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Assassination of Archduke in Serbia
Born in Graz, Archduke Francis Ferdinand heir to the Austria-Hungary throne and his wife are assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarejevo. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism. He envisioned the death of the Archduke as the key that would unlock the shackles binding his people to the Austro-Hungarian Empire -
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World War I
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Official Start Of The Great War
Germany declares war on neutral Belgium and invades in a right flanking move designed to defeat France quickly. This violates a treaty signed by Prussua respecting Belgian neutrality. As a result of this invasion, Britain declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Canada follows suit and joins the war. U.S President Woodrow Wilson declares policy of American neutrality. -
Battle of Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres begins. Poison gas is used for the first time by Germans in an attack on the Canadian sector. The Second Battle of Ypres comprised the only major attack launched by the German forces on the Western Front in 1915. -
Battles of Artois & Champagne
Battles of Artois & Champagne ends. Battle of Loos ends. Austro-German-Bulgarian forces invade Serbia, expelling the Serbian army from the country. The first Battle of Artois was part of the Race to the Sea, a series of encounter battles that set the line of the Western Front for most of the First World War. -
The Battle of Verdun
The longest battle of the war, the Battle of Verdun, is fought to a draw with an estimated one million casualties. The Battle of Verdun is considered the greatest and lengthiest in world history. -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson re-elected President of the United States with campaign slogan: "He kept us out of the war." The campaign incluided President Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, against Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. After a hard-fought contest, Wilson defeated Hughes by a very small amount of votes. -
Selective Service Act
The United States passes the Selective Service Act empowering the Federal Government to draft men for the armed forces. It authorized the federal government to raise a national army numbering in the hundreds of thousands with which to fight a modern war. The Act was canceled with the end of the war on November, 1918. -
USA War on Germany
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson outlined the case for declaring war upon Germany in a speech to the joint houses of Congress on 2 April 1917. formal declaration of war followed four days later, on 6 April 1917. This was all due to the submarine warfare Germany started. -
German Advance
Germans launch the first of five major offensives to win the war before American troops appear in the trenches. German advance is finally stopped in late June -
End of The Great War
At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and Allies sign an Armistice. The leaders of both sides held a meeting in Ferdinand Foch's railway carriage headquarters at Compiegne. The Armistice was signed at 6am and came into force five hours later
