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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
[History Channel](www.history.com/topics/world-war-i)It caused the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on this day in 1914. -
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DECLARES WAR ON SERBIA. WORLD WAR I BEGINS
Did so in response to assassination of Franz Ferdinand. -
RUSSIANS ARE DEFEATED AT BATTLE OF TANNENBERG
History Channnel 2On the eastern front, Germans shatter the Russian Second Army and take over 92,000 prisoners at the Battle of Tannenberg. -
GERMANS CONDUCT AIR RAID ON PARIS
The attack has little military value, but is intended to terrorize civilians. -
CHRISTMAS TRUCE OBSERVED ON WESTERN FRONT
The sound of Christmas carols across No Man’s Land encourages troops from both sides to exchange greetings. The truce is spontaneous and was experienced by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of soldiers. -
GERMANY THREATENS SUBMARINE WARFARE AGAINST MERCHANT VESSELS
Germany warns that neutral vessels in British waters “would be destroyed without it always being possible to warn the crews and passengers.” -
IN SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES, GERMANS USE POISON GAS
In the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans open the assault with a chlorine gas attack, the first successful use of poison gas on the Western Front; more than 10,000 Allied troops are affected, over half of whom died. By May 25, the Allies withdraw. The affects of a gas attack are vividly described in Wilfred Owen’s poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, written in 1917. -
GERMAN U-BOAT TORPEDOES THE LUSITANIA
The Lusitania, a Cunard passenger ship sinks in British waters. A total of 1,198 drown, including many women and children and 124 U.S. citizens. Germans will end unlimited submarine warfare on September 1, 1915 because of worldwide outrage at this attack on civilian shipping. -
SUBMARINE WARFARE IS SUSPENDED
After the March 24 sinking of the passenger ship, Sussex, Woodrow Wilson again threatened breaking off relations with Germany. To avert the threat of America entering the war on the side of the Allies, the Germans call off their campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. -
THE UNITED STATES SEVERS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY
President Wilson tells a joint session of Congress that Germany’s policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare poses an unacceptable threat to “freedom of the seas.” -
UNITED STATES IS ALERTED ABOUT THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM, WHICH REVEALS GERMAN PLOT AGAINST AMERICA
Intercepted weeks earlier by the British intelligence service, the United States is alerted about the Zimmermann Telegram. German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman promises the return of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico as reward. -
THE UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY
The day after an overwhelming majority in the Senate votes for war, President Wilson signs the declaration. The United States quickly puts the entire country on the road to war. Going from a standing army of 133,000 men with almost no heavy artillery pieces, millions of men were inducted into the armed forces over the next two years and given basic combat training. -
MILLIONS OF AMERICAN MEN REGISTER FOR SERVICE ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE DRAFT
BBC WW1On the first day of the draft, millions of American men register for service under the Selective Service Act signed on May 18. Throughout the country, 9,586,508 men, ages 21 to 31, register at their local draft boards; in many places they are greeted by military bands and cheering onlookers. -
FIRST AMERICAN TROOPS LAND IN FRANCE
General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), greets the infantrymen and engineers as they step ashore. “They are sturdy rookies - we shall make great soldiers of them,” he is reported to have said. -
TREATY OF SEVRES ENDS THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Again, the terms were harsh, as the Treaty divided the Middle East with a British-controlled Palestine and Iraq, French governed Syria and Lebanon, and an independent Kingdom of Hejaz (present-day Saudia Arabia).
