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Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. -
The United Kingdom declaration of war upon Germany -
The German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania. -
Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeated Republican Charles E. Hughes in the U.S. presidential election. Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. -
British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. -
The United States declared war on the German Empire, joining France, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Italy. -
First US troops arrive in France. The first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France at the port of Saint Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines. -
The Sedition Act of 1918 was enacted on May 16, 1918 to extend the Espionage Act of 1917. The Sedition Act covered a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. -
World War I Ends. On November 11, 1918 an armistice was signed between the Germans and the Allies, ending World War I. -
The Versailles Peace Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, officially ended World War I. Of note, on the same day, five-years earlier the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated at Sarajevo, Bosnia, starting the war.