Erich Maria Remarque's antiwar novel, Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front), is published in Germany.

Virginia Woolf s groundbreaking examination of women and literature, A Room of One's Own, is published in England.

Construction of the Maginot Line, a system of fortifications on the French-German border, begins in France.

5 Jan.

Alexander I, king of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes since August 1921, proclaims himself dictator. On 3 October he officially renames the state Yugoslavia.

16 Jan.

Stalin expels Trotsky from European Russia and on 23 January arrests 150 of Trotsky's followers on charges of conspiracy. Trotsky takes refuge in Constantinople, then Norway, then Mexico, where in 1940 he is assassinated by Stalinists.

11 Feb.

The Lateran treaties between Italy and the Roman Catholic Church are signed, creating Vatican City — a 108.7-acre section of Rome encompassing Saint Peter's Church and the Vatican — as a sovereign state.

12 Feb.

English actress Lillie Langtry dies at...