SS Tubantia. Image courtesy http://www.machuproject.eu/
- The Dutch liner SS Tubantia is torpedoed without warning in the North Sea. En route from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires, the liner is anchored 90km off the Dutch coast for the night, awaiting daylight. At 2.30am she is struck by a torpedo from the German submarine UB-13 and begins to sink. All 80 passengers and all 294 members of the crew are rescued, but the liner sinks – the largest neutral vessel to be sunk during WWI. Tubantia sank with a reputed £2 million worth of gold coins, and in 1924 was the subject of a salvage dispute. British war hero Sydney Vincent Sippe spent three years and £100,000 trying to access the gold, but abandoned the attempt concluding that it was too dangerous. The Sinking of the SS Tubantia
- French forces repulse five successive German attacks on Vaux in the Battle of Verdun
- Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip James Vandeleur Kelly invade the Sultanate of Darfur. Darfur 1916
- General Pierre Auguste Roques succeeds General Joseph Gallieni as French Minister of War. Roques is credited as the founder of the French air force.
Portrait of French general Pierre Auguste Roques by unknown artist. Image courtesy L’Illustration.
