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Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife visit Sarajevo in Bosnia. A bomb is thrown at their car but misses. But they continue their visit anyway and are soon shot and killed by an assassin. Believing the assassin to be a Serbian nationalist, the Austrians direct their anger towards Serbia. -
A German U-Boat torpedoes
A German U-Boat torpedoed the British cruise ship Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. and within 18 minutes the ship sank, killing 1,201 people, including 128 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson then sent a four-dimensional attack on Germany. -
President Woodrow Wilson,
American voters re-elect President Woodrow Wilson who had campaigned on the slogan, "He kept us out of war." -
Alfred Zimmermann of the German Foreign Ministry
The British intercepted a telegram sent by Alfred Zimmermann of the German Foreign Ministry to the German embassies in Washington, D.C. and Mexico City. His message outlines plans for an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the United States. According to the plan, Germany would provide tactical support, while Mexico would benefit by expanding into the American Southwest and retaking areas that were once part of Mexico. The Zimmermann telegram is forwarded by the British to the Americans -
U.S. AT WAR : WILSON
The United States of America declares war on Germany. -
Battle of Mount Ortigara
The first American troops land in France.
Shock troops with the Austro-Hungarian Army pushed 11 Italian divisions off the Mount Ortigara summit, regaining their important defensive position in Asiago, Italy. Italy suffered 23,000 casualties while Austria-Hungary sustained only 9,000 casualties. -
American Expeditionary Force
On May 28, 1918 the American 1st Division led an assault on the town of Cantigny, France, making it the first divisional attack by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) is commanded by General John Pershing who is determined to maintain all-American fighting units, rather than parcel out American troops to the British and French armies. By now, 650,000 American soldiers have arrived in France, with the number growing by 10,000 per day. -
Compiègne, France,
At 5:10 am, in a railway car at Compiègne, France, the Germans sign the Armistice which is effective at 11 am--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Fighting continues all along the Western Front until precisely 11 o'clock, with 2,000 casualties experienced that day by all sides. Artillery barrages also erupt as 11 am draws near as soldiers yearn to claim they fired the very last shot in the war. -
Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War – The Red Army defeated White Russian forces near Buguruslan, Russia. The Avonmouth Docks railway station officially closed in Avonmouth, Bristol, England, although it had not been operating since 1915 when it closed as a war time measure.
The League of Nations is founded, championed by President Wilson as a means of peaceably resolving future conflicts.