grieg : Lyric Pieces Book 9
M : Edvard Grieg : Symphonic Dances for orchestra
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Dolly Suite for piano duet (later orchestrated)
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Stars and Stripes Forever
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : Her eyes are with her thoughts...
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin : Where do we come from?
DL : Katzenjammer Kids, first Amer. comic strip, begun
PH : Crete proclaims union with Greece; Turkey declares war on Greece; Peace of Constantinople
DL : Founding of Royal Automobile Club, London
RP : Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex
ST : J.J. Thomson discovers electron
ST : Julius Hann: Handbook of Climatology
PH : King of Korea proclaims himself emperor
DL : Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
ST : Ronal Ross discovers malaria bacillus
DL : Severe famine in India
RP : Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Industrial Democracy
VA : Sir Henry Tate donates Tate Gallery, London, to the Brit. people
DL : The Sultan of Zanzibar abolishes slavery
PH : William McKinley inaugurated as President of the U.S.    GO !
DL : World Exhibition at Brussels
RP : Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland
M : Johannes Brahms dies 3 April

1898

LT : Thomas Hardy: Wessex Poems
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.1
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Ein Heldenleben ('A Hero's Life')
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Tsar's Bride
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Iris
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, The Bride Elect
VA : John William Waterhouse : Ariadne
VA : Gustav Klimt : Pallas Athene
PH : "The Boxers", an anti-foreign, anti-Western organisation formed in China
RP : Bismarck: Reflections and Memoirs
ST : Dysentery bacillus discovered
PH : Empress Elizabeth of Austria murdered by Ital. anarchist in Geneva
ST : Ger. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds his airship
DL : Paris Métro opened
PH : Paul Kruger re-elected President of Transvaal
ST : Photographs first taken utilising artificial light
ST : Radium and polonium discovered
ST : Ramsay discovered the inert atmospheric gases zenon, crypton, and neon
VA : The Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow
PH : U.S. declares war on Spain over Cuba; Treaty of Paris    GO !
LT : Lewis Carroll dies 14 January
VA : Aubrey Beardsley dies
LT : Walt Whitman dies 26 March
M : Ernst Bacon born 26 May
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones dies 17 June
VA : Maurits Cornelis Escher born
M : George Gershwin born 26 September
VA : René Magritte born

1899

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wind Among the Reeds
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Cendrillon ('Cinderella')
M : Jean Sibelius : Finlandia
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.1
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Verklärte Nacht ('Transfigured Night'), for string sextet (arranged later for string orchestra)
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Jack-in-the-box
M : Maurice Ravel : Pavane pour une infante défunte for piano (later orchestrated)
M : Edward Elgar : Enigma Variations, Sea Pictures
M : Frederick Delius : Paris: the Song of a Great City nocturne for orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Nocturnes for orchestra
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Catalonia, suite populaire for orchestra
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Hands across the Sea
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Baths of Caraculla
VA : Edvard Munch : The Dance of Life
VA : Edvard Munch : The Dead Mother
RP : Alexander Bain: The Realisation of the Possible
ST : Alpha and beta rays discovered in radioactive atoms
PH : Boer War between Britain and the Boers
RP : Ernst Haeckel: Die Welträtsel
PH : First Peace Conference at The Hague
ST : First magnetic recording of sound
RP : H.S. Chamberlain: The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
RP : James Ward: Naturalism and Agnosticism
RP : John Dewey: School and Society
PH : London borough councils established
RP : Pope Leo XIII's bull Testem Benevolentiae condemns the "Americanism" of Isaac Thomas Hecker
M : Francis Poulenc born 7 January
VA : Alfred Sisley dies 29 January
M : Johann Strauss II dies 3 June

1900

VA : Paul Cézanne : Chateau Noir
PH : The Foraker Act establishes a government for Puerto Rico
PH : Boxer risings in China against Europeans
PH : Commonwealth of Australia created
DL : First Nobel Prizes awarded
ED : Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams
DL : World Exhibition in Paris
VA : Wallace Collection, London, opens
VA : Gaugin : Noa Noa, report on his travels through Tahiti
ST : F.E. Dorn discovers radon
ST : Arthur Evan's excavations in Crete
RP : Shintoism reinstated in Japan against Buddhist influence
RP : Bertrand Russell : A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz
VA : Paul Cézanne : Mont Sainte-Victoire
above the Tholonet Road
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Legend of Tsar Saltan (including 'The Flight of the Bumblebee' and 'The Tsar's Departure and Farewell')
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Tosca
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.4
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Requiem Mass (final version)
M : Edward Elgar : Oratorio 'The Dream of Gerontius'
M : Antonin Dvorák : Opera, Rusalka
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Godspeed
PH : King Umberto I, king of Italy, assassinated; succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III
VA : Fauvist movement in painting begins, led by Henri Matisse
ST : Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory
M : Aaron Copland born 14 November
M : Arthur Sullivan dies 22 November

1901

ST : First Trans-Atlantic radio signal
PH : Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by her son, Edward VII
PH : U.S. President McKinley assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt sworn in as successor    GO !
PH : Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by Edward (VII)
PH : Peace of Peking ends Boxer uprising
RP : Rudolf Steiner founds anthroposophy
VA : Picasso's blue period
VA : The Siegesallee in Berlin : 32 marble statues of members of the House of Hohenzollern
M : Ragtime jazz develops in the U.S.
ST : Marconi transmits telegraphic radio messages from Cornwall to Newfoundland
M : Charles Ives : Three Harvest Home Chorales
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame ('The Juggler of Notre Dame')
M : Maurice Ravel : Jeux d'eau ('Fountains'), for piano
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.2
M : Edward Elgar : Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 ('Land of Hope and Glory')
M : Edward Elgar : Concert overture 'Cockaigne'
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet ('Walk to the Paradise Garden' added later)
VA : John William Godward : The Tease
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Accolade
VA : Gustav Klimt : Judith I
M : Giuseppe Verdi dies 27 January
VA : Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec dies 9 September
M : Joaquín Rodrigo born 22 November

