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Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
A Serbian nationalist student, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, when their open car stopped at a corner on its way out of the town. -
Great War Begins
The trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. -
Lusitania sank
British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. -
Kaiser declares ¨open season¨ on ships
Kaiser Wilhelm proclaimed the North Sea a war zone where all merchant ships including those who are from neutral countries could be sunk without warning. On February 4, 1915, Kaiser announced that Germany wanted to sink all ships sailing under the flags of Britain, Russia, or France found in the British waters. He warned neutral countries that it was not safe traveling around the British Isles but if they chose to enter after February 18, they would be doing so at their own risk. -
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Battle of Somme
The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest of the first world war one and is also known as the Somme Offensive. It was fought near the Somme River in France and was one of the bloodiest battles in history. On the first day, there were 57,000 british casualties and at the end the Allies and Central Powers lost more than 1.5 million men. -
Wilson Re-elected
During Wilson's speeches he talked about his accomplishments. A favored slogan of his was, "He kept us out of war." After the presidential election of 1916 and the presidential election held on November 7, 1916. Wilson had 49.4% of the popular cote and 277 electoral votes. Hughes had 46.2% of the popular vote and 254 electoral votes -
Russia pulls out of the war
A group of Communists led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks, overthrew the government in November 1917 and created a Communist government. Lenin wanted to concentrate on building up a communist state and wanted to pull Russia out of the war. -
Zimmerman Note Intercepted
Was a mesage from Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico telling them they wanted to form a Mexican-German alliance between the United States and Germany. -
US declares war on germany
The United States of America declared war on Germany in response to the sinking, by German U boats, of US ships. -
Selective Service Act
authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. -
Convoy System
Was designed to help protect cargo in passenger ships. The system was introduced in British in 1917. It was mainly centered on the ENglish Channel, but when the U.S entered the war ships started traveling in deeper open ocean from one end of the Atlantic to the other. -
Espionage Age passed
essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country's enemies. -
Fourteen Points Speech
Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. -
Sedition Act Passed
The Sedition Act was aimed at socialists and pacifists. It imposed harsh penalties on anyone that was found guilty of making false statements that interfered with war. This included insulting the government, flag, constitution, or military. Anyone who were found guilty were to be punished by a fine of $10,000 or imprisonment for no longer than twenty years and they could be punished with both. -
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Flu Epidemic
deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide—about one-third of the planet's population—and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans. -
Germany Signs Armistice
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their last opponent, Germany. ... Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne from the place where it was signed, it came into force at 11 a.m.
