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Submarine Warfare
Germany declares the area around Great Britain a war zone. All ships were being sunk even the ships of neutral countries. Germany was doing this as revenge because the British had made a blockade of Germany in the North Sea. -
Assassination of Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to Austro-Hungarian empire. He was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. This led to the beginning of World War I. -
Germany invades Belgium
Germany invaded Belgium. In the first battle of WWI Germany attacked the city of Liege. It would only take Germany one day to complete their takeover of the city. Germany used high powered cannons during the attack. The Germans killed the Liege priest along with civilians. -
An end to warfare on passenger ship
The Cunard passenger ship was sunk in British waters. Nearly 1,200 people drowned. This included many women and children, along with 128 of them being US citizens. Germans ended unlimited warfare on passenger ships because of the worldwide outrage about this attack. -
Poison gas forces withdraw
In the second battle of Ypres, the German use the first successful use of poison gas on the western front. 10,000 or more allied troops were affected, with over half of them dying. The same day the allies withdrew. -
Germans force labor on Belgians
German troops begin to take Belgian workers to be deployed in Germany. They would take around 1,400 people each day with nearly 700 of both female and male. When deployed in Germany they were used as forced labor. -
Wilson threats Germany
Woodrow Wilson threatens to break of the relations with Germany for attacking the Sussex, a British ship. America says they will join the war on the side on the allies if this doesn’t stop. Germany then calls off their campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. -
Germany tries to bribe Mexico
British give Wilson the Zimmerman Telegram, which was a message from foreign German secretary. It asked Mexico to side with Germany if there was a war between US and Germany. Germany promises to return the “Lost Provinces” of Texas to Mexico. Mexico still declines the offer from Germany. Though they declined it still changed the Americans opinion to support joining the War. -
US alerted about telegram
The United States is alerted about the Zimmerman Telegram. When the telegram is decoded, it read the German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman gives a promise to Mexico that he would return Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico as a reward to them if they picked the side of Germany in case the United States entered the war. -
Ayers 1st WWI engineer
Quincy Claude Ayres, 1st engineer in World War 1, writes in his diary that he starts seeing "real air battles". He hears talk of Boche guns and close calls from shells around where he is stationed. He writes this on March 24, 1917. -
US enters war
The United States declares war on Germany. The United States held a vote in the senate to enter the war or not and it was overwhelmingly in favor of entering the war. The United States had 133,000 men and almost no heavy duty weapons but over the span of 2 years millions of men were recruited to the military and were given basic training. -
Quincy begins diary
On December 3rd, 1917, Quincy Claude Ayres boards his ship headed towards the war front. He then began writing his diary entries. He wrote for the next 16 months while overseas -
Treaty of Versailles
German surrenders. Every nation agreed to stop fighting while they were still figuring out the peace negotiation. The allied nations signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th 1919 which ended the war -
Quincy Ayers in Germany
On December 1, 1918, Ayres and his fellow soldiers move through Luxembourg and into Germany. They go as far as Coblenz. The German people, Quincy Ayres wrote, were "kind" and "friendly" -
Informed engineers could leave March 9th
While in Coblenz, Quincy Claude Ayres is ordered to meet with the other engineers. They are told that they can go home on March 9, 1919. He writes, "When I think of seeing Mary, I go wild absolutely insane" (Mary is his wife whom he hasn't seen in almost 2 years). -
Ayers arrives back to family in America
On June 8, 1919, Ayres finally arrives in America. His wife is waiting for him at home. He writes, "I am rather glad Mary is not coming out tomorrow for, in my present mood, I believe I would kill her with my misdirected emotions",