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The Assasination of Franz Ferdinand
On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie where shot and killed by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. On June 28, 1919. Five years after the day Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany had Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles the officially marking of the end of World War I. -
Austrian Hungarian empire declares war on Serbia
On July 28, 1914, One month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. They effectively beginning the First World War. Threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe. Austria-Hungary determined that the proper response to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia. -
Germany invades Belgium
On this day in 1940, Hitler begins his Western offensive with the radio code word “Danzig,” sending his forces into Holland and Belgium. On this same day, having lost the support of the Labour Party. Winston Churchill accedes to the office becoming defense minister as well as British and French Allied forces attempted to meet the 136 German divisions breaking into Holland and Belgium on the ground. 2,500 German aircraft proceeded to bomb airfields in Belgium, Holland, France, and Luxembourg. -
Battle of Tannenberg
The Battle of Tannenberg was a military engagement between the German Army Detachment of "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front. They fought a strategically important Narva Isthmus from 25 July-10 August 1944. The battle was fought on the Eastern Front during World War II. The strategic aim of the Soviet Estonian Operation was to make Estonia as a favorable base for the invasions of Finland and East Prussia. -
First Battle of Marne begins
On September 6, 1914 about 30 miles northeast of Paris the French 6th Army under the command of General Michel-Joseph Manoury attacks the right flank of the German 1st Army. That began the decisive First Battle of the Marne at the end of the first month of World War I. After invading neutral Belgium and advancing into northeastern France by the end of August 1914, German forces were nearing Paris, -
First battle of Marne
The World War I First Battle of the Marne featured the first use of radio intercepts and automotive transport of troops in wartime. General Michel Joseph French Sixth Army opened a gap between Germany’s First and Second Armies. He exploited the gap with help from the French Fifth Army and British Expeditionary Force. By Sept. 10, the Germans embarked on a retreat that ended north of the Aisne River, beginning a phase of the war that would be marked by trench warfare. -
Battle of Ypres
In the first battle the Germans were stopped on their march to the sea. The Allied forces were then surrounded on three sides. The second battle marked the Germans first use of poison gas as a weapon. In the third and longest battle also the British were initially successful.They easily broke through the left wing of the German lines. The seasonal rains soon turned the Flanders countryside into an impassable swamp. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the Lusitania. The British ocean liner in route from New York to Liverpool England. Of the more than 1,900 passengers and crew members on board, more than 1,100 killed, including more than 120 Americans. Nearly two years went by before the United States formally entered World War I but the sinking of the Lusitania played a significant role in turning public opinion against Germany both in the United States and abroad. -
Battle of Verdun
German gunners unleashed a hail of artillery fire on French positions surrounding the fortified city of Verdun at 7 a.m. The Germans planned for their attack but the battle soon dragged both sides into a costly standoff. French and German forces engaged in a crazy cycle of attacks, counterattacks and near-constant bombardments that turned the small city on edge. The French eventually regained their lost territory, but not before the two sides had suffered some 800,000 casualties between them. -
Battle of Jutland
Involving some 250 ships and 100,000 men, this battle off Denmark’s North Sea coast was the only major naval surface engagement of World War I. The battle began with gunfire between the German and British scouting forces. When the main warships met British Admiral John maneuvered his boats to take advantage of the fading daylight he scoring dozens of direct shot to make them retreat. Both sides claimed victory in this indecisive battle.
