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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, visit Sarajevo in Bosnia. A bomb is thrown at their auto but misses. Undaunted, they continue their visit only to be shot and killed a short time later by a lone assassin. Believing the assassin to be a Serbian nationalist, the Austrians target their anger toward Serbia. The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the start of World War I. -
After weeks of speculation and mounting tension, Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. In this podcast, you'll hear how people reacted to this news. As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914. -
On May 7, 1915, the German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished, including 123 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson, however, took a cautious approach to responding to the attack, demanding from Germany an apology, compensation for American victims, and a pledge to discontinue unannounced submarine warfare. -
Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson who had campaigned on the slogan, "He kept us out of war." narrowly defeated Republican Charles E. Hughes in the U.S. presidential election This would allow Wilson to continue to benefit our country. -
On January 19, 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. Although Wilson had pledged to maintain peace, the combination of aggressive German tactics and the rise of communism compelled him to ask for a declaration of war. -
And on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on the German Empire, joining France, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Italy. They were arrayed against Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. -
British advance on Souchez river continues. French carry crest near Hurtebise ("Dragon's Cave"). First fighting contingent of American troops lands in France. The arrival of the American troops acted as a much-needed morale boost for the war-weary Allied soldiers. -
The Sedition Act of 1918 was enacted on May 16, 1918 to extend the Espionage Act of 1917. The Sedition Act covered a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government. -
At 5:10 am, in a railway car at Compiègne, France, the Germans sign the Armistice which is effective at 11 am--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Fighting continues all along the Western Front until precisely 11 o'clock, with 2,000 casualties experienced that day by all sides. Artillery barrages also erupt as 11 am draws near as soldiers yearn to claim they fired the very last shot in the war. -
The Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Paris Peace Conference to formally end all international hostilities between the Allies and the Central Powers, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led directly to World War I.
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