World War One Timeline
Pre-1914
1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war ends in a humiliating defeat for France and the unification of Germany.
1871 King Wilhelm I of Prussia crowned Emperor of Germany on French soil in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace at Versailles.
1885 George Eastman markets first box camera.
1888 After his father's untimely death, twenty-nine-year-old Wilhelm II becomes ruler of Germany.
1901 Great Britain's Queen Victoria, whose bloodline runs through most of the ruling houses of Europe, dies.
1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War results in disastrous defeat for Russia and major civil unrest at home.
1908 Henry Ford manufactures first Model-T automobile. England, France, and Russia form Triple Entente.
1914
June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is assassinated in Sarajevo.
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 neutral Belgium.
August 4 Great Britain declares war on Germany.
August 26-30 German army, led by Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg, achieves its greatest victory of the war on the Eastern front against Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg.
September 5-10 First Battle of the Marne halts German invasion in France.
September 15 First trenches of the Western front are dug.
December 25 Unofficial Christmas Truce declared by soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front.
1915
January 19, 1915 First German Zeppelin air raid on England.
February 4 Germany declares a submarine blockade of Great Britain. Any boat approaching England is considered a legitimate target.
April 22-May 5 Second Battle of Ypres marks first use of chemical weapons.
April 25 Allies begin assault on Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
May 7 Sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania.
May 23 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
August 30 Germany responds to U.S. anger by ceasing to sink ships without warning.
September 5 Tsar Nicholas takes command of Russian armies.
December 19 Sir Douglas Haig becomes commander of British Expeditionary Force.
December 28 Allies begin withdrawal of troops from Gallipoli.
1916
February 21 - December 18, 1916 The longest battle of the war, the Battle of Verdun, is fought to a draw with an estimated one million casualties.
May 31-June 1 The Battle of Jutland, the only major naval engagement of the war is fought with no clear winner.
July 1-November 18 The Battle of the Somme results in an estimated one million casualties and no breakthrough for the Allies.
November 7 Woodrow Wilson re-elected President of the United States.
December 7 David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
December 31 The self-avowed Russian holy man, Rasputin, is murdered by relatives of the Tsar's.
1917
1917-1919 Veterans organize to secure pensions and recognition of their sacrifice.
February 1, 1917 Germany again declares unrestricted submarine warfare.
March 15 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates. Provisional government is declared.
April 6 The United States declares war on Germany.
April 14 British and Canadian troops advance 3 miles at Arras.
April 16-29 The French Army launches the Chemin des Dames offensive, but fails to break through the German lines. Mutiny breaks out amongst the French troops.
April 21 French launch offensive at the Chemin des Dames.
June 7 British troops explode 19 mines under Messines Ridge.
July 6 T.E. Lawrence and the Arabs capture Aquaba.
July 16-November 10 Third Battles of Ypres, known as Passchendaele, results in minor gains, but still no breakthrough.
July 31 Major British offensive launched at Ypres.
August 6 Aleksander Fyodorovich Kerensky appointed Prime Minister of Russia.
November 7 Bolshevik socialists, led by Lenin, overthrow Kerensky's government.
November 10 British reach the village of Passchendaele.
December 3 The new Russian government, represented by Leon Trotsky, signs an armistice with Germany.
December 9 British capture Jerusalem.
1918
1918-1919 Two waves of influenza kill more people than did the war.
January 8, 1918 President Woodrow Wilson declares his 14 points as the path to world peace.
March 21 Germans launch the first of five major offensives to win the war before American troops appear in the trenches.
April 25 British and Australian troops stop the German advance near Amiens.
May 23 German shells land on Paris.
July 16-17 Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, children, and members of his entourage are murdered by the Bolsheviks.
August 8 Allied counteroffensives on the Somme push the German army back.
September 29 Allied troops break through the German fortifications at the Hindenberg line.
October 28 Germany's sailors mutiny at port when asked to sail out to fight again.
November 9 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates.
November 10 A German republic is founded.
November 11 At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and Allies sign an Armistice.
December 4 Woodrow Wilson sets sail for the Paris Peace conference.
1919
1919 Demobilization of the armies.
1919-1921 Russian civil war fails to unseat the Bolsheviks.
January 10-15, 1919 A coup launched by German revolutionaries in Berlin is suppressed by paramilitary units.
January 15 German socialist rebels Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are murdered.
February Allies' military intervention in Russia is secretly agreed to.
June 28 Peace Treaty signed by German delegates and Allies in Versailles.
July 19 The Cenotaph is unveiled in London.
August-September Woodrow Wilson brings his campaign for the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles to the American people.
September 25 Wilson collapses and calls for his whistle-stop tour.
Post-1919
1920-1922 War cemeteries created on the fronts; war memorials dedicated in villages and cities at home.
March 19, 1920 The Senate fails to ratify the Treaty.
April Disgruntled officers fail in an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic.
November 11 The Unknown Warrior is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
March 1921 American food aid helps save millions of famine victims in Russia.
1924-1925 Adolf Hitler imprisoned for sedition; writes Mein Kampf
August 20, 1932 Kathe Kollwitz's memorial to her dead son is unveiled in Vladslo, Belgium.
January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler named Chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg.
September 2, 1939 Second World War begins
