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Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
The heir to the Austro-Hujgarian throne, the archduke visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. As he and his wife rode through the city, a bosnian revolutionary named Gaverilo Princip rushed their open car and shot the couple to death. -
Austria- Hungary declares war on Serbia
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. -
Austrai-Hungary declares war on Russia
Nationalism threatened the very existence of the 'polyglot empire', and the Austrian Chief of Staff General Hotzendorf had asked for a 'surprise' war to destroy Serbia more than 25 times in the eight years after 1906. So the assassination was used by Austria as an opportunity to sort out the Serbs -
Germany declares war on Russia
When the Russians came to the defense of the Serbs, the Germans had no choice but to go to war to defend their Austrian allies. -
Germany declares war on France
On the afternoon of this day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. -
Germany invades Belgium
On this day in 1940, Hitler begins his Western offensive with the radio code word "Danzig," sending his forces into Holland and Belgium -
Great Britain declares war on Germany
Britain declared war on Germany in 1914 in response to the German invasion of Belgium. -
France and Great Britain declare war on Austria- Hungary
The simple reason is that Great Britain and France did not want to repeat the bloodshed of World War I. They believed, wrongly as it turned out, they could avoid another world war by appeasing Hitler with a few concessions (such as Austria and Czechoslovakia). At this time, Great Britain and France did not understood that Hitler's goal of land acquisition was much, much larger than any one country. -
Lusitania is Sunk
The british passenger ship, the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note) was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico to make war against the United States. -
US declares war on Germany
On April 6, Congress granted the request and the United States was formally at war with Germany. Several key events leading up to this act included the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, and the Zimmerman Telegram sent to Mexico by Germany in January 1917.
