1910 Portuguese revolution brings about the end of the monarchy
1912 (till 1913) Balkan Wars
1913 Coup d'etat of Young Turks in Turkey
1914 Assassination of heir to Austrian throne leads to outbreak of World War I
1914 Battle of the Marne
1914 Battle of Tannenberg between the Germans and the Russians; German victory

1915 Dardanelles Campaign; British try to force passage to Constantinople
1917 Russian Revolution: Liberal revolution (February); Bolshevik revolution (October)*
1918 Armistice ends World War I
1919 Ernest Rutherford splits atom for first time

1921 Lenin introduces New Economic Policy in Russia
1922 Irish Free State founded
1922 Mussolini becomes Italian prime minister; dictator from 1925
1923 (till 1930) Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain
1924 Death of Vladimir Lenin

1925 Locarno Agreements between major European powers aim to maintain peace and stability
1928 French begin to build fortification, the Maginot Line, on German border
1928 Stalin launches five-year plan to expand Soviet industry

1931 Republic declared in Spain after King Alfonso XIII abdicates
1933 Nazi leader Hitler appointed German chancellor; Nazis begin organized persecution of Jews
1934 Mussolini meets Hitler

1936 Germany invades Rhineland region on French-Belgian border
1936 (till 1939) Civil War in Spain
1937 Eamonn de Valera becomes prime minister of Ireland (Eire)
1938 Hitler compels Austria to form union with Germany (the "Anschluss")
1938 Munich crisis: France and Britain agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia
1939 Stalin and Hitler agree to divide Poland between them
1939 Germany invades Poland; this leads to World War II

1940 France surrenders to Germany
1940 (till 1945) Holocaust - 6 million Jews are murdered in German extermination camps in Germany and Poland
1943 German Sixth Army fails to capture Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) in Soviet Union, and surrenders
1944 Allies invade France and begin to reconquer Europe

1948 (till 1949) The Berlin airlift