-
Gavrilo Princip gravly injures him
-
Archduke declares war on serbia after wife gets killed
-
First world war erupts
-
Germany declares war on France, and invades neutral Belgium. Britain then sends an ultimatum, rejected by the Germans, to withdraw from Belgium.
-
The first British troops land in France. The 120,000 highly trained members of the regular British Army form the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) commanded by Field Marshal John French.
-
Great Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary. Serbia is invaded by Austria-Hungary.
-
Japan declares war on Germany. The Japanese then prepare to assist the British in expelling the Germans from the Far East. German possessions in the South Pacific include a naval base on the coast of China, part of New Guinea, Samoa, and the Caroline, Marshall and Mariana Islands.
-
Austria invades Serbia. This is the third attempt to conquer the Serbs in retaliation for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This attempt fails like the two before it, at the hands of highly motivated Serbs fighting on their home ground. The Austrians withdraw in mid-December, after suffering over 220,000 casualties from the three failed invasions.
-
Germany declares the waters surrounding British Isles to be a war zone in which ships can be sunk without warning.
-
The Armenian Genocide also known as the Armenian Holocaust, was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly citizens within the Ottoman Empire.
-
On April 26, 1915, after receiving the promise of significant territorial gains, Italy signs the Treaty of London, committing itself to enter World War I on the side of the Allies
-
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 British Army suffers the worst single-day death toll in its history as 18,800 soldiers are killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The losses come as 13 attacking divisions encounter German defenses that are still intact despite the seven-day bombardment designed to knock them out. The British also attack in broad daylight, advancing in lines shoulder-to-shoulder only to be systematically mowed down by German machine-gunners.
-
The Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic, sinks in the Aegean Sea on this day in 1916, killing 30 people. More than 1,000 others were rescued.
-
World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
-
1st major strike of the Russian "February Revolution" starts at the giant Putilov factory in Petrograd
-
United States formally declared war against Germany and entered the conflict in Europe
-
The first American troops land in France.
-
China declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
-
Gen Pershing & US troops see action on Western Front for 1st time
-
The Entente powers and the United States also took a harder stance towards the activities of German submarines near the Spanish coasts. And spanish influenza
-
Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition of alcohol) of the US Constitution
-
Flu Epidemic of 1918. In 1918 the United States was involved in World War I, but was also dealing with the outbreak of a deadly influenza epidemic. The first cases of the outbreak were recorded in Haskell County, Kansas, and Fort Riley, Kansas, where young men were being hospitalized for severe flu-like symptoms.
-
Germany accepts Armistice
-
On January 18, 1919, a few months after the end of World War I, leaders from the Allied nations began a series of discussions that became known as the Paris Peace Conference to settle issues raised by the war and its aftermath. Preceded by a series of armistices in September, October, and November 1918, that ended World War I, the Paris Peace Conference brought together representatives from the victorious nations. Russia had withdrawn from the fighting and was not invited.
-
Five years after the World War peace talks begin
