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A month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian government declares war on Serbia. Immediately, and within a period of six days, European countries declare war upon one another. -
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand stoked old tensions beyond the Balkans. The crisis spread as other powers pledged support for either Austria or Serbia. Austria knew that conflict with Serbia would likely involve Russia, which saw itself as Serbia's protector. -
Germany begins a naval blockade of Great Britain. Utilizing its naval resources, Germany tried to enforce its own blockade in the North Sea. -
The Gallipoli campaign was the land-based element of a strategy intended to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. -
German submarine sinks the passenger liner Lusitania during crossing from New York to Liverpool, England, killing 128 Americans. -
the German army began pounding the forts and trenches with artillery fire. 1,200 guns smashed the French positions. -
the lethal threat of the German U-boat submarine raises its head again, as Germany returns to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare it had previously suspended in response to pressure from the United States and other neutral countries. -
Wilson cited Germany's violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war. -
during which Wilson outlined his vision for a stable, long-lasting peace in Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world following World War I. -
had forced the Germans back across the river. This set the stage for the action at Château-Thierry and at the Battle of Belleau Wood. However, the later action raged for another three weeks. -
Allied victory and the first U.S.-led offensive in World War I. The Allied attack against the Saint-Mihiel salient provided the Americans with an opportunity to use their forces on the Western Front en masse. -
With the ground thus well prepared, and under Wilson's resolute leadership, the conference was able to draw up, in a few days of intensive committee work, a document which it called the Covenant of the League of Nations. -
the controversial Treaty of Versailles which established the terms for peace at the end of World War I went into effect. -
In November Lodge sent to the Senate floor a treaty with 14 reservations, but no amendments. In the face of Wilson's continued unwillingness to negotiate, the Senate