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France loses Alsace & Loraine to Germany
Alsace-Lorraine was the name given to the 5,067 square miles of territory that was ceded by France to Germany in 1871 after the Franco-German War. This territory was retroceded to France in 1919 after World War I, was ceded again to Germany in 1940 during World War II, and was again retroceded to France in 19 -
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Russo-Japanese War
Following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launches a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated -
Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia
On October 6, 1908, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary announces its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dual provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the Ottoman Empire. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
In an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on this day in 1914. -
Austria-Hungary declares 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. -
Russia mobilizes army
Therefore, Russia promised to support France when it found out that Germany had declared war on France. Soon after, France urged Russia to mobilize because it was afraid of immediate attack from the Germans. -
Germany invades Belgium
On the same day as the Belgian reply Germany declared war on France; the former invaded Belgium the next day, which resulted in Britain's entry into the war to defend Belgian neutrality. -
Schlieffen Plan put into action
The Schlieffen Plan was the operational plan for a designated attack on France once Russia, in response to international tension, had started to mobilise her forces near the German border. The execution of the Schlieffen Plan led to Britain declaring war on Germany on August 4th, 1914. -
Start of the Battle of Marne
The World War I First Battle of the Marne featured the first use of radio intercepts and automotive transport of troops in wartime. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England -
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. -
Zimmerman Telegraph found
On this day in 1917, the text of the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany, is published on the front pages of newspapers across America. -
Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates
Crowned on May 26, 1894, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve in an era desperate for change -
U.S. enters World War I
Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally enters World War I. -
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Russian Civil War
A conflict fought in Russia (1918–21) after the Revolution, between the Bolshevik Red Army and the counter-revolutionary White Russians. The Bolsheviks were ultimately victorious, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established -
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October Revolution
In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting in motion political and social changes that would lead to the formation of the Soviet Union -
Fourteen Points Proposed
The first five of the Fourteen Points dealt with issues of broad international concern. The next eight points referred to specific territorial questions. -
Russia signs Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
On March 3, 1918, in the city of Brest-Litovsk, located in modern-day Belarus near the Polish border, Russia signs a treaty with the Central Powers ending its participation in World War I. -
Start of Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was one of the largest battles of the First World War. Fought between July 1 and November 1, 1918 near the Somme River in France, it was also one of the bloodiest military battles in history. On the first day alone, the British suffered more than 57,000 casualties, and by the end of the campaign the Allies and Central Powers would lose more than 1.5 million men. -
Armistice Signed
The Armistice was an armistice during the First World War between the Allies and Germany it was the agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front -
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates
Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the German kaiser and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I -
Treaty of Versalles signed
World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. -
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Stalin takes over Russia
Stalin became involved in revolutionary politics, as well as criminal activities, as a young man. Once in power, he collectivized farming and had potential enemies executed or sent to forced labor camps. Stalin aligned with the United States and Britain in World War II but afterward engaged in an increasingly tense relationship with the West known as the Cold War, -
Bloody Sunday
Czarist Russia is wracked with internal discontent that finally explodes into violence in St. Petersburg in what will become known as the Bloody Sunday Massacre.
