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Beginning of trench warfare
Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied fighting lines consisting largely of military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. -
assassination of Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were touring Sarajevo in an open car, with surprisingly little security, when Serbian nationalist Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at their car. -
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Battle of Tannenberg
The Battle of Tannenberg was fought between Russia and Germany in August 1914, during the first month of World War I. -
Poison Gas first used
On April 22, 1915, German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line. -
Lusitania torpedoed
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. -
Battle of Verdun
the largest and longest battle of the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies. -
First Aeroplane Raid
The first confirmed raid occurred in 1916, when a Friedrichshafen FF.29 dropped two bombs into the sea near the Admiralty Pier in Dover. These raids, usually carried out by one or two aircraft during daytime, continued throughout the war, with little effect. -
Conscription introduced in Britain
Conscription during the First World War began when the British government passed the Military Service Act in 1916. The act specified that single men aged 18 to 40 years old were liable to be called up for military service unless they were widowed with children or ministers of a religion. -
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle fought by the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, against the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer during the First World War. -
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire -
Battle of Cambrai
The Battle of Cambrai was a British attack followed by the biggest German counter-stroke against the BEF s -
United States declared war on Germany
President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of the United States Congress for a declaration of war against the German Empire. Congress responded with the declaration on April 6. -
Royal Air Force formed
The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world. -
Armistice signed
Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, 1918.
