20th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1908 | 3 July | Second Constitutional Era (Young Turk revolution) |
| 5 October | Bulgaria obtains full independence. | |
| 7 October | Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia by mere declaration. | |
| 1912 | The Ottomans are easily defeated by Italy in a short war, with the Italians gaining Libya and ending the 340-year Ottoman presence in North Africa. | |
| 28 November | First Balkan War: Albania declares independence | |
| 1913 | 17 May | First Balkan War: The Ottoman Empire is nearly wiped out from Europe, save for Istanbul and just enough land around to defend it. |
| 1914 | 2 August | The Empire enters into World War I on the side of the Central Powers. Cyprus is annexed outright by Britain. |
| 1915 | 18 March | The Gallipoli Campaign was considered one of the greatest victories of the Turks and was reflected on as a major failure by the Allies. |
| 24 April | The Ottoman Empire initiates forced deportation of Armenians. | |
| 1923 | 29 October | The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. |
| Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) was unanimously elected the first President of the Republic of Turkey by secret vote. | ||
| 30 October | The first cabinet of the Republic of Turkey was formed by İsmet İnönü. | |
| 1924 | A new policy was instituted that imams be appointed by the government. | |
| 3 March | The Ottoman caliphate was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. | |
| The Union of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat) Law was passed. | ||
| The Ministry of Religious Affairs and all religious schools were abolished. | ||
| 6 March | Second cabinet, again by İsmet İnönü | |
| 8 April | Religious courts were abolished and replaced with civil courts. | |
| 20 April | A new Turkish constitution was accepted. | |
| 26 August | Türkiye Is Bankasi was established. | |
| 30 October | The generals who were also in parliament were asked to choose either military profession or politics but not both. (This event is known as the crisies of generals.) Only Prime Minister Ismet Inönü retains his title as General and remains in politics as Prime Minister. | |
| 17 November | The second political party in Turkey, the Progressive Republican Party, was formed. | |
| 22 November | Third cabinet by Fethi Okyar. | |
| 1925 | 11 February | The Sheikh Said rebellion started in the eastern provinces. |
| 25 February | A law separating religion from politics was accepted and passed in the TBMM. | |
| 4 March | Fourth cabinet by İsmet İnönü | |
| 5 May | An Armenian named Manok Manukyan was executed in Ankara for planning an assassination attempt on Mustafa Kemal. | |
| 3 June | The Progressive Republican Party was closed and abolished for supposedly exploiting religion for political purposes. Republican Peoples Party of the governing elites remains as the only political organization in the country. According to "Takrir-i Sukun" law, all opposition newspapers are also banned and closed indefinitely and Turkish "Republic" becomes one of the first dictatorships in Europe. | |
| 29 June | Sheikh Said and his 46 followers were sentenced to death in Diyarbakır. | |
| 27 August | Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) came to Kastamonu to initiate the Hat Revolution. | |
| 1 September | The first Turkish Medical Congress was assembled. | |
| 4 September | Turkish women entered a beauty contest for the first time. | |
| 1 October | Atatürk opened the Bursa textile factory. | |
| 5 November | Ankara Law School (then the Ankara University Faculty of Law) was opened. | |
| 25 November | "Hat Law" was issued, abolishing religious dress. | |
| 26 December | A law was passed which abolished the lunar calendar in favor of the international calendar. | |
| 1926 | 17 February | A Turkish civil code based on the Swiss Civil Code was accepted. The code granted expanded civil rights to women and prohibited polygamy. |
| 1 March | A Turkish criminal code was established based on the Italian Criminal Code. | |
| 17 March | A law was passed to nationalize the iron industry. | |
| 24 March | A law was passed to nationalize the petroleum industry. | |
| 1927 | 7 March | The extraordinary Independence Tribunals were abolished. |
| 15 October | Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started his "Nutuk" speech. | |
| The second nationwide congress of the Republican People's Party took place. | ||
| 20 October | The "Nutuk" speech ended. | |
| 28 October | The first population census counted the population at approximately thirteen and a half million. | |
| 27 November | Fifth cabinet by İsmet İnönü | |
| 25 December | The first female Turkish lawyer, Süreyya Ağaoğlu, began her duty. | |
| 1928 | 10 April | The article "The official religion of Turkey is Islam" was removed from the constitution. |
| 19 May | A law establishing an engineering school was accepted. | |
| 1 November | A new Turkish alphabet based on the Latin alphabet was accepted. | |
| 1929 | 3 April | A new municipal law enabled women to enter municipal elections both as voters and as candidates. |
| 29 April | The first female Turkish judges were appointed. | |
| 13 May | A trade law was accepted by the TBMM. | |
| 1 September | Arabic and Persian courses were abolished replaced by Turkish-only language courses. | |
| 1930 | 11 June | A law was accepted which established the Turkish Republic Central Bank. |
| 12 August | The Free Republican Party, the third party in the republic, was established. | |
| 27 September | Sixth cabinet by İsmet İnönü | |
| 27 October | Greek prime minister Venizelos visited Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Ankara. | |
| 17 November | After the Free Republican Party's cooption by radical religious groups, its leader Fethi Okyar decided to close. | |
| 30 December | Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay, a second lieutenant in the Turkish army, was killed in a reactionary uprising. | |
| 1931 | 16 March | The first female Turkish surgeon, Dr. Suat, received her specialty. |