1902

VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Apples,
a Bottle, and a Milk Pot
PH : Boer War ends
DL : The Teddy Bear is introduced
PH : Anglo-Japanese treaty recognises the independence of China and Korea
PH : Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy renewed for another six years
RP : William James The Varieties of Religious Experience
RP : Benedetto Croce : Philosophy of the Spirit
M : Enrico Caruso makes his first phonograph recording
DL : King Edward VII establishes Order of Merit
DL : Martinique volcanic fire destroys the town of St. Pierre
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Captain Craig
LT : John Masefield: Salt-Water Ballads
LT : Walter de la Mare: Songs of Childhood
LT : Thomas Hardy: Poems of the Past and Present
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.2
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.2
M : Gustav Mahler : Des Knaben Wunderhorn completed
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.5
M : Franz Lehár : Concert waltz, Gold und Silber ('Gold and Silver')
M : Frederick Delius : Appalachia for voices and orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Opera, Pelléas et Mélisande
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Triston and Isolde
VA : Gustav Klimt : Portrait of Emilie Floge
M : William Turner Walton born 29 March

1903

ST : First flight at Kitty Hawk
VA : First silent movie, The Great Train Robbery
PH : Entente Cordiale established
PH : King Alexander I of Serbia and Queen Draga murdered ; Peter Karageorgevich accedes to the throne as Peter I
PH : Coronation durbar for Edward Vi, King-emperor, at Delhi
RP : G.E. Moore : Principia Ethica
RP : Cardinal Guiseppe Sarto installed - Pope Pius X
M : Oscar Hammerstein builds the Manhattan Opera House, New York
M : First recording of an opera : Verdi's Ernani
ED : Universities of Liverpool and Manchester founded
ST : Electrocardiograph invented
VA : Deutsches Museum, Munich, opens
DL : First Tour de France
DL : Ford Motor Company founded
LT : Thomas Traherne: Poems published
M : Manuel de Falla : Piano Pieces, Allegro de concierto
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonia Domestica
M : Jean Sibelius : Incidental music to the play Kuolema ('Death')
M : Jean Sibelius : Violin Concerto
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Symphonic Poem, Pelleas und Melisande
M : Erik Satie : (Trois) morceaux en forme de poire
M : Maurice Ravel : Shéhérazade for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Ten Piano Preludes
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, Jenűfa (later revised)
M : Claude Debussy : Estampes ('Engravings'), for piano (including 'Jardins sous la pluie')
VA : John William Waterhouse : Windflowers
VA : Eugčne Henri Paul Gauguin dies 9 May
VA : Camille Pissarro dies 13 November

1904

PH : Russo-Japanese War begins
PH : Theodore Roosevelt elected president    GO !
PH : Hereros and Hottentots revolt in German South-west Africa
LT : Abbey Theatre, Dublin, founded
RP : Church and state separated in France
ED : Freud : The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
RP : Max Weber : The Protestant Ethic and the Birth of Capitalism
M : First radio transmission of music at Graz, Austria
M : London Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert
ST : First telegraphic transmission of photographs - Munich to Nuremburg
DL : Ten-hour work day established in France
DL : Carl Lindstrom Company founded in Berlin for the production of phonographs and phonograph records
VA : Anthony Frederick Sandys dies
LT : Walter de la Mare: Henry Brocken
M : Charles Ives : Thanksgiving
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Madame Butterfly
M : Gustav Mahler : Kindertotenlieder ('Songs of the Death of Children')
M : Edvard Grieg : Lyric Suite for orchestra
M : Edward Elgar : Overture 'In the South'
M : Frederick Delius : Sea Drift for baritone and orchestra
VA : John William Godward : Dolce Far Niente
VA : John William Waterhouse : Psyche Entering Cupid's Garden
PH : Entente Cordiale: Britain and France settle their international differences
ST : General theory of radioactivity by Rutherford and Soddy
DL : New York City subway opens
VA : Jean Léon Gérôme dies 10 January
M : Antonin Dvorák dies 1 May
VA : Salvador Dali born

1905

PH : "Bloody Sunday" - Russian Revolution of 1905
ST : Einstein proposes his theory of relativity
PH : Norwegian parliament decides on separation from Sweden; Prince Charles of Denmark elected King Haakon VII of Norway
PH : Sinn Fein Party founded in Dublin
DL : William Haywood and others found the International Workers of the World (Wobblies)
LT : Police censure closes Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession after one performance
RP : George Santayana : The Life of Reason
VA : Picasso begins his "Pink Period"
DL : First motor buses in London
DL : First neon lights appear
M : Manuel de Falla : Opera, La Vida Breve ('The Short Life')
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Salome
M : Jean Sibelius : Incidental music to the play Pelléas et Mélisande
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh
M : Maurice Ravel : Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp, and string quartet
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphonies No.6 and No.7
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Die lustige Witwe ('The Merry Widow')
M : Edward Elgar : Introduction and Allegro for Strings
M : Frederick Delius : A Mass of Life for soloists, chorus and orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Images, Book I for piano
M : Claude Debussy : La mer ('The sea'), for orchestra
M : Franz Strauss dies 31 May
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau dies 19 August

1906

DL : Finland is the first European country to give women the right to vote
M : The English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams
RP : Franz X. Wernz, the Jesuit general, reforms the order's plan for studies
RP : Albert Schweitzer : The Quest of the Historical Jesus
M : Mozart Festival in Salzburg
ST : The term "allergy" introduced to medicine
DL : Simplon Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland opens
M : Anton von Webern : Rondo
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic fantasy, Pohjola's Daughter
M : Zoltán Kodály : Symphonic Poem, Summer Evening (later revised)
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, The Free Lance
DL : San Francisco earthquake and three-day fire; more than 500 dead
ST : Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, fixes magnetic North Pole
M : Dmitry Shostakovich born 25 September
VA : Paul Cézanne dies 22 October

1907

PH : Ten Rules of War established at the second Hague Peace Conference
VA : Picasso introduces Cubism
DL : Typhoid Mary captured for the first time
DL : First completely synthetic man-made substance (plastic)
PH : English and French agree on Siamese independence
RP : Henri Bergson : L'Evolution créatrice
RP : William James : Pragmatism
RP : Alfred Adler : Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation
RP : United methodist Church established in Britain
RP : Papal encyclical Pascendi gregis condemns modernism
VA : First Cubist exhibition in Paris
DL : Boy Scouts founded
LT : Sara Teasdale: Sonnets to Duse, and Other Poems
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : Vanity
M : Anton von Webern : Quintet for strings and piano
M : Charles Ives : Central Park in the Dark
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.3
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Golden Cockerel
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.2
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.8 'Symphony of a Thousand'
M : Frederick Delius : Brigg Fair: An English Rhapsody
M : Claude Debussy : Images, Book II for piano
VA : Gustav Klimt : Danae
VA : Gustav Klimt : The Kiss
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden born 21 February
M : Edvard Grieg dies 4 September

