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Unit-3 WW1 timeline project
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Franz Ferdinand Assassination
Franz Ferdinand and his wife were murdered by Gavrillo Princip on June 28th 1914 at 11:15 am. There was an assassination attempt earlier that morning by a bombing on Ferdinand, but they failed. Ferdinand took a wrong turn and was shot and killed alongside his wife in their car. The group that killed them was called "The Black Hand". This event sparked the beginning of the first world war. He was assassinated due to his perceived threat to Serbian independence. War was declared. -
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia starting World War 1. This was because Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian terrorist, Austria-Hungary felt as they had no other option than to assert dominance and declare war. -
Austria-Hungary invades Russia
Russia was one of Serbia's allies, and Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia, so they needed to attack or at least defend against Russia as they were apart if the Central Powers. -
Battle of Mons
It took place in Belgium and was held the first few weeks of the Great War causing the British forces to retreat because they were overpowered with the Germans winning. 1,600 British were killed, and 5,000 Germans were killed. -
Christmas Truce
The Christmas truce was an unofficial ceasefire along the western front on December 24th 1914. There was lots of talk about it from both sides the few days leading up to it. They would say, "you no shoot, we no shoot." There were Christmas trees along the tops of the trenches. Hesitantly the German soldiers came out of their trenches with their fingers on their triggers and eventually the English soldiers came out to no mans land and greeted the Germans. They shook hands, played games, ate food. -
Battle of Dogger Bank
After decoding German messages the British attacked the Germans in the North sea sparking the battle of Dogger bank. The Germans retreat but cannot get away from the British. -
Germany begins Naval Blockade of Great Britain
Germany began this Naval Blockade as a form of retaliation and was an attempt to starve the country into defeat. This was not letting any of there supplies in, including their food. -
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
Italy was a neutral country at the beginning of WW1, but had a strong disliking for Austria Hungary and was promised territory. -
Battle of Verdun starts
The battle of Verdun was WW1's longest battle it lasted nearly a year and there were about 600,000 casualties. In an attempt to make France weaker in the war, the Germans chose to attack the fort of Verdun. The French overcome the Germans and take the victory. -
Naval battle of Jutland
It was a naval battle between the British and German fleets to try and assert dominance of naval travel and secure shipping lanes. The British lost 14 ships, and the Germans lost 11. There were over 8,000 deaths. -
US declares war on Germany
The US declared war on Germany because of the excessive submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships that led to many American deaths. -
US joins WW1
The United States joined the Great War after a list of unfortunate events. One of those being the sinking of the Lusitania, where the Germans sunk a ship with 1200 people dead, and 128 of them being American. The other event was the Zimmerman telegram where the US intercepted a coded message from Germany to Mexico trying to have them join the war and attack America, but they declined. -
Germany sings armistice
Germany's collapse of their army led them to plead for armistice (the official end of fighting). -
Peace conference begins in Paris
This conference was called to go over peace agreements for after the Great War. There were many deaths and casualties, Germany was heavily in debt. -
Treaty of Versailles takes effect
The treaty was signed by Germany and its allied nations ending World War 1. The terms of the treaty was that Germany had to pay all the fines and damages from the war. Everyone was against Germany, and Germany came out to say that it was their fault.