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Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajero. His death is the event that sparks World War I.
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Time period in which World War I took place.
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Jul. 28-Aug. 4 (Not exactly on these dates) Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium. Great Britain declares war on Germany.
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First time large amounts of gas was used in battle (Germans fire shells filled with chlorine gas at Allied lines).
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A German submarine sinks the passenger liner Lusitania. The ship carries 1,198 people, 128 of them Americans (main reason for americas involvement in war).
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The sinking of Lusitania and other ships suspends submarine warfare.
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British employ first tanks ever used in battle at Delville Wood (though they were still primitive and failed to be a decisive weapon).
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Germany resumes submarine warfare. This act more than any other draws America into the war.
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Congress authorizes a declaration of war against Germany (america sides with France and Britain).
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Congress passes the Selective Service Act authorizing the draft.
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The Germans sighn a peace treaty with the government of Russia.
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The Battle of Cantigny is the first major American offensive of the war.
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The Americans attack the Germans at Chateau-Thiery. This battle would morph into the larger Battle of Belleau Wood.
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The American Marine Corps attacks the Germans across an open field of wheat, suffering hugh casualties.
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The final explusion of the Germans from the Wood, which markes the farthest German advance on Paris (It changed hands six times during the three week battle which caused naerly 10,000 American casualties).
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The Battle of St. Mihiel begins when 300,000 American troops under the direct command of General Pershing, fling themselves into the German lines.
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Kaiser Wihelm abdicates, ending all German hope for victory. He and his retinue quietly slip over the border into the Netherlands where he lives the remainder of his life in relative peace and writes a self-promoting memoir defending his actions in the war.
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An Armistice is signed ending fighting on the Western Front.It was obserbed as "Armistice Day" until officially renamed "Veteran's Day" in 1954.
