-
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The alliance system pulled one nation after another into the conflict. Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the Archduke and his wife. The assassinations touched off a diplomatic crisis. -
Hollywood California
Hollywood, California, becomes te center of movie production in the U.S. To escape this, filmmakers began moving out west, where Edison's patents could not be enforced. Los Angeles became the capital of the film industry. -
German U-boats
German U-boats sink the Lusitania, and 1,198 people die. The vessel went down 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, 429 Ireland, killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I and became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell makes first transcontinental telephone call. Bell’s groundbreaking invention began with an error, however. Reading a thesis on sound written in German, a language he read poorly, left him with the belief that the author said sound could be transmitted over wires. -
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein proposes his general theory of relativity. Albert Einstein, in his theory of special relativity, determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and he showed that the speed of light within a vacuum is the same no matter the speed at which an observer travels. -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson is reelected president. A Democrat, in 1912 elected president after having served as president of his alma mater Princeton University. Wilson tried to keep the United States neutral during World War I but ultimately called on Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. -
Battles of Verdun
The battles of Verdun and the Somme claim millions of lives. Fought from 21 February – 18 December 1916 during First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies, on hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. -
Selective Service Act
The Selective Service Act sets up the draft. Authorized federal government to raise national army for American entry into World War I. The Act itself was drafted by then-Captain Hugh S. Johnson after the United States entered World War I by declaring war on Germany. -
War on Germany
The United States declare war on Germany. President Wilson asked for a declaration for war against Germany. April 4th granted success. -
Russia
Russia withdraws from the war. After the October Revolution of 1917. the country turned in on itself with a bloody civil war between the Bolsheviks and the conservative White Guard. -
First Word War end
The First World War ends. Germany surrended. On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war. -
Sedition Act
Congress passes Sedition Act. Extension of the Espionage Act of 1917. Cover a broader range of offenses. -
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks establish a Communist regime in Russia. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918. Continued several years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. -
League of Nations
President Wilson proposes the League of Nations. An intergovernmental organisation. It was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. -
Worldwide epidemic
During the late nineteenth-century, scientists had began understanding that diseases are caused by microorganisms. This was departure from traditional medical theories which had held that diseases were caused by miasmas or an imbalance in the body’s humors. A worldwide influenza epidemic kills over 30 million.