1915

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    1 January 1915 The German submarine U-24 sinks the battleship HMS Formidable in the English Channel.  547 of her 780-man crew are lost.

    German pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer offers aspirin in tablet form for the first time.

    The 2/4 Field Ambulance of the Royal Army Medical Corps, containing orderly Ralph Vaughan Williams (42), is relocated from Chelsea to Dorking

    The first issue of The Musical Quarterly is published in New York.

    Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart op.132 for orchestra by Max Reger (41) is performed for the first time, in Wiesbaden the composer conducting.

    2 January 1915 The German garrison at Dschang, Kamerun, 160 km north of Douala, surrenders to the British.  The victors destroy the fort and thus end this expedition into the backcountry of Kamerun.

    4 January 1915 Germans attack Edea, Kamerun but they are repulsed by the French garrison.

    Ferruccio Busoni (48) shuts his Berlin apartment and takes his entire family on a concert tour of North America.  He will not return for almost six years.

    The London Stock Exchange reopens.

    5 January 1915 Carranza supporters defeat a Zapatista force and take Puebla.

    8 January 1915 French forces attack Germans near Soissons.

    Turkish and Kurdish paramilitaries attack the Armenian and Assyrian communities of northwestern Persia.  18,000 civilians flee the area.  The attackers will remain in the vicinity of Tabriz and Urmia until 29 January.

    Eine vaterländische Ouvertüre op.140 for orchestra by Max Reger (41) is performed for the first time, in Wiesbaden, the composer conducting.

    9 January 1915 Germans counterattack at Soissons, shelling the cathedral.

    Mohandas K. Gandhi arrives in Bombay by ship from England.

    12 January 1915 British troops land on Mafia I., 35 km off the coast of German East Africa.  They occupy the island and capture its German and colonial garrison of 52.

    A German-colonial attack on the Indian garrison at Jassin, German East Africa, fails.

    A measure to extend voting rights to women is defeated by the US House of Representatives.

    13 January 1915 An earthquake centered around Avezzano, Italy causes 29,980 deaths.

    The refitted passenger ship HMS Viknor strikes a mine off Tory Island, Donegal and sinks with all 295 aboard.

    14 January 1915 German forces launch a final assault on the French lines on the north bank of the River Aisne near Soissons.  They inflict 12,000 casualties and take 5,200 prisoners.

    The Seven Popular Spanish Songs of Manuel de Falla (38) are performed for the first time, in Teatro Ateneo, Madrid the composer at the piano.

    17 January 1915 Russian troops defeat the Turkish offensive at Sarikamis, 50 km southwest of Kars.

    Pancho Villa names his puppet, Roque González Garza, as President of Mexico.

    18 January 1915 The Japanese minister in Peking hands an ultimatum to President Yüan Shih-k'ai (Yuan Shikai) of China listing 21 demands for political and economic concessions.

    The Indian defenders of Jassin, German East Africa, once again repel a German assault.

    Two German Zeppelins bomb England in a night raid.  L-3 drops bombs on Yarmouth, killing two people and injuring 13.  L-4 bombs King’s Lynn, killing two people.

    After a two-day battle, Carranza supporters defeat followers of Pancho Villa and occupy Guadalajara.  An overloaded train carrying 900 troops and officials of the Carranza government, and their families, goes out of control down a steep incline between Colima and Guadalajara.  Only 300 survive.

    19 January 1915 French physicist George Claude receives a US patent for a neon advertising sign.

    23 January 1915 Ferruccio Busoni (48) and his family reach New York aboard the SS Rotterdam out of Naples.

    24 January 1915 The Royal Navy intercepts a German squadron off Dogger Bank, gives chase and makes battle.  SMS Blücher is sunk with the loss of about 750-800 men.  The fight is a British victory costing about 1,000 lives.

    Sinfonia drammatica for orchestra by Ottorino Respighi (35) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Augusteo, Rome.

    25 January 1915 Germany introduces bread cards.

    Alexander Graham Bell makes the first transcontinental telephone call, from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

    Two Songs and La lune blanche, both for solo voice and orchestra by Frederick Delius (52) to words of Verlaine, are performed for the first time, at Grafton Galleries.

    To Thee! America for chorus and orchestra by Henry F. Gilbert (46) to words of Manly is performed for the first time, in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

    Madame Sans-Gêne, an opera by Umberto Giordano (47) to words of Simoni after Sardou and Moreau, is performed for the first time, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

    26 January 1915 Russian troops defeat the Turks at Sufian, opening the way to Tabriz.

    A patent for a submarine is granted to John Cage, Sr., father of the composer (2).

    27 January 1915 Flammes sombres op.73/2 for piano by Alyeksandr Skryabin (43) is performed for the first time, in Moscow by the composer.

    28 January 1915 Joaquim Pereira Pimenta de Castro replaces Vitor Hugo de Azevedo Coutinho as Prime Minister of Portugal.

    A German cruiser sinks the US merchant ship William P. Frye off Brazil.  It is the first American ship lost in the Great War.

    Maurice Ravel’s (39) Trio for piano, violin and cello is performed for the first time, at the Salle Gaveau, Paris Alfredo Casella (31) at the keyboard.

    Le Jardin clos op.106, a song cycle by Gabriel Fauré (69) to words of van Lerberghe, is performed for the first time, in Paris.  The composition of this work was interrupted when the composer, sojourning in Germany on 3 August 1914, suddenly found himself in enemy territory.

    The army supporting Venustiano Carranza enters Mexico City.

    The Burnett immigration bill, an act of Congress designed to severely restrict immigration, is vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson.

    An Act of the US Congress combines the Revenue Cutter Service and the US Lifesaving Service to create the United States Coast Guard.

    29 January 1915 Several works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (27) are performed for the first time, in the Teatro Dona Eugênia, Nova Friburgo, 100 km northeast of Rio de Janeiro.  They include a Trio for flute, cello, and piano, Pequena Sonata op.20 for cello and piano, Farrapos op.47, Danças caractaristicas africanas no.1 for piano, Ibericárabe op.40 for piano, and Capriccio op.49 for violin or cello and piano.  The performers are the composer as cellist, his wife Lucília, piano and Agenor Bens, flute.

    30 January 1915 The Ugly Duckling op.18 for solo voice and piano by Sergey Prokofiev (23) to words of Anderson, is performed for the first time, in Petrograd.

    Kurt Schindler of G. Schirmer tells Charles T. Griffes (30) that he is writing “too dreamily and subjectively.”

    31 January 1915 In an attack to cover the movement of troops, the Germans fire 18,000 tear gas shells at the Russians at Bolimow, west of Warsaw.  However, freezing temperatures neutralize the gas and winds disperse it.  No harmful effect is felt.  This is the first use of gas in the war.

    The British admiralty authorizes its captains to raise a neutral (most likely US) flag if they are in danger.

    1 February 1915 A Turkish attack on Kantara (El Qantara) on the Suez Canal is repulsed by British ship fire.

    German troops attack at Bolimov and advance ten km before a Russian counterattack restores the line to its original position.  The action costs 60,000 casualties.

    The anti-Carranza government of Zapata and Villa, having abandoned Mexico City, begins operations in Cuernavaca.

    3 February 1915 Turkish troops attack El Firdan and cross the Suez Canal on pontoons at Ismailia.  They are beaten back by Indian and Gurkha troops along with French ships.

    Three of the conspirators in the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are hanged by Austrian authorities.

    4 February 1915 Germany publicly declares a war zone around the British Isles.  They announce that all merchant ships may be sunk within that area without warning.

    6 February 1915 La candidata, an operetta by Ruggero Leoncavallo (57) to words of Forzano, is performed for the first time, at the Teatro Nazionale, Rome and the Politeama Chiarella, Turin.

    7 February 1915 Germans attack the Russians in what has come to be known as the Winter Battle of Masuria, during a driving blizzard.  They succeed in capturing Johannisburg (Pisz, Poland) but in the south, the Russians doggedly defend the Carpathian passes.

    Quartet for piano and strings op.133 by Max Reger (41) is performed for the first time, in Leipzig the composer conducting.

    8 February 1915 Oración de las Madres que Tienen a Sus Hijos en Brazos, for solo voice and piano by Manuel de Falla (38) to words of Martínez Sierra, is performed for the first time, in the Hotel Ritz, Madrid, the composer at the piano.  It is part of the first concert of the Sociedad Nacional de Música, formed to promote Spanish music.  The work is the first of Falla’s public antiwar statements.

    Birth of a Nation, a film by DW Griffith, opens at Clure’s Auditorium in Los Angeles.

    9 February 1915 French forces capture Saint-Rémy.

    10 February 1915 US President Wilson sends simultaneous protests to Great Britain and Germany, Germany for its 4 February declaration of a war zone, and Britain for its 31 January authorization for misuse of the American flag.

    14 February 1915 Paris, a patriotic ode for tenor and orchestra by César Franck (†24) is performed for the first time, in Paris.

    15 February 1915 Russian forces begin a week-long furious resistance against advancing Germans in the Augustów Forest.

    Germans take Plozk on the Vistula.

    French forces attack the Germans west of Verdun and continue the attack until 16 March.  While the French advance is measured in meters, their dead are measured in the thousands.

    17 February 1915 German forces surround 70,000 Russians in the Augustów Forest.

    French forces make slight gains near Verdun, in Artois, Champagne, and Vosges.  Germans counterattack in Champagne at night.

    The two Zeppelins that raided Norfolk on 18 January are forced down by high winds in Denmark.  Four crew members are killed and the rest are interned by the Danish.

    19 February 1915 09:51  The attack on Gallipoli begins as a combined British and French task force attempts to force the Dardanelles.

