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Revolution overthrows Austrian-Hungarian Emperor
n March 1848, revolution erupted in Vienna, forcing Austria's Chancellor Klemens von Metternich to flee the capital. Unrest broke out in Hungary on March 15, when radicals and students stormed the Buda fortress to release political prisoners. -
France loses Alsace and Lorraine to Germany
Started out as French territory but at the time was basically part of Germany. Germany took it in 1817. It went back and forth between France and Germany several times but ended up as French territory. Germany loses everything because of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Germany offically unified
By 1871, the process that Bismark began in 1862 had unified Germany under Emperor William I. -
Triple Alliance formed
The Triple Alliance was the military alliance among Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, that lasted from 1882 until World War I in 1914. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any other great power, or for Germany and Italy, an attack by France alone. -
Tsar Nicholas II abdigates
During the February Revolution, Czar Nicholas II, ruler of Russia since 1894, is forced to abdicate the throne by the Petrograd insurgents, and a provincial government is installed in his place. -
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea -
Triple Entente Alliance Formed
The Triple Entente (from French entente ("friendship, understanding, agreement") was the alliance linking Russia, France, and the United Kingdom after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente on August 31, 1907. The alliance of the three powers, supplemented by agreements with Portugal and Japan, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. -
Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia
The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary announced its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dual provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the Ottoman Empire. This cause many problems and a struggle for power in the tumultuous Balkans that morphed into the First World War. -
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassination
Franz, along with his wife, was shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins.The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum against Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war, marking the outbreak of the war. -
Austria declares 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. -
Ottoman-Germany alliance formed
The Ottoman – German Alliance was an alliance between the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire that was ratified shortly following the outbreak of World War I. The alliance was created as part of a joint-cooperative effort that would strengthen and modernize the ailing Ottoman military, as well as provide Germany safe passage into neighboring British colonies. -
Schlieffen Plan put into action
On 2nd August 1914, the Schlieffen Plan was put into operation when the German Army invaded Luxembourg and Belgium. However, the Germans were held up by the Belgian Army and were shocked by the Russian Army's advance into East Prussia. The Germans were also surprised by how quickly the British Expeditionary Force reached France and Belgium. -
Battle of Tannenberg
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian and the German Empires in the first days of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army, as well as the death of its commander Alexander Samsonov. -
Japan declares war on Germany
Japan was asked by the British goverment to assist in destroying the German raiders of Kaiserciche marine. Japan sent Germany an ultimatum-for Germany to stop the raiding ships. After they declined, Japan declared war on Germany and seized control of Tsingtao in short order in 1914. -
Battle of Marne
was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive that opened the war and had reached the outskirts of Paris. -
Russian Army runs out of ammunition
The Russian Army had 60 heavy artillery batteries and 2 machine guns per battalion. They ran out of ammunition for its infantrymen in December 1914. -
Battle of Gallipoli
This was an unsuccessful attempt by the Allied Powers to control the sea route from Europe to Russia during World War I.It was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war and is considered a major Allied failure. -
Lusitania Sinks
On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which primarily ferried people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Great Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. Of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198 died, including 128 Americans. The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I. -
Battle of Verdun
Fought between the German and French armies. The German strategy intended to provoke the French into counter-attacks and counter-offensives to drive the Germans off the heights, which would be relatively easy to repel with massed artillery-fire from the large number of guns, An estimate in 2000 found a total of 714,231 casualties. France won this battle. -
Battle of Jutland
A naval battle fought by the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet against the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War.It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war. -
Battle of Somme
This was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire.The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of humanity's bloodiest battles. Germany won. -
Zimmerman Telegraph found
British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. -
Unrestricted submarine warfare commences
On this day 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. -
Bolsheviks emerge as a political group
The word bolsheviks means majority". This party supported Lenin and eventually carried out the revolutionary coup that gave birth to the Soviet communist state in 1917.It emerged from the lower classes to fix the sturcture of the old party and other issues. -
Battle of Passchendaele
This was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the British and their allies against the German Empire.The campaign ended in November when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele. It lasted 3 months and 6 days. -
October Revolution
This was a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the provisional government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by the majority (Bolshevik) faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. -
Vladimir Lenin seizes power in Russia
Lenin lead the Russian Communists to power in November 1917. Strictly this should read Russian Bolsheviks as the party Lenin had joined as a young man split in two in 1903. Those who left the party were few in number and became known as the Mensheviks. The majority stayed with Lenin and they became known as the Bolsheviks which means majority in Russian. -
Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. -
Influenza Epidemic
The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus.It infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. -
Fourteen Points proposed
This was a statement given by United States President Woodrow Wilson declaring that World War I was being fought for a moral cause and calling for postwar peace in Europe. -
Russia signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
On March 3, 1918, in the city of Brest-Litovsk, located in modern-day Belarus near the Polish border, Russia signs a treaty with the Central Powers ending its participation in World War I. -
Russia-Germany Pact violates Versailles
After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front, the new Soviet Government of Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany on 3 March 1918. This treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles square miles of territory and 62 million people. -
Germany stops reparation payments to France
Germany made its final reparations-related payment for the Great War on Oct. 3, nearly 92 years after the country's defeat by the Allies. -
Armistice Signed
Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. -
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdigates
With Germany actively seeking an armistice and revolution threatening, calls for Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate grew in intensity. Upon being informed by his military advisers that the army could not be relied upon not to harm him Wilhelm abandoned the notion.It was announced on the 8th and his abdication proclamation was formally published in Berlin on 30 November 1918. -
Treaty of Versailles Signes
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. -
Treaty of Saint-Germane
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the Republic of German-Austria on the other. It contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and as a result was not ratified by the United States but was followed by the US–Austrian Peace Treaty of 1921. -
New Economic Policy (NEP)
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was an economic policy of Soviet Russia proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it "state capitalism".The NEP represented a more capitalism-oriented economic policy, deemed necessary after the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922, to foster the economy of the country, which was almost ruined. -
Stalin takes over Russia
Stalin was appointed general secretary of the party's Central Committee in 1922. He subsequently managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Lenin through suppressing Lenin's criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. By the late 1920s, he was the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. He remained general secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, concurrently serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 onward. -
Trotsky flees Russia
Leon Trotsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army. He was forced by Stalin to flee the Soviet Union. -
US declares war on Germany
The United States Congress declared war upon Germany, in response to that nation's declaration of war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and only hours after Germany declared war on the United States.
