The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the narrow isthmus of Panama, sparing ships the long voyage around Cape Horn. A French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps began digging in the 1880s but failed, defeated by landslides, financial collapse and tropical disease. The United States took over after Panama separated from Colombia in 1903, and its engineers built the canal with a system of locks and the artificial Gatun Lake, while Dr. William Gorgas's campaign against mosquitoes reduced yellow fever and malaria. The canal opened to traffic in 1914, just as the First World War began. The United States operated it until its transfer to Panama at the end of 1999, and a larger set of locks opened in 2016.
Before and after
- from 7 August 1914 to 13 September 1919Battle of the Frontiers
- from 8 August 1914 to 1 January 1917Expedition Endurance
- 9 August 1914Birth of Tove Jansson
- from 15 August 1914 to 24 August 1914Battle of Cer
- 15 August 1914Construction of Panama Canal
- from 17 August 1914 to 3 March 1918WWI Eastern Front
- 1 September 1914Martha, the last passenger pigeon, dies
- from October 1914 to July 1915German campaign in Angola
- from 16 October 1914 to 31 October 1914Battle of the Yser
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The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.