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Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, during a visit to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. -
Wilson Urges Neutrality
August 4, 1914
As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany -
Zimmerman Note
secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. -
United States Declares War
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. The United States later declared war on German ally Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917 -
Creation of the CPI
CPI established to mobilize public opinion behind World War I. President Woodrow Wilson established the committee in April 1917 through Executive Order 2594 in response to the U.S. entry into World War I in an attempt to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort with every available form of mass communication. -
Selective Service Act
Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which Wilson signed into law on May 18, 1917. The act required all men in the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft. -
Espionage Act
The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited obtaining information, recording pictures, or copying descriptions of any information relating to the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information may be used for the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation. -
American Troops Enter Europe
Although the first American troops arrived in Europe in June 1917, the AEF did not fully participate at the front until October, when the First Division, one of the best-trained divisions of the AEF, entered the trenches at Nancy, France -
Wilson's 14 Points
In January, 1918, near the end of the First World War, President Wilson laid down fourteen points as the “only possible” program for world peace. These points were used as the basis for peace negotiations. The need for this statement of war aims was prompted by the failure of the Allies to agree upon a formulation of them. They were based on a report prepared by The Inquiry, a commission organized by Colonel E.M. House for the purpose of studying Allied and American policy. -
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Second Battle of Marne
\The Second Battle of the Marne lasted from July 15 to August 6, 1918, and was fought during World War I. Conceived as an attempt to draw Allied troops south from Flanders to facilitate an attack in that region, the offensive along the Marne proved to be the last the German Army would mount in the conflict. -
Paris Peace Conference
The Paris Peace Conference was the formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. -
Rejection of the Treaty of Versailles
In 1919 the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I, in part because President Woodrow Wilson had failed to take senators' objections to the agreement into consideration. They have made the French treaty subject to the authority of the League, which is not to be tolerated. -
German Surrender in Compiegne
On 22 June 1940, the French delegation signed the Armistice agreement imposed by Germany at the very location of the 1918 Armistice signing. This entailed France's surrender in the Second World War.
