The Russian painter and sculptor Vladimir Tatlin develops an abstract style to which he gives the name Constructivism

Giacomo della Chiesa is elected pope and takes the name Benedict XV

A Home Rule Act is finally passed for Ireland, with its implementation postponed until after the war

Jacob Epstein completes his sculpture The Rock Drill, the outstanding work of the Vorticist movement

Tsar Nicholas II changes the name of his capital city to Petrograd, because St Petersburg sounds German

Benito Mussolini, advocating Italian entry into the war on the side of the Allies, is expelled from the Socialist party

Stanley Spencer joins the Royal Army Medical Corps, with whom he finds a wealth of subject matter

Benito Mussolini founds a newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia' ('The People of Italy'), to argue the case for Italy joining the war

Robert Tressell's Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is published posthumously in an abbreviated version

Ivor Novello has a great success with his topical song Keep the Home Fires Burning (with lyrics by Lena Ford)

Austria-Hungary plans to attack Serbia, in response to the assassination of the archduke, and seeks a guarantee of German support

Germany promises to support Austria-Hungary if a strike against Serbia provokes war with Russia

Erskine Childers sails his own yacht from Germany to Ireland with 900 rifles and 14,000 rounds of ammunition for the Irish Volunteers

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, following this with bombardment of the Serbian capital, Belgrade

The Austrian attack on Serbia causes Russia to mobilize her army

In response to the tsar's mobilization of his troops, Germany declares war on Russia

Germany and the Ottoman empire sign a secret treaty of alliance

German troops move into Luxembourg and demand passage through neutral Belgium

With her troops already poised to attack, Germany declares war on France

Italy declares neutrality amid the rush of other major European powers into war

German troops invade Belgium, violating her guaranteed neutrality

Bound by treaty to defend Belgium, Britain declares war on Germany

The new republican government of Portugal offers Britain support in the war

Spain declares a policy of neutrality in the rapidly developing European war

A small British Expeditionary Force is rushed across the Channel to Boulogne