WWI Timeline - Berkhamsted Collegiate School

1914
28^th June 1914: Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
28^th July 1914: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
1^st August 1914: Germany declares war on Russia.
3^rd August 1914: Germany declares war on France.
4^th August 1914: Germany invades Belgium, a neutral nation.
4^th August 1914: Great Britain declares war on Germany.
30^th August 1914: 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.
10^th September 1914: First Battle of the Marne halts German invasion in France.
15^th September 1914: Digging of the first trenches of the Western front begins.
25^th December 1914: Unofficial Christmas Truce declared by soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front.
1915
15^th January 1915: First German Zeppelin air raid on England.
4^th February 1915: Germany declares a submarine blockade of Great Britain. Any boat approaching England is considered a legitimate target.
22^nd April 1915: First use of chemical weapons at the Second Battle of Ypres.
25^th April 1915: Allies begin assault on Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
7^th May 1915: Sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania.
23^rd May 1915: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
30^th August 1915: Germany responds to U.S. anger by ceasing to sink ships without warning.
5^th September 1915: Tsar Nicholas takes command of Russian armies.
19^th December 1915: Sir Douglas Haig becomes commander of British Expeditionary Force.
28^th December 1915: Allies begin withdrawal of troops from Gallipoli.
1916
21^st February 1916: Battle of Verdun begins.
1^st June 1916: The Battle of Jutland, the only major naval engagement of the war is fought with no clear winner.
1^st July 1916: Beginning of the Battle of the Somme
6^th August 1916: Aleksander Fyodorovich Kerensky appointed Prime Minister of Russia.
7^th November 1916: Woodrow Wilson re-elected President of the United States.
18^th November 1916: The Battle of the Somme results in an estimated one million casualties and no breakthrough for the Allies.
7^th December 1916: David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
18^th December 1916: The longest battle of the war, the Battle of Verdun, is fought to a draw with an estimated one million casualties.
31^st December 1916: The self-avowed Russian holy man, Rasputin, is murdered by relatives of the Tsar’s.
1917
1^st February 1917: Germany again declares unrestricted submarine warfare
15^th March 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates. Provisional government is declared.
6^th April 1917: The United States declares war on Germany.
14^th April 1917: British and Canadian troops advance 3 miles at Arras
16^th April 1917: The French Army launches the Chemin des Dames offensive, but fails to break through the German lines. Mutiny breaks out amongst the French troops.
21^st April 1917: French launch offensive at the Chemin des Dames.
7^th June 1917: British troops explode 19 mines under Messines Ridge.
6^th July 1917: T.E. Lawrence and the Arabs capture Aquaba.
16^th July 1917: Beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres
31^st July 1917: Major British offensive launched at Ypres.
7^th November 1917: Bolshevik socialists, led by Lenin, overthrow Kerensky’s government.
10^th November 1917: Third Battles of Ypres, known as Passchendaele, results in minor gains, but still no breakthrough.
10^th November 1917: British reach the village of Passchendaele.
3^rd December 1917: The new Russian government, represented by Leon Trotsky, signs an armistice with Germany.
9^th December 1917: British capture Jerusalem.
1918
8^th January 1918: President Woodrow Wilson declares his 14 points as the path to world peace.
21^st March 1918: Germans launch the first of five major offensives to win the war before American troops appear in the trenches.
25^th April 1918: British and Australian troops stop the German advance near Amiens.
23^rd May 1918: German shells land on Paris.
17^th July 1918: Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, children, and members of his entourage are murdered by the Bolsheviks
8^th August 1918: Allied counteroffensives on the Somme push the German army back.
29^th September 1918: Allied troops break through the German fortifications at the Hindenberg line.
28^th October 1918: Germany’s sailors mutiny at port when asked to sail out to fight again.
9^th November 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates.
10^th November 1918: A German republic is founded.
11^th November 1918: At eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and Allies sign an Armistice.
4^th December 1918: Woodrow Wilson sets sail for the Paris Peace conference.