WWI Timeline

  • Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

    Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
    Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Germany invades Belgium

    Germany invades Belgium
    Germany invaded Belgium to avoid French fortifications along the French-German border.
  • Battle of Marne

    Battle of Marne
    The First Battle of the Marne or known in France as the Miracle on the Marne
  • Gallipoli Campaign

    Gallipoli Campaign
    The Battle of Gallipoli was part of World War I and was fought to force Turkey out of the war and to capture Constantinople
  • Battle of Verdun

    Battle of Verdun
    The French repelled the German assault and saved the city of Verdun
  • Battle of the Somme

    Battle of the Somme
    The Battle of the Somme was one of the most bitterly contested and costly battles of the First World War, lasting nearly five months.
  • Death of Grigori Rasputin

    Death of Grigori Rasputin
    Gregory Rasputin, the holy man who had become a favourite of Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandra because of their belief in his healing powers
  • Tsar Nicholas abdicates

    Tsar Nicholas abdicates
    Discontent at home, plus losses of territory and massive casualties in two wars, precipitated the February Revolution on March 12, 1917. Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, 1917
  • US declares war on Germany

    US declares war on Germany
    President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of the United States Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, which passed in the Senate on the same day and then in the House of Representatives four days later on April 6.
  • Lenin's return to from exile

    Lenin's return to from exile
    Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile
  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

    Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
    The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central Powers
  • Armistice ending WWI

    Armistice ending WWI
    On Nov. 11, 1918, after more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent.
  • Treaty of Versailles signed

    Treaty of Versailles signed
    The Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany and the Allied Nations on June 28, 1919, formally ending World War One.