1908

DL : Ford introduces the Model-T
PH : Three year-old Pu Yi becomes Emperor of China
PH : Turks revolt in the Ottoman Empire
PH : King Carlos I of Portugal and the crown prince both assassinated; Manuel II becomes king
PH : Leopold II transfers the Congo to Belgium
PH : Ferdinand I of Bulgaria assumes the title czar and declares his country's independence
PH : Crete proclaims union with Greece
PH : Union of South Africa established
VA : "Ashcan School" established by Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, George Bellows, Everett Shinn
VA : Matisse coins the term "Cubism"
DL : London hosts the Olympic Games
ED : Cairo University opened
DL : First Model T produced
LT : Thomas Traherne: Centuries of Meditations
LT : John Masefield: Captain Margaret
LT : Thomas Hardy: the last of three parts of The Dynasts published
M : Anton von Webern : Passacaglia for Orchestra
M : Charles Ives : The Unanswered Question
M : Franz Schreker : Ballet, Der Geburtstag der Infantin ('The Infant's Birthday')
M : Maurice Ravel : Rapsodie espagnole for orchestra
M : Maurice Ravel : Gaspard de la nuit ('Phantoms of the Night'), for piano
M : Leoš Janácek : Along an Overgrown Path 15 pieces for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, Savitri
M : Edward Elgar : Symphony No.1 (Adagio)
M : Frederick Delius : Rhapsody, In a Summer Garden
M : Claude Debussy : Children's Corner for piano (including 'Jimbo's Lullaby' and 'Golliwogg's Cake-walk')
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.1
M : Igor Stravinsky : Opera, The Nightingale
DL : Earthquake kills 150,000 in southern Italy and Sicily
LT : Theodore Roethke born 25 May
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov dies 21 June
M : Olivier Messiaen born 10 December
M : Elliott Cook Carter born 11 December

1909

PH : Japan's Prince Ito is assassinated
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Town down the River
LT : John Masefield: Multitude and Solitude and The Tragedy of Nan
LT : Thomas Hardy: Time's Laughingstocks
M : Anton von Webern : Five movements for String Quartet
M : Anton von Webern : Six Pieces for Large Orchestra
M : Charles Ives : Piano Sonata No.1
M : Charles Ives : Washington's Birthday
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Don Quichotte ('Don Quixote')
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.1, 'A Sea Symphony'
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Song-cycle, On Wenlock Edge
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Elektra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Erwartung ('Expectation'), for soprano and orchestra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Five Orchestral Pieces
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphonic Poem, Isle of the Dead
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.9
M : Gustav Mahler : Song-symphony Das Lied von der Erde
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Der Graf von Luxemburg ('The Count of Luxemburg')
M : Gustav Holst : Suite No.1, for military band
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Suite Iberia for piano
ST : North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz dies 18 May
VA : Francis Bacon born

1910

ST : Halley's comet makes an appearance
LT : John Masefield: The Tragedy of Pompey the Great
LT : Walter de la Mare: The Return and The Three Mulla Mulgars
M : Anton von Webern : Four Pieces for violin and piano
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for strings
M : Maurice Ravel : Ma mčre l'oye ('Mother Goose'), for two pianos (later orchestrated)
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for choir
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Thirteen Piano Preludes
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La fanciulla del West ('The Girl of the Golden West')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.10, unfinished
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Zigeunerliebe ('Gypsy Love')
M : Gustav Holst : Hymns from the Rig Veda for chorus and orchestra (one of several sets)
M : Edward Elgar : Violin Concerto
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, Fennimore and Gerda
M : Claude Debussy : Préludes, Book I for piano (including 'Viole')
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, The Firebird
M : Samuel Barber born 9 March
M : Frank Loesser born 29 June
VA : Henri Rousseau dies in Paris
VA : William Holman Hunt dies 7 September
VA : Winslow Homer dies

1911

PH : The Chinese Revolution
ST : Structure of an atom discovered
DL : Greenwich Mean Time adopted
VA : Mona Lisa is stolen
LT : Sara Teasdale: Helen of Troy, and Other Poems
LT : John Masefield: The Everlasting Mercy
LT : Rupert Brooke: Poems
M : Charles Ives : String Quartet No.2
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.3
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Der Rosenkavalier
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.4
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Gurrelieder ('Songs of Gurra'), for voices and orchestra
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Études-tableux Opus 33 for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Suite No.2, for military band
M : Edward Elgar : Symphony No.2
M : Frederick Delius : Summer Night on the River for small orchestra
M : Frederick Delius : Song of the High Hills for chorus and orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Allegro barbaro for piano
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Petrushka
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Stiching the Standard
DL : Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York; 146 killed
PH : Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz, president since 1877, replaced by Francisco Madero
ST : First use of aircraft as offensive weapon in Turkish-Italian War
PH : Chinese Republic proclaimed after revolution overthrows Manchu dynasty; Sun Yat-sen named president
ST : Amundsen reaches South Pole
PH : Italy defeats Turks and annexes Tripoli and Libya
M : Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band
M : Gustav Mahler dies 18 May
VA : Edwin Austin Abbey
VA : Howard Pyle dies

1912

DL : Oreo cookies first introduced
DL : The Titanic sinks
LT : Walter de la Mare: The Listeners and Other Poems
VA : Marc Chagall : Adam and Eve
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Der ferne Klang ('The Distant Sound')
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Song-cycle, Pierrot lunaire ('Moonstruck Pierrot')
M : Maurice Ravel : Ballet, Daphnis and Chloë
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Fourteen Songs
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No.1
M : Leoš Janácek : In the Mists for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Oriental Suite, Beni Mora
M : Frederick Delius : On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring for small orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Images for orchestra (including 'Gigue')
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Seven Choral Preludes for Organ Set I
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Sleeping Beauty
PH : Balkan Wars begin
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema dies 25 June
M : Jules Massenet dies 13 August
M : John Cage born 5 September

1913

DL : First crossword puzzle
DL : Personal income tax introduced in U.S.
LT : John Masefield: Dauber
LT : Walter de la Mare: Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes
LT : Thomas Hardy: A Changed Man
LT : Robert Frost: A Boy's Will
M : Anton von Webern : Five Pieces for Orchestra
M : Anton von Webern : Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
M : Charles Ives : Fourth of July
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.2, 'A London Symphony'
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin ('The Music Box and the Princess')
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Die Glückliche Hand, ('The Lucky Hand'), drama for orchestra and chorus
M : Erik Satie : Trois embryons desséchés ('Three dried-up embryos')
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Choral Symphony, The Bells
M : Gustav Holst : St. Paul's Suite for strings
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Opera, Pénélope
M : Edward Elgar : Falstaff (Symphonic Study)
M : Claude Debussy : Préludes, Book II for piano
M : Claude Debussy : Ballet, Jeux
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, The Rite of Spring
PH : Balkan Wars end with London peace treaty
ST : Henry Ford develops first moving assembly line
PH : Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law    GO !
PH : Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th U.S. president    GO !
VA : Armory Show introduces modern art to U.S.; Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase shocks public
DL : Suffragists demonstrate in London
DL : Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raise and shorter hours
M : Witold Lutoslawski born 25 January
M : Benjamin Britten born 22 November

1914

PH : World War I begins     GO !
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Van Zorn
LT : Thomas Hardy: Satires of Circumstance
LT : Robert Frost: North of Boston
M : Anton von Webern : Three Little Pieces for Violincello and Piano
M : Charles Ives : Three Places in New England
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : A Lark Ascending for violin and orchestra
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, The Oceanides
M : Ottorino Respighi : Sinfonia drammatica
M : Maurice Ravel : Trio for piano, violin, cello
DL : Panama Canal officially opened
PH : U.S. Marines occupy Veracruz, Mexico, intervening in civil war to protect American interests

1915

LT : Sara Teasdale: Rivers to the Sea
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Porcupine
LT : Rupert Brooke: 1914 and Other Poems
M : Charles Ives : Piano Sonata No.2 "Concord Mass. 1840-60"
M : Manuel de Falla : Noches en los jardines de Espańa ('Nights in the Gardens of Spain')
M : Manuel de Falla : Ballet, El Amor Brujo ('Love, the Magician')
M : Richard Strauss : An Alpine Symphony
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.5
M : Zoltán Kodály : Cello Sonata
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, Le Jardin clos ('The Enclosed Garden')
M : Claude Debussy : 12 Etudes ('Studies'), for piano
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : The Wanderer
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia based on an old English tune When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia, O God, Our Help
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia, The Old Hundredth
PH : Genocide of estimated 600,000 to 1 million Armenians by Turkish soldiers
ST : Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
VA : D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation
VA : Walter Crane dies
LT : Rupert Brooke dies 23 April
VA : Arthur Hughes dies 23 December

1916

LT : W.B. Yeats: Reveries over Childhood and Youth
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Man against the Sky
LT : Robert Frost: Mountain Interval
LT : Rupert Brooke: Letters From America (posth.)
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.4
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Second Chamber Symphony
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, The Fountains of Rome
M : Gustav Holst : Orchestral suite, The Planets
M : Frederick Delius : Violin Concerto
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Seven Choral Preludes for Organ Set II
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Jerusalem
VA : John William Waterhouse : I am Half Sick of Shadows
VA : John William Waterhouse : Miranda
VA : John William Waterhouse : A Tale from Decameron
PH : U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million
PH : President Wilson re-elected with “he kept us out of war” slogan.     GO !
PH : Easter Rebellion in Ireland put down by British troops
ST : Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic
PH : 24 April - Irish nationalists launch the Easter rebellion in Dublin, Republic declared and Patrick Pearse announced as first President
M : Milton Byron Babbitt born 10 May
PH : 22 November - Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, dies; he is succeeded by Charles I

1917

LT : First Pulitzer Prizes awarded
PH : Russian Revolution
PH : U.S. enters World War I
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wild Swans at Coole
LT : Sara Teasdale: Love Songs
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Merlin
LT : Thomas Hardy: Moments of Vision
LT : Robert Graves: Over the Brazier
LT : T S Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Parade
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ancient Airs and Dances first series
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La rondine ('The Swallow')
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Concerto No.1
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.1 'Classical'
M : Francis Poulenc : Rapsodie nčgre for baritone and instrumental ensemble
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Excursions of Mr. Broucek
M : Gustav Holst : The Hymn of Jesus for chorus and orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.2
M : Béla Bartók : Ballet, The Wooden Prince
M : Igor Stravinsky : Les Noces ('The Wedding'), for voices, percussion and four pianos
PH : Balfour Declaration promises Jewish homeland in Palestine.
RP : Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis
VA : John William Waterhouse dies 10 February

1918

DL : Daylight Saving Time introduced
PH : Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed
LT : Robert Graves: Fairies and Fusiliers
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Die Gezeichneten ('The Stigma Bearers')
M : Erik Satie : Socrate, for voices and instruments
M : Giacomo Puccini : Il trittico ('The Triptych'), three one-act operas
M : Francis Poulenc : Trois mouvements perpétuels for piano
M : Leoš Janácek : Orchestral rhapsody, Taras Bulba
M : Edward Elgar : String Quartet
M : Béla Bartók : Opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle
M : Igor Stravinsky : The Soldier's Tale, for speaker, chamber ensemble, dancers
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Elégie
DL : Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million will be dead ("Spanish Flu")
PH : Russian Civil War between Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites (anti-Bolsheviks)
PH : German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.); hostilities cease on the Western Front
VA : Gustav Klimt dies 6 February
M : Claude Debussy dies 25 March
LT : Joyce Kilmer dies 30 July
M : Leonard Bernstein born 25 August
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry dies 7 October

1919

DL : Prohibition begins in the U.S.
LT : John Masefield: Reynard the Fox
M : Manuel de Falla : Ballet, El sombrero de tres picos ('The Three-Cornered Hat')
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ballet, La Boutique fantastique ('The Fantastic Toy Shop') - based on music by Rossini
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Opera, The Love for Three Oranges
M : Francis Poulenc : Song-cycle, Le Bestiaire
M : Darius Milhaud : Symphonic Suite 'Protée'
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Le Boeuf sur le toit ('The Ox on the Roof')
M : Leoš Janácek : Song-cycle, The Diary of One Who Disappeared
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Orchestral suite, Masques et Bergamasques
M : Edward Elgar : Cello Concerto, Piano Quintet
M : Béla Bartók : Ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin
PH : Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet control over international Communist movements
PH : Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate    GO !
PH : Mahatma Gandhi initiates satyagraha (“truth force”) campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India
ST : Alcock and Brown make first trans-Atlantic nonstop flight
VA : Pierre-Auguste Renoir dies 3 December

