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The wife and heir to the Austrian crown, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, go to Bosnia's Sarajevo. Their car is targeted by a bomb, but it misses. Unfazed, they carry on with their journey only to be shot and killed by a lone assassin a short while later. The Austrians direct their rage at Serbia since they think the murderer had been a Serbian nationalist. -
The US declares itself to be impartial. -
Off the coast of Ireland, a German U-Boat torpedoes the British passenger ship Lusitania. 1,201 people, including 128 Americans, drowned when the ship collapses in 18 minutes. Four diplomatic protests are later sent to Germany by President Woodrow Wilson. -
American voters re-elect President Woodrow Wilson who had campaigned on the slogan, "He kept us out of war." -
A telegram Alfred Zimmermann sent to the German embassies in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City was intercepted by the British. Zimmermann was working for the German Foreign Office. Plans for an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the United States are outlined in its message. The plan called for Germany to give tactical assistance while Mexico benefited by advancing into the American Southwest and reclaiming former Mexican lands. Ricans and then made public. -
Germany is at war as a result of an American declaration of war. -
First American soldiers arrive in France -
The Sedition Act of 1918 limited American citizens' freedom of speech during a time of war. The Espionage Act of 1917's Title I was amended on May 16, 1918, by a law that broadened and included new restrictions on speech. -
The Germans sign the Armistice at 5:10 am in a train car in Compiègne, France. It goes into force at 11 am, or the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. At exactly 11 o'clock that day, fighting on the Western Front continued with 2,000 losses sustained on all sides. As 11 am approaches, artillery barrages also break out as soldiers vie to claim they fired the final shot in the conflict. -
The Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 2, formally put an end to what was then known as "The Great War.
