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At around 11 a.m. on June 28th, 1914, two shots rang out from a street corner in the center of Sarajevo, mortally wounding the archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Sophie the Duchess of Hohenberg, his wife. The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the start of World War I. -
After weeks of speculation and mounting tension, Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Germany represented a direct threat to British security and the security of its empire. Accepting German domination of Europe had grave implications for British status and survival. Britain went to war in 1939 to defend the balance of power in Europe and safeguard Britain's position in the world. -
RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915. The luxury passenger liner was crossing the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool when the German submarine U-20 fired without warning. The sinking caused outrage amongst Americans, turning their opinion from neutral to hatred for Germany. -
Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson defeated Republican Charles E. Hughes in the U.S. presidential election. He is now re-elected as the 28th President of the United States. -
British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. The telegram was considered perhaps Britain's greatest intelligence coup of World War I and, coupled with American outrage over Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, was the tipping point persuading the U.S. to join the war. -
The United States declared war on the German Empire, joining France, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Italy. They were arrayed against Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. -
The first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France at the port of Saint Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines. -
The Sedition Act covered a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. -
An armistice was signed between the Germans and the Allies, ending World War I. -
The Versailles Peace Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, officially ended World War I.
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