1920

PH : U.S. Dept. of Justice "red hunt" nets thousands of radicals; aliens deported
ST : First commercial radio broadcast aired
LT : Harlem Renaissance begins
PH : League of Nations established
DL : Women granted the right to vote in U.S.
LT : Sara Teasdale: Flame and Shadow
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Lancelot
LT : T S Eliot: The Sacred Wood
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Der Schatzgräber ('The Treasure Digger')
M : Erik Satie : Musique d'ameublement ('Furniture music')
M : Erik Satie : Trois petites pičces montées
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphonies of Wind Instruments
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Pulcinella
PH : Treaty of Sčvres dissolves Ottoman Empire
PH : Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, Luxembourg are admitted to the League of Nations
LT : Howard Nemerov born 1 March
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch dies 20 October

1921

PH : Irish Free State proclaimed
VA : John William Godward dies
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Avon's Harvest
LT : Marianne Moore: Poems published without her knowledge
LT : Walter de la Mare: Memoirs of a Midget
M : Edgard Varčse : Offrandes
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, King David
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.3, 'Pastoral'
M : William Turner Walton : Façade settings of poems by Edith Sitwell
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite for orchestra, Saudades do Brasil ('Memories of Brazil')
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel ('The Newlyweds of the Eiffel Tower'), written with "Les Six"
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, Katya Kabanová
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, L'Horizon chimerique ('The Elusive Horizon')
PH : Reparations Commission fixes German liability at 132 billion gold marks; German inflation begins
PH : Major treaties signed at Washington Disarmament Conference limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect territorial integrity of China
PH : Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are admitted to the League of Nations
LT : Richard Wilbur born 1 March
M : Camille Saint-Saëns dies 16 December

1922

PH : Kemal Atatürk founds modern Turkey
ST : King Tut's tomb found
PH : Mussolini marches on Rome
LT : The Reader's Digest first published
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton dies
LT : A E Housman: Last Poems
LT : Thomas Hardy: Late Lyrics and Earlier
LT : T S Eliot: The Waste Land
LT : ee cummings: The Enormous Room
M : Edgard Varčse : Amériques
M : Paul Hindemith : Suite, 1922
M : Arthur Honegger : Ballet, Skating Rink
M : Manuel de Falla : Chamber opera, El Retablo de Maese Pedro ('Master Peter's Puppet Show')
M : Ottorino Respighi : Opera, Belfagor
M : Gustav Holst : A Fugal Overture
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, The Perfect Fool
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Morning
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Daybreak
PH : Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations
M : Lukas Foss born 15 August
VA : Lucien Freud born

1923

DL : Talking movies invented
LT : Wallace Stevens: Harmonium
LT : Walter de la Mare: Come Hither and The Riddle, and Other Stories
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall
LT : Robert Frost: New Hampshire
LT : ee cummings: Tulips and Chimneys
M : Edgard Varčse : Octandre
M : Edgard Varčse : Hyperprism
M : Paul Hindemith : Das Marienleben
M : Arthur Honegger : Pacific 231
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.6
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ancient Airs and Dances second series
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, La Création du monde ('The Creation of the World')
M : Zoltán Kodály : Psalmus hungaricus for voices and orchestra
M : Leoš Janácek : String Quartet No.1, 'The Kreutzer Sonata'
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Cunning Little Vixen
M : Béla Bartók : Dance Suite for orchestra
M : Igor Stravinsky : Octet for Wind Instruments
PH : Adolf Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich fails
PH : Occupation of Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments
DL : Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence in U.S.
DL : Earthquake destroys third of Tokyo
M : George Gershwin : Rhapsody in Blue
M : Bessie Smith, known as "the Empress of the Blues", makes her first record
LT : William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize in Literature
PH : Ethiopia, Ireland are admitted to the League of Nations
PH : Dominican Republic is admitted to the League of Nations
VA : Roy Lichtenstein born

1924

DL : First Olympic winter games
LT : Marianne Moore: Observations
LT : John Masefield: Sard Harker
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Happy Marriage
LT : Robert Graves: Poems: 1914-26
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : The Damsel of the Lake,
Called Nimue the Enchantress
M : Edgard Varčse : Intégrales
M : Paul Hindemith : String Trio
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.7
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Irrelohe ('Flames of Madness')
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Relâche
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Mercure
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, The Pines of Rome
M : Maurice Ravel : Tzigane ('Gypsy'), for violin plus orchestra or piano
M : Francis Poulenc : Ballet, Les Biches ('The Little Darlings')
M : Leoš Janácek : Wind sextet, Mládi ('Youth')
M : Gustav Holst : Choral Symphony
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, At the Boar's Head
M : George Gershwin : Rhapsody in Blue for piano and jazz band
M : Aaron Copland : Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (later arranged without organ)
PH : Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes Mein Kampf; released after eight months
PH : Death of Lenin; Stalin wins power struggle, rules as Soviet dictator until death in 1953
LT : Robert Frost wins first of four Pulitzers
PH : Italian Fascists murder Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti
PH : Teapot Dome scandal
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré dies 4 November

1925

PH : Hitler's Mein Kampf published
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Roman Bartholow and Dionysus in Doubt
LT : Walter de la Mare: Broomsticks and Other Tales
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Pot of Earth
LT : Thomas Hardy: Human Shows
LT : ee cummings: & and XLI Poems
M : Paul Hindemith : Concerto for Orchestra
M : Ernst Bacon : Prelude and Fugue
M : Sir George Dyson : Children's Suite After Walter De La Mare
M : William Turner Walton : Overture, Portsmouth Point
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.1
M : Maurice Ravel : Opera, L'Enfant et les sortilčges ('The Child and the Magic Spells')
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, The Steel Step
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Makropulos Affair
M : George Gershwin : Concerto in F, for piano and orchestra
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : The Knave
PH : Locarno conferences seek to secure European peace by mutual guarantees
ST : John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor, transmits human features by television
ST : John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee "Monkey Trial"; sentence set aside
VA : Robert Rauschenberg born
PH : Costa Rica withdraws from the League of Nations
M : Pierre Boulez born 26 March
VA : John Singer Sargent dies
M : Erik Satie dies 1 July

1926

LT : Sara Teasdale: Dark of the Moon
LT : John Masefield: Odtaa
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Streets on the Moon
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : La Belle Dame Sans Merci
M : Paul Hindemith : Opera, Cardillac
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Judith
M : Manuel de Falla : Concerto for harpsichord and chamber ensemble
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, Tapiola
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.4
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Turandot (the final scene completed by Franco Alfano after Puccini's death)
M : Zoltán Kodály : Opera, Háry János
M : Leoš Janácek : Sinfonietta for orchestra
M : Leoš Janácek : Glagolitic Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra
M : George Gershwin : Three Piano Preludes
M : George Gershwin : Musical, O, Kay!
M : Aaron Copland : Piano Concerto
M : Béla Bartók : Out of Doors for piano
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.1
DL : General strike in Britain brings nation's activities to standstill
PH : U.S. marines dispatched to Nicaragua during revolt; they remain until 1933
PH : Germany is admitted to the League of Nations, Brazil withdraws
VA : Mary Cassatt dies 14 June
VA : Claude Monet dies 5 December

1927

DL : BBC founded
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Tristram
VA : Marc Chagall : Lovers with Flowers
M : Edgard Varčse : Arcana
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Antigone
M : Ottorino Respighi : Three Botticelli Pictures
M : Ottorino Respighi : The Birds suite for small orchestra (based on 17th and 18th century pieces about birds)
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Opera, The Fiery Angel
M : Zoltán Kodály : Dances of Marosszék for piano (later orchestrated)
M : Gustav Holst : Tone poem, Egdon Heath
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Funny Face
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Strike Up the Band
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.3
M : Igor Stravinsky : Opera-oratorio, Oedipus Rex
M : Franz Schreker : Christophorus
PH : German economy collapses - Socialists riot in Vienna; general strike follows acquittal of Nazis for political murder
PH : Trotsky expelled from Russian Communist Party
ST : Charles A. Lindbergh flies first successful solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris
ST : Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrates working television model
ST : Georges Lemaître proposes Big Bang Theory
DL : Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in the season; record stands for next 34 years
VA : The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, first part-talking motion picture
LT : Galway Kinnell born 1 February
VA : Juan Gris dies

1928

LT : First Oxford English Dictionary published
ST : Penicillin discovered
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Tower
VA : Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee dies
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Hamlet of A. MacLeish
M : Anton von Webern : Symphony
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Symphony on a Hymn Tune
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Opera, Four Saints in Three Acts
M : Olivier Messiaen : Le banquet céleste for organ
M : Olivier Messiaen : Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Opera, Sir John in Love (including 'Greensleeves')
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Opera, The Nose
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Variations for Orchestra
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, Roman Festivals
M : Maurice Ravel : Boléro for orchestra
M : Darius Milhaud : Opera, Christopher Columbus
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Das Land des Lächelns ('The Land of Smiles')
M : Leoš Janácek : String Quartet No.2, 'Intimate Letters'
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, From the House of the Dead
M : Gustav Holst : A Moorside Suite for brass band
M : George Gershwin : Symphonic Poem, An American in Paris
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.4
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Apollon musagčte
M : Franz Schreker : Der singende Teufel
PH : Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed in Paris by 65 nations    GO !
RP : Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa
LT : Thomas Hardy dies 11 January
VA : Andy Warhol born
M : Leoš Janácek dies 12 August
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen born 22 August
VA : Helen Frankenthaler born in New York City

1929

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Cavender's House
LT : Robert Graves: Goodbye to All That
M : Ernst Toch : Bunte Suite
M : William Turner Walton : Viola Concerto
PH : Trotsky expelled from U.S.S.R.
PH : Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City
DL : In U.S., stock market prices collapse, with U.S. securities losing $26 billion—first phase of Depression and world economic crisis
ST : Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe
M : Andre Previn born 6 April

1930

ST : Pluto discovered
LT : Sara Teasdale: Stars To-night
LT : Sara Teasdale: Stars To-night
LT : Walter de la Mare: On the Edge
LT : Archibald MacLeish: New Found Land
LT : Robert Frost: Selected Poems
LT : T S Eliot: Ash-Wednesday
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Paid on Both Sides and Poems
M : Anton von Webern : Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxaphone, Piano
M : Olivier Messiaen : Diptyque for organ
M : Ernst Toch : Gesprochene Musik
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Ballet, Job, a Masque for Dancing
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Ballet, The Age of Gold
M : Gustav Holst : Prelude and scherzo for military band, Hammersmith
M : Gustav Holst : Choral Fantasia
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Girl Crazy
M : Aaron Copland : Piano Variations (later orchestrated)
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony of Psalms
PH : Britain, U.S., Japan, France, and Italy sign naval disarmament treaty
ST : Cyclotron developed
M : Stephen Sondheim born 22 March

1931

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Matthias at the Door
LT : Robert Graves: Poems: 1926-1930
LT : T S Eliot: Thoughts After Lambeth
LT : ee cummings: CIOPW and ViVa
M : Edgard Varčse : Ionisation
M : Paul Hindemith : Das Unaufhörliche
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Cris du monde
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Amphion
M : Sir George Dyson : The Canterbury Pilgrims
M : William Turner Walton : Cantata, Belshazzar's Feast
M : Maurice Ravel : Piano Concerto in G
M : Gustav Holst : Hammersmith for orchestra
M : Samuel Barber : Overture, The School for Scandal
M : Samuel Barber : Dover Beach for solo baritone and string quartet
M : Vincenzo Bellini : Opera, Norma
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.2
M : Igor Stravinsky : Violin Concerto
PH : Spain becomes a republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
PH : German industrialists finance 800,000-strong Nazi party
PH : Mukden Incident begins Japanese occupation of Manchuria
ST : Harold C. Urey discovers heavy hydrogen
DL : The Star Spangled Banner officially becomes U.S. national anthem
DL : Notorious Scottsboro trial begins, exposing depth of Southern racism in U.S.
PH : Mexico is admitted to the League of Nations

1932

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Nicodemus
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Conquistador
M : Ernst Bacon : Symphony No.1
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Arabella
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Opera, The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (later revised as Katerina Izmaylova)
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Opera, Moses and Aaron
M : Francis Poulenc : Concerto in D-minor, for two pianos and orchestra
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Of Thee I Sing
M : George Gershwin : Cuban Overture
M : Benjamin Britten : Sinfonietta
M : Franz Schreker : Der Schmied von Gent
PH : Nazis lead in German elections with 230 Reichstag seats
DL : Famine in U.S.S.R.
DL : In U.S., Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy.
DL : Veterans march on Washington—most leave after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; others removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur
PH : Iraq, Turkey are admitted to the League of Nations
M : John Phillip Sousa dies 6 March

