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Triple Alliance
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. In 1882, they signed a document that promised they would give each other military support in case of a war. -
Triple Entente
An alliance was formed between Russia and France in 1894. By 1904 Britain began talks with Russia and decided that it should come out of its 'splendid isolation', joining the Entente Cordiale ('Friendly Agreement'). -
Austria declares war on Serbia
On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Archduke Ferdinand and wife is shot
On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. -
Schleiffen Plan is implemented
In August 1914, the Germans implemented their Schlieffen Plan, an attempt to knock France out of contention before turning Germany's attention to the slower-mobilising Russians. -
Britain declares war on Germany
On August 4th 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany. It was a decision that is seen as the start of World War One. -
Battle of the Marne
The First Battle of the Marne was fought in September 1914. By September 12th, the end of the Battle of the Marne, the war of movement seen since August 1914 had gone and the trench warfare associated with World War One had come into being. -
Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders, was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium in October and November 1914. The German and Western Allied attempts to secure the town from enemy occupation included a series of further battles in and around the West Flanders Belgian municipality. -
Turkey enters the war
Turkey formally entered World War I on 28 October 1914 with the bombing of Russian Black Sea ports. -
Gallipoli
In a war characterised by courageous yet often futile sacrifice, the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 stands out as a bloody and wasteful enterprise, marked by confused strategy and terrible conditions for the soldiers on the ground. -
Italy joins the Allied Powers
On April 26, 1915, Italy came into the war on the side of the Triple Entente – Britain, France and Russia. After receiving the promise of significant territorial gains, Italy signs the Treaty of London, committing itself to enter World War I on the side of the Allies. -
The Lusitania is sunk
The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I. -
Period: to
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February to 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. -
Period: to
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the river Somme in France. -
Germans launch U-Boat campaign
The U-boat Campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Entente Powers. It took place largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. -
U.S. enters the war
On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies--Britain, France, and Russia--to fight in World War I. -
Lenin takes over Russia
Vladimir Lenin masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917 -
Russia withdraws from the war
Russia's withdraw from the war was a huge blow to the allies because they lost eastern front from Germany relieving the pressure on Germany so they could focus their forces on the allies. -
Lenin signs a peace treaty with Germany
In March 1918 Lenin was forced to sign the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace with Germany and Austria, ceding huge amounts of territory, including the Ukraine. -
Czar Nicholas II of Russia and family are killed by the Bolsheviks
Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia. He was deposed during the Russian Revolution and executed by the Bolsheviks. -
Battle of the Argonne begins
Battles of the Meuse-Argonne, is a series of final confrontations on the Western Front in World War I. -
Armistice is signed
At 5 AM on the morning of November 11 an armistice was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines. -
Kaiser Wilhelm Abdicates
With Germany actively seeking an armistice and revolution threatening, calls for Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate grew in intensity. -
The Big 4 meet in Paris
The Big Four refers to the top Allied leaders who met at the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919 following the end of World War I (1914–18). The Big Four are also known as the Council of Four. It was composed of Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France. -
League of Nations is formed
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. -
Treaty of Versailles is signed
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. -
U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union ) is formed
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a socialist state which espoused Marxist–Leninist ideology that existed between 1922 and 1991, ruled as a single-party state by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital. A union of multiple subnational Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized.
