World War 1

  • assassination of archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo

  • the Falaba becomes the first passenger ship sunk by German U- boats

  • second battle of Ypres

    First use of poison gas
  • The Lusitania is sunk by German U-boats

    128 American Civilians are killed
  • Battle of Verdun begins

    Longes battle of the War
  • The Sussex is sunk by German U-boat

    results in the issue of the Sussex pledge
  • Battle of the Somme begins

    First use of tanks in combat by the British (failure)
  • President Woodrow Wilson is reelected

  • Battle of Verdun ends

  • Germany revokes the Sussex Pledge and resumes unrestricted submarine warfare

  • U.S. breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany

  • the Zimmermann telegram is published in U.S. newspapers

  • Tsar Nicolas 2 abdicates the Russian throne during Russian Revolution

  • U.S. Declares war on Germany

  • Congress passes the espionage act

  • Third Battle of Ypres begins

    at end 250,000 are left dead
  • U.S. declares war on Austria Hungary

  • Battle of Cambrai begins

    first British offensive designed around the use of the tank
  • President Wilson makes the "fourteen points" speech to congress

  • russia and Germany sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, removing Russia from the war

  • Tsar Nicholas 2 and his family are murdered by the Bolsheviks

  • Kaiser Wilhelm 2 of Germany abdicates the throne

  • Armistice day

    fighting ceases at 11 am over 8.5 million soldiers dead
  • peace negotiations begin in Paris

  • the Treaty of Versailles is signed

  • U.S. signs separate peace treaty with Austria

  • U.S. signs peace treaty with Germany

  • U.S. signs peace treaty with Hungary