1 Outbreak of World War I; German declaration of war on Russia

4 Wilson proclaims US neutrality

14 Battle of the Frontiers begins

26 Opening of the Battle of Tannenberg

5 Opening of the First Battle of the Marne

14 Opening of the First Battle of the Aisne; start of trench warfare

8 Battle of the Falkland Islands

21 First German air raid on Britain

18 Japan's Twenty-One Demands on China

4 Germany announces "war zone" in British waters

19 British begin naval action against the Dardenelles

1 American citizen dies in sinking of first passenger ship, the

British liner, Falaba

Capt. George Van Horn Moseley of War College Divison suggests

a plan for universal military training to Chief of Staff

11 Britain announces blockade of German ports

22 Second Battle of Ypres begins

25 British landing on Gallipoli Peninsula

26 France, Russia, Italy and Britain conclude secret Treaty of London

2 Opening of great Austro-German offensive in Galicia (Gorlice-

Tarnow)

7 Lusitania sunk by German U-boat off Irish coast

9 Opening of the Second Battle of Artois on western front

23 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary

25 Asquith reorganizes his liberal ministry as a coalition

29 First of twelve battles of the Isonzo begins on the Italian front

21 Wilson sends notes to Secretary of War Garrison and Secretary

of Navy Daniels directing them to draft a defense program

19 Two Americans die in sinking of Arabic off Ireland

21 The Washington Post carries story that General Staff is

planning to send a force of 1 million soldiers overseas

24 Baltimore Sun carries story that General Staff is planning to

send a force of 1 million soldiers overseas

War College Division denies allegations in Washington Post and

Baltimore Sun

American General Staff, in response to request from Secretary

of War Lindley M. Garrison, devotes much of the year to

preparing the "Statement of a Proper Military Policy for the

United States"

22 Opening of Second Battle of Champagne on western front

3-5 Anglo-French force lands at Salonika, Greece

4 Henry Ford's peace ship, Oskar II, begins voyage to Europe

15 Haig becomes Commander-in-Chief of British Expeditionary Force

27 Wilson launches nationwide whistle-stop campaign to generate

support for Preparedness and the Continental Army with three

speeches in New York

31 War College Division warns its civilian employees "to engage

in no discussion whatever concerning the progress of the

European War"

3 Wilson delivers final speech of Preparedness campaign in Saint

Louis

21 Beginning of ten month Battle of Verdun

24 Acting Secretary of War Hugh L. Scott asks United States War College

Division if any plans exist in the event "of a complete

rupture" with Germany

9 Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico

15 Pershing starts pursuit of Villa into Mexico

24 French passenger ship, Sussex, torpedoed

4 American naval and military attaches in Paris and London

draft plan for mobilizing US shipping to carry an American

army to Europe, but their plan is ignored (this plan did not

survive, but is referred to in a memorandum of 14 November

1916, Record of the Joint Army and Navy Board)

24 Rebellion begins in Ireland on Easter Monday

27 Marshal Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War,

asking for American military participation in Europe

4 Germany renounces submarine policyÑ"Sussex Pledge"

19 Britain and France conclude the Sykes-Picot Agreement

31 Opening of Battle of Jutland

3 National Defense Act authorizes five-year expansion of US

Army, but at the same time drastically limits size and

authority of US War Department General Staff

4 Beginning of the Brusilov offensive against Austria-Hungary

1 Battle of the Somme opens; British suffer approximately 60,000

casualties on the first day

29 US Marines land in Haiti

30 Black Tom Island munitions plant destroyed; German sabotage

suspected

31 Germany suspends submarine assaults

15 Tanks introduced on the Somme battlefield by the British

15 Germany resumes U-boat attacks under search and destroy rules

7-9 Wilson wins reelection, which was in doubt until the

California returns

28 First Germany airplane raid on London

29 US occupation of Santa Domingo proclaimed

5 Asquith resigns as Prime Minister; replaced by Lloyd George

12 Germans issue peace note suggesting compromise peace

18 Wilson requests statement of war objectives from warring

nations in peace note; British offended by implication that

their war aims are no more moral than Germany's

9 German leaders decide to launch unrestricted U-boat warfare

10 Allies state war objectives in response to Wilson's peace note

of 18 December

31 Germany announces resumption of unrestricted U-boat warfare

1 Germany resumes unrestricted U-boat warfare

3 US severs relations with Germany

5 British General Staff estimates that no more than 250,000

American soldiers could be in Europe even after a year

13 Chief of British Imperial General Staff Sir William Roberston

expresses grave doubts about American fighting capabilities

24 Great Britain releases Zimmermann Note to US

26 Wilson requests authority from Congress to arm US merchant

ships

1 Zimmermann Note released to press by State Department;

Armed Ship Bill passes House

4 Senate adjourns without passing Armed Ship Bill; "Little

group of willful men" successfully filibuster

11 British capture Baghdad

12 Wilson announces arming of merchant ships by executive order

15 Culmination of "February Revolution"; Nicholas II abdicates

20 Wilson's Cabinet votes unanimously for war

29 War College Division issues report: Calls for large

force of between 500,000 and 1,000,000 -- and optimistically

estimates that at least ten months would be required to ship

a force of 500,000 to Europe once it was raised and trained,

putting the earliest effects of US involvement in mid- to

late-1918; openly plans to send US force overseas, but argues

against offensives through Macedonia or Holland; repeats

opposition to sending an untrained American army overseas;

