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The heir to Austria-Hungary's throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated by Gavrilo Princip.
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First, Germany declares war on Russia.
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Austria-Hungary invades Russian Poland and Russia loses.
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The German U-boat attacks on Allied and neutral shipping whcih leads to declaring blockade of Britain.
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Falaba, the British liner, was the first passenger ship to sink the
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U-boat sinks British liner Lusitania with the loss of American lives, creating a US-German diplomatic crisis.
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October- November; Austro-German-Bulgarian forces invade Serbia which had expelled Serbian army from the country,
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German attack on Verdun. Leads to the longest battle of the war. Defended by the French at great cost to both sides.
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Zimmerman Telegram is passed to the US by Britain. Which Alleged German proposal of an alliance with Mexico against the U.S.
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United States President Woodrow Wilson makes "Fourteen Points" speech to Congress.
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Eighteenth Amendment was offically approved by Congress, prohibiting the sale of alcohol anywhere throughout the United States.
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Diplomats representing the combatant nations of World War I sign the Treaty of Versailles, that promises to sustain peace through the creation of the League of Nations.
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A Jamacian immagrant, Marcus Garvey brought together the first International Convention of the Negro People of the World in Madison Square Garden.
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The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, gave women the right to vote.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.
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Biology teacher of Tennessee, John Scopes gets arrested for teaching the theroy of evolution, in violation of new state law. The Trail know as the, "Scopes Monkey Trial," pitting defense attorney Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan who believes in fundamentalism. Scopes is eventually found guilty and fined $100.
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Forty thousand Ku Klux Klansmen march on Washington wearing their white-hooded procession filling Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Italian immigrant radicals Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti accused of robbing they are executed by electric chair.
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Babe Ruth, an African American star from the New York Yankees, breaking his own record of 59, hits his 60th home run of the season. Bab Ruth's record will stand for more than thirty years.
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Fifteen nations, including the United States, sign the Kellogg-Briand pact "outlawing" war in Paris. The pact will be made a mockery through the rise of European fascist states in the 1930s. It had little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II.
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Hoover's promise that the Depression would end quickly. The President's Emergency Committee for Unemployment Relief reports that 5 million Americans are unemployed.The Great Depression left millions unemployed
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American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
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The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is signed by President Herbert Hoover. Its effective rate hikes would slash world trade.
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President Herbert Hoover asks the U.S. Congress to pass a $150 million public works project to increase employment and economic activity.
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Congress and President Hoover approve The Star Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key, as the U.S. national anthem.
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The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established to stimulate banking and business. Unemployment in 1932 reached twelve million workers.
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Democratic challenger Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent President Hoover in the presidential election for his first of an unprecedented four terms.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for the first time. His speech with its hallmark phrase, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself," begins to rally the public and Congress to deal with great depression issues.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is established with the signing of the Securities Exchange Act into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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Hoover Dam is dedicated by President Roosivelt.
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Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack; Norway holds out until June 9 1940.
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France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28.
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The German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
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Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.
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Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
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The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on an unexpected Sunday; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
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Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
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The Germans and the Italians, both invade unoccupied Vichy France.
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The British drop 3,000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
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First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
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Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War.
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The United States launches The Voice of America, a pro-West radio station, to broadcast to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
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President Truman approves of the Hydrogen bomb construction.
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The Korean War begins its three year conflict when troops of North Korea, backed with Soviet weaponry, invaded South Korea. This act leads to U.S. involvement when two days later when President Truman ordered the United States Air Force and Navy to the peninsula.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage and sentenced to death. They were executed June 19, 1953.
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Fighting ceases in the Korean War, North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and the Republic of China sign an armistice agreement
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The first large scale vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Jonas Salk was head of the research lab for polio.
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The two largest American labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO, boasting membership of fifteen million.
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Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit. It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses.
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Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21 by Hawaii.