| 26 March | The Measurements Law was accepted, abolishing the former Arabic length and weight measurement units and replacing them with the metric system (kilogram instead of okka, meter instead of endaze, etc.) | |
| 20 April | Mustafa Kemal Atatürk historically declared the slogan "Peace at home, peace in the world!" | |
| 4 May | Seventh cabinet by İsmet İnönü | |
| 25 July | A new press law was accepted. | |
| 1932 | 18 July | Turkey became a member of the League of Nations. |
| 31 July | Turkish woman Keriman Halis Ece was declared the World Beauty Queen at a contest in Belgium. | |
| 13 November | Dr. Müfide Kazim became the first female Turkish government physician. | |
| 12 December | Adile Ayda became the first female Turkish civil servant in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. | |
| 1933 | 7 February | The first Turkish-language mosque prayers began in Istanbul. |
| 31 May | The 480-year-old Darülfünun was abolished, to be converted into Istanbul University. | |
| June | Sümerbank and Halkbank were established. | |
| 26 October | Turkish women were granted the right to vote and be elected to Village Councils. | |
| 18 November | Istanbul University was opened. | |
| 1 December | The first five year development plan was accepted. | |
| 1934 | 21 June | The Surname Law was accepted, abolishing the former titles of Bey, Effendi, Pasha, Sultan, and Hanım as of 26 November. |
| 24 November | Mustafa Kemal Pasha took the surname Atatürk. | |
| The Hagia Sofia mosque was converted to the Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia) Museum. | ||
| 5 December | Turkish women were granted the right to vote and be elected in Turkish parliamentary elections. (Afterwards, in the first elections, 18 women were elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly). | |
| 1935 | 1 March | Eight cabinet by İsmet İnönü. |
| 1936 | 29 May | A law determining the size and ratios of the star and crescent in the Turkish flag was accepted. |
| 8 June | A labor law was accepted which represented the first step towards the Turkish Social Security System. | |
| 1937 | 27 January | Hatay's independence was accepted by the League of Nations in its Geneva meeting. |
| 9 June | A law establishing a medical faculty in Ankara was accepted. | |
| 20 September | Atatürk opened the first art gallery in his residence, the Dolmabahce Palace. | |
| 9 October | Atatürk opened the Nazilli Printed Cloth Fabric Factory. | |
| 25 October | Ninth cabinet by Celâl Bayar, former minister of Economy | |
| Dersim Rebellion in 1937-1938 : The revolt had quashed by government. | ||
| 1938 | 10 November | The founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died. He was succeeded by İsmet İnönü, former prime minister and general. He declares himself "National Chief" (Milli Şef), similar to the titles of some other dictators in Europe at the time. |
| 1939 | World War II: World War II began. Turkey was to remain neutral for most of the war, until a declaration of war against Germany at its end. | |
| 7 July | The Province of Hatay joined Turkey. | |
| 1950 | 14 May | First Democratic Elections in Turkish Republic. General İsmet İnönü and his Republican People's Party, which had ruled the country since 1923, loses election to newly formed Democratic Party of Celâl Bayar and Adnan Menderes. |
| 25 June | Korean War: The Korean War began. Turkey was a part of the joint UN operation. | |
| Müfide İlhan mayor of Mersin. First ever woman mayor in Turkey. | ||
| 1952 | Turkey became a NATO member country strategically important in countering Soviet influence. | |
| 1953 | 27 July | Korean War: The war ended. |
| 1954 | Turkey began to host the United States Air Force at the Incirlik Air Base as a deterrent to the Soviet Union. | |
| 1955 | 6 September | Istanbul Pogrom: The Istanbul Pogrom started the process of driving many Greeks and Christians from Turkey. |
| 7 September | Istanbul Pogrom: The pogrom drew to a close. | |
| 1960 | 27 May | 38 officers of Army form a junta and organize the 1960 Turkish coup d'état. They claim the Islamists had gained influence in the government. After this clash over the "separation of religion and state/government" between İnönü's Republican People's Party and his opponents, democratically elected President Celâl Bayar and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes of Democratic Party, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was held responsible by a kangaroo court selected by the junta and was executed with two of his ministers. |
| 1965 | 14 October | Military rule bowed out to civilian rule, and former Milli Şef (National Chief) İsmet İnönü again loses a democratic election, this time to the Justice Party of Mr. Süleyman Demirel. |
| 1971 | 12 March | Military officials forced an advisory committee on the government due to the increasing anarchical situation caused by the Right (fascist/capitalist) – Left (communist) clash and ineffective policies in maintaining order. Although the military were not in charge they had significant influence. |
| 1974 | Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed coup on the island. | |
| 1980 | 12 September | The 1980 coup d'état took place. Martial law was almost immediately established and a quarter of the military (about 475,000) were mobilised to settle the resistance to the coup. |
| 1983 | 6 November | After the establishment of a new 1982 Constitution, the military regime dissolved itself. |
| 1991 | After the ending of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Incirlik Air Base enforced the northern no-fly zones in Iraq. | |
| 1999 | 24 March | Kosovo War: NATO interceded in the Balkans to end a civil war in the region. Turkey was part of the mission. |
| 10 June | Kosovo War: The war ended. |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Turkish History
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“To turn away a guest is poorest poverty;
To bear with fools is mightiest might.”
—Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)