A Timeline of World Events 1888-1934

The following is a timeline of world events that incorporates key milestones in the life of Adolf Hitler. While the timeline highlights important historical events, it also aims to offer insight into the unstable political, social and economic climate that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
1888—Year of the Three Emperors in Germany. Wilhelm ascends the throne after his elderly grandfather and then his father dies unexpectedly after reigning for only three months.
1889—Adolf Hitler is born on April 20, the son of Alois and Klara, in Braunau-am-Inn, Linz, Austria.
1893-94—Franco-Russian Alliance. France and Russia form an alliance in a common desire to preserve peace.
1894-1906—Dreyfus Affair in France. Anti-Semitism remains a threat to the Jews when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer on the French general staff, is arrested for betraying French military secrets to Germany.
1898—First German naval program.
1899—First Hague Peace Conference. Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands invite delegations from all over the world to assemble for the First International Peace Conference.
1903—The Bolsheviks, a revolutionary faction led by Vladimir Lenin, gain control of the Russian Social Democratic Party.
1903—The Wright brothers achieve the first-ever powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1904-1905—Russo-Japanese War. Japan and Russia go to war to develop spheres of influence in the Far East. Japan defeats Russia and gains the position of a world power.
1905—Adolf Hitler leaves school at approximately the age of 16 without graduating.
1905-06—Russian Revolution. A series of strikes, riots, assassinations, naval mutinies, and peasant outbreaks takes place against the czarist regime.
1907—Hitler, now 18, moves from his hometown of Linz to Vienna where he is rejected by both the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture.
1907—Adolf Hitler's mother, Klara, dies of breast cancer.
1907—A bubonic plague in India claims more than one and a quarter million lives and promotes fear of a worldwide epidemic.
1908—The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna rejects Adolf Hitler for the second time.
1909—Henry Ford institutes assembly line production of the Model T.
1911—Robert Borden becomes prime minister of Canada.
1911-20—Mexican Revolution. Various sectors of Mexican society unite to overthrow the reigning Porfirio Diaz and his regime.
1912—Chinese Republic proclaimed.
1912—Titanic lost on maiden voyage.1913—Adolf Hitler moves to Munich at the age of 24.1914—A Serbian student assassinates the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife. One month later, Austria declares war on Serbia and a complex system of alliances draw in the Great Powers. The First World War begins.