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On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at about 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The perpetrator was 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized and armed by the Black Hand. -
The US maintained neutrality in World War I from 1914 until April 1917, largely due to a policy of non-intervention in European affairs and public desire to stay out of the conflict. However, this was a complicated neutrality, as the US economy favored the Allied powers through trade and loans, and factors like German submarine warfare, propaganda, and cultural ties eroded American impartiality, eventually leading to the US entering the war. -
Miracle on the Marne – The PastThe Battle of the Marne refers to two major battles in World War I: the First Battle of the Marne (1914), a decisive Allied victory that stopped the German advance on Paris, and the Second Battle of the Marne (1918), a key Allied offensive that marked a turning point in the war. The First Battle is particularly known for the Allied counter-offensive, the use of Parisian taxis to transport troops, and the subsequent start of trench warfare on the Western Front. -
The sinking of the Lusitania was the torpedoing and sinking of a British ocean liner by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. The attack killed 1,195 people, including 128 Americans, and caused outrage in the United States, which was officially neutral. This event solidified anti-German public opinion, and when Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, it became a major contributing factor to the U.S. entering World War I in 1917. -
The Battle of Verdun was a prolonged and devastating conflict during World War I, fought between February and December 1916 near Verdun, France. The battle was a German offensive aimed at a symbolic French fortress resulting in horrific casualties for both sides estimated at nearly 700,000 total. The French, defending their "sacred" fortress, ultimately halted the German advance, making the battle a significant symbolic victory for France and a turning point in the war. -
Ultimately 80 people died, including two American citizens. Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne after being torpedoed in March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. President Wilson was furious at this breaking of the Arabic Pledge. -
The Battle of the Somme was a major World War I battle fought between the British, French, and German armies from July 1 to November 18, 1916, near the Somme River in northern France -
The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret diplomatic communication from Germany to Mexico in January 1917 proposing a military alliance against the United States during World War I. Intercepted and decoded by the British, the telegram offered Mexico financial support and the reconquest of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in exchange for attacking the U.S. -
Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare was a World War I naval tactic to sink any ship, including passenger vessels, in the waters around Britain to disrupt supply lines and starve Britain into submission -
The U.S. entered World War I on April 6, 1917, after President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany. The primary reasons cited were Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, which included the sinking of American ships, and the interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, which showed Germany was trying to form an alliance with Mexico against the U.S.. The U.S. -
The Selective Service Act is a U.S. law that establishes the authority to draft citizens into the armed forces, creating the Selective Service System -
The Espionage Act is a U.S. federal law enacted in 1917 that makes it illegal to interfere with military operations, obstruct the military draft, or transmit information that could harm national defense. -
The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were the U.S. armed forces sent to Europe in World War I, commanded by General John J. Pershing. Created in 1917, the AEF's main objective was to fight alongside Allied forces, though Pershing insisted they operate as a unified American army. -
President Wilson's Fourteen Points were a 1918 peace proposal for ending World War I, based on principles of open diplomacy, free trade, arms reduction, and national self-determination. -
The 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic was a devastating global pandemic that infected about 500 million people and killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide -
Russia officially pulled out of World War I on March 3, 1918, by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers. This exit was a direct result of the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, taking power with the promise of peace. -
The term "Sedition Act" can refer to two different U.S. laws: the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it illegal to criticize the government, and the Sedition Act of 1918, which targeted speech that undermined the war effort. -
The main significance of the Battle of the Argonne Forest (part of the larger Meuse-Argonne Offensive) was that it was a crucial final Allied victory in World War I that weakened German forces, led to their retreat, and ultimately forced them to seek an armistice. -
Armistice Day on November 11, 1918, ended World War I after an armistice was signed between the Allied powers and Germany. The ceasefire went into effect at the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," though fighting continued for several hours after the agreement was signed in Marshal Foch's railway car in France. -
The Paris peace conference begins - archive, January 1919 ...The Paris Peace Conference was an international meeting held in 1919 to set the terms for peace after World War I, with the Treaty of Versailles being the main treaty that concluded the war with Germany.