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TRENCH WARFARE, POISON GAS, AND MACHINE GUNS
America entered nearly three years after the war began, joining Britain, France and Russia in the fight against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When it ended on Nov. 11, 1918, more than 4.7 million Americans served and some 115,000 died. -
ASSASSINATION OF ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND
As the cars attempted to reverse back onto the Appel Quay, Princip whipped out his pistol and fired two shots at the archduke from point-blank range, piercing him in the neck and also striking Sophie’s abdomen. “Sophie, Sophie, don’t die—stay alive for our children,” Ferdinand murmured. Within minutes, though, both had passed away. Princip, a slender, 19-year-old Serbian army reject, later admitted to killing Ferdinand but said he had not meant to hit Sophie. -
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WORLD WAR I
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the Seminal Catastrophe, and initially in North America as the European War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 -
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the 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. -
ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM
British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. -
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of csarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. -
U.S. ENTRY INTO WWI
When World War I broke out across Europe in 1914, President W. Wilson proclaimed the United States would remain neutral, and many Americans supported this policy of nonintervention. Along with news of the Zimmerman telegram threatening an alliance between Germany and Mexico, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. The U.S. officially entered the conflict on April 6, 1917. -
BATTLE OF ARGONNE FOREST
Was part of what became known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the last battle of World War I . It was a massive attack along the whole line, with the immediate goal of reaching the railroad junction as Sedan. The US had over 1 million troops now available to fight. While the US troops were not battle tested, the introduction of over 1 million well armed troops into a battle that had exhausted armies for four years would prove decisive. -
ARMISTICE
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the incessant boom of artillery abruptly went silent along the Western Front in France. The end of the Wol -
WOODROW WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS
The 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.
