Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881 in Thessaloniki. A Turkish army officer and statesman, Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonica and became a prominent commander in the Ottoman army, notably at Gallipoli in 1915. After the First World War he led the Turkish national movement against the Allied occupation and won the War of Independence, and he abolished the sultanate in 1922. He proclaimed the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and was its first president until his death. His reforms were aimed at a secular and modern state, and they included the adoption of the Latin alphabet, new legal codes and the vote for women. In 1934 he was given the surname Atatürk, meaning father of the Turks.
Before and after
- 1881Launch of Los Angeles Times
- 1881Founding of Natural History Museum
- from 1881 to 1899Mahdist War
- 1881Founding of Kinshasa
- 1881Birth of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- 28 January 1881Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- from 14 March 1881 to 1 January 1947Kingdom of Romania
- 25 March 1881Birth of Béla Bartók
- 22 April 1881Birth of Alexander Kerensky
More in Wars, politics & history
- 1790Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- from 24 June 1812 to 14 December 1812French invasion of Russia
- from 18 March 1839 to 29 August 1842First Opium War
- from 1 August 1894 to 17 April 1895First Sino-Japanese War
- from August 1899 to September 1901Boxer Rebellion
- from 8 October 1912 to 30 May 1913First Balkan War
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.