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sergeant york was born in rural Tennessee to a poor family. Alvin was one of 11 children. Alvin's family was made up of farmers and blacksmiths. Alvin received minimal schooling and spent most of his childhood working. -
archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was murdered causing world war I to begin. the assassin was a Bosnian Serbian nattionalist. the Austria/Hungary government saw this as a direct attack -
the German army tried to break through allied lines in Belgium. there were over 100 thousand casualties on both sides. this battle was the first time trench warfare became common. -
a german u-boat torpedoed a British cruise ship killing 1195 people. this killed 128 Americans. the international prize laws about how a boat had to be warned before an attack was broken. the president wanted to maintain peace but this eventually led to the US joining the war. -
more British ships with US passengers were torpedoed. British intelligence found the Zimmerman letter that the germans were trying to form an alliance with Mexico against the US.
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Alvin York joined the 82nd division and was sent to France when he was 29. york was a Christian and believed war was wrong but he ended up getting drafted and had no choice but to fight. -
sergeant York leads a group of 17 men to silence a german machine gun operation and he came back with over 130 german prisoners and around 20 confirmed kills -
all of Germany's allies surrendered. Germany was left with no choice but to surrender. the agreement stated that Germany had to leave its occupied territory and release all the prisoners. -
after the war ended a group of Tennessee businessmen bought a farm for york and his family -
sergeant york was confined to bed with health problems and died in his home in Nashville. He was buried at wolf river cemetary