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Home | Overview | Controversies | Timeline | Combatants | Biographies | Glossary | Learn More
Timeline | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919
January 16 : German Foreign Minister Zimmerman sends a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico urging him to incite war between Mexico and the United States. British intelligence intercepts this transmission and starts decoding it.
February : Austria-Hungary opens secret peace negotiations with France.
February 1 : Germany initiates a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 3 : US severs its diplomatic ties with Germany.
March 1 : Details of the Zimmermann telegram are published in the US press.
March 7-12 : 1st Russian Revolution, often referred to as the 'February Revolution' (Russia was using the Julian calendar at this time). Nicholas II abdicates on 15 March (2 March in Julian calendar) and is replaced by a provisional government, but Russia stays in the war.
March 11 : British forces capture Baghdad.
April 2 : Woodrow Wilson delivers his war address to Congress.
April 6 : America declares war on Germany.
April 8 : Lenin and other Bolshevik revolutionaries commence their journey back to Russia.
April 9 : Britain begins its Arras offensive (ends 15 May).
April 16 : France begins its Nivelle offensive (2nd battle of the Aisne) against German positions on the Chemin des Dames ridge. Casualties will reach 150,000 by May 5 and will spark off mutinies in the French army. Lenin arrives in Petrograd (St Petersburg).
May 26 : First American troops arrive in France.
June 27 : Greece enters the war on the Allied side.
July 6 : Lawrence and the Hejaz Arabs capture Aqaba.
July 19 : Germany's parliament, the Reichstag, passes a resolution calling for a negotiated peace with the Allies. General Ludendorff sets up a Patriotic Instruction Programme to counter such sentiments and bolster German morale.
July 31 : 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) begins (lasts until mid-November).
August 2 : German sailors start mutinying in protest against inactivity, bad food and shipboard conditions.
October 24-November 9 : Disillusioned by the conduct of the war and the harsh discipline of their officers, Italian soldiers desert and surrender en masse during the Battle of Caporetto (12th Battle of the Isonzo). Italy's fighting strength is halved and troops have to be sent from the Western Front to shore up the Italian lines.
October 31 : British forces under the command of General Allenby initiate a new offensive in Palestine.
November 2 : British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sends a letter - the Balfour Declaration - to Lord Rothschild affirming Britain's support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine after the war.
November 8 : Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, often referred to as the 'October Revolution' (the Julian calendar was then in use in Russia).
November 16 : Georges Clemenceau becomes prime minister of France.
November 20 : First successful deployment of British tanks in significant numbers, against German positions at Cambrai.
December 7 : Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia conclude an armistice on the Eastern Front, which will eventually release one million German soldiers for service on the Western Front. The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
December 11 : General Allenby enters Jerusalem.