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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife
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. On June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany and the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of World War I. -
Austria-Hungry 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-Hungry declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.
Threatend by Serbian ambition in the tumultous Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungry determianed that the proper reponse to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invation of Serbia. -
Germany declares war on Russia
On August 1, 1914, four days after Austria-Hungry decalred on Serbia, two more great European powers--Russia and Germany declare war on each other; the same day, France orders a general mobilization. The so-called "Great War" that ensued would be one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and cicilians and the physical devastaion of much of the European continent. -
Germany declares war on France
On the afternoon of this day 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with along -held strategy conceived by the former chief of staffon the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a own declaration of war agianst germany, readying its troops to move into the provincesof Alsace and Lorriane, which it had forfeited to Germany in and settlement that ended the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 -
Germany invades Belgium
The German invasion of Belgium began on 4 August 1914. Earlier, on 24 July, the Belgian government had announced that if war came it would uphold its neutrality. The Belgian government mobilised its armed forces on 31 July and a state of Kriegsgefahr was proclaimed in Germany. -
Great 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. Britain, led by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, had given Germany an ultimatum to get out of Belgium by midnight of August 3rd. In fear of being surrounded by the might of Russia and France, Germany had put into being the Schlieffen Plan in response to the events that had occurred in Sarajevo in June 1914. -
battle of Marne
By Sept. 10, the Germans embarked on a retreat that ended north of the Aisne River, beginning a phase of the war that would be marked by trench warfare. The First Battle of the Marne was fought to the north and east of Paris in early September 1914. -
sinking of Lusitania
On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the more than 1,900 passengers and crew members on board, more than 1,100 perished, including more than 120 Americans. Nearly two years would pass before the United States formally entered World War I. -
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest single battle of World War One. The casualties from Verdun and the impact the battle had on the French Army was a primary reason for the British starting the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 in an effort to take German pressure off of the French at Verdun. The Battle of Verdun started on February 21st 1916 and ended on December 16th in 1916. It was to make General Philippe Pétain a hero in France. -
sinking of sussex
The German government responded with the so-called Sussex pledge agreeing to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships and to provide for the safety of passengers and crew. The pledge was upheld until February 1917, when unrestricted submarine warfare was resumed. -
Battle of Somme
It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the River Somme in France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history. -
The Zimmerman Note is intercepted
The message came as a coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917. The message was sent to the German ambassador for Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. -
Russain Revolution breaks out
In Russia, the February Revolution begins on this day in 1917, when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd.
By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward and Czar Nicholas II had repeatedly dissolved the Dumas, the Russian parliamentary groups established to placate the masses after the Revolution of 1905, each time they opposed his will. -
Battle of Argonne Forest
The Battle of the Argonne Forest was part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive planned by General Ferdinand Foch. The offensive called for a three-pronged attack on the Germans at the Western Front. While the BEF and the French Army would attack the German lines at Flanders, the British forces would take on the German troops at Cambrai and the AEF, supported by the French Army, were to fight the German troops at the Argonne Forest. -
US declares war against Germany
On December 11, 1941, the United States Congress declared war upon Germany, only hours after Germany declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
