This year is notable for the Sinking of the Titanic in April 15, 1912. Events January January 1 – The Republic of China is established. January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. January 6 German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift. New Mexico become the 47th U.S. State. January 8 – The African National Congress is founded as the South African Native National Congress, at the Waaihoek Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein, to promote improved rights for black South Africans, with John Langalibalele Dube as its first president. January 14 – Raymond Poincaré forms a coalition government in France, beginning his first term of office as Prime Minister on 21 January. January 17 – British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four become the second expeditionary group to reach the South Pole. January 18 (Old Style January 5) – Prague Conference: Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party break away from the rest of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. January 23 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague to restrict exports. February February 12 – The Manchu Qing dynasty of China comes to an end after 268 years with the abdication of Emperor Puyi in favour of the Republic of China. February 24 – Battle of Beirut: Italy makes a surprise attack on the Ottoman port of Beirut, when the cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi and the gunboat Volturno bombard the harbour, killing 97 sailors and civilians. February 29 – Serbia and Bulgaria secretly sign a treaty of alliance for a term of eight years, with each pledging to come to the defense of the other during war. March March 1 – Albert Berry is reported to have made the first parachute jump from a flying airplane. March 6 – Italian forces become the first to use airships in war as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet. March 7 – Roald Amundsen, in Hobart, Tasmania, announces his success in reaching the South Pole the previous December. March 12 – The Girl Scouts is founded by Juliette Gordon Low, in Savannah, Georgia. March 16 – Lawrence Oates, dying member of Scott's South Pole expedition, leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time." March 22 – The State