WWI Timeline

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    Events in WWI

  • Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

    On this day, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated. He was assassinated by a Serbian man named Gavrilo Princip.
  • Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia to start WWI.

    Tensions were already high between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but the assassination of Ferdinand set things even farther off balance. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. With this, once one country declared war, everyone else did too, to support the countries they were allied with. WWI had officially begun.
  • Battle of the Marne

    This is when the Battle of the Marne occured. The Germans were invading France with their Schlieffen plan. It did not work though; the French saw a weakness in the German army and took it. They force the Germans back; where the Germans retreated to, they dung trenches and the trech warfare had begun.
  • The Race to the Sea

    This was after the Battle of the Marne, both sides were trying to get to the sea first to flank each other. They both reached the banks of Belgium and dug in for trench warfare for the rest of the war.
  • Sinking of RMS Lusitania

    This is when the British passenger liner, the Lusitania, was sunk by a German U-boat. On this boat were Americans, 128 American lives were lost on this boat. The sinking of this ship increased anti-German sentiment in America. This was a major reason why the United States joined WWI.
  • Germany resumes Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (USW)

    The Germans go back to their unrestricted submarine warfare. With them doing this, they had sunk many American ships with supplies in them, killing many innocent lives. The President then addressed Congress to go to war with Germany, thus entering WWI.
  • Germany knocks Russia out of the war (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)

    Russia was forced to surrender to Germany. This was beacuse the Russia Revolution was going on at the same time as WWI, so they had enough problems without WWI. This resulted in more troops being sent to the Western front.
  • "Spring Offensive"

    This was the "Spring Offensive". It was Germany's last major offense. This was them trying to end WWI with them the victors. They did break through the British; this was the biggest movement in 3 years of war, since they were in trench warfare. However their supply line was weak and thin. In the end the Germans were defeated.
  • Meuse-Argonne Offensive

    The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the final Allied offensive that lead to the German surrender. It was the largest American battle in WWI also. It was lead by General John “ Blackjack” Pershing, the leader of the American Expeditionary Force. This was the army that fought, and defeated the Germans.
  • Armistice ends hostilities

    This was the ending of WWI. It happened at 11:00 on 11/11/1918. The Allied forces had won!