    Jules Ecorcheville, the 42-year-old French musicologist and editor of the music catalogue of the Bibliothèque National de Paris, is killed in action in Champagne.

    20 February 1915 The Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in San Francisco.

    22 February 1915 After a week of heroic resistance in the Augustów Forest between Sopotakin (Sopotskin, Belarus) and Seini (Sejny, Poland), the main body of the Russian army escapes the Germans.  The Winter Battle of Masuria ends with the capture of 100,000 Russians by the Germans.

    24 February 1915 The Violin Sonata no.1 of Frederick Delius (53) is performed for the first time, in Houldsworth Hall, Manchester.

    25 February 1915 After a five-day hiatus because of bad weather, British ships resume their bombardment of the Dardanelles forts.  Turkish and German forward artillery batteries abandon their positions.

    British ships begin a blockade of German East Africa (Tanzania).

    By this date, all Armenians in the Ottoman army have been removed and sent into labor battalions.

    26 February 1915 British sailors and marines land at Sedd el Bahr to destroy Turkish guns and searchlights.

    27 February 1915 Turks attack many Armenian villages in Sivas province, murdering, raping, and looting.

    28 February 1915 Anton von Webern (31), having been inducted this month into the Austro-Hungarian army, is stationed in Görz (Gorizia), 43 km north of Trieste.

    1 March 1915 Russian forces take Dilman (Salmas), 150 km west of Tabriz.

    The Turkish government suspends the Parliament in order to facilitate the extermination of Armenians.

    Great Britain announces a total blockade of merchant shipping to and from Germany.

    3 March 1915 Germans use liquid fire for the first time, at Vosges.

    Sergey Prokofiev (23) arrives in Rome for his first foreign performing engagement, expenses paid by Sergey Diaghilev.

    4 March 1915 In spite of a naval bombardment, Turkish defenders drive off British landing parties and replace their artillery at Kumkale and Cape Helles on opposite shores of the entrance to the Dardenelles.

    The Portuguese government closes the Parliament buildings to forestall protests against them.  Deputies meet elsewhere and declare their assembly legal.

    5 March 1915 Anton von Webern (31) writes to the director of Universal-Edition, urging him to help effect Arnold Schoenberg’s (40) release from military duty.

    6 March 1915 King Konstantinos of Greece dismisses Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos because of his decision to allow the Allies to land at Thessaloniki and his intention to send Greek troops to Gallipoli.

    Russian forces drive Germans from the Augustów Forest.

    7 March 1915 Sergey Prokofiev (23) performs abroad for the first time, his Second Piano Concerto, in Rome.  Audience reaction is strongly divided.

    8 March 1915 Sergey Diaghilev, Sergey Prokofiev (23), and Leonide Massine travel from Rome to Naples to talk to the Futurists about a ballet.  Diaghilev is impressed with Prokofiev’s talent, but not the ballet he brought him, Ala i Lolli.

    10 March 1915 Demetrios Gounaris replaces Eleftherios Kiriakou Venizelos as Prime Minister of Greece.

    British and Canadian forces attack the Germans at Neuve-Chapelle, advancing one kilometer and capturing the town at the cost of 9,000 lives.

    Maurice Ravel (40) is pronounced fit for duty.  He will be assigned to the French army.

    Variations and Fugue on a Theme of G.P. Telemann op.134 for piano by Max Reger (41) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.

    11 March 1915 At the invitation of Ferruccio Busoni (48), Charles T. Griffes (30) visits him in New York.  They met once before in Berlin in 1907.  Griffes plays through some of his compositions and Busoni is impressed.  He promises to recommend him to the conductor Frederick Stock in Chicago and then writes a recommendation to the publisher G. Schirmer.

    12 March 1915 Charles T. Griffes (30) signs a contract with G. Schirmer to publish his piano pieces op.5 & 6.

    Britain and France announce their agreement that Russia may annex Constantinople and the Dardanelles.

    Turkish paramilitary attacks begin against several Armenian areas in the Alashkert district, with murdering, raping, and looting.  Mass arrests and deportations of Armenians begin in Dortyol.

    German forces counterattack at Neuve-Chapelle, but the British hold.  The battle for Neuve-Chapelle has cost 26,000 casualties.  The line now stabilizes in the sector.

    13 March 1915 The armed merchant cruiser HMS India is struck by a torpedo from a German submarine off Helligvær, Norway.  She sinks and takes with her 160 of her crew.  141 are rescued.

    14 March 1915 Three British ships trap SMS Dresden while it is anchored at Juan Fernandez Island.  The crew blows up the ship and accepts internment in Chile.

    Vers la flamme op.72, a piano work by Alyeksandr Skryabin (43), is performed for the first time, in Kharkov, the composer at the keyboard.

    Austrian authorities inspect the archives of the Russian Circle in Brünn (Brno) while its chairman, Leos Janácek (60) watches.  The circle was banned 9 March.

    15 March 1915 Paraphrases of the National Anthems of the Allied Nations, by Alyeksandr Glazunov (49) is performed for the first time, at one of the “patriotic concerts” at Petrograd Conservatory, directed by the composer.

    16 March 1915 Absinthe is outlawed in France.

    18 March 1915 The British-French task force almost makes its way through the Dardanelles, but is at the last turned back by furious fire from defending Turks.  Three battleships are sunk, three damaged by mines.  Hundreds of allied sailors are killed.  The French battleship Bouvet strikes a mine, capsizes and sinks very quickly, taking 660 of the 710 aboard.  The British battleship HMS Irresistible also hits a mine with the loss of 150 men.  The forts at Chanak and Kilid Bahr are destroyed.

    Turkish authorities arrest and kill all remaining Armenian leaders in Zeitun (Süleymanli).

    The Orquesta Filarmónica de Madrid gives its inaugural performance.

    19 March 1915 Many ethnic Greeks drafted into the Turkish army are executed by Turks near Smyrna.

    After serving two months solitary confinement in Nuremberg for being an unregistered enemy alien, Ernest MacMillan (21) is taken to an internment camp at Ruhleben.

    The Piano Sonata no.6 by Alyeksandr Skryabin (40) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.

    The orchestral suite Adventures of a Perambulator by John Alden Carpenter (39) is performed for the first time, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago.  It is instantly popular.

    20 March 1915 South African forces invade South West Africa.

    Prométhée, le poème du feu, for orchestra, piano, organ, chorus, and light machine by Alyeksandr Skryabin (39), is performed for the first time with the light machine, in Carnegie Hall, New York.  The composer is at the piano.  See 15 March 1911.

    21 March 1915 Two German Zeppelins drop high explosives and incendiary bombs on Paris.  One person is killed, eight injured.

    22 March 1915 Russian forces capture Premissel (Przemysl, Poland) 90 km west of Lemberg (Lviv), taking 120,000 German prisoners.

    Klage op.25/2 for chorus and orchestra by Hans Pfitzner (45) to words of Eichendorff is performed for the first time, in Munich.

    Airs populaires flamands, an organ work by Nadia Boulanger (27), is performed for the first time, in Paris by the composer.

    23 March 1915 All Night Vigil op.37, for chorus by Sergey Rakhmaninov (41), is performed for the first time, in the Great Hall of the Nobility, Moscow.

    24 March 1915 Idyll:  The Maiden with the Daffodil for piano by Arnold Bax (31) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.

    28 March 1915 Edgard Varèse (31) is ordered to appear for induction.

    29 March 1915 Edgard Varèse (31) is inducted into the French army.  He will serve as a bicycle messenger.  He will be discharged in June, after contracting pneumonia.

    31 March 1915 The mass deportation of Armenians from Zeitun (Süleymanli) begins.

    1 April 1915 French pilot Lt. Roland Garros shoots down a German Albatros with a newly outfitted forward-firing machine gun.  The era of the dogfight begins.

    2 April 1915 Both regular and paramilitary units carry out attacks against Armenian villages in Sivas province.

    Guirlandes op.73/1 for piano by Alyeksandr Skryabin (43) is performed for the first time, at Petrograd Conservatory by the composer.

    Sergey Diaghilev, Sergey Prokofiev (23), and Leonide Massine arrive in Milan where the meet Igor Stravinsky (32).  Prokofiev’s former negative opinion of Stravinsky’s music has changed over the last two years.  The two get along and Stravinsky invites Prokofiev to Switzerland.

    3 April 1915 Russia grants autonomy to Polish urban areas.

    4 April 1915 Russian forces reach Sztropko (Stropkov, Slovakia), 25 km inside Austria-Hungary.

    A Nunc dimittis for chorus by Gustav Holst (40) is performed for the first time, in Westminster Cathedral, London.

    5 April 1915 Selections from Canciones amatorias for voice and piano by Enrique Granados (47) are performed for the first time, in Barcelona.

    The first of the three Myths op.30 for violin and piano, La Source d’Arethuse, by Karol Szymanowski (32) is performed publicly for the first time, at the Kupicki Club, Kiev.

    6 April 1915 French forces attack the Germans east of Verdun (Battle of the Woëvre) with negligible results.  This attack will disintegrate around 24 April.

    Supporters of Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa engage in a massive battle at Celaya, Mexico.

    7 April 1915 Incidental music to Martínez Sierra’s play Amanecer by Manuel de Falla (38) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Lara, Madrid.

    After two days of fighting, Carrancistas defeat Villistas at Celaya, Mexico.  Over 2,000 people are killed in the battle.

    8 April 1915 Turks from Bosnia are resettled in the formerly Armenian districts of Zeitun (Süleymanli).  The Armenian monastery of Zeitun (Süleymanli) is destroyed by the Turks.

    Sergey Diaghilev commissions and new ballet to be called Chout from Sergey Prokofiev (23).

