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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated on June 28, 1914 by a Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. He had survived another assassination attempt that morning. His wife, Sophie, was also hit and killed.
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The Austrian government blamed the Serbian government for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife and declared war on Serbia.
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Britan declares war on Germany becuase Germany did not withdraw from Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany.
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Russia's army marched into Prussia but Russia couldn't get supplies to men. The Germans then surrounded the Russians. The ensuing battle was a heavy defeat for the Russians with thousands of men killed and 125,000 taken prisoner. Although the Germans won the battle, 13,000 men were killed.
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Turkey entered the war on the side of the central powers and gave help to a German naval bombardment of Russia.
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The first Zeppelins appeared over the English coast.
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A German U-boat torpedoed and sunk the liner Lusitania. America was outraged because many americans were killed.
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Italy Enters the war on the side of the Allies
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The Germans mounted an attack on the French at Verdun designed to 'bleed the French dry'. Although the fighting continued for nine months, the battle was inconclusive. Casualties were enormous on both sides with the Germans losing 430,000 men and the French 540,000.
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This was the only truly large-scale naval battle of the war. German forces, confined to port by a British naval blockade, came out in the hope of splitting the British fleet and destroying it ship by ship. However, the British admiral, Beatty, sent a smaller force to lure the German's into the range of Admiral Jellicoe's main fleet. Although Beatty's idea worked, the exchange of fire was brief and the German's withdrew.
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The battle was preceded by a week long artillery bombardment of the German line which was supposed to destroy the barbed wire defences placed along the German line but only actually succeeded in making no mans land a mess of mud and craters. The five month long battle saw the deaths of 420,000 British soldiers (60,000 on the first day), 200,000 French soldiers and 500,000 German soldiers all for a total land gain of just 25 miles.
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Britannic is torpedoed and sunk in the Aegean sea. Killing
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The first German air raid on London took place. The Germans hoped that by making raids on London and the South East, the British Air Force would be forced into protecting the home front rather than attacking the German air force.
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n Germany, orders were given to step up the U-boat campaign. All allied or neutral ships were to be sunk on sight and in one month almost a million tons of shipping was sunk. Neutral countries became reluctant to ship goods to Britain and Lloyd George ordered all ships carrying provisions to Britain to be given a convoy.
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The United States of America declared war on Germany in response to the sinking, by German U boats, of US ships.
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The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to form the Royal Air Force.
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The allies had taken almost all of German-occupied France and part of Belgium
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By the beginning of November the allies had pushed the Germans back beyond the Hindenberg line.
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At 11 am, in the French town of Redonthes, the Armistice was signed bringing the war to an end.
