1915: Pivotal Year of World War I, Genocide, and Scientific Revolution

1915 marked the transition from mobile warfare to industrialized stalemate, the onset of modern genocide, and breakthroughs that reshaped physics and society.

World War I Escalation

New Fronts and Weapons

• Jan 28: Ottoman Empire enters war—German warships Goeben/Breslau gifted to Ottoman Navy
• Feb 4: Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare—sinking neutral shipping, drawing U.S. toward war
• Feb 19: UK Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) — sweeping wartime powers
• Apr 22: Second Battle of Ypres — first large-scale chlorine gas attack (German)
• May 7: RMS Lusitania sunk by U-20 — 1,198 dead, 128 Americans — shifts U.S. opinion
• May 25: Italy joins Allies — opens Alpine front against Austria-Hungary
• Aug 5: First Zeppelin raid on London — strategic bombing begins
• Sep 25-Oct 14: Battle of Loos — British first use gas; massive casualties for minimal gain

Armenian Genocide Begins

Apr 24: Armenian intellectuals arrested in Constantinople — start of systematic Ottoman campaign. 1915-1923: 600,000-1.5 million Armenians killed via deportation, massacre, starvation. First 20th-century genocide; term "crimes against humanity" coined in 1915 Allied declaration.

Scientific and Cultural Milestones

• Mar 8: First International Women's Day observed (Copenhagen initiative)
• Jul 5: Einstein presents General Relativity to Prussian Academy — revolutionizes gravity, space, time
• Oct 15: Milunka Savić (Serbian) — most decorated female combatant in history
• Dec 9: KKK refounded at Stone Mountain, GA — modern white supremacist movement reborn

Other Notable Events

• Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens (San Francisco) — celebrates canal completion
• First transcontinental phone call (New York-San Francisco)
• Typhoid Mary permanently quarantined
• D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation premieres — cinematic innovation, racist propaganda

1915 forged the modern world: total war, industrialized atrocity, relativistic physics, and resurgent hatreds—all legacies we navigate today.