istoryworld
Events relating to europe
US entrepreneur Gordon Selfridge opens the first British custom-built department store on London's Oxford Street
Mahatma Gandhi, on a visit to India, publishes a pamphlet entitled Hind Swaraj ("Indian Home Rule")
Louis Blériot is the first to fly across the English Channel, winning the £1000 prize offered by the Daily Mail
Mineral discoveries on the border of Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo give the first hint of the riches of the Copper Belt
Sergei Rachmaninov premieres his Third Piano Concerto during his tour of the USA as a pianist
Thomas Beecham uses his personal fortune from Beecham's Pills to found his first orchestra, the Beecham Symphony Orchestra
Set-designer Leon Bakst begins a long association with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
In response to fears of German espionage a Secret Service Bureau, later to be divided into MI5 and MI6, is set up in Britain
The Conservative majority in the House of Lords rejects Lloyd George's reforming budget, giving the Liberals the chance to call an election on an emotive issue
Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel has its premiere in Moscow
The Union of South Africa becomes an independent dominion within the British empire
British prime minister Herbert Asquith leads the Liberal party to a narrow victory, in an election fought on the issue of the House of Lords
The wife of Harvey Crippen, an American doctor working in north London, vanishes mysteriously
Agnes Baden-Powell establishes the Girl Guides, an organization for girls equivalent to the Scouts
Edward Carson, previously a prominent Conservative politician at Westminster, becomes leader of the Ulster Unionist party
Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is first performed in Gloucester
Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett perform together at the Folies-Bergère
UK prime minister Herbert Asquith plans to reduce the power of the House of Lords, but the upper house as yet is certain to block any such bill
In his poem Cargoes John Masefield compares a 'dirty British coaster' with two romantic boats from the past
Fritz Kreisler is the soloist in the first performance of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto
Constantine Cavafy prints a few more of his poems to add to the fourteen privately printed in 1904
J.M. Synge's last and unfinished play, Deirdre of the Sorrows, is performed in Dublin shortly after his death
Charles Stewart Rolls becomes the first man to fly non-stop across the English Channel and back
Robert Falcon Scott sails south in the Terra Nova on his second voyage towards the South Pole
Schéhérazade, with choreography by Fokine, music by Rimsky-Korsakov and designs by Bakst, is premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris
