360The 1910s: the Titanic, the First World War and a deadly flu
The Titanic sank on its first voyage in 1912. The First World War, from 1914 to 1918, killed around 20 million people. Henry Ford's moving assembly line changed manufacturing, the Panama Canal opened, Einstein published general relativity, and a flu pandemic swept the world from 1918.
On 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic, the largest ship of its time, sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its first voyage. More than 1,500 people died. The disaster led to new rules on lifeboats and radio watches at sea.
In 1913, Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line at his Highland Park factory. The time to build a Model T fell from about 12 hours to about 90 minutes, and mass production spread across industry.
In 1914, the Panama Canal opened, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The First World War began in the summer of 1914 and ended with the armistice of 11 November 1918. Fought with machine guns, artillery, tanks and aircraft, it killed around 20 million soldiers and civilians. The 1919 peace conference in Paris redrew borders and created the League of Nations.
In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity, describing gravity as the curving of space and time. In 1917, revolution in Russia ended the rule of the tsars.
From 1918, an influenza pandemic, often called the Spanish flu, infected about a third of the world's population and killed tens of millions.
- 1912
- Titanic sinks
- 1913
- Ford's moving assembly line
- 1914
- First World War begins; Panama Canal opens
- 1915
- General relativity
- 1918
- War ends; flu pandemic
Sources: Britannica · Imperial War Museums · World Health Organization.