-
Assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand by serbian nationalist triggers alliance systems
-
Russia mobilizes its vast army to intervene against Austria-Hungary in favor of its ally, Serbia.
-
Germany invades Belgium, beginning WWI
-
The Germans fire shells filled with chlorine gas at Allied lines.
-
A German submarine sinks the passenger liner Lusitania. The ship carries 1,198 people, 128 of them Americans.
-
Italy joins the allies
-
The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood.
-
British intelligence gives Wilson the so-called Zimmerman Telegram, a message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman proposing that Mexico side with Germany in case of war between Germany and the United States.
-
Congress authorizes a declaration of war against Germany. The United States enters World War I on the side of France and Britain.
-
Western front at an impasse; trench warfare immobilizes both sides
-
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.
