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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, were shot dead in Sarajevo. The killer, Gavrilo Princip, was one of six Bosnian Serb assassins. -
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WWI Events
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The Battle of the Frontiers
27,000 French soldiers die on this single day in an offensive thrust to the east of Paris, towards the German borders. -
Battle of Gallipoli
Allies begin nine-month battle for the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli. Between April 25, 1915 and January 9, 1916. Battle is seen as the Turkish as a defining moment in their history-a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the centuries-old Ottoman Empire was crumbling. -
Sinking of Lusitania
Germans declared a war zone around the British Isles within which they would sink any allied merchant vessel on sight. Fifty ships were hit between February and September including the Lusitania. 138 Americans were among the 1,198 lives lost in the Lusitania sinking. -
Battle of Verdun
Longest battle of the war, is fought to a draw with an estimated one million casualties. Was fought between German and French armies. Verdun resulted in 306,000 battlefield deaths (163,000 French and 143,000 German combatants) plus at least half a million wounded, an average of 30,000 deaths for each of the ten months of the battle. -
Battle of the Somme
From July 1 - November 18. Results in an estimated one million casualties and no breakthrough for the Allies. British introduce the tank, an effective weapon but far to few to make much of a difference. -
Kerensky Offensive
Russian Army lead by Alexander Kerensky begins last, and disastrous, offensive in Galicia. -
Americans in trenches
American troops in France fire their first shot in trench warfare. -
The FLU!
Between 1918 & 1919, two waves of influenza kill more people than the war did. Known as the "Flu Epidemic" -
German Defeat-
Known as Armistice Day. The armistice between the Allies and Germany marked the end of fighting in the World War on the Western Front. Signed at 11 o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.