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ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE IS ASSASSINATED IN SARAJEVO
Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie the Duchess of Hohenburg, are killed by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The Austrian government suspects that Serbia is responsible. -
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DECLARES WAR ON SERBIA. WORLD WAR I BEGINS
“This is a dark day and a dark hour. The sword is being forced into my hand. This war will demand of us enormous sacrifice in life and money, but we shall show our foes what it is to provoke Germany.”
Kaiser Wilhelm II, July 31, 1914 an served as emperor of Germany from 1888 until the end of World War I. -
Russia Mobilizes
Russia mobilizes its vast army to intervene against Austria-Hungary in favor of its ally, Serbia. This move starts a chain reaction that leads to the mobilization of the rest of the European Great Powers, and inevitably to the outbreak of hostilities. -
IN ONE MONTH, THE WORLD ERUPTS IN WAR
the war starts -
RUSSIANS ARE DEFEATED AT BATTLE OF TANNENBERG
On the eastern front, Germans shatter the Russian Second Army and take over 92,000 prisoners at the Battle of Tannenberg. -
GERMANS STOPPED AT FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE
German invasion of France is stopped in the First Battle of the Marne as German troops are forced to the north side of the Marne River, causing the the Schlieffen Plan to fail. -
IN FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES, ENTRENCHED ALLIES FIGHT OFF GERMAN ASSAULT
As the armies tried to out flank each other, they extended their lines to the English Channel and began trench warfare. Ypres, a Belgian city and communications hub, was essential to both sides. In the First Battle of Ypres, entrenched Allies fight off German assault. Germans give up their offensive by November 24 as winter and stormy weather set in. -
CHRISTMAS TRUCE OBSERVED ON WESTERN FRONT
The sound of Christmas carols across No Man’s Land encourages troops from both sides to exchange greetings. The truce is spontaneous and was experienced by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of soldiers. -
TURKISH ARMY DISARMS ITS ARMENIAN TROOPS
Ottoman Turkish army disarms and segregates Armenian soldiers into labor battalions fearing Christian Armenians are aiding Orthodox Russians in their fight against Turkey. In 1915, 1,000,000 Armenians are forcibly removed to Syria and Mesopotamia. -
IN SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES, GERMANS USE POISON GAS
In the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans open the assault with a chlorine gas attack, the first successful use of poison gas on the Western Front; more than 10,000 Allied troops are affected, over half of whom died. By May 25, the Allies withdraw. The affects of a gas attack are vividly described in Wilfred Owen’s poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, written in 1917. -
ALLIES LAND IN GALLIPOLI, TURKEY
Allies, including Australian and New Zealand troops, land in Gallipoli, Turkey at Helles and Anzac Cove. The Turkish controlled peninsula of twisting shorelines protects the Dardanelle Straits- a key international waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. -
GERMAN U-BOAT TORPEDOES THE LUSITANIA
The Cunard passenger ship Lusitania sinks in British waters. It was attacked by German U-boat U-20, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwieger. A total of 1,198 drown, including many women and children and 128 U.S. citizens. Germans will end unlimited submarine warfare on passenger liners on September 1, 1915 because of worldwide outrage at this attack on civilian shipping. -
THIRD ALLIED OFFENSIVE ON GALLIPOLI FAILS
A final attempt by Allied troops to take Krithia, a coastal city in Turkey, is unsuccessful. Field Marshal Kitchener decides to send three additional divisions as reinforcements. The Turks also bring in additional troops. “After the battles of 4 and 6 June the land in between the trenches was covered with dead. As the Turkish firing was almost incessant at night, and the dead were so numerous, it was impossible to bury a big proportion of them.” -
IN LONDON, WOMEN DEMONSTRATE FOR THE RIGHT TO WORK IN WAR INDUSTRIES
In London, women demonstrate for the right to work in war industries with banners proclaiming: “Women Demand the Right to Serve” and “The Situation is Serious – Women Must Help To Save It.” -
Germany Limits Submarines
Reacting to international outrage at the sinking of the Lusitania and other neutral passenger lines, Kaiser Wilhelm suspends unrestricted submarine warfare. This is an attempt to keep the United States out of the war, but it severely hampers German efforts to prevent American supplies from reaching France and Britain. -
ALLIED TROOPS ENTER KUT-AL-AMARA IN MESOPOTAMIA
British and Indian forces move up the Tigris River to capture Kut-al-Amara in Mesopotamia from Turkish forces. Their ultimate goal is Baghdad, roughly 100 miles from present-day Baghdad in Iraq. They will surrender their forces in April, 1916. -
SERBIA IS INVADED BY GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND BULGARIA
The Central Powers troops cross the Danube River and within days capture Belgrade. A massive Serbian retreat follows. Soldiers and their families made their way to the Albanian border through mountains and a steady snowfall. -
SECRET PACT DIVIDES MIDDLE EAST BETWEEN BRITISH AND FRENCH INTERESTS
The Sykes-Picot Agreement undermines Arab hopes for independence. Syria and Lebanon are placed in the French orbit, while Britain claims Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. -
GERMAN AND BRITISH NAVIES CLASH IN THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND
