Despite the growing intensity of the war overseas, the United States would remain uninvolved, though not for long.
Chronology of Main Events of the War for Liberty
Battles That Have Marked the Greatest Struggle in the World’s History
Four Years of Bitter Warfare Before the Defeat of Autocratic Attempts to Rule the World Could Be Assured- Progress of the Titanic Contest Practically as It Went On From Day to Day
From June 28, 1914, when the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife, at Sarajevo, Bosnia, gave Emperor William of Germany his excuse for beginning war which he believed would result in his gaining practical control of the world through military domination, the main events of the struggle are told in the following chronicle:
JANUARY
8 – | British troops at Kut-el-Amara surrounded |
9 – | British evacuate Gallipoli peninsula |
13 – | Austrians capture Cetinje, capital of Montenegro |
23 – | Scutari, capital of Albania, captured by Austrians |
FEBRUARY
22 – | Crown prince’s army begins attack on Verdun |
MARCH
8 – | Germany declares war on Portugal |
15 – | Austria-Hungary declares war on Portugal |
24 – | Steamer Sussex torpedoed and sunk |
APRIL
18 – | President Wilson sends note to Germany |
19 – | President Wilson speaks to Congress, explaining diplomatic situation |
24 – | Insurrection in Dublin |
29 – | British troops at Kut-el-Amara surrender to Turks |
30 – | Irish revolution suppressed |
MAY
3 – | Irish leaders of insurrection executed |
4 – | Germany makes promise to change methods of submarine warfare |
9 – | Justus A. Hovey enlists in the New York National Guard |
13 – | Austrians begin great offensive against Italians in Trentino |
31 – | Great naval battle off Danish coast |
JUNE
5 – | Lord Kitchener lost with cruiser Hampshire |
11 – | Russians capture Dubno |
12 – | Raymond A. Fishbaugh enlists in the New York National Guard |
13 – | Alton V. Sleight enlists in the New York National Guard |
19 – | Glenn W. Fishbaugh enlists in the New York National Guard |
29 – | Sir Roger Casement sentenced to be hanged for treason |
JULY
1 – | British and French begin great offensive on the Somme |
5 – | David Lloyd George appointed secretary of war |
9 – | German merchant submarine Deutschland arrives at Baltimore |
23 – | General Kuropatkin’s army wins battle near Riga |
27 – | English take Delville wood; Serbian forces begin attack on Bulgars in Macedonia |
AUGUST
2 – | French take Floury |
3 – | Sir Roger Casement executed for treason |
4 – | French recapture Thiaumont for fourth time; British repulse Turkish attack on Suez Canal |
7 – | Italians on Isonzo front capture Monte Sabotino and Monte San Michele |
8 – | Turks force Russian evacuation of Bitlis and Mush |
9 – | Italians cross Isonzo river and occupy Austrian city of Goeritz |
10 – | Austrians evacuate Stanislau; allies take Doiran, near Saloniki, from Bulgarians |
19 – | German submarines sink British light cruisers Nottingham and Falmouth |
24 – | French occupy Maurepas, north of the Somme; Russians recapture Mush in Armenia |
27 – | Italy declares war on Germany; Roumania enters war on side of allies |
29 – | Field Marshal von Hindenburg made chief of staff of German armies, succeeding General von Falkenhayn |
30 – | Russian armies seize all five passes in Carpathians into Hungary |
SEPTEMBER
3 – | Allies renew offensive north of Somme; Bulgarian and German troops invade Dobrudja in Roumania |
7 – | Germans and Bulgarians capture Roumanian fortress of Tutrakan; Roumanians take Orsova, Bulgarian city |
10 – | German-Bugarian army captures Roumanian fortress of Silistria |
14 – | British for first time use “tanks” |
15 – | Italians begin new offensive on Carso |
OCTOBER
2 – | Roumanian army of invasion in Bulgaria defeated by Germans and Bulgarians under von Mackensen |
4 – | German submarines sink French cruiser Gallia and Cunard liner Franconia |
8 – | German submarines sink six merchant steam ships off Nantucket, Massachusetts |
11 – | Greek seacoast forts dismantled and turned over to allies on demand of England and France |
23 – | German-Bulgar armies capture Constanza, Roumania |
24 – | French win back Douaumont, Thiaumont field work, Haudromont quarries and Caillette wood near Verdun, in smash of two miles |
NOVEMBER
1 – | Italians, in new offensive on the Carso plateau, capture 5,000 Austrians |
2 – | Germans evacuate Fort Vaux at Verdun |
5 – | Germans and Austrians proclaim new kingdom of Poland, of territory captured from Russia |
6 – | Submarine sinks British passenger steamer Arabia |
7 – | Cardinal Mercier protests against German deportation of Belgians; submarine sinks American steamer Columbian |
8 – | Russian army invades Transylvania, Hungary |
9 – | Austro-German armies defeat Russians in Volhyina and take 4,000 prisoners |
13 – | British launch new offensive in Somme region on both of Ancre |
14 – | British capture fortified village of Beacourty near the Ancre |
19 – | Serbian, French and Russian troops recapture Monastir; Germans cross Transylvania Alps and enter western Roumania |
21 – | British hospital ship Britannic sunk by mine in Aegean Sea |
23 – | Roumanian army retreats 90 miles from Bucharest |
24 – | German-Bulgarian armies take Orsova and Turnu-Severin from Roumanians |
25 – | Greek provisional government declares war on Germany and Bulgaria |
28 – | Roumanian government abandons Bucharest and moves capital to Jassy |
28 – | Earl W. Burritt enlists in the New York National Guard |
DECEMBER
5 – | Premier Herbert Asquith of England resigns |
7 – | David Lloyd George accepts British premiership |
8 – | General von Mackensen captures big Roumanian army in Prohova valley |
12 – | Chancellor von Bethman-Hollweg announces in Reichstag that Germany will propose peace; new cabinet in France under Aristide Briand as premier, and General Robert Georges Nivelle given chief of command of French army |
15 – | French at Verdun win two miles of front and capture 11,000 |
19 – | Lloyd George declines German peace proposals. 23 – Baron Burian succeeded as minister of foreign affairs in Austria by Count Czernin |
26 – | Germany proposes to President Wilson “an immediate meeting of delegates of the belligerents” |
27 – | Russians defeated in five-day battle in eastern Wallachia, Roumania |
Historical events timeline transcribed from The Hilton Record, December 23, 1918, Page 2.
Addition of World War I Veterans by Tammy M. Mullen