August 1914

August 1, 1914 (Saturday)

• The German Empire declared war on the Russian Empire, following Russia's full military mobilization in support of Serbia. The declaration of war also required Germany to begin mobilization.
• Italy declared itself neutral at the start of the war despite being part of the Triple Alliance, citing it was a defensive nature and Austria-Hungary's aggression did not obligate the country to take part.
• Germany accepted an offer from Great Britain to guarantee France's neutrality. However, Germany's plan to invade Luxembourg and Belgium forced France to mobilize, with the formation of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Armies.
• The New York Stock Exchange closed due to war in Europe, where nearly all stock exchanges were already closed.
• Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau - Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Archibald Berkeley Milne, assembled his force at Malta, and on the following day received instructions to shadow the German battlecruiser. With the German ship already sighted, Milne ordered two British battleships to form a blockade at Gibraltar should the German ships try to escape into the Atlantic Ocean.
• Swiss National Park was established in the Engadin region of Switzerland.
• The Calcutta Scottish volunteer regiment for the British Indian Army was established.
• Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica.
• Eleven players from the Russian Empire, who participated in the interrupted Mannheim chess tournament, were interned in Rastatt, Germany, when war began. Four of the players were freed and allowed to return home via Switzerland in September, while two more were released in subsequent years.
• The rail line linking Zwiesel to Passau, Germany, officially opened, but with little fanfare due to the onset of World War I.
• The Western Sabah Railway Line opened new stations in Sabah, Malaysia including Beaufort, Bongawan, Halogilat, Kawang, Kimanis, Kinarut, Melalap, Membakut, Pangi, Papar, Putatan, Rayoh, Saliwangan, Secretariat, Tanah Merah, Tanjung Aru, and Tenom.
• The Brienz Rothorn Railway in Switzerland was shut down due to the outbreak of World War I and was not reopened until 1931.
• The Canadian Pacific Railway opened the Waterfront Station in Vancouver.
• The first issue of the weekly The Illustrated War News was published.
• The Charlie Chaplin comedy The Property Man became the first film to have a continuity error, in which Charlie Chaplin's character was seen losing a hat while carrying a trunk through a door on one side, only to have it reappear on the other side.
• The Alhambra Theatre opened in El Paso, Texas as both a live theater and movie house. It became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
• Born: Hughie Edwards, Australian air force officer and politician, 23rd Governor of Western Australia, commander of the No. 105 Squadron during World War II, recipient of the Victoria Cross for leading a daylight bombing raid on the port of Bremen, Germany; in Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
• Died: Gid Gardner, 55, American baseball player, played for eight different teams in three different leagues from 1879 to 1888

  August 2, 1914 (Sunday)

• A secret alliance was signed between Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
• German troops occupied Luxembourg in accordance with its Schlieffen Plan.
• At 7:00 pm Germany issued a 12-hour ultimatum to neutral Belgium to allow German passage into France.
• The first military action on the Western Front occurred as a skirmish at Joncherey in northeastern France near the border. A small German cavalry illegally crossing the border clashed with local French militia, resulting in at least two fatalities including Jules-André Peugeot, the first French military casualty of the war, and Albert Mayer, the first German casualty of the war.
• The first German soldiers appeared in Kalisz, Poland, considered to be the oldest city in the country.
• German cruiser SMS Augsburg bombarded Libau. This city was then part of the Russian empire and is now in Latvia.
• A seven-man reconnaissance team for Austria-Hungary infiltrated Russian-held Poland to gather intelligence. All seven later became cavalry for the Polish Army following World War I, known as the Seven Lancers of Belina.
• The Imperial German Army for World War I was organized into nine armies.
• Along with assigning regular corps units established in the 19th century for the armies, the Imperial German Army established the following corps units:
• * Four independent cavalry corps to fight on the Western Front.
• * New reserve infantry units.
• * Fortress units for Strassburg.
• * The Landwehr Corps to serve the Eighth Army.
• The World's Fair in Lyon remained open despite the outbreak of World War I, although the German and Austrian pavilions were closed.
• The Scandinavian Monetary Union between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark ended with the outbreak of World War I.
• The Tōbu Sano rail line was extended in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, with stations Sanoshi and Tajima serving the line.
• Dutch cyclist Cor Blekemolen won the World Track Cycling Championships in Ordrup, Denmark, near Copenhagen.
• The association football club Balmaseda was formed in Balmaseda, Spain.
• Born:
• * Fay Crocker, Uruguayan-American professional golfer, winner of 11 LPGA tournaments; in Montevideo, Uruguay
• * Junji Kinoshita, Japanese playwright, noted for the Japanese translation of the plays by William Shakespeare; in Tokyo, Empire of Japan
• * Beatrice Straight, American film and theater actress, recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Network; in Old Westbury, New York, United States

