1908 After the Young Turks seized power in Turkey, Armenians were allowed to bear arms, and so were conscripted into the military. See 1915 below.
1915 Armenian conscripts in the Turkish army were relieved of their weapons and made to serve in labor battalions. They were forced to carry heavy loads extremely long distances. Those who survived these labors were shot.Rural Armenians were either killed or marched into the Syrian desert. Armenians in Trebizond were loaded onto ships which were then sunk in the Black Sea. Those who survived the march into the desert were interned at concentration camps in Mesopotamia and Syria. Estimates of the number of those killed range from 300,000 (Turkish historians) to 1.5 million. A further 800,000 were dispersed into foreign countries.
1917 The first phase of the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russian began. Much of the persecution in this period was conducted in a non-systematic manner by individual Bolshevik “war lords.” Lenin intended to destroy the Church by abolishing private property, and thus eliminating the Church's income.
Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death, executed by firing squad.
1915-17 Three children (Lucia Santos (born 1907), Francisco (1908) and Jacinta (1910) Marto) reportedly saw visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal. On Oct 13, 1917, 70,000 people were present when what has come to be called the “solar miracle” occurred: the sun is said to have danced and to have shed blue and then yellow light.
1917 The Balfour declaration issued. Gave British support to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
1918-20 Outbreak of the Spanish Flu. More died from the flu than were killed in World War I.
1918 The All-Russia Emergency Commission under Felix Dzerzhinsky executed over 3000 Orthodox clergymen of all ranks. Some were drowned in ice-holes or poured over with cold water in winter until they turned to ice-pillars.
1930/31 Three papyrus manuscripts were purchased. Their point of origin is unknown. Designated P45, 46 and 47, they are known as the Chester Beaty Papyri, after their owner, Chester Beaty of Dublin.
1931 The bishop of Rome relinquished all claims to territory within Italy except for Vatican City.
1945 The Nag Hammadi library discovered. It consists of 12 papyrus books and 8 leaves from a thirteenth book. The fifty-two tractates these books contain cover a variety of religious subjects, many from a Gnostic perspective.1962 The Roman Catholic Church convened the Second Vatican Council in October of this year. The council closed in December, 1965
