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Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo
Shophie (his wife) and Francis were shot dead by Gavrilo Princip. -
Austria declared war on Serbia
One month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Germany declared war on Russia
Four days after Austria declared war on Serbia, two more great European powers—Russia and Germany—declare war on each other; the same day, France orders a general mobilization. -
Britain declared war on Germany
It was a decision that is seen as the start of World War One. Britain, led by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, had given Germany an ultimatum to get out of Belgium by midnight of August 3rd. -
Battle of the Marne started
an offensive during World War I by the French army and the British Expeditionary Force against the advancing Germans who had invaded Belgium and northeastern France and were within 30 miles of Paris. -
The first Zeppelin raid on Britain took place
During World War I, Britain suffers its first casualties from an air attack when two German zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn on the eastern coast of England. -
The “Lusitania” was sunk by a German U-boat
A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. -
Italy declared war on Germany and Austria
On this day in 1915, Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I on the side of the Allies—Britain, France and Russia. -
The Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians
The Germans attacked the Russian forces in Poland. Battles raged across Poland both in the north, around Warsaw, and in the south, around Cracow. -
Start of the Battle of Loos
he Battle of Loos was a World War I battle that took place in 1915 on the Western Front. British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units -
Start of the Battle of Verdun
This World War I siege stemmed from German General Erich von Falkenhayn’s edict to elicit major bloodshed from the French defense of the fortress complex around Verdun. Both sides were left with more than 600,000 casualties. -
Battle of Jutland
Involving some 250 ships and 100,000 men, this battle off Denmark’s North Sea coast was the only major naval surface engagement of World War I. The battle began in the afternoon of May 31, 1916, with gunfire between the German and British scouting forces. -
Start of the Brusilov Offensive
On this day in 1916, the Battle of Lutsk marks the beginning of the Brusilov Offensive, the largest and most successful Allied offensive of World War I. -
First use en masse of tanks at the Somme
During the Battle of the Somme, the British launch a major offensive against the Germans, employing tanks for the first time in history. -
Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was a liberal British statesman who became prime minister during World War I. -
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
On this day, Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States, bringing America, which had been neutral, into the European conflict. -
Start of the Third Battle at Ypres
the Allies launch a renewed assault on German lines in the Flanders region of Belgium, in the much-contested region near Ypres, during World War I. The attack begins more than three months of brutal fighting, known as the Third Battle of Ypres. -
British tanks won a victory at Cambrai
The World War I Battle of Cambrai marked the first large-scale use of tanks for a military offensive. -
Britain captured Jerusalem from the Turks
On the morning of this day in 1917, after Turkish troops move out of the region after only a single day s fighting, officials of the Holy City of Jerusalem offer the keys to the city to encroaching British troops. -
Germany broke through on the Somme
German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. -
Germany started an offensive in Flanders
Two major offensives took place on the Western Front, both based on movement as opposed to the trench mentality of the previous years. -
The advance of the Allies was successful
Was the opening phase of the Allied offensive later known as the Hundred Days Offensive that ultimately led to the end of the First World War. -
Germany’s navy mutinied
Sailors in the German High Seas Fleet steadfastly refuse to obey an order from the German Admiralty to go to sea to launch one final attack on the mighty British navy, echoing the frustrated, despondent mood of many on the side of the Central Powers during the last days of World War I. -
Kaiser William II abdicated
The German kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I -
Germany signed an armistice with the Allies
Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France.
