-
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated in Sarajevo. They were shot to death by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian student and member of the Serbian secret society "Black Hand". Russia sided with Britain, France, and Serbia against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The United States remained neutral until 1917 but supplied Russia, Britain, and other allies with war material. -
Many Americans wanted the United States to stay out of the conflict, supporting President Woodrow Wilson's policy of strict and impartial neutrality. “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men's souls. -
A German U-Boat torpedoes the British passenger liner Lusitania off the Irish coast. It sinks in 18 minutes, drowning 1,201 persons, including 128 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson subsequently sends four diplomatic protests to Germany. The sinking of the Lusitania was the most notorious and deadly of several German submarine attacks in early 1917 -- attacks that were a key factor in the United States' decision to abandon a policy of neutrality and enter the war. -
American voters re-elect President Woodrow Wilson who had campaigned on the slogan, "He kept us out of war." -
The British intercept a telegram sent by Germany to Mexico City. Its message outlines plans for an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the United States. The obvious threats to the United States contained in the telegram inflamed American public opinion against Germany and helped convince Congress to declare war against Germany in 1917. -
On 6 April 1917, American president Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. Until that day, the United States had remained neutral. The declaration of war was a response to the submarine war that Germany had been waging on its enemies since January 1917. -
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. -
At 5:10 am, in a railway car at Compiegne, France, the Germans sign the Armistice which is effective at 11 am--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Fighting continues all along the Western Front until precisely 11 o'clock, with 2,000 casualties experienced that day by all sides. Artillery barrages also erupt as 11 am draws near as soldiers yearn to claim they fired the very last shot in the war. -
At the Palace of Versailles in France, a German delegation signs the Treaty formally ending the war. Its 230 pages contain terms that have little in common with Wilson's Fourteen Points as the Germans had hoped. Germans back home react with mass demonstrations against the perceived harshness, especially clauses that assess sole blame for the war on Germany.
The War is Over