Timeline: General

1914

28 June: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Bosnian student in Sarajevo
23 July: Austria-Hungary delivers ultimatum to Serbia
28 July: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
30 July: General mobilisation of Russian army
31 July: General mobilisation in Austria-Hungary and Belgium; closure of London Stock Exchange, followed by closure of New York Stock Exchange.
1 August: Germany declares war on Russia; general mobilisation in Germany and France
3 August: Germany declares war on France; ultimatum to Germany delivered by Britain
4 August: German troops enter Belgium; Britain declares war on Germany
8 August: Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) passed in Britain
9-16 August: British Expeditionary Force lands in France
15 August: Russian troops enter East Prussia
16 August: German troops complete destruction of fortress of Liège
19-20 August: German occupation of Brussels
21-24 August: Battle of Mons, and British retreat in fact of German advance
23 August: Japan declares war on Germany
26 August: German troops destroy university library of Louvain/Leuven
26-30 August: Germans defeat Russians at Tannenberg
2 September: Russians defeat Austrians at Lemberg
2 September-18 November: French government operate from Bordeaux, not Paris
5-12 September: First Battle of the Marne
12 September-24 October: First Battle of the Aisne: the “Race to the Sea”
9 October: Germans capture Antwerp: Belgian government to Ostend, then Le Havre
29 October: Ottoman Empire enters the war, and her warships bombard Russian ports
1 November: Victory of German fleet against British, at Coronel, off Chile
7 November: German naval base at Tsing-Tao (China) captures by Japanese
14 November: In Constantinople, Mehmed V Reshad declares jihad against Allies
28 November: Partial re-opening of New York Stock Exchange
8 December: Admiral Spee’s cruisers sunk by British in the Battle of the Falklands; beginning of the First Battle of Champagne
15 December: Serbs recapture Belgrade from the Austro-Hungarians
21 December: British capture Basra
24 December: First German bombing raid on Dover
25 December: Christmas Day truce on (parts of) the Western Front

1915

4 January: London Stock Exchange reopens for trading
24 January: indecisive Battle of the Dogger Bank between British and German navies
25 January: food rationing begins in Germany
4 February: Germans declare all waters around Britain a war zone
7-21 February: Battle of Masuria leads to capture of 100,000 Russian prisoners
19 February: Britain and France begin naval operation in the Dardanelles
22 February: Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare
22 April: Germany uses poison gas in Second Battle of Ypres
25 April: Allies land troops at Gallipoli in the Dardanelles
7 May: British passenger liner Lusitania, with Americans on board, sunk off Kinsale
13 May: South African troops under Botha capture Windhoek from Germans
23 May: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
31 May: First Zeppelin raid on London
4 June: ANZAC forces suffer severe losses in Gallipoli
22 June: Austrians and Germans recapture Lemberg, the Galician capital
23 June-July 7: First Battle of the Isonzo
18 July: beginning of Second Battle of the Isonzo
6 August: British land at Suvla Bay, north of Gallipoli
4-5 August: Germany capture Warsaw
26 August: Germans capture Brest-Litovsk
22 September: Beginning of Second Battle of Champagne
5 October: French and British troops land at Salonika in Greece
6 October: Austrians and Germans invade Serbia
12 October: Nurse Edith Cavell executed by in Belgium
19 November: Start of British advance on Baghdad
19 December: Haig replaces French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF
20 December: main withdrawal of British and ANZAC forces from Gallipoli

1916

23 January: Kingdom of Montenegro surrenders sot Austro-Hungarian army
27 January: Conscription introduced for all unmarried British (excluding Irish ) men between 18 and 41.
21 February-July: Battle of Verdun
24 March:Sinking of French passenger steamer Sussex in the Channel; after American protests, Germany temporarily suspends submarine offensive
24 April: Start of the Easter Rising in Dublin
29 April: British and Indian force defeated at Kut al-Amara by Turks
31 May: Naval battle of Jutland between British and Germans
5 June: beginning of Arab rising against Ottoman rule
1 July: Allied forces begin the Battle of the Somme
3 August: British execute Sir Roger Casement as a traitor
17 August: Allies sign treaty with Romania, bringing her into war
28 August: Italy declares war on Germany; Germany declares war on Romania
15 September: British use tanks for first time on the Somme
24 October: French begin counter-offensive at Verdun
28 November: First bombing raid on London by aircraft
6 December: Germans capture Bucharest
26 December: Germany rejects US mediation in peace conference

1917

22 January: President Wilson outlines “peace without victory” plan to Senate
1 February: Germany proclaims unrestricted submarine warfare
3 February: United States of America severs diplomatic relations with Germany
8 March: outbreak of the February Revolution in Russia
11 March: British capture Baghdad
15 March: Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II
16-19 March: German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line
6 April: United States declares war on Germany
16 April: beginning of the Third Battle of Champagne and of the Nivelle offensive
29 April: mutinies in the French army
15 May: General Nivelle replaced by General Pétain as French commander-in-chief
18 May: Americans begin registering all those between 21 and 30 for war service
27 June: Greece joins the Entente
7 July: 54 dead and 190 wounded in largest German air-raid on London
19 July: “Peace Resolution” in the Reichstag; British Royal Family changes name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor
31 July: Start of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele)
5 August: mutinies in the German fleet
3 September: Germans occupy Riga
31 October: Third Battle of Gaza, and British break through on Sinai front
4 November: Germans and Austrians cross Tagliamento River in Italy
6 November: Canadians capture village of Passchendaele
7 November: Bolsheviks bring down the bourgeois government in Russia, in the October Revolution
20 November: Ukraine declares independence from Russia
6 December: Finland declares independence from Russia
9 December: British capture Jerusalem
15 December: Russia begins negotiations with Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk

1918

8 January: President Wilson lists his 14 points
13 January: Estonia declares independence from Russia
25 January: Ukraine declares independence from Russia
9 February: Ukraine and Central Powers sign peace agreement at Brest-Litovsk
18 February: Russia resumes hostilities, and Germany pushes rapidly towards Petrograd
3 March: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded between Bolshevik government and Central Powers
21 March: Germans launch an offensive along 50 miles of Western Front
27 May: Germans break through to the Marne
23 June: Austrians begin retreat in Italy
18 July: Allied troops launch a counter-offensive between Soissons and Reims
8 August: successful British and French offensive at Amiens
12-15 September: Americans and French demolish the St-Mihiel salient
1 October: British and Arabs under T.E. Lawrence occupy Damascus
12 October: Germany accepts President Wilson’s conditions
14 October: Karl I assures self-determination to peoples of Austro-Hungarian Empire
26 October: Ludendorff dismissed
27 October: Austria-Hungary offer separate peace to Allies.
28 October: Czechs and Slovaks declare independence and agree to a common state
31 October: ceasefire agreed with Ottoman Empire
1 November: Serbians re-enter Belgrade
3 November: German naval mutiny begins at Kiel
9 November: Kaiser WilhelmII abdicates
10 November: Polish republic declared at Cracow
11 November: Armistice signed 5 a.m.; hostilities to cease at 11 a.m.

1919

18 January: Opening of Paris Peace conferences
28 June: Signing of Treaty of Versailles (Germany)

1920

11 November: Unveiling of Cenotaph in Whitehall, and burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey