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| Conscription introduced in Britain. |
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| German forces in Cameroon surrender to British, French and Belgian troops attacking from neighbouring colonies. |
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| Germany's Verdun offensive begins. |
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| Irish Republican forces rise at Easter against British rule in Dublin. |
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| British forces at Kut-el-Amara (Mesopotamia) surrender after 146 days of siege. |
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| Britain executes 15 leaders of the Easter Rising, turning these men into Republican heroes and martyrs. |
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| Battle of Jutland: The British lose more ships and men but the German fleet turns tail and remains in port [its home port] for the rest of the war. The Allies' blockade continues.. |
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| Germany's Verdun offensive grinds to a halt following General Brusilov's highly successful Galician offensive (begins 4 June). Germany must divert troops to the Eastern Front, and Germany's last offensive in the Verdun battle was launched at the end of June. |
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| Spurred on by promises of post-war independence, the Hejaz Arabs rise in revolt against Ottoman rule. |
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| British Somme offensive begins with a week-long artillery bombardment. |
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| British and French infantry move forward in Somme offensive. Twenty thousand British troops are killed on the first day, the heaviest loss suffered by the British army in a single day during any war. |
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| German saboteurs blow up Black Tom Island, a loading depot in New York harbour. Tremors from the explosion are felt 90 miles away in Philadelphia. |
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| Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary. |
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| Italy declares war on Germany. |
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| French forces recapture the strategic fortress of Douaumont. Verdun is saved. |
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| Woodrow Wilson re-elected US president. He has promised to keep the United States out of the war. |
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| The Somme offensive finally comes to an end. A total of 1.1 million British, French and German soldiers have been killed or wounded. |
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| Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef dies and is succeeded by Kaiser Karl , a much younger liberal figure with a French wife. In 1917, he will initiate secret peace negotiations with the French. |
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| Germany experiences the 'Turnip Winter'. Because of the Allied blockade and inadequate planning, many German soldiers and civilians have to subsist on little more than cattle feed for several months. |
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| German forces enter Bucharest, effectively knocking Romania out of the war. |
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| Germany sends a peace note to the Allies, enquiring about the possibility of concluding the war but without suggesting specific terms. The Allies reject this overture and the conflict continues. |
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| US President Woodrow Wilson invites both sets of belligerents to state their war aims. |
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