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Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.
He and his wife were killed by an assassin's bullets just hours after they had escaped another assassination attempt. Gavrilo Princip was immediately arrested for the shooting. -
Beggining of WW1
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, beginning World War I. -
German invasion
Germany invades Luxembourg and Belgium. France invades Alsace. British forces arrive in France. Nations allied against Germany were eventually to include Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, Romania, Greece, France, Belgium, United States, Canada, Serbia, India, Portugal, Montenegro and Poland. -
Austria-Hungary invades Russia.
The spark which set Europe (and the rest of the world) alight was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Austria blamed Serbia, which then looked to Russia for support. -
First battle of Marne
Allied forces halt German advance into France during the First Battle of the Marne. -
Germany begins naval blockade of Great Britain.
This led to Germany declaring waters surrounding Britain to be a war zone, which led to the sinking of a US vessel and the entrance of the United States into the War. -
Allied forces in the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula of the Ottoman Empire. -
German submarine sinks the passenger liner Lusitania.
On this date, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished, including 123 Americans. -
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
Italy resigned from the Triple Alliance and later declared war against Austria-Hungary at midnight on May 23. -
Germany begins the attack on Verdun.
The Battle of Verdun began when the German army started pounding the forts and trenches with artillery fire. 1,200 guns smashed the French positions. -
Naval Battle of Jutland (British vs German)
The Battle of Jutland was the largest sea battle of the First World War. It pitted 151 British warships against 99 German ships and was the first and only time the two battle fleets confronted each other. -
Allied offensive begins the Battle of the Somme.
The offensive began on July 1, 1916 after a week-long artillery bombardment of the German lines. Advancing British troops found that the German defences had not been destroyed as expected and many units suffered very high casualties with little progress. -
Battle of Verdun ends
It was known for its brutality and it went on for 10 months.
550,000 French and 450,000 German casualties. -
Germany returns to unrestricted submarine warfare.
The threat of the German U-boat submarine raised its head again, as Germany returned to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare it had previously suspended in response to pressure from the US and other neutral countries. -
United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
The US President, Woodrow Wilson, announced to the US Congress that the government was severing diplomatic ties with Germany over the Imperial German Navy's decision to engage in unlimited submarine warfare. -
General Pershing arrives in England with his staff.
General John J. Pershing was the newly selected commander of the American Expeditionary Forces who arrived in England on June 13, 1917. -
American combat forces arrive in France.
On this date, the first 14,000 American soldiers began arriving at the port of St Nazaire (France). Their arrival had been kept a secret to further guard against German intervention, but it did not take long for the local French population to begin cheering them through the streets. -
Russia signs armistice with Germany.
An armistice was signed between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on one side and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) on the other. -
President W. Wilson presents his outline of Fourteen Points required for peace.
The Fourteen Points were a proposal made by the US President Woodrow Wilson in a speech before the Congress on January 8, 1918. They outlined his vision for ending World War I in a way that would prevent such a conflagration from it occurring again. -
Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany.
In the city of Brest-Litovsk, located in modern-day Belarus (near the Polish border), Russia signed a treaty with the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) ending its participation in World War I. -
Germany begins its final offensive of the war.
Near the Somme River in France, the German army launched its first major offensive on the Western Front in two years. At the beginning of 1918, Germany's position on the battlefields of Europe looked extremely strong. German armies occupied virtually all of Belgium and much of northern France. -
American women were recruited to work for the AEF.
A full contingent of “Hello Girls” arrived in France. They were recruited for their ability to speak French. Many of the women were the daughters or granddaughters of French-Canadian immigrants. -
United States forces are victorious in the Battle of Cantigny.
In the first sustained American offensive of World War I, an Allied force including a full brigade of nearly 4,000 United States soldiers, captured the village of Cantigny, on the Somme River in France, from their German enemy. -
American forces stop German attempt to cross the Marne River.
The fighting in and around the town of Chateau Thierry was a proving ground for Pershing's American Expeditionary Force. The Germans attacked, the AEF retaliated with a counter-assault and the enemy was repulsed and driven back commandingly. This battle would later be designated as the turning point of World War I. -
The Stars and Stripes suspends the Sporting Page.
The decision followed articles about famous US athletes running to get jobs at shipyards and farms to avoid military service under a War Department “Work or Fight” order. -
American First Army attacks St. Mihiel salient.
The Allied attack against the Saint-Mihiel salient provided the Americans with an opportunity to use their forces on the Western Front en masse. -
Allied forces begin the attack at Meusse-Argonne.
It was one of the attacks that brought an end to the War and was fought from September 26 to November 11 1918, when the Armistice was signed. -
Germany signs the Armistice at Compiègne, ending World War I.
At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. That morning, Germany, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne (France). -
British and American forces enter Germany.
The process of extricating the German army from Belgium and Luxembourg was very slow. The last Germans left France on the 26th, and on December 1 the British and Americans crossed the border into the Rhineland. -
Harold Ross assumes editorship of The Stars and Stripes.
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Orphans
The Stars and Stripes War Orphans Adoption Campaign ends after raising 123,047 francs and placing 3,444 orphans for adoption. -
Sporting Page returns to The Stars and Stripes.
The Stars and Stripes sporting page returned after having been dropped in late July of 1918. -
Peace conference begins at Paris.
Some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War. -
First anniversary of The Stars and Stripes.
The first anniversary of The Stars and Stripes was celebrated and its circulation surpassed 500,000. -
Draft of the Covenant of the League of Nations was completed.
Under Wilson's leadership, the conference was able to be drawn up and in a few days of intensive committee work, a document called the Covenant of the League of Nations was published (as a draft). -
Last edition of The Stars and Stripes was published.
The final edition was published on this date. Next day, some of its staff members organized a new Washington-based publishing house known as the Stars and Stripes Corporation. -
Treaties were signed.
Allied and German representatives signed the Treaty of Versailles.
The United States signed the Treaty of Guaranty, pledging to defend France in case of an unprovoked attack by Germany. -
The US Senate failed to ratify Treaty of Versailles.
In 1919 the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I, in part because President Woodrow Wilson had failed to take senators objections to the agreement into consideration. -
Treaty of Versailles takes effect.
The treaty gave some German territories to neighbouring countries and placed other German territories under international supervision. -
The US Senate failed to ratify Treaty of Versailles (2nd time).
On this date, the US Senate rejected for the second time the Treaty of Versailles, by a vote of 49-35, falling seven votes short of a two-thirds majority needed for approval. -
The US signed peace treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary.
The US President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution, which had been passed by the US Congress and ended the state of war between them and Germany, Austria and Hungary.