| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1911–1914 | USA, Mexico [statistics and demography] | 82,500 Mexicans emigrate to the USA. |
| 1914 | [art] | The French artist Marcel Duchamp creates Bottle Rack. The first true ‘ready made’ (or everyday, manufactured object presented as an art work), it is, simply, a mass-produced bottle rack. |
| 1914 | [fiction] | The Irish writer James Joyce publishes his collection of short stories Dubliners. The stories were written between 1904 and 1907. |
| 1914 | [orchestral music] | The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams completes his romance for violin and orchestra The Lark Ascending. |
| 1914 | [painting] | The Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico paints The Enigma of a Day and Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire. |
| 1914 | [plays] | The play Pygmalion, by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, is first performed at His Majesty's Theatre in London, England. A German version was previously performed in Vienna, Austria, in 1913. |
| 1914 | [poetry] | The Irish writer W B Yeats publishes his poetry collection Responsibilities. |
| 1914 | USA [consumer products] | The Crescent Washing Machine, the first domestic electric dishwasher, is launched in the USA. |
| 1914 | [sculpture] | The US-born English artist Jacob Epstein sculpts Rock Drill. |
| 1914 | United Kingdom [theatres] | Following fires in music halls and theatres in London, England, the county council bans eating and drinking in such places. Consequently, music halls lose much of their special appeal. |
| 15 May 1914 | [births and deaths] | Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa who, with Edmund Hillary, was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, born in Solo Khumbu, Nepal (–1986). |
| 28 June 1914 | Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary [terrorism] | Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary (50) and his wife are assassinated at Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, an 18-year-old Bosnian Serb student linked with the Serbian nationalist society ‘the Black Hand’. The death of Archduke Ferdinand is to spark off World War I. |
| 6 July 1914 | Germany, Austria-Hungary [diplomacy] | Germany issues the ‘blank cheque’, promising support to Austria-Hungary in any action it chooses to take against Serbia over the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. |
| 23 July 1914 | Austria-Hungary, Serbia [diplomacy] | Austria-Hungary, suspecting Serbian involvement in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, issues an ultimatum to Serbia, which contains deliberately unreasonable demands. |
| 28 July 1914 | Austria-Hungary, Serbia [World War I (1914–18)] | Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. |
| 30 July 1914 | Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | Russia orders the general mobilization of its armies in response to the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia. |
| 1 August 1914 | Germany, Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | Germany declares war on Russia. |
| 3 August 1914 | Germany, France [World War I (1914–18)] | Germany declares war on France. |
| 4 August 1914 | United Kingdom, Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | Britain declares war on Germany and establishes a naval blockade of the North Sea, the Channel, and the Mediterranean Sea in order to cut supplies to the Central Powers. |
| 4 August 1914 | Germany, Belgium, France [World War I (1914–18)] | Germany declares war on Belgium and invades Belgium and France. |
| 6 August 1914 | Austria-Hungary, Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. |
| 15 August 1914 | Panama [canals] | The Panama Canal opens to traffic. One of the world's greatest engineering feats, it is 81.6 km/50.7 mi long and saves 12,800 km/8,000 mi on the trip around South America. It cost $366,650,000 and around six thousand workers died during its construction. |
| 23 August 1914 | Japan, Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | Japan declares war on Germany. |
| 26 August - 30 August 1914 | Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | German forces defeat the Russian armies at the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia, and halt the Russian advance in the region. |
| 3 September 1914 | [Catholicism] | Following the death of Pope Pius X on 20 August, the Italian clergyman Giacomo Della Chiesa is elected Pope Benedict XV. |
| 5 September - 10 September 1914 | France [World War I (1914–18)] | In the First Battle of the Marne on the Western Front of World War I, the armies led by General Joseph Joffre halt the German advance on Paris, France. |
| 6 September - 15 September 1914 | Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | At the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia, German forces drive back the occupying Russian troops. |
| 15 September - 24 November 1914 | Europe [World War I (1914–18)] | The ‘race to the sea’ takes place as Allied and German forces move northwards trying to outflank one other. This establishes the basic line of the Western Front, stretching from the North Sea through Belgium and France to Switzerland. |
| 28 September - 31 October 1914 | Poland, Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | German and Austrian forces attack Russian troops south of Warsaw, Poland, in the First Battle of Warsaw, but are driven back. |
| 5 November 1914 | France, United Kingdom, Anatolia, Ottoman Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | France and Britain declare war on the Ottoman Empire. |
| 14 November 1914 | Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, United Kingdom [World War I (1914–18)] | Sultan Mehmet V of the Ottoman Empire proclaims a Jihad (‘Holy War’) against the British Empire. |
| 8 December 1914 | [World War I (1914–18)] | In the Battle of the Falkland Islands, a British naval force under Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee destroys Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee's German East Asia Squadron. |