    Evangelio op.12, a symphonic poem by Joaquín Turina (32), is performed for the first time, in Teatro Real, Madrid.

    9 April 1915 Giacomo Puccini (56) begins the finishing touches of La Rondine, fulfilling a commission from the Karlstheater, Vienna.  In six weeks Italy will declare war on Austria-Hungary.

    11 April 1915 The Tramp, a film starring Charlie Chaplin, is released in the United States.

    12 April 1915 A Turkish attack is repulsed by the British and Indians at Shaiba (Az Zubayr), southwest of Basra.

    13 April 1915 Serenata invano, for clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello, and bass by Carl Nielsen (49), is performed for the first time, in Copenhagen, along with the premiere of Twenty Danish Songs for voice and piano.

    Morven and the Grail op.79, an oratorio by Horatio Parker (51) to words of Hooker, is performed for the first time, in Boston for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Handel and Haydn Society.

    With even larger numbers than before, Pancho Villa resumes the fight at Celaya, Mexico.

    15 April 1915 In Petrograd, Alyksandr Skryabin (43) plays the final recital of his life.

    While at an internment camp at Ruhleben, Germany, Ernest MacMillan (24) completes the oratorio England:  an Ode and sends it to his examiners for the DMus at Oxford.  See 13 June 1918.

    El amor brujo, a ballet by Manuel de Falla (38) to a story by Martínez Sierra, is performed for the first time, at the Teatro Lara, Madrid.  It receives a mixed response.  See 28 March 1916.

    After three days of fighting, followers of Pancho Villa are defeated by Carrancistas once again at Celaya, Mexico.  Over 4,000 people are dead.

    16 April 1915 Sergey Prokofiev (23) arrives home in St. Petersburg from Italy having traveled through Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania to Kiev.

    19 April 1915 Turkish soldiers along with Kurds attack Armenians in Van and Bitlis killing all they can find.  Some estimates of the dead are as high as 50,000.

    20 April 1915 Armed Turks attack Armenians in Van but they are repulsed with 18 killed.  Outside the city, all Armenian owned property is destroyed and the Turks lay siege.  Large-scale arrests of Armenians begin in Diyarbakir.

    In Moscow, with a rising temperature due apparently to the growing pimple on his upper lip, Alexander Skryabin (43) takes to his bed, cancelling a Moscow concert set for 24 April.

    British and French troops capture Mandera, Kamerun.

    22 April 1915 17:00  The Germans use poison gas for the first time in the war at Ypres.  They send a cloud of chlorine towards the 45th French Reserve division who promptly run in horror to the rear.  The gap in the allied line is plugged by the First Canadian Division after the Germans gain five km south towards the town.

    23 April 1915 Having identified the gas as chlorine, Allied commanders tell their troops at Ypres to hold wet cloths over their mouths, as chlorine is water-soluble.  16:15  The British launch a counterattack but it stalls under withering German machine gun fire.

    27-year-old poet Sub. Lt. Rupert Brooke dies of blood poisoning on a French hospital ship off the island of Skyros.

    Three Little Songs “Recollections of my Childhood” for voice and piano by Igor Stravinsky (32) to traditional Russian words are performed for the first time, at Petrograd Conservatory.

    24 April 1915 German troops use gas again, driving back the Canadians past St. Julien towards Ypres.  But French, Belgian and Canadian troops regain most of the losses.

    The Turkish Interior Ministry orders the arrest of any Armenian suspected of nationalist sentiments.  Ottoman authorities arrest 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople and transport them to a prison in European Turkey.  Thousands will be arrested throughout the country over the next few weeks.

    Camille Saint-Saëns (79) departs Bordeaux for New York.

    25 April 1915 Dawn.  The invasion of the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) peninsula begins.  Some of the 200 Allied ships sailing from Lemnos enter the Gulf of Saros and open fire on Bulair.  French troops land at Kum Kale and capture the Turkish fortress there.  Anzac forces reach shore north of their intended landing point at Gaba Tepe.  Australians scale the Sari Bair cliffs and put the Turks there to flight.  However the Turks rally and halt the Australians’ advance.  British troops attempt to land at Sedd el Bahr on Cape Helles, but withering Turkish fire allows only about 200 to reach shore.  British land successfully at Tekke Burnu and take the high ground at Eski Hissarik Point.  British also land unopposed six km north at Y beach.

    German forces recapture Lizerne, north of Ypres.

    A prominent Moscow surgeon makes two incisions into Alyeksandr Skryabin’s (43) swollen lip.  A blood test reveals the presence of streptococcus and statilococcus.

    The Armenians arrested yesterday are sent into the interior of Turkey.

    26 April 1915 Alyeksandr Skryabin’s (43) swelling has been reduced remarkably during the night and he feels well enough to desire to compose.  But pleurisy due to blood poisoning has already set in.  A lung specialist is summoned.

    The British force at Y beach on Gallipoli evacuates after suffering 700 casualties last night.

    German troops attack the South African-Rhodesian invasion force at Trekkopjes, South West Africa (Namibia), but are repulsed.  Meanwhile, South Africans defeat Germans at Gibeon, South West Africa, 90 km south of Windhoek.

    An Italian delegation signs the secret Treaty of London in that city.  They agree to declare war on the Central Powers within one month in exchange for the South Tyrol, Gorizia, Istria, and most of Dalmatia.

    The Armenian intellectuals arrested on 24 April are placed in two prisons near Ankara.  Over the next few months, most of them will be killed.

    String Quartet in C op.2 by Paul Hindemith (19) is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt-am-Main.  The composer plays the first violin part.

    27 April 1915 08:05  Alyeksandr Nikolayevich Skryabin dies of septicaemia, in Petrograd, aged 43 years, three months, and 21 days.

    Austrian submarine U-5 torpedoes the French cruiser Leon Gambetta off Santa Maria di Leuca, Italy. She goes down in ten minutes, taking 684 men with her.  137 of her crew are rescued.

    Allied ships continue to try to land more Anzac troops and supplies at Gallipoli under intense Turkish fire.  No headway can be made out of the beachhead.

    Two works for male chorus by Jean Sibelius (49) are performed for the first time, in Helsinki:  Mr. Lager and the Fair One op.84/1 to words of Fröding, and On the Mountain to words of Gripenberg.

    28 April 1915 British forces fight their way out of Sedd el Bahr but manage to advance only five km.

    Arthur Honegger (23) writes from Paris to his parents in Zürich.  He tells them that he will not be going to Germany to continue his studies.  He has decided that, after his compulsory military service in Switzerland, he will return to Paris and become a composer.

    The fourth of the Eight Songs op.6 by Arnold Schoenberg (40) is performed for the first time, in the Schubertsaal, Vienna.  See 26 January 1907.

    29 April 1915 Funeral services for Alyeksandr Skryabin are held in the Church of the Miracle Worker in Moscow.  Because of the great desire of the public to attend, tickets are issued.  Among those attending are his sometime rival, Sergey Rakhmaninov (42).  Rakhmaninov will play a number of recitals of Skryabin’s music for the benefit of his widow.

    German Zeppelin LZ-38 bombs Ispwich and Bury Saint Edmunds.

    In a Vodka Shop and The Princess’ Rose Garden for piano by Arnold Bax (31) are performed for the first time, in Grafton Galleries.  See 25 July 1919.

    1 May 1915 Late morning.  French troops, with British artillery support, attack the Germans at Ypres.  It fails miserably with heavy losses.  Allied troops begin a withdrawal to new defensive positions east of Ypres.

    22:00  Turkish troops attack the invaders at Cape Helles but make no headway.

    A German Zeppelin bombs London.

    Meeting in the Hague, Netherlands, 1,200 delegates to the International Congress of Women adopt resolutions calling for women’s suffrage and peaceful negotiations of international disputes.  The delegates represent twelve countries including many of the warring powers and the United States.

    The Moscow journal Musika informs it readers that Igor Stravinsky (32), currently in Switzerland, is working on a new project which is neither an opera nor a ballet, called Svadebka (Les Noces).

    2 May 1915 06:00  Germans and Austro-Hungarians begin a massive offensive against the Russians.  The bombardment begins all along the line stretching from the Carpathian Mountains to the Vistula River.  German troops capture Gorlice, 100 km southeast of Krakow.

    Two works for cello and piano by Enrique Granados (47) are performed for the first time, in Barcelona:  Madrigal and Trova.

    3 May 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian forces destroy three Russian divisions between Gorlice and Tarnow (Tarnau) leaving a 20 km gap in the line.   They advance 13 km.

    British troops capture Ndupe, Kamerun.

    The Turkish authorities begin mass deportations of Armenians from Erzerum province.

    After witnessing the burial of his friend who died at Ypres, Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae composes a poem called In Flanders Fields.

    4 May 1915 A British and French assault on the Turkish defenders of the heights near Krithia fails.

    Prime Minister Salandra of Italy sends private messages to Germany and Austria denouncing the Triple Alliance.

    British troops capture Wum Biagas, Kamerun.

    5 May 1915 South African troops capture Karibib, South West Africa (Namibia), 140 km northwest of Windhoek, without opposition.

    Gabriele d’Annunzio arrives back in Italy and in Genoa begins a series of nationalistic speeches in order to whip up support for war against Germany and Austria.  He is being secretly funded by Prime Minister Salandra.

    6 May 1915 Austro-Hungarian forces take Tarnow, 75 km east of Krakow, capturing 30,000 Russian prisoners in the process.

    George Perle is born in Bayonne, New Jersey.

    7 May 1915 14:10  A German submarine sinks the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania off Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland.  1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard are lost.

