Mexico (sep 1, 1911 – sep 1, 1920)

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1911:

May 24 In Mexico City, Federal troops shoot at anti-Diaz demonstrators, killing about 200, with government officials admitting only 40 deaths.

May 25 President Porfirio Diaz signs his resignation and leaves Mexico City for Veracruz.

May 31 Porfirio Diaz sails from Veracruz to exile in France.

Jun 7 Madero enters Mexico City, accompanied by more than 100,000 supporters and celebrated by ecstatic crowds.

Jun 22 Madero's military drives an anarchist force from power in Tijuana.

Oct 1 In Mexico, Madero wins the presidency in what is described as reasonably fair voting.

Nov 6 Madero, 38, officially becomes President of Mexico.

Nov 8 Talks between Madero and Zapata anger Zapata. Madero, himself a wealthy landowner, appears to be supporting plantation owners rather than reforms that return lands stolen from the people Zapata is leading.

Nov 25 Having fled to his birthplace, the town of Ayala, 80 kilometers south of Mexico City, Zapata and others create the Plan of Ayala. It declares President Madero a traitor to the revolution and names Pascual Orozco as the revolution's leader, and it outlines land reform.

1912:

Mar 3 Orozco proclaims his revolt against Madero's government.

Mar 23 In Mexico, Orozco's forces smash Madero's Federalist army in the northern, Chihuahua, area. Madero is alarmed and brings Victoriano Huerta out of retirement, hoping to quell Orozco's rebellion.

May 23 Huerta and his federal army defeats Orozco's force, and retreats north to Chihuahua.

Jul 1 Pursued by Huerta, Orozco moves his headquarters farther north to the city Juarez, on the US border.

Jul 1 Pursued by Huerta, Orozco moves his headquarters farther north to the city Juarez, on the US border.

Aug 16 Madero's General Huerta defeats Orozco in several battles. Huerta takes the city of Jaures, and Orozco goes into exile to Los Angeles. Angry responses of some communities to Orozco's undisciplined men will be said to have contributed to Orozco's losses.

Oct 23 Felix Diaz, the nephew of the former dictator Porfirio Diaz ,has started a revolt against Madero. He tries to appeal to military men who appreciate the order created by his uncle. His uprising lasts a few days, and he goes to prison.

Dec 31 Madero believed that drafting young men into military service would make the army a people's army and less likely to follow reactionary commanders who might want to overthrow him. But people are unenthusiastic about military conscription, and the year ends with many disappointed that Madero has not made the great change in their lives that they expected.

1913:

Feb 19 Encouraged by President Taft's ambassador to Mexico, General Victoriano Huerta overthrows President Madero and proclaims himself Provisional President of Mexico. Huerta puts Madero under guard at the national palace.

Feb 22 Huerta has Madero murdered. The Huerta administration claims that Madero was ambushed by a group not under its orders while Madero was being transferred to a prison.

Mar 13 Pancho Villa, who has supported the presidency of Madero and has been in self-imposed exile in El Paso, Texas, returns to Mexico to rebuild his army and fight Huerta.

Mar 26 In Mexico the governor of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, a wealthy, educated and dour liberal from a cattle-raising family, begins a well-organized rebellion against Huerta's government.

Oct 1 Pancho Villa's troops take Torreón in north-central Mexico (about 600 kilometers south of the US border) after a 3-day battle, following a retreat by Huerta's force. President Wilson announces that if Huerta doesn't resign from power the US will force him out of office.

1914:

Apr 21 In Mexico the Huerta regime is upset by President Wilson not having recognized his government. He has made prisoners of some unarmed US sailors at the port of Tampico. President Wilson sends the US Navy and Marines that land at Veracruz. This arouses Mexican patriotism and elevates President Huerta, who will be perceived as fighting the invaders. Mobs in Mexico City will assault American businesses.

Jul 14 In Mexico, from different directions, armies led by Carranza, Villa and Zapata have been converging on Mexico City. The US at Veracruz has cut arms shipments to President Huerta. Huerta's posturing against the United States has not saved him. He resigns and will go into exile on a German ship to Spain.

Aug 20 Carranza has won broad support across Mexico. He is a moderate who favors political reform but not land redistribution or social reform. He declares himself president over the objections of Pancho Villa. Villa and his fellow revolutionary, Zapata, refuse to lay down the arms of their armies.

1915

Apr 13 Carranza's army, led by Álvaro Obregón, defeats the forces of Pancho Villa at Celaya, 265 kilometers north-west of Mexico City. Villa loses around 4000 killed, Obregón from 600 to 1,000. Obregón wins using defense tactics learned from watching the Western Front in Europe. Villa employed frontal cavalary charges (offensive warfare).

Oct 19 The US recognizes Carranza's government, a slap against Villa, Zapata and other social revolutionaries.

Dec 7 Facing stalemate in what Churchill called a "soft underbelly," Allied forces begin a withdrawal from their Gallipoli campaign. The number of Allies having died in the campaign is approximately 46,000. The wounded number around 219,000. Nothing was gained.

1916:

Mar 8-9 Pancho Villa has bought faulty ammunition in Columbus, New Mexico. He and around 500 of his soldiers seek revenge and raid the town.

1917:

Jan 28 The US ordered General Pershing to end his drive against Pancho Villa. Pershing is unhappy about it. He has the same macho sentiments that have been displayed by German and French military leaders. He complains that we "are now sneaking home under cover, like a whipped curr with its tail between its legs." His troops will cross into the United States in eight days.

Feb 5 Mexico establishes a liberal political constitution.

Mar 11 Carranza is elected President of Mexico. The United States gives de jure recognition of his government

1919:

Apr 10 In Mexico, President Carranza is still at war with an army led by Emiliano Zapata. A unit of Carranza's army pretends to desert to join Zapata. Zapata goes to confer with them and is promptly assassinated.

1920:

Apr 20 In Mexico, President Carranza prefers civilian rule. The man he doesn't want as his successor, a former general on his left politically, Álvaro Obregón, announces that he intends to fight Carranza.

May 19-20 Álvaro Obregón's army pushes into Mexico City. Carranza flees by train and is shot and killed.

May 24 Carranza is buried in Mexico City. His allies gathered at his funeral are arrested. Adolfo de la Huerta, an Obregón ally, is appointed provisional president by Mexico's congress.

Jul 28 Pancho Villa signs a surrender and retires.

Oct 26 Álvaro Obregón is elected president of Mexico.

Dec 1 Obregón becomes Mexico's 39th President.

1923

Jul 20 Pancho Villa is assassinated at Hidalgo de Parral, Chihuahua, by a team of gunmen waiting for him while he is driving his Dodge roadster home from the bank.

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