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Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassinated
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of a Serbian terrorism organization called the Black Hand, while traveling through Sarajevo. Pretty soon, a lot of the world was involved in "the War to End All Wars." -
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The Second Battle of Ypres-Germans Use Poison Gas for the First Time Part One
This was important because the Germans used poison gas for the first time. Here is an excerpt about it: "Dusk was falling when from the German trenches in front of the French line rose that strange green cloud of death. The light north-easterly breeze wafted it toward them, and in a moment death had them by the throat. One cannot blame them that they broke and fled. In the gathering dark of that awful night they fought with the terror, running blindly in the gas-cloud, and dropping with breasts -
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The Second Battle of Ypres-Germans Use Poison Gas for the First Time Part Two
heaving in agony and the slow poison of suffocation mantling their dark faces. Hundreds of them fell and died; others lay helpless, froth upon their agonized lips and their racked bodies powerfully sick, with tearing nausea at short intervals. They too would die later – a slow and lingering death of agony unspeakable. The whole air was tainted with the acrid smell of chlorine that caught at the back of men's throats and filled their mouths with its metallic taste." —Captain Hugh Pollard -
British Employ the First Tanks Ever Used in Battle
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/history/69756-how-worlds-first-tanks-wwi.html On Wednesday, September 15, 1915, the British employed the first tanks ever used in battle. They were useful for breaking through barbed wire and clearing a path for the infantry, but they weren't exactly what their designers wanted them to be. The British spent lots of money on them-but they didn't do as well as well as planned: many got stuck in ditches, some captured, and others destroyed by shell fragments. -
The Red Baron is Shot Down
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/redbaron.htmOn April 14, 1918, the famous German named the Red Baron was shot down. This flyer is credited with 80 victories and is perhaps the most famous dogfighter of all. The attached link describes his life. -
Treaty of Versailles
On June 28, 1919, the wait was over. The Treaty of Versailles was signed, marking the end of WWI. It made Germany, Austria, and Hungary agree with being responsible for starting the war, and pay what is now equal to approximately $442,000,000,000 to the countries that had formed the Entente Powers, or the Allies.