    Upon hearing the news of the Lusitania, a group of commuters at the Hanover Square Station of New York’s Third Avenue Elevated Railroad, prompted by a nearby hurdy-gurdy, begins spontaneously to sing In the Sweet Bye and Bye.  One of the commuters is an insurance executive named Charles Ives (40) who will commemorate the event in his Second Orchestral Set.

    At the invitation of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Harvard student Roger Sessions (18) plays some Richard Strauss (50) on the piano at a musical evening in her Renaissance palazzo in Boston.  Also in attendance are two of Sessions’ friends, EE Cummings and Chandler R. Post.

    An election to the Danish Riksdag takes place, without voting in many constituencies.  The strength of the parties is virtually unchanged.

    8 May 1915 The second British-French assault on Turkish defenders near Krithia fails.

    Advancing Germans in Galicia cross the Wisla River.

    05:30  German artillery begins shelling the entire Ypres front.  They mount three attacks on the British defending the Frezenberg Ridge, the third being successful, then attack along the entire front.  The British beat back most of the attack, but in the north, the Germans manage to open a five km wide gap in the British line.

    Danza lenta for piano by Enrique Granados (47) is performed for the first time, in Barcelona.

    9 May 1915 British forces go over the top against the Germans at Neuve-Chapelle.  The attack is cut to pieces with over 11,000 casualties.  Simultaneous with the British assault, French forces attack the Germans at three points, the River Scarpe east of Arras, Lorette, and Vimy Ridge.  The French advance five km in 90 minutes but German reserves plug the hole.

    British cellist and conductor Lieutenant Edward Mason is killed in action at the age of 36.

    Charles Villiers Stanford (62) writes to Horatio Parker (51) telling him he will not be able to travel to Connecticut for the premiere of his Piano Concerto no.2.  He booked passage to sail 15 May on the Lusitania.

    10 May 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian forces overwhelm the Russians near Saanig (Sanok, Poland) 135 km southwest of Lemberg (Lviv).

    Anton von Webern (31) writes to Arnold Schoenberg (40) that he has been transferred to Windisch Feistritz, south of Marburg and that he has been promoted to corporal.

    North Country Sketches for orchestra by Frederick Delius (53) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.

    German Zeppelin LZ-38 bombs Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

    11 May 1915 French forces occupy Eseka, Kamerun, 80 km west of Yaounde.

    Russian forces begin a whole scale retreat along the 300 km front in Galicia, toward the Vistula.

    South African leader Louis Botha speaks by telephone with the governor of German South West Africa, Theodor Seitz.  They agree to a 48-hour cease-fire to begin on 20 May and a meeting at Giftkop.

    Pietro Mascagni (51) writes to his lover, Anna Lolli, from Milan.  “And if [there is war] I will weep forever over my country, destroyed by...a band of madmen and criminals.”

    12 May 1915 Early morning.  A Turkish destroyer puts three torpedoes into the British battleship Goliath in Morto Bay.  Goliath sinks in two minutes, taking 570 crewmen to the bottom.  130 survive.

    South African forces capture Windhoek, capital of German South West Africa without opposition.

    French troops take Clarency.

    After a triumphal procession from Genoa, Gabriele d’Annunzio arrives in Rome for two days of nationalistic harangues in the city, all secretly funded by Prime Minister Salandra to gain public support for war against Germany and Austria.  Meanwhile, the Prime Minister postpones the opening of Parliament until 20 May to change the minds of the members, most of whom are against a declaration of war.

    13 May 1915 Three Pieces for string quartet by Igor Stravinsky (32) is performed for the first time, in Paris.

    A Hymn for Aviators for unison chorus by Hubert Parry (67) to words of Hamilton is performed for the first time, at a Red Cross concert in Albert Hall.

    14 May 1915 A five-man military junta takes temporary control of the government of Portugal.

    38 leaders of the Armenian community in Chomaklu, Kayseri province are arrested by Turkish authorities and executed.

    15 May 1915 Armenian community leaders in Bayburt are arrested by Turkish authorities and executed.

    String Quartet no.2 by Darius Milhaud (22) is performed for the first time, in Paris.  The composer plays  violin.

    23:30  British and Indian troops attack at Festubert, north of Arras.  The night attack results in complete confusion.  No strategic objectives are met.

    Frederic Coolidge dies in New York, of the effects of syphilis contracted accidently during a surgery he performed.  His wife, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, is at his side.

    16 May 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian troops reach Jaroslau (Jaroslaw, Poland), 100 km west of Lemberg (Lviv).

    17 May 1915 A deadly British artillery barrage at Neuve-Chapelle creates 450 German prisoners before the infantry attack begins.  But the ensuing attack can make no headway.

    José de Castro replaces a five-man military junta as Prime Minister of Portugal.

    18 May 1915 Austrian troops cross the San River and take Sieniawa.

    The British suspend their assault at Neuve-Chapelle, having made little progress.

    Russian-Armenian soldiers reach Van and lift the siege by the Turkish army.  The Russians believe that 55,000 Armenians have been killed in and around Van.

    19 May 1915 Turks begin massacres of Armenians in the Khnus region of Erzerum province.

    Fokker demonstrates a machine gun synchronized with an aircraft propeller near Berlin.  The Germans are pleased and almost immediately begin sending them to the front.

    The French cruiser Descartes puts troops ashore at Port-au-Prince to prevent killings of foreigners in the most recent uprising in the country.

    20 May 1915 The Italian Chamber of Deputies votes 407-74 for emergency powers to be given to the government “in case of war.”

    Arnold Schoenberg (40) reports for military service in the Austro-Hungarian army, but is sent home.

    South African General Louis Botha and Governor Theodor Seitz of German South West Africa meet in Giftkop to discuss an end to hostilities.  The talks fail.

    La Ballade des lutins for band by Claude Champagne (23) is performed for the first time.

    22 May 1915 Three trains collide at Quintinshill near Gretna Green, Scotland.  About 225 people, mostly British soldiers, are killed with an equal number injured.

    Quatre poèmes do Léo Latil op.20 for voice and piano by Darius Milhaud (22) is performed for the first time, in Paris.

    Camille Saint-Saëns (79) reaches San Francisco from New York, with stops in Philadelphia and Chicago.

    23 May 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, but not Germany or Turkey as required by the Treaty of London.

    24 May 1915 Morning.  Alfredo Casella (31) leaves his Paris home and ventures out into the city.  He finds joy and delirium everywhere as Parisians celebrate the entry of Italy into the war.  On hearing the news, Casella reports to the Italian consulate to find out what is required of him.

    Germans renew their offensive at Ypres making small gains.  The British, nearly out of artillery shells, fail to counterattack.  Thus the Second Battle of Ypres ends.  The Germans have successfully reduced the allied salient, while 105,000 men are dead or wounded.

    German forces push 18 km east of the San River.

    The Allied governments declare that the Ottoman government is responsible for the massacres of Armenians currently going on.

    25 May 1915 China grants 16 of 21 Japanese demands for economic concessions.

    Mohandas K. Gandhi creates his ashram at Sabarmati near Ahmedabad.

    26 May 1915 The German Zeppelin LZ-38 once again bombs Southend, killing three people and injuring three others.

    27 May 1915 The Temporary Law of Deportation is proclaimed in the Ottoman Empire.  Although it mentions no group by name, it provides for the forced deportation of all Armenians within the borders of the Empire.  Turkish authorities deport 2,000 Armenians from Marash.  300 Armenians arrested on 10 May in Diyarkebir are killed while in custody.

    The converted ocean liner HMS Princess Irene suffers two massive explosions in the Medway Estuary in Kent.  352 people are killed including 76 dock workers.  The explosion is judged to be accidental.

    Sonata for two violins and piano op.15 by Darius Milhaud (22) is performed for the first time, in Salle des agriculteurs, Paris.  The composer plays one of the violin parts.  Also premiered are two works by Charles Koechlin (47), the composer at the keyboard:  La jeune Tarentine op.23/1 for voice and piano to words of André Chénier, and Sonata for viola and piano op.53.  The viola soloist is Darius Milhaud (22).

    29 May 1915 630 Armenians arrested on 10 May in Diyarkebir are murdered in the village of Bisheri while in custody.  Their bodies are thrown in the Tigris River.

    President Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue of Portugal resigns, replaced ad interim by Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga.

    Lewisohn Stadium, New York is officially dedicated and opened.

    31 May 1915 British and Indian troops break through the Turkish lines at Qurna (Al Qurnah), 70 km north of Basra.

    Navidad for double quintet of winds, strings, and piano by Enrique Granados (47) is performed for the first time, in Madrid.

    Elections to the Greek Parliament take place, with a majority of seats going to the Liberal Party of Eleftherios Venizelos.

    2 June 1915 Botho Sigward, Count of Eulenberg, German composer of orchestral and vocal music, is killed in action in Galicia.

    Twenty Armenian social democrat leaders are publicly hanged in Constantinople.

    British troops take the village of Qal’at Salih on the Tigris.

    Serbia invades Albania against little resistance.

    3 June 1915 German forces retake Przemysl, 90 km west of Lemberg (Lviv) after heavy fighting.

    British and Indian troops capture Al-Amarah, 180 km north of Basra.

    A federal court in New Jersey finds United States Steel not guilty of antitrust violations.

    Two new orchestral works are premiered at the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut:  Tam O’Shanter, a symphonic ballad by George Whitefield Chadwick (60) and the Piano Concerto no.2 op.126 of Charles Villiers Stanford (62).

    Recessional for chorus, trumpet, and three trombones by Arthur Foote (62) to words of Kipling is performed for the first time, in Boston.

    4 June 1915 Anzac troops attack at Cape Helles making small gains and causing 15,000 total casualties.

    5 June 1915 A new constitution goes into effect in Denmark.  It ensures universal suffrage.  12,000 women march in Copenhagen to express their gratitude to King Christian X.