Off the coast of Denmark, the Germans try to break through the British blockade of German ports. In the two-day battle, the British lose 111,980 tons of shipping with 6,945 casualties. The Germans lose 62,233 tons of shipping with 2,921 casualties. Each side claims victory. -
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME BEGINS
In an effort to draw German troops away from Verdun, the Allies mount a major offensive that opens with a large-scale artillery barrage that lasts five days. In one day, as German machine gunners rake the advancing troops, 20,000 British are killed and 40,000 more wounded. The devastating Battle of the Somme will continue through the summer and end in November. The British gain is a modest six miles. The casualty count is horrific: 419,000 British, 194,000 French and 650,000 Germans. -
ARMENIAN MASSACRES DENOUNCED IN REICHSTAG
News of Armenian massacres began to surface in Europe and America in August of 1915, and began causing outrage and alarm. Nearly a year later, these events were addressed within the German government by Dr. Siegfried Heckscher as he spoke to the Reichstag stating: “The massacres in Armenia have had a most fearful effect. They work against us, especially in America. Couldn’t we have prevented them?” -
First Tanks
The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood. Although they are useful at breaking through barbed wire and clearing a path for the infantry, tanks are still primitive and they fail to be the decisive weapon, as their designers thought they would be. -
GERMANS RESUME UNRESTRICTED U-BOAT CAMPAIGN
By this time, the Germans feel they have no other choice: the submarine is the only weapon that gives them an advantage over their enemies. Kaiser Wilhelm II gives an order: “To all U-boats – Sink on Sight.” -
THE UNITED STATES SEVERS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY
President Wilson tells a joint session of Congress that Germany’s policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare poses an unacceptable threat to “freedom of the seas.” -
Selective Service Act
Congress passes the Selective Service Act authorizing the draft. Although criticized for destroying democracy at home while fighting for it abroad, President Wilson claims he sees no other option and signs the bill into law. -
U.S. Enters War
Congress authorizes a declaration of war against Germany. The United States enters World War I on the side of France and Britain. -
THE UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY
The day after an overwhelming majority in the Senate votes for war, President Wilson signs the declaration. The United States quickly puts the entire country on the road to war. Going from a standing army of 133,000 men with almost no heavy artillery pieces, millions of men were inducted into the armed forces over the next two years and given basic combat training. -
FIRST AMERICAN TROOPS LAND IN FRANCE
General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), greets the infantrymen and engineers as they step ashore. “They are sturdy rookies - we shall make great soldiers of them,” he is reported to have said. -
BRITISH LAUNCH THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES AGAINST THE GERMANS
In the first two weeks of battle, British artillery units fire 4,283,550 shells at German lines near the Flemish town of Passchendaele. The campaign ends by Nov. 10. -
FIRST AMERICAN COMBAT SOLDIERS KILLED
Soldiers of the First Division enter combat on the Western Front under French command. It is less than two weeks later, on Nov. 1, when First American soldiers, members of the 1st Division, are killed in action: James Gresham, Merle D. Hay and Thomas F. Enright -
BRITISH TANKS GAIN VICTORY AT CAMBRAI ON THE WESTERN FRONT
The Germans are taken by surprise since no artillery barrage precedes the attack. The tanks penetrate the lines by more than 10,000 yards. Ten days later, the Germans counterattack, regaining most ground lost. -
Germany and Russia Peace
The Germans sign a peace treaty with the new Bolshevik government of Russia. The terms of the treaty give Germany huge tracts of land that had been the Ukraine and Poland, and peace on the Eastern Front allows Germany to shift soldiers to the Western Front, causing serious problems for the French, British, and Americans. -
TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK IS SIGNED BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GERMANY
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed by Soviet Russia and Germany. Germany sets harsh terms: Russia yields 34% of her population, 32% of her farmland, 50% of her industrial holdings and 90% of her coalmines. Bolshevik negotiator, Leon Trotsky, laments; “This is a peace that Russia, grinding her teeth, is forced to accept.” -
FIRST REPORT OF INFLUENZA AT CAMP FUNSTON (FT. RILEY) KANSAS
The disease, known as the “Spanish flu,” spreads through contact or close proximity to infected persons. It is carried from the U.S. overseas on troop ships to the Western Front and then throughout the world. Over the next year, 550,000 Americans will die from the disease and more than 20 million worldwide. -
Battle of Cantigny
The Battle of Cantigny is the first major American offensive of the war. Though small in scale, the Americans fight bravely and soon go on to larger attacks against German positions. -
AMERICANS PREVAIL IN BATTLE OF CANTIGNY
The U.S. 1st Division’s 28th Infantry Regiment mounts an assault on the German observation strongpoint in broad daylight. Within thirty-five minutes, the Doughboys have the village. The next day, desperate German counterattacks fail to dislodge the Americans. -
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood begins as the U.S. Marine Corps attacks the Germans across an open field of wheat, suffering huge casualties. -
U.S. MARINES LAUNCH ATTACK AT BELLEAU WOOD
