1917. Society (2)

Society

1917. French dancer Mata Hari (Gertrud Margarete Zelle), 41, is convicted of having spied for the Germans and is executed October 15 at St. Lazare.

1917. The Balfour Declaration issued November 2 by Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour, says, "The British government favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of that object, its being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." British troops have invaded Palestine and taken it from the Ottoman Turks who have held it since 1516. Jerusalem falls to the British December 9.

1917. A Bolshevik revolution begins at Petrograd the night of November 6 (October 24 by the Julian calendar still used in Russia).

1917. The Kerenski government falls and a new government headed by Lenin takes office November 7 under the name Council of People's Commissars.

1917. Russian peasants seize landlords' fields as the Bolsheviks initiate plans to make Moscow the nation's capital.

1917. New York adopts constitutional amendment November 6, granting equal voting rights to women.