    Italian forces attack Gorizia, Monte Kuk, and the Doberdo Plateau, without success.

    The Carrancista army breaks through the forces of Pancho Villa on the Trinidad Plains, Mexico and makes it as far as León.

    6 June 1915 21:57  Vincent Ludwig Persichetti is born in Philadelphia, the first of three children born to Vincent Ruggero Persichetti, an Italian immigrant who works in a bank, and Martha Catherine Buch, a German immigrant, the daughter of a tavern owner.

    7 June 1915 British composer Charles Denis Browne is killed in action at Gallipoli.

    8 June 1915 Anton von Webern (31) is promoted to cadet aspirant (sergeant) at Frohnleiten, near Bruck.  He is placed in charge of training older recruits (those aged 37-42).

    British and Rhodesian troops capture Bismarcksburg, German East Africa (Tanzania), at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika.

    10 June 1915 The German garrison at Garoua, Kamerun, 350 km southwest of Fort Lamy (N’Djamena), surrenders to a combined British-French force.

    A law enacted by the Ottoman government describes how the property of all arrested Armenians is to be handled.  Beginning today through 13 June, 25,000 Armenians deported from Erzerum province are massacred by Turks at Kemakh.

    Francisco Jerónimo de Jesús Lagosw Cházaro replaces Roque Gonzálex Garza as acting President of Mexico.

    11 June 1915 Italian troops attack Austrian positions near Plava.

    12 June 1915 Marcha religiosa no.1 for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (28) is performed for the first time, in São Paulo the composer conducting.

    13 June 1915 German forces open an offensive along a 50 km front in Galicia.

    15 June 1915 German successes in their Galicia offensive at Lubaczow and Mosciska create a new front line from Zolkiev to Rava-Russka to Lemberg (Lviv).

    The editors and staff of the leading Armenian newspaper in Constantinople are killed in Diyarkebir.  They were arrested on 24 April.  Twelve leaders of the Armenian community in Sivas are publicly hanged.

    16 June 1915 French forces begin another offensive in Artois.  The first day is generally a failure, although Moroccan troops do reach the crest of Vimy Ridge.

    17 June 1915 The Italian assault begun 11 June halts with no advance.

    The German army reaches Magierow.

    18 June 1915 French forces suspend their Artois campaign after capturing 13 sq km and losing 100,000 casualties.

    160 Armenian families are deported from Erzinjan by Turkish authorities.

    19 June 1915 A work composed on commission from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Hail! California, by Camille Saint-Saëns (79), is performed for the first time, at the exposition in San Francisco conducted by the composer.

    20 June 1915 South African troops enter Omaruru, South West Africa (Namibia), 165 km northeast of Windhoek, which was evacuated by the Germans.

    21 June 1915 French troops attack the Turks at Kereves Dere.  They gain 180 meters.  There are 8,500 total casualties.

    Governor John Slaton of Georgia commutes the death sentence of Leo Frank to life in prison, one day before the scheduled execution.  Slaton believes Frank is innocent.

    22 June 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian forces retake Lemberg (Lviv) from the Russians.

    British, Indian, and African troops attack Bukoba on Lake Victoria.  In the face of fierce resistance, they advance only five km by nightfall.

    23 June 1915 Italy attacks Austria along a 34 km front along the Isonzo River from the Adriatic to Monte Santo (First Battle of the Isonzo).

    British, Indian, and African troops capture Bukoba on Lake Victoria and, with the permission of their commander, proceed to pillage the town.

    Most of the leading Armenian citizens of Harput are taken outside the town and killed by Turkish authorities.  Massacres of Armenians and other non-Muslims take place in Mardin.

    24 June 1915 Roger Sessions (18) graduates from Harvard University, although he will not finish his requirements for a Bachelor of Arts until next year.

    25 June 1915 Massacres of Armenians by Turkish authorities begin in Bitlis.

    26 June 1915 The Turkish authorities order the removal of all Armenians from the Harput area.  All remaining Armenian men in Sivas are arrested.

    28 June 1915 British troops capture Ngaundere, Kamerun in the midst of a tornado.

    British forces attack at Gully Spur, Gallipoli.  They advance one km and lose 3,800 casualties.

    29 June 1915 German forces reach Tomaszow (Poland).

    30 June 1915 Leslie A. Davies, United States Consul in Harput, writes a letter to the US Ambassador to Turkey, detailing his first-hand knowledge of the genocide of Armenians.  Today, 3,000 Armenians deported from Erzerum are killed.

    After a week of artillery barrage, Italian infantry attacks along the 34 km Isonzo River front.

    1 July 1915 2,000 Armenians being used as workers by the Turkish army near Harput are put to death.  The deportation of Armenians from Trebizond begins.

    Horatio Parker’s (51) opera Fairyland op.77, to words of Hooker, is performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.  It is the winner of a $10,000 prize from the National Federation of Women’s Clubs.

    2 July 1915 German troops occupy the fortress at Zamosc (Poland) but Russian defenders of Krasnik (Poland) hold off an Austrian attack.

    The British Parliament passes the Munitions of War Act, which requires compulsory arbitration of labor disputes, bans strikes and lockouts, limits profits and places other restrictions on management and labor.

    Turkish and Kurdish paramilitaries begin attacks on convoys of Armenians being deported south through Erzinjan.

    A bomb destroys a reception room in the United States Senate.  It was placed by Erich Muenter (aka Frank Holt) a German instructor at Cornell University.

    3 July 1915 J. Pierpont Morgan, who represented Great Britain in war contract negotiations, is shot by Erich Muenter (aka Frank Holt) in Glen Cove, Long Island.

    Jacques Rouché, who holds the rights of first performance of Enrique Granados’ (47) opera Goyescas for the Académie Nationale de Musique et de Danse, Paris, writes to the composer, relinquishing his rights.  Due to the war, a production in Paris seems unlikely.  Granados has received an offer to put on the work in New York.

    4 July 1915 South African forces take Tsumeb, freeing 600 prisoners of war.

    5 July 1915 With little gains in their offensive, the Italians attack along a line from Podgora to Doberdo, but the Austrians hold their positions.  This effectively ends the First Battle of Isonzo which has caused 2,200 casualties.

    2,000 Armenians being used as workers by the Turkish army near Diyarkebir are put to death.  Deportation of Armenians begins in Sivas.  From now until 20 July an average of 400 families per day will be forced to the Syrian desert.  Most will be killed along the way.

    6 July 1915 South African troops capture Namutoni, South West Africa (Namibia), 400 km north of Windhoek.

    British ships successfully run German shore batteries on the mouth of the Rufiji River, German East Africa (Tanzania), 145 km south of Dar-es-Salaam.

    On doctor’s advice, Frederick Delius (53) and his wife depart England for Bergen, Norway.

    Polonia, a symphonic poem composed by Edward Elgar (58) for the benefit of the Polish Relief Fund, is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.

    Erich Muenter (aka Frank Holt) kills himself while in custody in New York.

    9 July 1915 From the western front, Robert Rudolph Hindemith sends a note authorizing his son Paul (19) to sign contracts in his name.  He will shortly be killed in Flanders.

    German forces in South West Africa surrender to British-South Africans at Tsumeb, 370 km north of Windhoek.  1,597 soldiers died in the South West Africa campaign.

    David Leo Diamond is born in Rochester, New York, the second of three children born to Osias Diamond, a cabinetmaker and Anna Schildhaus, a dressmaker.  The parents are Jewish immigrants from Austria.

    10 July 1915 Turkish soldiers kill 2,700 Armenians in a second massacre at Mardin.

    11 July 1915 British ships destroy the German battle cruiser Königsberg on the Rufiji River, German East Africa (Tanzania).

    Turks begin four days of killing Armenians around Mush.

    12 July 1915 The German government takes control of the coal industry and fixes prices.

    13 July 1915 Ramadan begins.  This month sees the height of the genocide of Armenians throughout Turkey.

    14 July 1915 On the first Bastille Day since the beginning of the war, the ashes of Rouget de Lisle, composer of La Marseillaise, are brought to Napoléon’s Tomb at Les Invalides in Paris.

    18 July 1915 German forces take Krasnostav.

    Early afternoon.  Italian forces begin the Second Battle of the Isonzo, making little gains.

    3,000 Armenians are killed in the region of Dersim by the Turks.  The large Kurdish population refuses to participate and shelters some Armenians.

    20 July 1915 Italian forces take Monte San Michele from the Austrians.

    21 July 1915 Austrians retake Monte San Michele from the Italians.

    24 July 1915 British and Indian troops capture An Nasiriya, 190 km northwest of Basra in fierce hand-to-hand fighting.

    Paul Hindemith (19) signs a contract as violinist in the Frankfurt Opera.

    While docked in the Chicago River, the passenger ship SS Eastland rolls over in six meters of water with the loss of over 800 lives.

    27 July 1915 Tomás G. Masaryk and three other emigres form the Czech Action Committee Abroad, in Paris, to further their independence goals in allied countries.

    President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam of Haiti, suffering from a leg wound, flees to the French legation in Port-au-Prince, fearing capture by a rival army leader named Dr. Rosalvo Bobo.  His police chief, Charles Oscar Etienne, kills 200 political prisoners and then seeks refuge in the Dominican embassy.  An angry mob invades the embassy, dragging Etienne out and dividing him into small pieces.

    28 July 1915 A fourth British-French assault on Turkish defenders near Krithia fails.

    An angry mob storms the French legation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and forcibly removes President Sam, who they find hiding under a bed.  The president is thrown over a wall to Haitian citizens who literally tear him to pieces, making the various body parts the central attraction of a parade through the streets of the capital.  The American Admiral William B. Caperton disembarks from his gunboat, USS Washington, in Port-au-Prince harbor and, at the head of a contingent of marines, takes control of the government.  The American occupation will last for 19 years.