1933

PH : Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Winding Stair and Other Poems
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Talifer
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Conquistador
LT : A E Housman: The Name and Nature of Poetry
LT : T S Eliot: The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
LT : ee cummings: Eimi
VA : Marc Chagall : Solitude
M : Paul Hindemith : String Trio
M : Olivier Messiaen : L'Ascension (for orchestra, later for organ)
M : Sir George Dyson : St Paul's Voyage to Melita
M : Ottorino Respighi : Opera, La Fiamma
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Film Score, Lieutenant Kijé
M : Zoltán Kodály : Dances of Galánta for orchestra
M : Gustav Holst : Brook Green Suite for strings
M : Vincenzo Bellini : Opera, Beatrice di Tenda
PH : Reichstag fire in Berlin; Nazi terror begins
PH : Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations
PH : Roosevelt inaugurated; launches New Deal    GO !
DL : In U.S. Prohibition repealed
PH : U.S.S.R. recognised by U.S.
PH : Germany, Japan withdraw from the League of Nations
LT : Sara Teasdale dies 29 January
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki born 6 December

1934

VA : Marc Chagall : Bouquet with Flying Lovers
PH : Mao Zedong begins the Long March
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Amaranth
LT : Robert Graves: I, Claudius and Claudius the God
LT : T S Eliot: After Strange Gods
M : Edgard Varčse : Ecuatorial
M : Paul Hindemith : Symphony, Mathis der Maler
M : Arthur Honegger : Ballet, Sémiramis
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.4
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (including '18th Variation'), for piano and orchestra
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Nerone ('Nero')
M : Franz Lehár : Opera, Giuditta
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.5
PH : Hitler becomes führer.
PH : U.S.S.R. admitted to League of Nations
PH : Afghanistan, Ecuador, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are admitted to the League of Nations
M : Edward Elgar dies 23 February
M : Franz Schreker dies 21 March
M : Gustav Holst dies 25 May
M : Frederick Delius dies 10 June
M : Harrison Birtwistle born 15 July

1935

PH : Germany issues the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws
VA : Jessie Willcox Smith dies
LT : Wallace Stevens: Ideas of Order
LT : T S Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral
LT : ee cummings: No Thanks and Tom
M : Paul Hindemith : Viola concerto, Der Schwanendreher
M : Paul Hindemith : Opera, Mathis der Maler
M : Olivier Messiaen : La nativite de Seigneur for organ
M : Arthur Honegger : Film music, Mayerling
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Jeanne d’Arc au bűcher ('Joan of Arc at the Stake')
M : Sir George Dyson : Nebuchadnezzar
M : William Turner Walton : Symphony No.1
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Concerto No.2
M : George Gershwin : Opera, Porgy and Bess
PH : Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty, introduce compulsory military service
DL : Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance
PH : Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations invokes sanctions
PH : Paraguay withdraws from the League of Nations of Nations
LT : Edwin A Robinson dies 6 April
VA : Malevich dies
VA : Paul Signac dies
M : Alban Berg dies 24 December

1936

PH : Spanish Civil War begins
PH : King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI
M : Steve Reich dies
LT : Marianne Moore: The Pangolin and other verse
LT : Robert Frost: A Further Range
LT : ee cummings: 1/20
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Look Stranger!
M : Edgard Varčse : Density 21.5 for flute solo
M : Ernst Bacon : Twilight
M : Ernst Bacon : Songs of Eternity
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Film score, The Plow that Broke the Plains
M : Olivier Messiaen : Song-cycles, Počmes pour Mi
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Tarantella for Male Chorus and Orchestra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Violin Concerto
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.3
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Peter and the Wolf for narrator and orchestra
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, Romeo and Juliet
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite provençale
M : Mikhail Glinka : Opera, Zhizn'za tsarya ('A Life for the Tzar')
M : George Gershwin : Film music, Shall We Dance
M : Samuel Barber : Symphony No.1
M : Samuel Barber : String Quartet
M : Aaron Copland : El Salón México for orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
PH : Germans occupy Rhineland, Italy annexes Ethiopia, Rome-Berlin Axis proclaimed (Japan will join in 1940)
PH : War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II
PH : Japan and Germany sign anti-Comintern pact; joined by Italy in 1937
PH : Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua withdraw from the League of Nations
M : Ottorino Respighi dies 18 April
LT : A E Housman dies 30 April

1937

PH : Japan invades China
LT : Wallace Stevens: The Man With the Blue Guitar
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: On This Island
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Film score, The River
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Ballet, Filling Station
M : Olivier Messiaen : O sacrum convivum!
M : William Turner Walton : Coronation march, Crown Imperial
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.5
M : Francis Poulenc : Mass in G-Major
M : Francis Poulenc : Song-cycle, Tel jour, telle nuit
M : Carl Orff : Cantata, Carmina Burana
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite for 2 pianos, Scaramouche
M : George Gershwin : Film music, A Damsel in Distress
M : Béla Bartók : Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion (later orchestrated)
M : Benjamin Britten : Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
VA : Picasso's Guernica mural
PH : Hitler repudiates war guilt clause of Versailles Treaty; continues to build German power
PH : Egypt is admitted to the League of Nations,El Salvador and Italy withdraw
VA : David Hockney born
M : George Gershwin dies 11 July
M : Maurice Ravel dies 28 December

1938

VA : Marc Chagall : The Three Candles
VA : Marc Chagall : Madonna of the Village
LT : Broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" causes panic
LT : Robert Graves: Collected Poems
LT : Robert Graves: Count Belisarius
M : Paul Hindemith : Ballet, Nobilissima visione
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Cantique des cantiques
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Cantata, Alexander Nevsky (based on the film score)
M : Francis Poulenc : Concerto for organ, strings, and timpani
M : Carl Orff : Opera, Der Mond ('The Moon')
M : Samuel Barber : Adagio for Strings
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Billy the Kid
M : Béla Bartók : Violin Concerto No.2
M : Igor Stravinsky : Concerto 'Dumbarton Oaks'
PH : Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed
PH : Munich Pact—Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia
DL : In U.S. the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage
PH : Chile, Venezuela withdraw from the League of Nations

