What Else Happened In 1914?

A year overshadowed by the outbreak of WWI

(Wikipedia)

The year 1914 has been entirely overshadowed by the events that caused the Great War. And for good reason. Few people at the time realized that two bullets from an assassin’s gun in Sarajevo would change the world forever. In fact, in the months leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, few people in Europe realized they were on the cusp of the worst world in history. Author Peter Frankopan describes 1914 as having the potential to be a “vintage year” due to the number of advancements and the amount of prosperity that was taking place.

All of that was ruined in the summer as the world’s greatest empires moved to a war that would kill millions.

But what else happened in 1914? World War I’s outbreak casts such a large and dark shadow that many other events have been swallowed by it. Many interesting things took place in 1914 that have been nearly forgotten.

Transportation

• The first scheduled commercial airline was founded, linking Tampa, Florida, to nearby St. Petersburg.
• The HMS Britannic is launched in a seminal event for ocean liner travel.
• RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in Canada, leaving 1,000 dead. It is still the worst peacetime maritime…