    30 July 1915 A mass arrest of Armenians takes place in Angora (Ankara).

    Arthur Honegger (23) begins his training for the Swiss armed forces.

    31 July 1915 The Armenians arrested yesterday in Angora (Ankara) are killed by Turkish authorities.

    Suite Característica for strings by Heitor Villa-Lobos (28) is performed for the first time, at a concert of the Sociedade de Concêrtos Sinfônicos, Rio de Janeiro.  Reviews are generally positive.

    1 August 1915 The deportation of 25,000 Armenians from Adabazar, near Constantinople, begins.

    2 August 1915 From today until 12 August, 5,000 Armenian intellectuals held prisoner in Sivas are executed by Turkish authorities.

    3 August 1915 The Second Battle of the Isonzo is broken off as both sides run out of artillery ammunition.  There is no strategic result.

    Harry Partch (14) enters high school in Alberquerque, New Mexico.

    4 August 1915 Russian troops evacuate Warsaw but take up defensive positions on the north side of the Vistula.

    5 August 1915 German troops enter Warsaw without opposition.

    6 August 1915 Afternoon.  British and Anzacs attack at Cape Helles causing 11,000 casualties without appreciable gains.  Simultaneous Anzac attacks from Anzac Cove bring modest success amidst 10,000 total casualties. 22:00  British troops landed at Suvla Bay (Büyük Kemiki Burun) begin moving inland without opposition.

    7 August 1915 Dawn.  Anzacs advancing from Anzac Cove reach within one km of Chunuk Bair but inexplicably halt.  This gives the Turks time to reinforce their positions.  The assault will fail, along with other Anzac attacks.  The 20,000 British troops at Suvla Bay, unaware of the proceedings, do nothing.

    All Armenians in Mersin are deported by the Turks.

    8 August 1915 British submarine E-11 sinks the Turkish battleship Barbarossa Harradin in the Dardanelles.  253 men are lost.

    Baron von Wangenheim, German ambassador to Turkey, protests the Armenian massacre to Minister of the Interior Talaat Bey, but to no avail.

    Anzacs reach the summit of Chunuk Bair, overlooking their positions on Gallipoli, but are forced to withdraw.  At night, the British in Suvla Bay attack but are beaten back.

    German pianist Maria Janotha, whose career has been based in Britain for some years, is deported from the country.

    10 August 1915 A surprise Turkish counterattack from Sari Bair on Gallipoli forces the Allies to withdraw with 12,000 casualties.  Among the Allied soldiers killed is physicist Henry Moseley who made fundamental discoveries about the structure of the atom.

    11 August 1915 The Peace Pipe, a cantata for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra by Frederick S. Converse (44) is performed for the first time, in New York state.

    12 August 1915 Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham is published in London.

    Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave is installed by the occupying US military as President of Haiti.  He is strongly unpopular.

    13 August 1915 From today through 17 August, 15,000 Armenians are killed by Turkish authorities in Sivas.

    A German submarine torpedoes the British troop ship HMT Royal Edward in the Aegean Sea off Kandeloussa.  It goes down in five minutes with great loss of life.

    14 August 1915 Alban Berg (30) reports for an Army medical examination in Vienna and is found fit to serve.

    15 August 1915 An amateur piano teacher, Sofia Shostakovich, aware of the prodigious talent of her son Dmitri (8), takes him to audition for the famous teacher Ignaty Glyasser in Petrograd.  Dmitri begins an introductory course given by Glyasser’s wife Olga Fyodorovna.  He will finish the one-year course in six months.

    16 August 1915 Alban Berg (30) reports for military service in Vienna.

    A large number of men invade the prison at Milledgeville, Georgia and abduct Leo Frank.  They are not resisted by prison guards.

    17 August 1915 After a 250 km trip in automobiles to Marietta, Georgia, Leo Frank is lynched by the men who abducted him yesterday.  They include a former governor, judges, and state legislators.  The lynching will cause about half of the Jews in Georgia to leave the state.  Frank will be pardoned in 1986.

    German forces take Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania).

    After sinking several ships in the Gulf of Mexico, with the loss of about 100 people, a Category four hurricane comes ashore near Galveston, Texas.  Over 100 people are killed and another 100 are missing.

    Charles F. Kettering of General Motors receives a patent for a modification to the automobile self-starter making it practical.  Cranks are no longer necessary.

    18 August 1915 Alma (Schindler) Mahler, the widow of Gustav Mahler (†4), marries the architect Walter Gropius, now a lieutenant in the German army, in Berlin.  Tomorrow he returns to the front.

    19 August 1915 German forces capture the fortress of Novo-Georgiewsk, near Warsaw, and 90,000 Russian prisoners.

    Turks attack the Armenians of Urfa, killing 250.  The Armenians put up a defense.

    A German submarine sinks the British liner Arabic off the south coast of Ireland.  44 of the 423 passengers and crew are killed.

    20 August 1915 For the second time in four years, Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

    21 August 1915 British troops attack Scimitar Hill while combined British-Anzac troops attack W Hills on Gallipoli.  Both fail.

    22 August 1915 Nearer, my God, to Thee, for winds by Carl Nielsen (50), is performed for the first time, the composer conducting.  The work honors the memory of those lost on the Titanic.

    23 August 1915 Eleftherios Kiriakou Venizelos replaces Demetrios Gounarisas Prime Minister of Greece.

    Massacres of Armenians by Turks happen for a second time in Urfa.

    25 August 1915 German occupying forces establish a Polish government in Warsaw.  General Hans Hartwig von Beseler is named governor-general.

    26 August 1915 German forces capture Brest-Litovsk.

    US President Wilson reverses earlier policy and allows private loans to belligerent nations.

    The overture to Ethel Smyth’s (57) unperformed opera The Boatswain’s Mate is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.  See 28 January 1916.

    27 August 1915 German troops capture Bialystok.

    28 August 1915 Ferruccio Busoni (49) ends his fourth tour of the United States, sailing for Europe.

    31 August 1915 Austrian forces take Lutsk, 135 km northeast of Lemberg (Lviv).

    1 September 1915 Germany orders its U-boats not to attack passenger ships without warning and making provision for non-combatants.

    British troops assault Mora, Kamerun.

    2 September 1915 German forces take Grodno (Belarus), 250 km west of Minsk, and attack Vilna (Vilnius).

    Turks murder 4,750 Armenians in Jezire.

    4 September 1915 The US administration in Haiti declares martial law to put down a rebellion in Port-au-Prince.

    5 September 1915 Tsar Nikolay II takes over personal command of his army at the military headquarters in Mogilev (Mahilyov, Belarus), 180 km east of Minsk.

    6 September 1915 At Pless, Germany, Bulgaria signs a pact committing it to enter the war on the side of the Central Powers for which it will receive Serbian Macedonia and part of Serbia, as well as a port on the Adriatic and small concessions from Turkey.

    US newspapers publish secret documents captured by the British outlining Austrian and German plans for sabotage against US industries.

    7 September 1915 Turks carry out massacres of Armenians in Yozgat district.

    American author Johnny Gruelle receives a US patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.

    8 September 1915 British troops give up their attempt to take Mora, Kamerun.

    The United States loans $500,000,000 to Great Britain and France.

    9 September 1915 German forces begin a new offensive against the Russians, thrusting towards Dvinsk (Daugavpils, Latvia) and Vilna (Vilnius).

    The US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, requires that Austrian Ambassador, Konstantin Graf von Dumba leave the country.  Dumba has been implicated in schemes to disable American war-making industry.

    10 September 1915 Four Allied warships rescue 4,058 Armenians from Musa Dagh.

    William Sanger is convicted in New York of distributing Family Limitation, a book written by his wife Margaret (currently in Europe).  He is sentenced to 30 days in prison or a $150 fine.  He chooses prison.

    12 September 1915 11,000 allied troops begin a march from Ali al Gharbi to take Kut in temperatures reaching 50°.

    A study of prisoners in Jackson, Mississippi by Dr. Joseph Goldberger proves that the cause of pellagra is dietary and it is not contagious.

    15 September 1915 The Czech External Committee is established in Paris.

    Lament for orchestra by Frank Bridge (36) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London the composer conducting.

    16 September 1915 The Russian Duma is prorogued.

    German troops capture Pinsk (Belarus).

    A treaty between the United States and Haiti makes the Caribbean nation a virtual protectorate of the United States.  The entire country is placed in receivership.

    18 September 1915 German forces capture Vilna (Vilnius) while losing 50,000 casualties.

    19 September 1915 German forces capture Lublin.

    21 September 1915 French artillery bombardment begins in Champagne.

    22 September 1915 King Ferdinand orders the mobilization of the Bulgarian army.

    23 September 1915 300 more Armenians are killed at Urfa.

    25 September 1915 Dr. Katsusaburo Yamagiwa and his assistant Koichi Ichikawa publish “About the Artificial Production of Papilloma” in the Proceedings of the Japanese Pathological Society.  It describes their discovery of the role of inflammation in carcinogenisis.

    07:00  British forces send 150 tons of chlorine towards the Germans, then go over the top at Loos.  They manage to push the Germans back to their secondary defense line.

    09:15  French forces attack along a 30 km front in Champagne.

    Noon.  French forces attack along a 30 km front in Artois.  The combined assault makes small gains, capturing Souchez, but then is pushed back with vigor.

    Fritz Jürgens, 27-year-old German composer, is killed in action in Champagne.