Wilson publicly calls for a national army to be "raised and

maintained exclusively by selective draft"

German submarine campaign exacts heaviest damage of war:

881,027 gross tons, 500,000 of which are British

2 Wilson delivers war address to Congress at 8:32 pm

6 US declares war on Germany

10 Sir William Robertson advocates to Haig the dispatch of

immediate American expeditionary force "to get some Americans

killed and so get the country to take a real interest in the

war"

16 Lenin arrives in Russia

May, 1917

18 Selective Service Act signed by Wilson

28 Pershing leaves New York harbor for France aboard Baltic

7 General Staff issues plan to ship American forces at a rate of

120,000 per month beginning in August; this rate of dispatch

would not be realized until April 1918

14 Wilson, in his Flag Day Address, declares that the initial

American Expeditionary Force will be followed by more soldiers

as quickly as possible, and that these soldiers will not be

held in the US for training

15 Espionage Act

26 First US troops (1st Division) arrive in France

2 Pershing makes first request for a US army of 1,000,000

11 Pershing suggests that figure of 1,000,000 is only initial

size, and a total force of 3,000,000 should be the goal

31 Passchendaele offensive (Third Battle of Ypres) opens in

Flanders

1 Pershing establishes his general headquarters at Chaumont

3 War Revenue Act; graduated income tax authorized

24 Austro-German breakthrough at Caporetto on Italian front

7 Bolsheviks seize power in Russia

Allied Supreme War Council created at Rapollo, Italy

20 British launch surprise tank attack at Cambrai

7 United States and Austria-Hungary at war

9 Jerusalem captured by British

22 Central Powers and Soviets open peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk

8 Wilson's Fourteen Points speech to joint session of Congress

11 Wilson's Four Principles speech to joint session of Congress

3 Soviet Russia and Central Powers make peace with Treaty of

Brest-Litovsk

21 Germans launch first of their great 1918 assaults against

British (Battle of Picardy)

26 Doullens Agreement gives General Foch "co-ordinating

authority" over the western front

9 Germans launch second assault of their 1918 offensive (Battle

of the Lys) in British sector of Armentieres

14 Foch appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces on western

front

16 Sedition Act; amendment to Espionage Act of 1917

25 German U-boats make their first appearance in US waters

27 Third phase of 1918 German offensive (Third Battle of the

Aisne) begins in French sector along Chemin des Dames

28 28th Regiment of US 1st Division goes into action at town of

Cantigny

6 2nd Division captures Bouresches and southern part of Belleau

Wood

9 Opening of fourth phase of 1918 German offensive (Battle of

the Matz) in French sector between Noyon and Montdider

2 Allied Supreme War Council supports intervention in Siberia

6 Wilson agrees to American intervention in Siberia

15 Opening of last phase of German offensive (Second Battle of

the Marne)

18 Allied counterattack seizes strategical initiative from

Germans; nine US divisions participate

3 Large-scale Allied intervention begins at Vladivostok

8 Battle of Amiens opens; Ludendorf's "Black Day" for German army

10 1st US Army organized under Pershing

4 American troops land at Archangel in North Russia

12 United States launches St. Mihiel offensive

19 Opening of British offensive in Palestine (Battle of Megiddo)

26 Meuse-Argonne offensive opens; greatest offensive of war for

US forces

29 Bulgaria signs armistice

3-4 Germans and Austrians send notes to Wilson requesting an armistice

12 Pershing forms 2nd Army under command of General Bullard

21 Germany ceases unrestricted U-boat warfare

3 Mutiny of the German fleet at Kiel

5 Congressional elections result in Republican control of Congress

11 Armistice goes into effect at 11 AM, the eleventh day of the eleventh

month

18 Wilson announces that he will attend peace conference personally

13 Wilson aboard the liner George Washington arrives at Brest, France

5 Sparticist (Communist) revolt begins in Berlin

18 Peace negotiations start at Paris

25 Peace conference accepts principle of League of Nations

6 Germany National Assembly meets at Weimar

14 Draft Convenant of League of Nations completed

24 Wilson arrives at Boston aboard George Washington

28 Lodge starts campaign against League of Nations

4 Founding of Comintern (Third International) at Moscow

13 Admiral Kolchak begins his offensive against Bolsheviks in

Russian Civil War

14 Wilson returns to Paris after a month's absence

3 Wilson becomes sick with influenza

7 Allies evacuate Odessa

23 Wilson appeals directly to Italians in an effort to gain their

support for his views on peace settlement

24 Italian Premier Orlando walks out of peace conference over

Fiume issue

6 Peace conference disposes of Germany's colonies

7 Treaty of Versailles submitted to German delegation

21 German High Seas Fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow

28 Treaty of Versailles signed in Hall of Mirrors at Versailles