World War I Timeline

1
World War I Timeline

• Pre-1914 - 1918

2
Pre 1914

• France signs humiliating treaty after defeat in
  the Franco Prussian War
• France loses Alsace and Lorraine
• Wilhelm II becomes Kaiser of Germany

3
Pre 1914

• Nicholas II (Romanov) becomes tsar of Russia
• Russo-Japanese War results in disastrous loss for
  Russia
• Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg

4
1914

• Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in
  Sarajevo
• Austria declares war on Serbia
• Russia mobilizes
• Germany declares war on Russia

5
1914

• Germany declares war on France
• Invades neutral Belgium
• Britain declares war on Germany
• Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia

6
1914

• Ludendorff and Hindenburg defeat Russians at
  Tannenberg
• First Battle of the Marne halts German invasion
  of France
• Trenches dug
• Western front created

7
1914

• Christmas Truce
• Unofficial truce among soldiers along the Western
  Front

8
1915

• War becomes Total War with German Zeppelin raid
  on GB
• German blockades Britain any ship is a target

9
1915

• Allies begin 9 month battle for Turkish peninsula
  of Gallipoli
• Thousands of British and Australians killed

10
1915

• U-Boat sinks British passenger liner, Lusitania
• 128 Americans die
• Germans claim munitions on board

11
1915

• British use poison gas near Loos, but shifting
  winds cause 60,000 British casualties
• Allies begin withdrawal of troops from Gallipoli

12
1916

• Longest battle, Verdun, ends in a draw with 1
  million casualties
• Battle of the Somme, first use of tanks by
  British
• Woodrow Wilson re-elected, He kept us out of
  war.

13
1917

• Zimmerman Note is discovered
• Germany urged Mexico to enter war against U.S.
  would regain lost territory
• German resumes unrestricted submarine warfare

14
1917

• Tsar Nicholas II abdicates
• Provisional government set up
• President Wilson asks for declaration of war
• U.S. passes Selective Service Act

15
1917

• First wave of the American Expeditionary Force
  (AEF) arrives in France
• Doughboys

16
1917

• Americans fire first shots in the war
• Bolshevik socialists led by Lenin overthrow
  Kerenskys provisional government
• Russia signs armistice with Germany

17
1918

• Flu epidemic begins kills more people than the
  war
• Americans stop Germans at Chateau Thierry
• Baron von Richthofen (Red Baron) killed in air
  dog-fight

18
1918

• Tsar Nicholas and family are murdered by
  Bolsheviks
• Allied forces push Germans back into retreat

19
1918

• Germans mutiny and desert
• Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates
• Nov. 11, 1918 (1100 am) armistice
• War is over

20
1918

• Pres. Wilson sails to Paris
• Treaty of Versailles
• 14 Points
• Harsh punishment for Germany