1. What did the president of the Watch Tower Society state after his tour of Europe in 1911?

EARLY in 1911, the president of the Watch Tower Society, C. T. Russell, gave a series of Bible lectures in major cities of Europe. Commenting on that tour, Russell wrote the following in The Watch Tower, May 15, 1911: “We were surprised to find so many evidences of prosperity everywhere . . . Our readers know that for some years we have been expecting this Age to close with an awful time of trouble, and we expect it to break out with suddenness and force not long after October, 1914, which, so far as we can understand the Scriptures, is the date at which the Times of the Gentiles​—the lease of earth’s dominions to the Gentiles—​will expire; the time, therefore, when Messiah’s kingdom will be due to begin its exercise of power.”

3, 4. What happened at the Society’s headquarters on Friday morning, October 2, 1914?

³ On Friday morning, October 2, 1914, Russell announced to the headquarters staff of the Watch Tower Society in Brooklyn, New York: “The Gentile times have ended; their kings have had their day.”