    Robert Rudolph Hindemith, father of Paul Hindemith (19), dies in Belgium.

    26 September 1915 British forces continue to attack at Loos across open fields into German machine gun fire.

    27 September 1915 Second Lieutenant John Kipling, only son of Rudyard Kipling, is mortally wounded at Loos.

    The Italian battleship Benedetto Brin is destroyed by a massive explosion, caused by Austro-Hungarian saboteurs, in the harbor of Brindisi.  454 crewmen are killed, including Rear-Admiral Rubin de Cervin.  387 survive.

    Sergeant Léo Latil of the French 67th Infantry, a budding poet, is killed in action in Champagne.  At that moment, his good friend Darius Milhaud (23) is crossing the Place de Villiers and feels a sharp pain and thinks of Léo.  Milhaud will dedicate his String Quartet no.3 to the memory of Léo Latil.

    28 September 1915 French troops reach the German reserve lines in Champagne west of Tahure but can not break through.

    29 September 1915 After a three-day battle, British and Indian troops take Kut al Imara (Al Kut) 160 km southeast of Baghdad.

    A socialist conference in Zimmerwald, Switzerland calls for an end to the imperialist war.

    Rudi Stephan, a 28-year-old German neo-classical composer, is killed in action on the Russian front near Tarnopol.

    A Category four hurricane comes ashore at Grand Isle, Louisiana.  275 people are killed, mostly in low lying areas.

    30 September 1915 French commanders suspend attacks in Champagne and Artois.

    1 October 1915 A party of British troops lands at Thessaloniki.

    French troops make slight gains attacking Vimy Ridge, south of Souchez.

    This month’s issue of Die Weißen Blätter includes the story “Die Verwandlung” (The Metamorphosis) by Franz Kafka.

    3 October 1915 Arthur Honegger (23) returns to Paris after three months military duty in the Swiss army.

    4 October 1915 William Grant Still (20), a student at Wilberforce College, marries Grace Bundy.

    5 October 1915 The Allied governments break diplomatic relations with Bulgaria.

    Allied forces land at Thessaloniki in nominally neutral Greece, in anticipation of an attack by the Central Powers on Serbia.

    Germany apologizes for sinking the Lusitania and agrees to pay reparations.

    Bernardino Luís Machado Guimarães replaces Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga as President of Portugal.

    After being required to leave by the US government, Austrian Ambassador Konstantin Graf von Dumba, departs for home from New York.

    6 October 1915 Sonata for violin and piano no.9 op.139 by Max Reger (42) is performed for the first time, in Dortmund, the composer at the keyboard.

    7 October 1915 Austro-Hungarian and German forces attack across the Danube into Serbia.

    Unhappy with the pro-Allies policy, King Konstaninos replaces Eleftherios Kiriakou Venizelos with Alexandros Thrasivoulou Zaimis as Prime Minister of Greece.

    9 October 1915 Austro-Hungarian forces capture Belgrade.

    Over the next two days, 11,000 Armenians are transported by rail from Konia south to detention camps.

    10 October 1915 1,600 Armenians are deported from Adrianople (Edirne) by Turkish authorities.

    11 October 1915 German troops capture Semendria and Pozarevac, Serbia.

    In memoriam Franz Neruda, for reciter and orchestra by Carl Nielsen (50) to words of Clausen, is performed for the first time, directed by the composer.  This concert is the first with Nielsen as permanent conductor of the Copenhagen Music Society.

    12 October 1915 06:00  Germans execute nurse Edith Cavell whose only crime was in tending to wounded British soldiers and helping them to escape capture.  Executed next to her is Philippe Baucq, an architect who assisted her.

    13 October 1915 Over the next four days, 9,600 Armenians are transported by rail from Konia south to detention camps.

    British poet Charles Sorley is killed in action near Hulluch, France.

    14 October 1915 Bulgaria openly joins the Central Powers by declaring war on Serbia, invading Macedonia, and driving towards Zajecar and Pirot.

    15 October 1915 Great Britain and Montenegro declare war on Bulgaria.

    Turkish troops end the Armenian resistance in Urfa, losing 400 men in the process.

    16 October 1915 France declares war on Bulgaria.

    20,000 Armenians being deported from Urfa are killed by the Turks.

    17 October 1915 Over the next five days, 9,850 Armenians are transported by rail from Konia south to detention camps.

    18 October 1915 A third battle along the Isonzo River begins with an Italian artillery barrage.

    19 October 1915 Italy and Russia declare war on Bulgaria.

    Great Britain ceases to consider Czechs and Slovaks as enemy aliens.

    Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Uruguay, and the United States formally recognize Venustiano Carranza as President of Mexico while his general, Alvaro Obregón, is in the process of defeating both Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

    20 October 1915 A general election in the Union of South Africa results in a plurality for the ruling South Africa Party.  Its leader, Louis Botha, will form a minority government.

    21 October 1915 After three days of bombardment, the Italian army attacks on the Isonzo front.  Gains are small.

    French forces from the south drive off Bulgarians from Strumica and proceed to Negotino.

    The first transatlantic radiotelephone communication is made between Arlington, Virginia and the Eiffel Tower.

    22 October 1915 The German advance in Serbia comes to a halt.

    Representatives of the Bohemian National Alliance and the Slovak League meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, sign the Cleveland Agreement calling for the union of Czechs and Slovaks in an independent federative state.

    23 October 1915 The German cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert is struck by several torpedoes from a British submarine and sinks almost immediately off Libau (Liepaja, Latvia).  Of the 675 officers and crew, only three survive.

    The British troopship SS Marquette is sunk by a German submarine south of Thessaloniki.  167 people, including ten nurses, are lost.  574 are saved.

    25,000 suffragists march in New York City.

    25 October 1915 Italians broaden their front and drive towards Gorizia.

    26 October 1915 Berceuse héroique, a work for small orchestra composed by Claude Debussy (53) to honor King Albert of Belgium, is performed for the first time, in Paris.

    27 October 1915 William Morris Hughes replaces Andrew Fisher as Prime Minister of Australia.

    28 October 1915 Eine Alpensinfonie by Richard Strauss (51) is performed for the first time, in Berlin, the composer conducting.  The critics don’t like it.

    29 October 1915 René Viviani, blamed for the failed autumn offensive and the failure to woo Bulgaria, is replaced by Aristide Briand as Prime Minister of France.

    31 October 1915 Marche militaire for piano by Enrique Granados (48) is performed for the first time, in Barcelona.

    2 November 1915 Pancho Villa’s attack on the Carrancista defenders of Agua Prieta, Sonora is easily defeated.

    3 November 1915 A combined British-French force takes Tibati, Kamerun, 300 km northeast of Yaounde.

    Arnold Schoenberg (41) is once again called for military service.

    4 November 1915 The Champagne and Artois campaigns come to a halt.  Total casualties:  176,000.

    The Third Battle of the Isonzo ends without strategic result.  Total casualties:  109,000.

    The French troop ship Le Calvados is sunk by a German submarine off Algeria.  740 men are lost.

    String Quartet no.2 by Frank Bridge (36) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.

    5 November 1915 The Germans surrender Banyo, Kamerun, 320 km north of Yaounde, to the British.

    Bulgarian forces capture Nis, Serbia.

    The first concert of the Sociedad Nacional de Música takes place in Buenos Aires.

    6 November 1915 German forces take Krusevac, Serbia, 150 km southeast of Belgrade.

    After a month of training camp in the Austro-Hungarian army at Bruck an der Leitha, Alban Berg (30) suffers acute asthma attacks and a bronchial catarrh.  He is immediately hospitalized.

    Sinfonietta op.5 for orchestra by Sergey Prokofiev (24) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.

    7 November 1915 Stephanos Skouloudis, a neutralist, replaces Alexandros Thrasivoulou Zaimis as Prime Minister of Greece.

    German forces take Aleksinac, Serbia.

    A German or Austrian U-boat sinks the Italian ocean liner Ancona off Cape Carbonara, Sardinia, killing 272 people.

    10 November 1915 A fourth battle along the Isonzo River begins between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces between Plava and Doberdo.

    11 November 1915 British and colonial forces take Zor, advancing on Baghdad.

    13 November 1915 The Rainbow, by DH Lawrence, is judged obscene in a London court.

    Several works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (28) are performed for the first time, in the Salão Nobre da Associção do Empregados do Comércio, Rio de Janeiro, in the first concert made up entirely of his music:  Valsa Scherzo op.17 for piano, Berceuse op.50 for violin or cello and piano, the Sonata Fantasia no.2 for violin and piano, and five songs for solo voice and piano:  Confidência to words of Bastos de Carvalho, Mal secreto to words of Correa, Fleur fanée to words of Gallay, A virgem to words of de Quental, and A cegonha to words of Teôfilo.  Although reviews are mixed, it is the first major performance of the works of Villa-Lobos and catapults him onto the national musical scene.  See 8 February 1925 and 13 November 1950.

    14 November 1915 The Czech External Committee becomes the Czech National Council in Paris.  It will be recognized by the Allies as the authority to speak for the Czech people.

    Enrique Granados (48) plays what will prove to be his final public performance at his home in Barcelona.  He plays the a minor piano concerto of Edvard Grieg (†8).

    15 November 1915 Winston Churchill resigns as First Lord of the Admiralty.

    16 November 1915 US Marines assault the Haitian stronghold of Fort Rivière, killing most of the defenders.

    17 November 1915 Italian artillery begins to shell the city of Görz (Gorizia).

    The British hospital ship HMHS Anglia strikes a mine off Folkestone Gate and goes down with the loss of 134 people.

    18 November 1915 Piano Sonata no.8 op.66 by Alyeksandr Skryabin (†0) is performed for the first time, in Petrograd.

    Apple-Blossom-Time for piano by Arnold Bax (32) is performed for the first time, in Steinway Hall, London.

    19 November 1915 At a state penitentiary in Salt Lake City, labor leader Joel Hägglund (Joe Hill) is executed by firing squad.  In a last letter to fellow IWW leader Bill Haywood, Hill concluded, “Don’t waste any time mourning.  Organize!”

    20 November 1915 British and colonial troops reach Lajj, Mesopotamia.

    After spending some time in Norway and traveling back through Denmark and London, Frederick Delius (53) and his wife return to their home at Grez-sur-Loing, France.  He has resolved to remain there through the duration of the war.

    21 November 1915 The ship carrying the expedition of Ernest Shackleton, the Endurance, is crushed by the Antarctic pack ice in the Weddell Sea and sinks.

    22 November 1915 British forces attack the Turks at Ctesiphon, near Baghdad, but can only take the Turkish front lines at a heavy cost.

    23 November 1915 British and French leaders decide on the evacuation of Gallipoli.

    German forces defeat the Serbians at Pristina and Mitrovica in Kosovo taking 17,000 prisoners.  Bulgarian forces cut off the Serbian escape route and the remaining 200,000 Serbian soldiers begin a long retreat into Albania.

    Pancho Villa’s forces are virtually wiped out by Carrancistas at Hermosillo.

    25 November 1915 British and colonial troops are forced to retreat from Ctesiphon to Lajj.

    Albert Einstein publishes his ten “Einstein Field Equations” in Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.  They are a part of his General Theory of Relativity.

    William J. Simmons and 16 other Protestant, white men climb up Stone Mountain, Georgia.  They set a large cross on fire and proclaim the rebirth of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

    30 November 1915 After three days of terrible weather including hurricane force winds, freezing temperatures, snow, and sleet, the Allies on Gallipoli count 200 men drowned, 5,000 with frostbite and 5,000 with other sickness.

    Afonso Augusto da Costa replaces José de Castro as Prime Minister of Portugal.

    A Trio for violin, viola and cello by Max Reger (42) is performed for the first time, in Munich.

    Enrique Granados (48) and his wife board the Montevideo in Cádiz for a trip to the United States to premiere Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera.  The ship is stopped and searched for seven hours by a French warship looking for German spies.  It will also be searched for five hours by a British warship.

    1 December 1915 After a concert of Skryabin’s (†0) piano works by Sergey Rakhmaninov (42) (during which a disturbance by Skryabin partisans breaks out), Sergey Prokofiev (24) and Rakhmaninov have an icy exchange, thus ending whatever good relations they had.

    Lee de Forest publishes an article entitled “Audion Bulbs as Producers of Pure Musical Tones”, describing the musical properties of sounds produced by vacuum tubes.

    Because of numerous reports and rumors of espionage, US President Wilson demands the recall of the German military attaché Franz von Papen, naval attaché Karl Boy-Ed, head of the German trade mission Heinrich Albert and the Austrian ambassador Konstantin Dumba.

    2 December 1915 En blanc et noir for two pianos by Claude Debussy (53) is performed for the first time, at Chez Durand, Paris, the composer and Louis Albert performing.

    3 December 1915 An earthquake centered in eastern Tibet causes 170 deaths.

    4 December 1915 As of this date, 10,000 Armenians have been deported from Constantinople.

    An article by A. Walter Kramer appears in Musical America entitled “A New Note in Our Piano Music.”  It is a laudatory review of Charles T. Griffes (31) and goes a long way to introducing the music of Griffes to the public.

    The Panama-Pacific International Exposition closes in San Francisco.  Over the last eight months, almost 19,000,000 people have partaken of the experience.

    5 December 1915 Poème sur un cantique de Camargue op.13 for voice and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (23) is performed for the  first time, in Paris.

    6 December 1915 Sonatina op.80 for violin and piano by Jean Sibelius (49) is performed for the first time, in Helsinki.

    The 64th Congress of the United States convenes in Washington.  President Wilson’s Democratic Party holds majorities in both houses.

    For the second time this year, Greeks elect a Parliament.  Eleftherios Venizelos and his Liberal Party refuse to take part, over the dispute with King Konstantinos over neutrality in the war.  Only conservative parties take part.

    7 December 1915 Turkish forces surround retreating British and colonial troops in Kut al Imara.

    Claude Debussy (53) undergoes an operation for cancer.  The doctors find that it has spread too far to be cured.

    King Petar, General Radomir Putnik, other staff officers and the Russian ambassador to Serbia reach Skadar (Scutari), Albania across the mountains.

    Austrian troops capture Pec, Serbia.

    US President Wilson asks Congress to begin a massive five-year naval building program and an increase in the army by 40%.

    8 December 1915 A poem called In Flanders Fields is published in Punch. It was written by a Canadian medical officer named John McRae.  After the war, money will be raised for veterans of several nations by the sale of poppies.

    Symphony no.5 by Jean Sibelius is performed for the first time, in Turku, directed by the composer on his fiftieth birthday.  Also on the program is the premiere of Two Serenades for violin and orchestra.

    9 December 1915 Álvaro Figueroa y Torres Mendieta, conde de Romanones replaces Eduardo Dato y Iradier as Prime Minister of Spain.

    The Paris Opéra, closed since 3 August 1914, reopens.

    10 December 1915 In Detroit, the Ford Motor Company produces its 1,000,000th car.

    Lee De Forest demonstrates his audion to the New York Electrical Society.  It can amplify signals to 20,000 times their normal strength.  This makes the Telharmonium and like devices obsolete.

    11 December 1915 British forces attack an Senussi tribesmen at Wadi Senab, south of Matruh, driving them off.

    12 December 1915 Chinese President Yüan Shih-k’ai (Yuan Shikai) accepts the title of Emperor.

    The Junkers J-1 is given its initial test flight at Döbertitz, near Berlin.  It is the first all-metal aircraft.

    14 December 1915 Eternal Eros op.84/4 for baritone and male chorus by Jean Sibelius (50) to words of Gripenberg is performed for the first time, at Helsinki University.

    15 December 1915 Arnold Schoenberg (41) enters military service in the Hoch-und Dettschmeister Regiment in Vienna.

    Enrique Granados (48) and his wife arrive in New York after a rough Atlantic crossing during which the ship was searched twice.

    17 December 1915 The German cruiser SMS Bremen is sunk by Russian mines off Windau (Ventspils), Latvia, taking 250 of her crew with her.

    18 December 1915 US President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt at her home in Washington.

    Edgard Varèse (31) boards ship for America with 80 dollars, letters of introduction, and no hope of performances or employment, thinking he will stay only a few weeks.

    Kurt Weill (15) plays a Chopin (†66) nocturne and Liebestraum nr.3 by Franz Liszt (†29) at a concert to benefit the Society for Germans Abroad in the palace of Duke Friedrich II of Anhalt in Dessau.

    When Christ was born of Mary free, a carol by Hubert Parry (67) to anonymous words, is performed for the first time, in Albert Hall, London.

    19 December 1915 The British have completed the preliminary evacuation of Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on Gallipoli, removing 80,000 men.  This night, the small boats return and take away 20,000 more.

    The Germans use phosgene gas for the first time, north of Ypres, without strategic result.

    20 December 1915 As the last British and Anzac troops leave Suvla Bay and Anzac cove, mines they left in their ammunition dumps go off creating tremendous explosions.  All allied troops have been removed from these two positions without loss of life.

    Medically unfit to be sent to the front, Alban Berg (30) reports for guard duty in Vienna.

    Igor Stravinsky (33) conducts for the first time in public at a concert in Geneva organized by Sergey Diaghilev to support the International Committee of the Red Cross.

    24 December 1915 Max Reger  (42) writes, “Now I, too, think and hope that the killing cannot last for much longer.  It is really terrible!  It seems that mankind lives in a downright frenzy of hatred, bloodthirstiness, etc.--This is the greatest mockery if one considers how our governments--and that of course also includes, in particular, the governments of our enemies--continue to toss around buzzwords such as ‘culture’ and ‘civilization.’  It is horrible!  After all, it was only ten people who instigated this terrible tragedy!”

    25 December 1915 British forces kill 300 Senussi tribesmen at Wadi Medwa, west of Matruh.

    26 December 1915 After almost five years of marriage and three children, Anton von Webern (32) and his wife, finally having achieved papal dispensation to marry as first cousins, have their union solemnized by the Catholic Church at the Parish of Ober St. Veit, Vienna.  Father of the bride Gustav Mörtl and Arnold Schoenberg (41) are witnesses.

    27 December 1915 The Russian army begins an offensive against the Austrians on a 150 km front between the Prut and Dniester Rivers.

    28 December 1915 US President Wilson sends his personal emissary, Edward House, to Europe to seek out possibilities for peace.

    29 December 1915 Incidental music to Pearn’s play (after Blackwood) The Starlight Express by Edward Elgar (58) is performed for the first time, at the Kingsway Theatre, London.  The composer is not present since his wife is recovering from a taxicab accident.

    Soir d’hiver for voice and orchestra by Nadia Boulanger (28) to her own words is performed for the first time, in Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, Paris.

    Edgard Varèse (32) arrives in New York from Europe intending a short stay.  He will not return to France until 1922.

    30 December 1915 The cruiser HMS Natal accidentally explodes and capsizes within five minutes in Cromarty Firth.  Around 400 people are lost.

    The British liner SS Persia is torpedoed by a German submarine off Crete and goes down in less than ten minutes.  343 of the 519 on board are lost, including many civilians.

    ©2004-2015 Paul Scharfenberger

    17 January 2015

    Last Updated (Saturday, 17 January 2015 07:29)

     

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