June 28-
Archduke Franz Ferdinand gets shot in Serbia, this is the wee spark that started
The Great War.
July 28-Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
August 1-Germany declares war on Russia.
August 3-Germany declares war on France.
August 4-Germany invades Belgium, which is neutral. Germany wants to start isolating Britain’s Navy.
August 4-Great Britain declares war on Germany.
Week of August 26-Russians attack Germany, forcing Germany to withdraw resources from France.
September 5-10-In the Marne, the French halt German advances.
September 15 -
Trenches were dug along many major fronts. Marks start of
trench warfare, the bloodiest kind of warfare ever seen.
December 25-The soldiers see the pointlessness of war and sing
Christmas songs to each other. Fighting resumes half-heartedly the next day.
Sometime This Year-
Armenian Genocide: Turks deported all the
Armenians from the Russian war zone. Armenians were suspected of being possible Russian sympathizers. The Armenians died en masse during the deportation.
January 19-Germans start using
airships (
Zeppelins).
February 4-Germany decides that it shall conduct
unrestricted
submarine warfare, all ships can be considered targets.
April 25-Allies invade
Gallipoli in
Turkey, hoping of moving north into the Balkans.
May 7-
Lusitania sunk. This angers the allies, as the Lusitania was a ‘passenger’ ship. The Germans thought it was carrying
munitions, and even published ads in the
New York Times warning passengers not to board the ship.
May 23-
Italy finally declares war on
Austria-Hungary.
August 30-Germany tries to appease the still
neutral US by promising to give some warning before sinking ships, such as surfacing subs and firing warning shots.
February 21-December 18-
Verdun battle was fought between the Germans and French. There were 1 million casualties, it was a strategic draw.
May 31-June 1-
Jutland was the only
Naval battle of the war. It was fought to a draw like Verdun, between the
British and
German navies.
July 1-November 18- the battle in
Somme causes 1 million deaths, and no strategic gain. Things look bleak for the allies at this point in the
war.
November 7-
President Wilson is reelected Commander-in-Chief. The British also elect new prime minister shortly after.
December 31-
Rasputin is murdered by family members of the Tsar. They feared his influence over the Tsar.
Sometime This Year-The British issue the
Balfour Note declaring their support for a
Jewish state in the country of
Palestine.
February 1-Germany re-declares unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the
Atlantic. Ships are sunk without warning.
April 6-The United States declares war on Germany. The American public expresses support for the Triple Entente.
July 6-
Lawrence of Arabia and the Arabs capture
Aqaba. Impetus for string of 1950’s war movies with
bad British actors.
August 6-Alexander Fyodorovich
Kerensky is appointed Prime Minister by the Tsar, to appease the
revolutionaries.
November 7-
Lenin’s
Bolshevik socialists overthrow Kerensky's weak government.
December 3-
Trotsky signs an
armistice with Germany.
December 9-The British capture Jerusalem, finally finishing off
the crusades started 900 years previously.
1918-1919-
Influenza or
The Spanish Flu of 1918 kills more people then the entire war.
January 8-President
Woody presents his
14 points for world peace and blatant Americanism. (
As pointed out by several fellow noders, the 14 points, League of Nations, and effects of nationalism cannot be distilled down to something this basic.)
May 23-Germans shell Paris.
July 16-
Bolsheviks slaughter the Tsar and his family.
August 8-Allied push on the Somme causes German
retreat.
November 9-Kaiser Wilhelm II
abdicates, and runs with his tail between his legs to
Holland, where he lives until his death in
1941.
November 11-So the saying goes: At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, The
Armistice is signed.
November 12-
Charles I, the last Austrian emperor
abdicates.
November 13-
Austria proclaims itself a
Republic. The following week Hungry proclaims itself a Republic. The Fruits of
Democracy spread gloriously though Europe. Before a peace conference could convene, the Austrian-Hungary empire becomes an
anarchy, then a multitude of smaller countries.
October-
Hapsburg Nationalities get recognition from the Allies.
This was an assignment for my Topics of the 20th Century IB class. Sources: I used my notes from class, given by Mr. Rushing, my teacher. For some of the dates, I used http://pbs.org/greatwar/timeline
Kudos to the collaborative environment that is E2. I have linked to the year-by-year pages, and they have far surpassed my own meager timeline.