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Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo
Ferdinand - and his wife Sophie - were killed by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip while on a formal visit to Sarajevo. Princip shot Ferdinand at point blank range while the latter was travelling in his car from a town hall reception, having earlier that day already survived one assassination attempt. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on 28 June 1914, set in train a series of diplomatic events that led inexorably to the outbreak of war in Europe -
Kaiser William II promised German support for Austria against Serbia
Franz Ferdinand's aged father, Emperor Franz Joseph, dispatched a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany contended: "The crime against my nephew is the direct consequence of agitation carried on by Russians and Serbians. Their sole aim is to weaken the Triple Alliance and shatter my empire." Franz Joseph asked Kaiser Wilhelm II for support. On July 5, the Kaiser assured Austria that she could count on backing from Germany. -
Austria declared war on Serbia
On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Germany declared war on Russia
The Imperial German Government have used every effort since the beginning of the crisis to bring about a peaceful settlement. In compliance with a wish expressed to him by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, the German Emperor had undertaken, in concert with Great Britain, the part of mediator between the Cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg; but Russia, without waiting for any result, proceeded to a general mobilisation of her forces both on land and sea. -
Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. Germany had to implement the Schlieffen Plan.
The Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staff's early 20th century overall strategic plan for victory in a possible future war in which the German Empire might find itself fighting on two fronts: France to the west and Russia to the east. The First World War later became such a war, with both a Western and an Eastern Front.The plan took advantage of expected differences in the three countries' speed in preparing for war. In short, it was the German plan to avoid a two-front war by concentra -
Britain declared war on Germany
In the summer of 1914 Europe plunged into war. Isolated by the English Channel and protected by the much vaunted Royal Navy, Britain, as always, had the chance to decide whether or not to participate in the struggle. After the German invasion of Belgium, Britain decided to come to the aid of Belgium and France and subsequently declared war on Germany. -
The BEF started its retreat from Mons. Germany invaded France
The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British army attempted to hold the line of the Mons-Condé Canal against the advancing German First Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically superior Germans,they still had to retreat. -
Russian army defeated at Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes.
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of World War I. It was fought by the Russian First and Second Armies against the German Eighth Army.Although the battle actually took place close to Allenstein (Olsztyn), General Erich Ludendorff's aide, Colonel Max Hoffmann, suggested naming it after Tannenberg, -
Battle of the Marne started
The Battle of the Marne (French: Première bataille de la Marne) (also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive. -
First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders (French: 1re Bataille des Flandres), was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium in October 1914. The German and Western Allied attempts to secure the town from enemy occupation included a series of further battles in and around the West Flanders Belgian municipality. -
Turkey entered the war on Germany’s side. Trench warfare started to dominate the Western Front.
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are significantly protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. The most prominent case of trench warfare is World War I. It has become a byword for attrition warfare, for stalemate in conflict: A slow wearing down of opposing forces. -
The first Zeppelin raid on Britain took place
The German airships were operated by both the Army and Navy as two entirely separate divisions. Over the course of World War I, the Zeppelins were mainly used in reconnaissance missions for the Navy. Bombing missions, especially those targeting London, captured the public's imagination, but, in the end, proved to have only psychological value, and were not a military success. These were executed by both Navy and Army aircraft. -
Britain bombarded Turkish forts in the Dardanelles
The naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign of the First World War were mainly carried out by the Royal Navy with substantial support from the French and minor contributions from Russia and Australia. The Dardanelles Campaign began as a purely naval operation. When that failed to overcome Ottoman defences, an invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula was launched in which naval forces were heavily involved. Throughout the campaign, attempts were made by submarines to pass through the Dardanelles -
Allied troops landed in Gallipoli
Gallipoli was one of the Allies great disasters in World War One. Gallipoli was the plan thought up by Winston Churchill to end the war early by creating a new war front that the Central Powers could not cope with.Churchill’s idea was simple. Creating another front would force the Germans to split their army still further as they would need to support the badly rated Turkish army. -
The “Lusitania” was sunk by a German U-boat
The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I. On board were 1,959 people, 159 of whom were Americans. -
Italy declared war on Germany and Austria
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I on the side of the Allies -Britain, France and Russia.
