Benito Mussolini, an active revolutionary Socialist, becomes editor of the party newspaper in Italy

The Social Democrats become the largest group in Germany's Reichstag

Electoral reform is introduced in Argentina, with universal male suffrage and a secret ballot

William Howard Taft defeats Theodore Roosevelt at the Republican convention to win the nomination

Theodore Roosevelt's followers form a rival party to the Republicans, soon to be known as the Bull Moose party

The South African National Native Congress (subsequently the ANC, African National Congress) is set up in Cape Province

Half a million Unionist men and women in Belfast commit themselves to civil disobedience if Home Rule government is established in Ireland

Unionists in Ulster aim to raise a Volunteer Force of 100,000 men, and begin drilling with dummy wooden rifles

A suffragette, Emily Davison, dies after throwing herself under the king's horse in the Derby at Epsom

The Irish National Volunteers are formed in Dublin, in response to the Protestant equivalent in Ulster

J.B.M. Hertzog founds the National Party in South Africa to represent Afrikaner interests

A suffragette slashes the Rokeby Venus by Velázquez in London's National Gallery

British officers stationed at the Curragh in Dublin say they would resign if ordered to quell Protestant resistance in Ulster

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

Mahatma Gandhi returns to India after more than twenty years in South Africa

The occupation of the General Post Office in Dublin marks the beginning of the Easter Rising

Eamon de Valera comes to prominence as one of the republican leaders in the Easter Rising

The Jones Act gives Puerto Ricans US citizenship and a popularly elected Senate and House of Representatives

The Petrograd Soviet demands drastic reforms in return for supporting the proposed Provisional Government in Russia

Russian opinion polarizes, with support growing for left-wing Bolsheviks and right-wing Kadets

The Bolsheviks attempt to stifle opposition in the run-up to the election for Russia's new Constituent Assembly

The Cheka (origin of the KGB) is established to suppress political dissent in Russia

British women are at last given the right to vote, but only if aged 30 or over

Wafd, a national party, is formed in Cairo with the purpose of ending Egypt's enforced link with Britain

Countess Markiewicz, an Irish republican, is elected a member of Britain's House of Commons but refuses to take her seat