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Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the Austrian throne, and when he was murdered, the Austria-Hungarian people were very angry. They believed the assassin to be Serbian nationalist, so they targeted their anger to Serbia. This caused WWI to begin, so it started the dominos that brought the US into the war. -
Great Britain declared war on Germany, and this declaration was binding to all of the British territories and colonies. As the war began in Europe, though, president Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that the USA would remain neutral, which most citizens agreed with. -
The German submarine (U-boat) sunk the British Cruiser named Lusitania. 1,195 people were killed, and 123 of them were Americans. Subsequently, Woodrow Wilson sent four diplomatic protests to Germany, however Germany apologized. The USA still remained neutral. -
The US voters re-elected president Woodrow Wilson and he won the election on November 7, 1916. The citizens were claiming "he kept us out of war." Woodrow Wilson served as the US President from 1913-1921. -
On January 19, 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by the German government to Mexico City, and the telegram outlined a plan for an alliance between these two countries against the USA. This caused an outcry from US interventionists. -
On April 6, 1917 the US congress passed the declaration of war. They went to war for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that Germany had continued US attacking merchant and passenger ships. -
On June 25, 1917, the first American troops land in France. The US thought that this was a secret, but the plans get leaked to Germany. -
The Sedition Act of 1918 was enacted on May 16 to expand the Espionage Act of 1917. This act made it a crime for American citizens to say or publish anything malicious about the US government. -
After over 4 years of horrifying fighting and loss, the guns on the Western front fell silent. Germany signed the Armistice, so at 11am, all fighting stops. at least 2738 troops on that day before 11am, and at least 328 of those were US troops. -
The Treaty of Versailles was signed by many global powers, including, of course Germany. The USA was a strong advocate for it, however, the reparations Germany had to pay were extreme and this ended up eventually leading to World War II.