When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, Italy declared itself neutral in the conflict, despite its membership in the so-called Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1882. Over the course of the months that followed, Italy and its leaders weighed their options; wooed by both sides, they carefully considered how to gain the greatest benefit. -
The Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians
After roughly a month of fighting, the Russian soldiers were told to leave Poland to reinforce areas further East, allowing the Germans to take Warsaw. After these Russian failures, many Russian civilians protested against the Minister of War, eventually causing power over the military to be given to the Tsar himself. -
Start of the Battle of Loos
The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army units. -
The Allies started the evacuation of Gallipoli
Allied forces begin a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties and a greatly discredited Allied military command. Roughly an equal number of Turks were killed or wounded. -
Start of the Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies.Verdun resulted in 714,321 casualties, 377,231 on the French side and 337,000 on the German side. -
British forces surrendered to Turkish forces at Kut in Mesopotamia
In the single largest surrender of troops in British history to that time, some 13,000 soldiers under the command of Sir Charles Townshend give in on April 29, 1916, after withstanding nearly five months under siege by Turkish and German forces at the town of Kut-al-Amara, on the Tigris River in the Basra province of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). -
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Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War it started on 1 July and 18 and ended on November 1916 on either side of the river Somme in France. The battle saw the British Expeditionary Force mount a joint offensive, with the French Army against the German Army, which had occupied large areas of France since its invasion of the country in August 1914. -
First use en masse of tanks at the Somme
The tank had an interesting role in World War One. The tank was first used at the little known Battle of Flers. It was then used with less success at the Battle of the Somme. Though the tank was highly unreliable – as one would expect from a new machine – it did a great deal to end the horrors of trench warfare and brought back some mobility to the Western Front. -
Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945), was a British Liberal politician and statesman. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led a Wartime Coalition Government between 1916 and 1922 and was the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1926 to 1931. -
Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare campaign started
On this day in 1917, the lethal threat of the German U-boat submarine raises its head again, as Germany returns to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare it had previously suspended in response to pressure from the United States and other neutral countries. -
USA declared war on Germany
President Wilson appeared before a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany in order to "make the world safe for democracy." On April 4, Congress granted Wilson's request. America thus joined the carnage that had been ravaging Europe since 1914. Germany's renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare and the revelation of a proposed German plot to ally with Mexico against the US prompted Wilson's action. -
Turning point
The usa joining the war was a turning point for each of the major nations involved. If the usa did not join the war our history would be told diffrent and our would would be drastically changed. -
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Vimy Ridge
At 5:30 a.m. on 9 April 1917, Easter Monday, nearly 1,000 guns opened fire on the German positions. An estimated 15,000 Canadians rose from the trenches and advanced towards the ridge in the first wave, with thousands more behind them. Despite hard fighting all across the front, the Canadians captured most of the ridge on the 9th, and the remaining portions of it by the 12th. -
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Vimy Ridge
The victory at Vimy was a defining event for Canada,Over four days of bloody fighting, the Canadians had overrun Vimy Ridge at the cost of more than 10,600 killed and wounded. -
Consequence of Vimy Ridge
Over four days of bloody fighting, the Canadians had overrun Vimy Ridge at the cost of more than 10,600 killed and wounded. -
France launched an unsuccessful offensive on the Western Front
The Nivelle Offensive was a 1917 French attack on the Western Front in the First World War. Promised as the assault that would end the war within 48 hours, with casualties expected of around 10,000 men, it failed. -
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Battle of Caporetto – the Italian Army was heavily defeated
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers), took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in Slovenia), on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town of Kobarid (known as Karfreit in German).Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian army, -
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Britain captured Jerusalem from the Turks
The Battle of Jerusalem (officially named the "Jerusalem Operations" by the British) developed from 17 November with fighting continuing until 30 December 1917 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I -