At Belleau Wood, U.S. Marines launch an attack against German storm troopers. Two battalions of Marines, along with army engineers and infantry, confront German storm troopers in a seesaw battle that continues through the month of June. -
Belleau Wood Ends
The Battle of Belleau Wood ends with the final expulsion of the Germans from the wood, which marks the farthest German advance on Paris. The area has changed hands six times during the three-week battle, which has caused nearly 10,000 American casualties. -
FIRST PHASE OF THE U.S. MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE UNDERWAY
Americans begin their most important battle of the war as part of Marshal Foch’s final offensive on Western Front. On the 26th, U.S. troops, on a twenty-mile front, advance between the Argonne Forest and Verdun, taking 12 towns and 5,000 prisoners. Throughout October, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive rolls through its Third, Fourth and Fifth Phases. The A.E.F. -
GERMANY REQUESTS ARMISTICE; ALLIES REFUSE
Through the neutral Swiss government, German Chancellor Prince Maximillian sends a note to President Wilson requesting him to restore peace through an immediate armistice with terms. The request is rejected. -
HUNGARY SEPARATES FROM AUSTRIA
Austria is proclaimed a “Federation” of German-Austrians, Czechs, Ukrainians, and Yugo-Slavs. On the next day, the Czechs seize Prague, renounce Hapsburg rule and Czechoslovakia is declared independent. -
Wilhelm Abdicates
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates, ending all German hope for a victory. He and his retinue quietly slip over the border into the Netherlands where he lives out the remainder of his life in relative peace and writes a self-promoting memoir defending his actions in the war. -
EMPEROR KARL OF AUSTRIA ABDICATES
Austria accepted truce terms, including the immediate cessation of hostilities and evacuation on the Italian Coast on November 4. Six days later in Vienna, army aeroplane hangers are burned. Shootings occur in the streets of Salzburg. Reports state that the Austrian navy is scuttled by Jugo-Slav forces to prevent the Italians from seizing the ships -
Armistice Day
An Armistice is signed ending fighting on the Western Front. -
GERMANY SIGNS ARMISTICE
Three days prior, German delegates were escorted through a devastated French countryside to a railway car in the Compiengne Forest, Marshal Foch’s Headquarters and were presented with terms of the Allied Armistice. Fighting ends on the Western Front Paris time 11:00 a.m. when Germany signs this armistice with the Allied Powers. The terms are harsh, intended to show German acceptance of defeat and to prevent any lengthy break for Germany to regroup and start military action again. -
YUGOSLAVIA PROCLAIMED AN INDEPENDENT STATE
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is founded with a parliamentary government. In 1929, King Alexander I changed the name of the state to Yugoslavia - land of the southern Slavs. This state was made up of the formerly independent Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro; Croatia, Slavonia and Vojvodina from Hungary; Carniola, part of Styria and most of Dalmatia from Austria and the Crown province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A provisional representation served as the parliament. -
PRESIDENT WILSON ARRIVES IN PARIS FOR PEACE PARLEY
Wilson receives an enthusiastic reception from the people of Paris; 10 days later he leaves for London to meet with British officials. Then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed the same sentiments held by many Americans at the time of the peace parley in this 1920 recording accepting his vice-presidential nomination. -
PEACE CONFERENCE CONVENES IN PARIS WITH PRELIMINARY MEETINGS
Diplomats in top hats and long coats converge along the Quai d’Orsay from most of the Allied nations and the city is crowded with French soldiers wanting to be demobilized. -
FINAL DRAFT OF PEACE TREATY IS PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT WILSON
He knows that the treaty has flaws but believes the League of Nations can address unresolved issues and help avoid the horrors of another world war. -
GERMANY AND ALLIES SIGN THE PEACE TREATY
Representatives of Germany and the Allied and Associated Powers sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Chinese delegates refuse to sign in protest against the Shantung settlement that turns over German mines railroads and telegraph cables in China to the Japanese. -
GERMANY RATIFIES TREATY OF VERSAILLES
Among many of the treaty measures, Germany cedes Alsace-Lorraine to France, recognizes Belgian sovereignty, disarms the military, and agrees to pay war reparations. -
TREATY OF PEACE WITH GERMANY IS SUBMITTED TO THE U.S. SENATE
President Wilson submits the Versailles Treaty to the Senate and the great debate ensues. -
The Treaty of Versailles
The official peace settlement known as the Treaty of Versailles was signed near the beautiful palace at Versailles, near Paris. The treaty was very harsh on Germany and the resentment it created is often credited with the onset of the Second World War . The treaty forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the the war and pay reparations, give up territories and reduce the army size to a meager 100,000 souls. -
U.S. SENATE REFUSES TO RATIFY THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
Led by the “Irreconcilables,” 14 Republicans and one Democrat who have always opposed the League of Nations, and Henry Cabot Lodge who draws up reservations to add to the treaty, the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles is soundly defeated. -
TREATY OF SEVRES ENDS THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Again, the terms were harsh, as the Treaty divided the Middle East with a British-controlled Palestine and Iraq, French governed Syria and Lebanon, and an independent Kingdom of Hejaz (present-day Saudia Arabia).
