In his Course in General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure provides the basis for the broader development of structuralism

Three members of the Russian imperial family assassinate the influential charlatan Grigory Rasputin

Ottorino Respighi completes his symphonic poem for orchestra Fountains of Rome, first performed in Rome the following year

Hubert Parry sets profoundly evocative verses by William Blake and gives his composition the title Jerusalem

Maxim Gorky publishes My Apprenticeship, the second volume of his autobiography

Tristan Tzara and other artists in Zurich call their new movement Dada (the French for 'hobby-horse', selected at random from a dictionary)

Gustav Holst completes his orchestral suite c, not performed in its entirety until 1920

Robert Graves publishes his first book of poems, Over the Brazier

Claude Monet begins the great cyclorama of water-lilies, Nympheas, that he donates to the French nation

The author H.H. Munro ('Saki') is killed by a sniper's bullet on a battlefield in France

Dogs are trained in Germany, by Dr Gerhard Stalling, to guide soldiers blinded in the war

Lloyd George splits his own Liberal party when he forms a coalition government with the Conservatives

A German thrust against the French begins the year-long battle of Verdun

Feb 26 - a French troopship La Provence is torpedoed by a U-boat off Cape Matapan and sinks with the loss of nearly 1000 lives

Conscription is introduced in Britain for men aged between 18 and 40

A German U-boat sinks the Channel steamer Sussex, with the loss of many civilian lives

The German and British fleets clash off Jutland, in a hard-fought but inconclusive encounter

Aleksei Brusilov leads a surprise Russian offensive against Germany and Austria-Hungary

An Allied advance in the valley of the Somme launches a four-month battle with very heavy casualties

Greece joins the Allies by declaring war on Bulgaria

A brief success in the front line against Austria prompts Italy to declare war on Germany

Romania, hoping for territorial gains from Hungary, joins the war on the side of the Allies

Eleven British tanks go into pioneering but ineffective action at the battle of the Somme

Baron von Richthofen, the 'Red Baron', shoots down the first of many Allied aircraft

The emperor Francis Joseph dies after 66 years on the thrones of Austria and Hungary, to be succeeded by his great-nephew Charles I