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Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
A teenage Serbian nationalist gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand -
Great War begins
In late June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. An escalation of threats and mobilization orders followed the incident, leading by mid-August to the outbreak of World War I -
Lusitania sank
The British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. -
Battle of the Somme
A battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. After two years of trench warfare, the Allies attempt to break through German lines on the Western Front. The ensuing battle will last for months and result in more than one million casualties. -
Wilson re-elected
The United States presidential election of 1916 was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1916. Incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, was pitted against Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. -
Zimmerman note intercepted
Zimmermann instructed the ambassador, Count Johann von Bernstorff, to offer significant financial aid to Mexico if it agreed to enter any future U.S-German conflict as a German ally. -
Kaiser declares “open season” on ships
This sea had been open season for U-boat attacks on merchant ships. U.S. destroyers were ordered to destroy U-boats and the recovery and rescue of torpedoed crews. -
US declares war on Germany
Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. -
Selective Service Act
Gave the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers. -
Convoy system
Driven by the spectacular success of the German U-boat submarines and their attacks on Allied and neutral ships at sea, the British Royal Navy introduces a newly created convoy system, whereby all merchant ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean would travel in groups under the protection of the British navy. -
Espionage Age passed
The Espionage Act essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. -
Russia pulls out of the war
QUICK ANSWER
Russia pulled out of World War I because the communists wanted to focus on internal rather than external problems after they seized power in the October Revolution of 1917. -
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Flu Epidemic
The 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic -
Fourteen Points speech
President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to Congress that outlined Fourteen Points for peace and the end to World War I. Wilson wanted lasting peace and for World War I to be the "war to end all wars." The United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies on April 6, 1917. -
Sedition Act passed
Was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. -
Germany signs armistice
In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies' favor. Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, 1918. World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused.
