The World in 1916 the year the first tanks rolled into battle
~3.6MCars and trucks on US roads
$360New Ford Model T touring car
~7¢Loaf of bread (US)
28 tonsWeight of Britain's first tank
~57KCasualties on the Somme's first day
10 mosBattle of Verdun, in France
1stDada show, at a cafe in Zurich
~140KChinese labourers working in France
~1MAfrican porters in East Africa
On the first morning of the Somme about 57,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. That is a whole small town's worth of people, gone in one day on a few miles of ground.
Life back then
Shopping meant asking. You stood at a counter while a clerk fetched each item off the shelves behind him, weighed out the sugar and added the total up on a pad. In September a Memphis store turned that around and handed customers a basket to walk the aisles with. Whatever the local store did not stock came out of a thick Sears catalog, ordered by mail and collected at the railway depot weeks later. The catalog sold boots, washing machines and whole houses in numbered pieces.
The year in 8 events
- ⚓Jan 9 The last Allied troops slip away from Gallipoli at night. The eight month campaign ends with nothing gained.
- ⚔️Feb 21 The Battle of Verdun begins in eastern France. The fighting there goes on for ten months.
- 🌍Apr 24 The Easter Rising begins in Dublin. Irish rebels take over buildings and declare a republic.
- 🚢May 31 The British and German fleets meet off Denmark at Jutland, the biggest sea battle of the war.
- 🏛️Jun 6 Yuan Shikai dies. He had tried to make himself emperor of China, and now rival generals carve the country up between them.
- ⚔️Jul 1 The Battle of the Somme opens in northern France and lasts until November. Tanks are used in battle for the first time there in September.
- 🛒Sep 6 Piggly Wiggly opens in Memphis, Tennessee, the first grocery where shoppers serve themselves.
- 🗳️Nov 7 Woodrow Wilson is re-elected after a campaign built on keeping the country out of the war. Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to Congress.
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