World War One Time Line

1914

Poster, Serbia Needs Your Help (Private Collection) What Was Happening With the War?

Archduke Ferdinand and wife assassinated in Sarajevo

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

Germany declares war on Russia

Great Britain declares war on Germany

Japan declares war on Germany

President Wilson proclaims American neutrality

Germany fine-tunes chemical warfare weapons

Battles of Liege, Mons, Ypres, Lodz

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

Color motion picture process invented

Tarzan of the Apes is published

Charlie Chaplin creates The Little Tramp

Panama Canal completed

W. C. Handy composes St. Louis Blues

Last known passenger pigeon dies

Teletype machine invented

U. S. Navy bombs Veracruz, Mexico

1915

Illustration, Sinking of the Lusitania - 1915 (Private Collection) What Was Happening With the War?

Battles of Dardanelles, Isonzo, Artols

S. S. Lusitania and S. S. Arabic sunk in Atlantic

Germany uses submarines to blockade Britain

Germany creates remote control military tanks

Germany develops fighter airplanes

U. S. Coast Guard established

U. S. makes loans to warring nations

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

Birth of a Nation released

Taxi cabs appear on streets

Ford produces its one millionth automobile

First transcontinental phone call made

Spoon River Anthology published

U. S. Marines sent to Haiti

Perils of Pauline movie serials begin

1916

Photograph, John J. Pershing and Pancho Villa - 1914 (Courtesy latinamericanstudies.org) What Was Happening With the War?

Battles of Verdun, Somme, Corfu, Jutland

Tanks used for first time on the Western Front

Rumania declares war on Austria-Hungary

Severe food shortages appear in Germany

Germany uses plastic surgery to treat war wounds

U. S. expands Army and National Guard

Germany uses long-range bombers

Submachine "Tommy" gun invented

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

National Park Service founded

First American birth control clinic opened

First professional golf tournament held

John J. Pershing chases Pancho Villa back to Mexico

24 states have "dry laws" prohibiting alcohol

U. S. Marines sent to Santo Domingo

President Woodrow Wilson reelected

1917

Poster, Help Crush the Menace of the Seas (Private Collection) What Was Happening With the War?

Wilson severs American relationship with Germany

German-Mexican alliance against U. S. revealed

Wilson declares war on Germany; America at war

Congress passes Selective Service Act

John J. Pershing appointed head of U. S. forces

Battles at Ypres, Aisne, Champagne

Congress passes War Revenue Act

China declares war on Germany

First ground-to-air radios developed

Submarine detector invented

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

First woman elected to U. S. Congress

U. S. purchases Virgin Islands from Denmark

Puerto Rico becomes a U. S. territory

Prohibition Act sent to the states for ratification

Revolution in Russia; Czar assassinated

British declare support for Jewish homeland in Palestine

Finland declares independence from Russia

"Jelly Roll" Morton publishes first songs

George M. Cohan pens Over There

Female factory workers adopt "bobbed hair"

Suffrage picketers arrested at White House

1918

What Was Happening With the War?

Browning invents first automatic rifle

Russia signs peace treaty with Germany

Battles of Aisne-Marne, Chateau-Thierry, Meuse-Argonne

German fleet mutinies

German pilot Manfred "Red Baron" von Richtofen shot down

Lt. Campbell becomes first American "ace" pilot

Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates and flees to Holland

Armistice signed

Wilson attends peace negotiations

Photograph, First Airmail Flight -1918 (Private Collection) What Was Happening Elsewhere?

First scheduled airmail service offered

"Fats" Waller composes first hit

Influenza epidemic sweeps America

U. S. divided into four time zones

Daylight Savings Time goes into effect

British women win fight for suffrage

Willa Cather publishes My Antonia

Czechoslovakia becomes an independent state

1919

What Was Happening With the War?

Peace Treaty (Versailles) submitted to Congress

Allies and Germany sign Treaty of Versailles

U. S. Congress refuses to ratify Treaty of Versailles

U. S. Army adopts shoulder patches

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

President Wilson suffers debilitating stroke

Prohibition ratified

Charlie Chaplin helps create United Artists movie studio