  August 3, 1914 (Monday)

• At 7:00 am, King Albert of Belgium refused the German request to violate his country's neutrality, resulting in Germany declaring war on Belgium and on France.
• British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey encouraged the House of Commons to support going to war with Germany should Germany invade Belgium. Later that evening, he made the famous observation to a friend while looking out a window in the Foreign Office as gas lamps in London streets were being lit at dusk: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
• The German main force under command of Major Hermann Preusker arrived in Kalisz, Poland. By late evening, gun battles erupted in the city, with Preusker blaming local civilians for shooting at his troops. Twenty-one civilians and six German soldiers were killed.
• The Polish military unit First Cadre Company was established in Kraków, Poland.
• Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty ordered the confiscation of two Ottoman battleships under construction at Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The ships were later commissioned for service to the Royal Navy as and.
• The German light cruiser captured the Russian steamer Ryazan and sent it to Tsingtao, China where it was converted into the auxiliary cruiser.
• The Imperial German Navy leased the cargo-passenger ship Answald for conversion into Germany's first seaplane tender, SMS Answald, designated Flugzeugmutterschiff I.
• English language teacher Henry Hadley was shot in an altercation with a Prussian officer on a train at Gelsenkirchen in Germany, dying two days later shortly after the declaration of war and becoming the first civilian casualty of World War I.
• Born: Joseph M. Breitenbeck, American clergy, 8th Bishop of Grand Rapids, Michigan from 1969 to 1989; in Detroit, United States
• Died: Louis Couturat, 46, French mathematician, philosopher, and linguist, known for the creation of the constructed language Ido

  August 4, 1914 (Tuesday)

• Much of the general populace in Germany celebrated in what became known as the Spirit of 1914 after all political parties in the Reichstag voted unanimously to support Germany's entry into war.
• German invasion of Belgium: Imperial German Army forces under command of generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow entered Belgium at 8:02 am after the 12-hour ultimatum expired, bringing the July Crisis to a climax and causing Britain's entry into World War I.
• British entry into World War I: King George V of the United Kingdom in London declared war on the German Empire at 11:00 p.m. for violating Belgian neutrality and especially to defend France.
• With the United Kingdom formally at war, the Dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand entered World War I as realms of the British Empire.
• The United States declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War I.
• An international conference of religious leaders organized by American industrialist Andrew Carnegie with the goal for world peace went ahead as scheduled at Lake Constance, Germany, despite the fact the host country was already invading Belgium. The conference led to the formation of the Church Peace Union with a focus on improved international relations following the end of World War I. In 1986, it was renamed the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
• The Canadian government passed the War Measures Act, which suspended some civil rights in Canada during a crisis.
• Violence escalated in Kalisz, Poland as occupying German forces started shelling the city and massacring civilians as part of a pogrom to crack down on perceived rebellion. More than 10,000 civilians fled the city the following day.
• Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau - Imperial German Navy cruisers and under command of Rear-Admiral Wilhelm Souchon bombarded the ports of Bône and Philippeville in French Algeria despite orders from Germany to head straight for Constantinople. The two British battlecruisers, Indomitable and Indefatigable, made contact with the German warships and tried to shadow them, but the swifter German boats outran them.
• Zaian War - The Zayanes took advantage of a weaker French military presence in Morocco as troops were relocated back to France to fight in World War I, launching a month-long siege on Khenifra, Morocco.
• Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Britain's newly designated Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow, which contained elements from the older First and Second Fleets.
• The British Royal Naval Air Service took inventory of its air fleet, which had only 26 out of 52 seaplanes that were serviceable for flight, with 46 more on order.
• The German ferry SMS Deutschland was commissioned as a mine layer for the Imperial German Navy for the Baltic Sea.
• The German Papiermark replaced the gold mark as the official currency of Germany for World War I.
• The British government took control of all the nation's railways as a wartime measure.
• The London Mounted Brigade of the British Army was established, including the units A Battery and B Battery.
• The 8th and 9th Cyclist Brigades of the British Army were disbanded.
• Mahatma Gandhi learned that war had been declared just as he reached London. Soon after, he began organizing the Indian Volunteer Corps to provide non-military support for the British Empire.
• The Order of the White Feather was established by retired Royal Navy Admiral Charles Cooper Penrose-Fitzgerald, in Folkestone, England, aiming to persuade women to offer white feathers to men not in uniform to shame them into enlisting.
• German Marxist leaders Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin co-founded with others the Spartacus League, named after the ancient Roman rebel leader, in Berlin.
• The Manchester Babies Hospital opened in Manchester, England.
• The Egyptian association football and sports club Al Ittihad Alexandria Club was formed in Alexandria.
• Died: Hubertine Auclert, 66, French activist, campaigner for women's suffrage in France