WW1 Timeline

  • Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

    Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
    On June 28, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The assassination set off a chain of events that would lead to the start of World War I.
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    World War 1 Timeline

  • Germany declared war on Russia

    Germany declared war on Russia
    Germany declared war on Russia.
  • Lusitania sunk

    Lusitania sunk
    There were outraged protests from the United States at the German U-boat campaign, when the Lusitania, which had many American passengers aboard, was sank.
  • Dardenelles/Gallipoli

    Dardenelles/Gallipoli
    Despite the loss of several ships to mines, the British successfully landed a number of marines in the Gallipoli region of the Dardenelles. Unfortunately the success was not followed up and the mission was a failure.
  • Winston Churchill

    Winston Churchill
    Winston Churchill served in Belgium as lieutenant colonel of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
  • Battle of Jutland

    Battle of Jutland
    This was the only truly large-scale naval battle of the war. German forces, confined to port by a British naval blockade, came out in the hope of splitting the British fleet and destroying it ship by ship. However, the British admiral, Beatty, aware that the German tactics were the same as those used by Nelson at Trafalgar, sent a smaller force to lure the German's into the range of Admiral Jellicoe's main fleet.
  • German U-boat campaign

    German U-boat campaign
    In Germany, orders were given to step up the U-boat campaign. All allied or neutral ships were to be sunk on sight and in one month almost a million tons of shipping was sunk. Neutral countries became reluctant to ship goods to Britain and Lloyd George ordered all ships carrying provisions to Britain to be given a convoy.
  • USA declares war on Germany

    USA declares war on Germany
    The United States of America declared war on Germany in response to the sinking, by German U boats, of US ships
  • German U-boats appear in US waters.

    German U-boats appear in US waters.
    German U-boats appear in US waters for first time
  • Armistice with Germany (End of World War 1)

    Armistice with Germany (End of World War 1)
    The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in World War 1. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on November 11, 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, but not technically a surrender.
  • Treaty Of Versailles

    Treaty Of Versailles
    The Treaty of Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in the shadow of the Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence its title - between Germany and the Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.