1939

LT : Archibald MacLeish: America Was Promises
LT : T S Eliot: The Family Reunion and The Idea of a Christian Society
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Journey to a War
M : Paul Hindemith : Violin Concerto
M : Olivier Messiaen : Les corps glorieux
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Ballet, Pocahontas
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Serenade to Music for voices and orchestra
M : William Turner Walton : Violin Concerto
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra
M : Zoltán Kodály : Variations on a Hungarian Folksong ('The Peacock'), for orchestra
M : Aaron Copland : Film Score, Of Mice and Men
M : Aaron Copland : Quiet City, for orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Mikrokosmos for piano
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.6
M : Benjamin Britten : Song cycle, Les Illuminations
M : Benjamin Britten : Violin concerto
PH : Russo-Finnish War begins
DL : New York World's Fair opens
DL : Gone with the Wind premieres
PH : In U.S., Roosevelt submits $1,319-million defence budget, proclaims U.S. neutrality, and declares limited emergency
ST : Einstein writes FDR about feasibility of atomic bomb
PH : Hungary, Peru, Spain withdraw from the League of Nations, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is expelled from the League
PH : Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with U.S.S.R
LT : William Butler Yeats dies 18 January
PH : World War II begins
VA : Arthur Rackham dies

1940

PH : Rumania withdraws from the League of Nations
VA : Stone Age cave paintings found in France
LT : John Masefield: Basilissa
LT : T S Eliot: Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Another Time
M : John Cage : Bacchanale for prepared piano
M : Paul Hindemith : Cello Concerto
M : Paul Hindemith : Ballet, The Four Temperaments
M : Ernst Bacon : Symphony No.2 (Americana)
M : Anton von Webern : Variations for Orchestra
M : Anton von Webern : Cantatas No.1 and No.2
M : Arthur Honegger : Solo Violin Sonata
M : William Turner Walton : Overture, Scapino
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Piano Quintet
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphonic Dances
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.6
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Moďse
M : Zoltán Kodály : Concerto for orchestra
M : Samuel Barber : Violin Concerto
M : Aaron Copland : Film Score, Our Town
M : Benjamin Britten : Sinfonia da Requiem
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony in C
PH : Russo-Finnish War ends; Finns lose one-tenth of territory in peace treaty
PH : Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (May 10), and France (May 12)
PH : Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister
PH : Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by U.S.S.R.
DL : The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC
PH : June - Canadian National Resources Mobilisation Act
VA : Paul Klee dies

1941

LT : Theodore Roethke: Open House
LT : Marianne Moore: What Are Years?
LT : John Masefield: In the Mill
LT : Robert Graves: The Long Weekend
LT : ee cummings: Fifty Poems
M : Olivier Messiaen : Quatour pour la fin du temps
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Paganini Variations for two pianos
M : Sir George Dyson : Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E flat
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.7, 'Leningrad'
PH : Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia
ST : Manhattan Project (atomic bomb research) begins
PH : Roosevelt enunciates "four freedoms"    GO !

1942

DL : T-shirt introduced
LT : Wallace Stevens: Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction
LT : Robert Frost: A Witness Tree
M : John Cage : Credo in Us
M : Paul Hindemith : Ludus tonalis
M : Lukas Foss : Oratorio, The Prairie
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, The First of the Few
M : Richard Strauss : Horn Concerto No.2
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Ode to Napoleon, for speaker and chamber ensemble
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Piano Concerto
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.7
M : Carl Orff : Opera, Die Kluge ('The Clever Woman')
M : Aaron Copland : A Lincoln Portrait for speaker and orchestra
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Rodeo
M : Leonard Bernstein : Symphony No.1, 'Jeremiah'
M : Benjamin Britten : A Ceremony of Carols
PH : Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington on 1 January     GO !
PH : Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "final solution to the Jewish question", the systematic genocide of Jews known as the Holocaust
ST : Enrico Fermi achieves nuclear chain reaction
DL : More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to "relocation centers", some for the duration of the war
PH : Haiti withdraws from the League of Nations

1943

LT : Robert Graves: Wife to Mr Milton
LT : T S Eliot: Four Quartets
M : John Cage : Tosses as it Is Untroubled for prepared piano
M : Paul Hindemith : Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.5
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto heroíco for piano and orchestra
M : Carl Orff : Cantata, Catulli Carmina ('Songs of Catullus')
M : Leonard Bernstein : Ballet, Fancy Free
M : Béla Bartók : Concerto for Orchestra
M : Benjamin Britten : Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
PH : Mussolini deposed
PH : U.S. President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation
DL : Income tax withholding introduced in U.S.
PH : 14-24 January - Casablanca Conference: Churchill and Roosevelt meet, Stalin declines
M : Sergei Rachmaninov dies 28 March

1944

LT : Marianne Moore: Nevertheless
LT : ee cummings: 1 x 1
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror
M : John Cage : A Book of Music for two prepared pianos
M : John Cage : Perilous Night for prepared piano
M : Elliott Cook Carter : The Harmony of Morning for Female Chorus and Small Orchestra
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Symphony No.1
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, Henry V
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Sonata No.2
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, Cinderella
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.8
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.5
M : Darius Milhaud : Symphony No.2
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Appalachian Spring
M : Leonard Bernstein : Musical, On The Town
PH : Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank
PH : Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and U.S.S.R. propose establishment of United Nations
VA : Edvard Munch dies 23 January
VA : Wassily Kandinsky dies

1945

ST : First electronic computer (ENIAC) built
LT : Robert Frost: A Masque of Reason
M : John Cage : Three Dances for two prepared pianos
M : Pierre Boulez : Douze Notations
M : Paul Hindemith : Piano Concerto
M : Richard Strauss : Metamorphosen, for strings
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.9
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Film Score, Ivan the Terrible
M : Francis Poulenc : L'histoire de Babar for narrator and piano
M : Carl Orff : Die Bernauerin ('Bernauer's Wife'), for voices and orchestra
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite française
M : Samuel Barber : Cello Concerto
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, Peter Grimes
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ebony Concerto
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony in Three Movements
M : Tomaso Albinoni : Adagio in G minor (arranged by Remo Giazotto)
PH : FDR dies on 12 April; Harry Truman becomes president    GO !
PH : Hitler commits suicide 30 April
PH : Germany surrenders 7 May; V-E Day declared 8 May
PH : U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (6 Aug. ) and Nagasaki (9 Aug.)
M : Pietro Mascagni dies 24 August
PH : Japan signs official surrender on 2 September : V-J Day     GO !
M : Anton von Webern dies 15 September
M : Béla Bartók dies 26 September
VA : Newell Convers Wyeth dies
PH : United Nations founded 24 October    GO !
Personae

Terms Defined

Referenced Works