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Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated. A suspect, a 19-year old Bosnian-Serb named Gavrilo Princip, was apprehended, which reportedly has ties to the Serbian government that is dedicated to uniting Bosnia with Serbia. The United States stayed politically neutral. -
After weeks of speculation and mounting tension, Great Britain declared war on Germany. The declaration is binding on all Dominions within the British Empire including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The United States declares its neutrality. The declaration was a result of German refusal to remove troops from neutral Belgium. -
the German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished, including 123 Americans. The American government issued a severe protest to Germany. -
The 1916 United States presidential election was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election. Incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeated former associate justice of the Supreme Court Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. President Woodrow Wilson delivered this address to a joint session of Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. -
British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. The American public learned about a German proposal to ally with Mexico if the United States entered the war. -
Congress passed the Declaration of War. Not unlike the War of 1812, the U.S. went into war to protect shipping and the freedom of trade while in international waters. Since the beginning of that year, 19 U.S. merchant vessels were sunk by German U-boats. -
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. Did not take long for the local French population to begin cheering them through the streets. -
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. -
After more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. Although fighting continued elsewhere, the armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending World War I. Fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice in the Forest of Compiegne -
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. Officially, ending the war for all countries, including the U.S.