France against the Ottomans and soon thereafter commences what would become known as The Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule. 16 May 1916: Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, which defines their respective spheres of influence and control in Western Asia after the expected demise of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It was largely a trade agreement with a large area set aside for indirect control through an Arab state or a confederation of Arab states. March–October 1915: The 1915 locust plague breaks out in region. 28 January–3 February 1915: The British Sinai and Palestine Campaign: First Suez Offensive – A battle between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire in which the Turks fail in their attempt to capture or destroy the Suez Canal and are forced to withdraw their forces. The canal was vital to the British war effort. 1915–1917: Famine in Syria resulting in up to 500,000 deaths due to severe shortage of supplies. 1914: Ottomans fight on the side of the Central Powers in World War I. May 1909: Hauran Druze Rebellion erupts. 11 April 1909: Tel Aviv was founded on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa. 1 September 1908: The Hejaz Railway opens. 1901: The Jewish National Fund was founded at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel with the aim of buying and developing land in the Galilee Palestine regions of Ottoman Syria for Jewish settlement. 1900–1908: Hejaz Railway: construction of Railroad Damascus-Medina. Notable births 1853 Musa al-Husayni (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Arab politician (d. 1934). 1856 Yaakov Meir (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish rabbi, first Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine (d. 1939). 1858 Yosef Navon (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish businessman who financed the construction of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway (d. 1934). 1870 Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche (b. Jaffa), Palestinian Jewish entrepreneur, businessman, industrialist, and pioneer (d. 1934). 1874 2 March – Yeshayahu Press (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish and Israeli researcher (d. 1955). Khalil Beidas (b. Nazareth), Palestinian Arab scholar and novelist (d. 1949). 1876 Pinchas David Horowitz (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish-born American Hasidic rabbi (d. 1941). Akiva Librecht (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish and Israeli Zionist activist and pioneer (d. 1958). 1880 23 May – Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel (b. Jerusalem), Palestinian Jewish and Israeli rabbi, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine and Israel (d. 1953). 18 August – Ya'akov Moshe Toledano (b. Tiberias), Palestinian Jewish and Israeli