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British tanks won a victory at Cambrai
The Battle of Cambrai was a British campaign of the First World War. Cambrai, in the Nord département, was a key supply point for the German Siegfried Stellung (part of the Hindenburg Line) and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would be an excellent gain from which to threaten the rear of the German line to the north. The operation was to include an experimental artillery action. Major General Tudor, Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 9th Division, suggested trying out new artillery-infantry. -
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Armistice between Germany and Russia signed
The armistice embraces the land and aerial forces on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and also the Russo-Turkish front in Asia Minor. During the armistice the parties concerned obligate themselves not to increase the number of troops on the above fronts or on the islands in Moon Sound, or to make a regrouping of forces. Neither side is to make operative any transfers of units. -
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between Russia and Germany.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus) between Russia (the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) and the Central Powers marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, who were tied up in fighting the Russian Civil War, -
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Germany started an offensive in Flanders
It was originally planned by General Ludendorff as Operation George but reduced to become Operation Georgette, with the objective of capturing Ypres and forcing the British forces back to the Channel ports (and thereby out of the war). The battle began on 7 April 1918, and lasted until 29 April. -
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Turkish forces collapsed at Megiddo
The Battle of Megiddo was the final Allied offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The contending forces were the Allied Egyptian Expeditionary Force. -
Germany asked the Allies for an armistice
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It went into effect at 11 am on 11 November 1918, and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender. -
The surrendered German naval fleet at Scapa Flow was scuttled.
The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, after the end of the First World War. The High Seas Fleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships. Fearing that all of the ships would be seized and divided amongst the allied powers, the German commander, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, decided to scuttle the fleet. -
The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Germans.
The Treaty of was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919, and was printed in The League of Nations Treaty Series. -
The League of Nations is formed
The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation's task was simple - to ensure that war never broke out again. After the turmoil caused by the Versailles Treaty, many looked to the League to bring stability to the world. -
War of Turkish Independence
the Ottoman government signs treaty with Allies drastically reducing its territory to where it covered only part of modern Turkey, but also giving most of the control of the Ottoman nation over to the Allies. As a condition, the Sultan and his government were allowed to stay in power, but subservient to the Allies. This provokes the Turkish revolutionaries to begin their armed campaign against the Allies and the Ottoman forces still loyal to the sultan. -
Mussolini Rises to Power in Italy
The National Fascist Party, led by Mussolini, takes control of Italy. Socialist sects, inspired by communism in Russia, were causing chaos. As a result, the king, and other influential right-wingers saw fascism as a better alternative. Before rising to power, the National Fascist Party had taken the strongest, most effectual stance against socialist uprisings. Mussolini becomes Prime Minister in what is still a constitutional monarchy, where he shared power with the king. -
Hitler Rises to Head of State in Germany
As head of the popular Nazi Party, Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, sharing powers with President Hindenburg. When the Parliament building was set ablaze, Hitler convinced the public that it was the doing of the communists, allowing him have them arrested. -
German forces invaded Poland and World War II began.
The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. -
Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Britain and France had sworn to defend Poland. Honoring these obligations, the two countries sent ultimatums to Hitler demanding his withdrawal from Poland. Hitler declined to respond. On September 3, Prime Minister Chamberlain went to the airwaves to announce to the British people that a state of war existed between their country and Germany. World War II had begun. -
Germany and U.S.S.R., Germany's ally at the time, divide Poland between them.
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German forces invade Denmark and Norway. Allied troops helping Norway were defeated.
The Norwegian Campaign was a military campaign that was fought in Norway during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany, after the latter's invasion of the country. In April 1940, the United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force. -
Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands were invaded by Germany.
Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, known collectively as the Low Countries on May 10, 1940. This attack took place as part of Germany's overall plan to attack France and the British troops in France. The Germans decided to invade France through the Low Countries in order to avoid the heavily fortified Maginot Line along the French-German border. -
German troops occupied the Channel Islands. The first time that a part of Britain had been occupied by a foreign power since 1066.
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two British Crown dependencies in the English Channel, near the coast of Normandy. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be invaded and occupied by German forces during the war. -
Allied troops retreated to Dunkirk in France and were evacuated by a fleet of small boats.
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France. -
Italy declared war on Britain and France.
On this day in 1940, after withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain. -
France surrendered to Germany and a French government of collaboration was set up at Vichy.
The Armistice is signed on June 22. Under its terms, two thirds of France is to be occupied by the Germans. The French army is to be disbanded. In addition, France must bear the cost of the German invasion. -
The Battle of Britain. A German bombing offensive began.
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. -
End of the Battle of Britain with the German Luftwäffe demoralised.
The Battle of Britain Day is the name given to the large-scale aerial battle that took place on 15 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain -
President Roosevelt signed the Lend-lease Bill to aid Britain.
Lend-Lease was the law that started a program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the USSR, Republic of China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. -
Germany attacked Yugoslavia and Greece and handed Greece over to Italy.
The Battle of Greece is the common name for the invasion of Greece by Nazi Germany in April 1941. It followed a previous, unsuccessful Italian invasion known as the Greco-Italian War. It is usually distinguished from the Battle of Crete that came after mainland Greece had been subdued. These operations were part of the greater Balkans Campaign of Nazi Germany in World War II. -
Treaty of Friendship between Turkey and Germany signed.
The German Government and the Turkish Republic, inspired by a desire to place relations between the two countries on a basis of mutual confidence and sincere friendship, agreed without prejudice to present obligations of both countries to conclude a treaty. -
Germany turned against its Russian ally and Axis troops invaded the U.S.S.R.
Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II. -
Japan attacked Pearl Harbour.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. From the standpoint of the defenders, the attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions. -
El Alamein: Allied offensive opened in Egypt.
The Second Battle of El Alamein took place over 20 days from 23 October – 11 November 1942 near the Egyptian coastal city of El Alamein, and the Allies' victory marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. I -
The last German forces in Stalingrad surrendered to the Russian army.
On this day, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad surrender, despite Hitler's earlier declaration that "Surrender is out of the question. The troops will defend themselves to the last!" -
The German Army in North Africa finally collapsed.
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign). -
The Allies occupied the Island of Sicily after 39 days of fighting.
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign. -
Italy surrendered when Allied forces landed on the Italian mainland.
The British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery begins the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula, crossing the Strait of Messina from Sicily and landing at Calabria--the "toe" of Italy. On the day of the landing, the Italian government secretly agreed to the Allies' terms for surrender, but no public announcement was made until September 8. -
D-Day: 4,000 ships landed Allied troops in France (Normandy).
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 am British Double Summer Time (GMT+2). In planning, as for most Allied operations, the term D-Day was used for the day of the actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. -
German generals unsuccessfully attempted to kill Hitler with a bomb
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government. The failure of both the assassination and the military coup d'état which was planned to follow it led to the arrest of at least 7,000 people by the Gestapo. -
Paris liberated.
The liberation of Paris, in theory, was only a matter of time after the success of D-Day in June 1944. The taking of Paris and its liberation would have been a massive morale boost not to just those who lived in Paris but to French people in general, but it did not seem to be a high priority to Allied leaders. -
All German resistance ended after suicide of Hitler and capture of Berlin (VE Day).
On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a "1,000-year" Reich. -
Fifty nations signed the United Nations charter in San Francisco
The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries (Poland, the other original member, which was not represented at the conference, signed it two months later). -
Hiroshima, Japan, was destroyed by an atomic bomb. Nagasaki was bombed three days later
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. -
Japan surrendered to the Allies unconditionally (VJ Day).
The surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent
