5th July 1917: King George’s Fund for Sailors (today Seafarers UK) was founded during the First World War to help seafarers’ families in need.
Continue readingCategory: Anniversaries
Centenary Anniversary: HMS Vanguard explodes, killing more than 800
9th July 1917: The British battleship, HMS Vanguard, blew up in Scapa Flow, killing 843 crewmen.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: Third Battle of Ypres/Passchendaele
31st July 1917: British-led forces began an offensive in Flanders that is still mired in controversy.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: Battle of Caporetto
24th October 1917: The Central Powers defeat the Italian Army, achieving a significant breakthrough after more than two years of fighting on the Isonzo river.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: Battle of Beersheba
31st October 1917: Allied fortunes in the Sinai campaign turned with victory under a new commander, General Sir Edmund Allenby.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: The Balfour Declaration
2nd November 1917: Britain pledged its support for the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, in a letter written by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: The Bolshevik Revolution
7th November 1917: Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, ousting the Provisional Government that had replaced Tsarist rule after Nicholas II’s abdication.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: Third Battle of Ypres/Passchendaele ends
10th November 1917: Canadian troops completed the capture of Passchendaele, ending the Allied offensive in Flanders known also as the Third Battle of Ypres.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: US declares war on Austria-Hungary
7th December 1917: America extended its First World War involvement, declaring war on Austria-Hungary.
Continue readingCentenary Anniversary: Jerusalem captured
9th December 1917: Jerusalem fell to British-led forces on 9 December 1917 with their commander, General Sir Edmund Allenby, formally entering the Holy City on foot two days later.
Continue reading