Milestones in World War I
1914
June 28 Austria’s Crown Prince, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife are murdered in the city of Sarajevo. Following the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian government declares war on Serbia, its tiny southern neighbor. Russia begins to mobilize its troops in defense of Serbia.
August 1 Allied with Austria, Germany declares war on Russia. Two days later, Germany declares war on France.
August 4 Bound by mutual defense treaties, Great Britain declares war on Germany.
August 5 The United States formally declares its neutrality and offers to mediate the growing conflict.
August 23 Japan declares war on Germany.
1915
May 7 The British ocean liner is sunk by a German U-boat, with more than one hundred Americans among the dead. Germany claims that the liner carried munitions; the British deny this.
December 7 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson requests a standing army of 142,000 and reserves of 400,000.
1916
November Campaigning under the slogan “He kept us out of war” while preparing the nation for entrance into the war on the Allied side, Woodrow Wilson narrowly wins a second term.
1917
April 2 After more American ships are sunk, President Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany.
June 24 General John J. Pershing leads the first contingent of Americans, the American Expeditionary Force, to France.
1918
January 8 President Wilson outlines an attempt to settle the war called the Fourteen Points for Peace.
March The first cases of Spanish flu appear among army recruits in Kansas. Within months, every continent and country is affected.
September 26 More than one million Allied troops, including 896,000 Americans, join for an offensive in the last major battle of the war. At the same time, British forces farther north crack the German line of defense, the Hindenburg Line.
November 11 Armistice Day: Fighting ends as a cease-fire treaty, or armistice, is signed and goes into effect at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”
1919
June 28 The Treaty of Versailles is signed, under which Germany is required to admit guilt, return the rich Alsace-Lorraine region to France, surrender its overseas colonies, and pay reparations. Under the treaty, German rearmament is strictly limited, and the Allies take temporary control of the German economy.
1920
January The League of Nations is founded to foster and maintain world peace and disarmament. The U.S. Senate rejects the treaty and America does not join the League of Nations, seriously weakening the group. It was later disbanded and replaced in 1945 by the United Nations.