WORLD WAR - I - 1914

1914

June

• 28. Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife at Sarajevo, Bosnia.

July

• 28. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
• 29. Russian mobilization ordered.

August

• 1. Germany declares war on Russia.
• 1. France orders mobilization.
• 2. Germany demands free passage through Belgium.
• 3. Germany declares war on France.
• 3. Belgium rejects Germany's demand.
• 4. Germany at war with Belgium. Troops under Gen. Von Kluck cross border. Halted at Liege.
• 4. Great Britain at war with Germany. Kitchener becomes Secretary of War.
• 5. President Wilson tenders good offices of United States interests of peace.
• 6. Austria-Hungary at war with Russia.
• 7. French forces invade Alsace. Gen. Joffre in supreme command of French army.
• 7. Montenegro at war with Austria.
• 7. Great Britain's Expeditionary Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dunkirk.
• 8. Serbia at war with Germany.
• 12. Great Britain at war with Austria-Hungary.
• 12. Montenegro at war with Germany.
• 17. Belgian capital removed from Brussels to Antwerp.
• 19. Canadian Parliament authorises raising expeditionary force.
• 20. Germans occupy Brussels.
• 23. Japan at war with Germany. Begins attack on Tsingtau.
• 24. Germans enter France near Lille.
• 25. Austria at war with Japan.
• 26. Viviani becomes premier of France.
• 28. Austria declares war on Belgium.
• 30. Amiens occupied by Germans.
• 31. Russian army of invasion in East Prussia defeated at Tannenberg by Germans under Von Hindenburg.

September

• 3. Paris placed in state of siege: Government transferred to Bordeaux.
• 6-10. Battle of Marne. Von Kluck is beaten by Gen. Joffre, and the German army retreats from Paris to the Soissons-Rheims line.
• 14. French reoccupy Amiens and Rheims.
• 29. Antwerp bombardment begins.

October

• 2. British Admiralty announces intention to mine North Sea areas.
• 9. Antwerp surrenders to Germans. Government removed to Ostend.
• 13. British occupy Ypres.
• 14. Canadian Expeditionary Force of 32,000 men lands at Plymouth.
• 15. Germans occupy Ostend. Belgian government removed to Havre, France.

November

• 5. Great Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
• 5. Cyprus annexed by Great Britain.

December

• 8. Off the Falkland Isles, British squadron under command of Rear-Admiral Sturdee, sinks three of the German cruisers which had destroyed the Good Hope and Monmouth on Nov. 1. The Dresden escapes.
• 16. German squadron bombards Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on east coast of England.