1905 – 1909★★★★★
Đông Du movement
Phan Bội Châu organises sending young Vietnamese to study in Japan to prepare for the independence struggle.
PoliticsCulture· Vietnam, Japan
← Previous year with events: 1904Next year with events: 1907 →View on map →View the whole 20th century
Events this year
1905★★★★★
Einstein's miracle year
Albert Einstein publishes four papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and mass–energy equivalence.
Science· Switzerland
1905 – 1911★★★★★
Persian Constitutional Revolution
A revolutionary movement forces the Qajar shah to accept a constitution and establish Iran's first parliament, the Majlis.
RevolutionPolitics· Iran
January 22, 1905★★★★★
Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg
Soldiers fire on peaceful workers marching to the Winter Palace, sparking the Russian Revolution of 1905.
RevolutionPolitics· Russia
Ongoing
1858 – 1947★★★★★
Beginning of the British Raj
After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act transfers rule from the East India Company to the British Crown; the Mughal Empire formally ends.
Politics· India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, United Kingdom
1885 – 1908★★★★★
Leopold II's Congo Free State
King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo as a personal possession; its forced-labour rubber regime caused mass deaths until Belgium annexed the territory in 1908.
PoliticsEconomy· DR Congo, Belgium
1904 – 1908★★★★★
Herero and Nama genocide
In German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), German forces suppressed uprisings in a campaign that killed most of the Herero and about half of the Nama people.
War· Namibia, Germany
February 8, 1904 – September 5, 1905★★★★★
Russo-Japanese War
Japan defeats the Russian Empire in a war over Manchuria and Korea, the first modern victory of an Asian power over a European one.
War· Japan, Russia, China, South Korea