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Rasputin is murdered
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The German minister, Arthur Zimmermann, sends a telegram through the German ambassador in Washington to the German ambassador in Mexico offering Mexico an alliance against the United States. He proposes that Mexico will be assisted in retaking Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The telegram is intercepted and decoded by British intelligence and given to President Woodrow Wilson. (The telegram becomes instrumental in forming American public opinion against Germany.
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Belgium Council of Flanders is established.
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US Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson's veto, curtailing Asian immigration.
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The February Revolution begins with strikes, demonstrations, and mutinies in Petrograd 13-17 february
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Czar Nicholas II abdicates and includes his son. The following day, Nicholas' brother, Mikhail announced his refusal to accept the throne. Provisional Government formed
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British and Indian troops occupy Basra to protect the oil pipeline from Iran. British troops occupy Baghdad.
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US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany.
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Lenin returns from exile and arrives in Petrograd via a sealed train
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Canadian troops capture Vimy Ridge. The Canadians had seized ground of great military importance, and inflicted heavy casualties on the German Army.
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The July Days begin in Petrograd with spontaneous protests against the Provisional Government; after the Bolsheviks unsuccessfully try to direct these protests into a coup, Lenin is forced into hiding
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The British detonate 19 large mines containing some 455 tonnes of explosive under the Messines Ridge in Belgium. The resulting explosions could be heard as far away as London and Dublin. More than 10,000 German soldiers are killed and much of the fortifications along the ridge are destroyed, as well as the town of Messines itself.
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Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the Provisional Government
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The main offensive of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) begins. The Allies suffered about thirty-two thousand casualties – killed, wounded or missing – in this one action
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The Kornilov affair, or the Kornilov putsch, was an attempted military coup d'état by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, in August 1917 against the Russian Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky and the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers and Workers Deputies
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the Bolsheviks take over Petrograd, they do this by taking control of all the telegram stations, and the forts within petrograd.
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The Winter Palace, the last holdout of the Provisional Government, is taken by the Bolsheviks; the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviated as Sovnarkom), led by Lenin, is now in control of Russia
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On the Alpine Front between Italy and Austria-Hungary, the 12th, and final Battle of Isonzo ends in terminal failure for the Italian army. Austria-German forces (among them a young Erwin Rommel) breakthrough at Caporetto. Italian losses total more than 300,000. At least 60,000 soldiers from both sides were killed by avalanches.
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The United States declares war on Austro-Hungary.
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The British capture Jerusalem from the Turks. Edmund Allenby enters the city on foot in respect for the Holy City and quickly posts guards to protect all the sites held sacred by the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions.
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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, between Germany and Russia, is signed and takes Russia out of World War I
