State Historic Site

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• Introduction
• The Politics of War
  
• Registration, Recruitment & Service
• Over There
• Domestic Duties
  
• Jobs, Votes & Clothes
• Peace at Last
• Poster Art of World War One
• World War One Timeline

​World War One Timeline

Just because a country goes to war, it doesn't mean that life doesn't go on as usual in the arts, sciences and politics. Here's a brief timeline to show what was going on both on and off the Western Front. 

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1914

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

What Was Happening With the War?

• RMS Lusitania and SS 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
  
• Battles of Dardanelles, Isonzo, Artois
  

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

What Was Happening With the War?

• Tanks used for first time on the Western Front
• Romania 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
  
• Battles of Verdun, Somme, Corfu, Jutland

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

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
• Congress passes War Revenue Act
  
• China declares war on Germany
• First ground-to-air radios developed
• Submarine detector invented
  
• Battles at Ypres, Aisne, Champagne
  

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 support 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
  
• Manfred "Red Baron" von Richthofen shot down
  
• Lt. Douglas Campbell becomes first American "ace" pilot
  
• Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates and flees to Holland
  
• Armistice signed
  
• Wilson attends peace negotiations
  

​

What Was Happening Elsewhere?

• First scheduled airmail service offered
• "Fats" Waller composes first hit
  
• Spanish 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 creates United Artists movie studio

Artillery in France, 1918 (Kendrick Collection, TESHS)

Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Life on the Home Front During the Great War, 1917-1918

Detail from Red Cross poster, circa 1917 (Private Collection)