How World War One unfolded
HOW WORLD WAR I UNFOLDED
1914
June
28 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia
July
5 - Kaiser Wilhelm II promises German support for Austria against Serbia
28 - Austria declares war on Serbia
August
1 - Germany declares war on Russia and signs a secret alliance with the Ottoman Empire
3 - Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium.
4 - Britain declares war on Germany
4 - The United States declares neutrality
7 - Opening skirmishes of the Battle of the Frontiers
23 - The Allied Great Retreat from Mons, Belgium. Germany invades France
26 - Russian army defeated at Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes
30 - New Zealand forces capture German Samoa
September
11 - Australian troops occupy German New Guinea
12 - Allies claim victory in the Battle of the Marne in France.
October
10 - Germans capture Antwerp, Belgium
18 - First Battle of Ypres, Belgium
29 - Turkey enters the war on Germany's side. Trench warfare starts to dominate the Western Front
November
1 - Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire
5 - France and the UK declare war on the Ottoman Empire
December
25 - Unofficial Christmas truce observed between some British and German forces
1915
January
19 - Germany launches first Zeppelin raid on Britain
19 - Britain bombards Turkish forts in the Dardanelles
February
4 - Germans begin unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant ships
April
22 - The Second Battle of Ypres. Poison gas used by the Germans for the first time
25 - ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli
May
7 - British passenger ship Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1959 people, including 128 Americans
23 - Italy declares war on Germany and Austria
June
22 - The Russian Great Retreat from Poland and Galicia
August
5 - Germans capture Warsaw from the Russians
6 - Battle of Lone Pine, first phase of the August Offensive
September
25 - Start of the Battle of Loos
October
7 - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria invade Serbia
December
19 - John French is replaced by Douglas Haig as commander of the BEF
20 - Allies complete evacuation of Gallipoli
1916
January
5 - Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro capitulates
9 - Gallipoli campaign ends with an Ottoman victory
27 - Conscription introduced in Britain
February
21 - Start of the Battle of Verdun
April
29 - British forces surrender to Turkish forces at Kut in Mesopotamia
May
31 - Battle of Jutland between British and German naval forces
June
4 - Start of the Brusilov Offensive
July
1 - Start of the Battle of the Somme
August
10 - End of the Brusilov Offensive
29 - Erich von Falkenhayn replaced by Paul von Hindenberg as German Chief of Staff
September
15 - First mass use of tanks at the Somme
November
18 - Battle of the Somme ends with huge casualties and no winner
December
7 - Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister
1917
January
16 - Germany unsuccessfully tries to lure Mexico into an alliance against the USA
March
15 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates
April
6 - USA declares war on Germany
16 - The Second Battle of Aisne ends in disaster for the French army
29 - Series of mutinies in the French army
May
15 - Philippe Petain replaces Robert Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of the French army
June
13 - Heavy bombing raid on London
25 - American troops land in France
July
31 - Start of the Third Battle at Ypres
August
20 - Second Offensive Battle of Verdun
October
24 - Italian Army heavily defeated in Battle of Caporetto
November
6 - Britain launches major offensive on the Western Front
7 - Bolsheviks seize power in Russia in the October Revolution
10 - The Third Battle of Ypres ends in a stalemate
20 - British tanks win a victory at Cambrai
December
9 - Britain captures Jerusalem from the Turks
16 - Germany and Russia sign armistice
1918
January
8 - US President Woodrow Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points
February
21 - British forces capture Jericho
March
3 - The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed between Russia and Germany.
21 - Germany breaks through on the Somme, start of the Spring Offensive
23 - Germans begin artillery strikes on Paris
29 - Marshall Foch appointed Allied Commander on the Western Front
April
7 - Second phase of the Spring Offensive, Operation Georgette begins
May
27 - Third Battle of Aisne kick-starts the third phase (Operation Blucher-Yorck) of the Spring Offensive
June
9 - Operation Gneisenau, aka Battle of Matz, the fourth and final phase of the Spring Offensive starts
12 - Spring Offensive ends with large territorial gains for Germany but her armies left severely depleted and in exposed positions
July
15 - Second Battle of the Marne begins. The start of the collapse of the German army
August
8 - Hundred Days Offensive starts, the final offensive on the Western Front
September
14 - Vardar Offensive, final offensive on the Balkan Front
18 - Allied troops break through German lines at the Battle of the Hindenburg Line
19 - Turkish forces collapse at Megiddo
26 - Final battle of World War I, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, begins
26 - British troops enter Damascus
October
4 - Germany asks the Allies for an armistice
29 - Germany's navy mutinies
30 - Turkey makes peace
November
1 - Battle of Valenciennes, closing phase of the Hundred Days Offensive
3 - Austria makes peace
9 - Kaiser William II abdicates
11 - Germany signs armistice with the Allies - the official date of the end of World War One
Post-war
1919
January
4 - Peace conference in Paris
June
21 - The surrendered German naval fleet at Scapa Flow is scuttled
28 - Germany signs Treaty of Versailles.
