Historical Events
Events 101 - 159 of 159
- 1917-11-20 1st successful tank use in battle, at the Battle of Cambrai in World War I as Britain uses the new technology to break through German lines
- 1917-12-07 US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
- 1917-12-15 World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Russian Bolshevik government and the Central Powers
Russia Exiting WWI
1918-02-10 Leon Trotsky declares that Russia is leaving World War I
- 1918-03-07 World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany
- 1918-03-21 World War I: Germany launches Somme offensive
- 1918-03-23 German forces advance 14 miles to the Somme River (WW1)
Red Baron Shot Down
1918-04-21 German World War I fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen aka "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France. Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown is credited with the kill.
- 1918-05-27 Third Battle of Aisne: German offensive overcomes British forces (WWI)
- 1918-07-15 World War I: Second Battle of Marne begins
- 1918-07-18 World War I: US and French forces launch Aisne-Marne offensive
- 1918-07-19 World War I: German armies retreat across Marne River in France
- 1918-08-02 Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I
Last Zeppelin Air Raid
1918-08-05 World War I: the last German air raid on England occurs, with four Zeppelin airships dropping bombs in the Midlands and North East England
- 1918-08-06 Ferdinand Foch becomes Marshal of France during WWI
- 1918-08-06 World War I: Second Battle of the Marne ends
- 1918-08-08 World War I: The Allies launch the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens where 500 tanks and 10 Allied divisions attacked German lines
- 1918-08-12 WWI: Allies defeat Germans at the Battle of Amiens - the last great battle on the Western Front
- 1918-08-20 WWI: Britain opens offensive on Western front
- 1918-09-05 Due to WWI, 15th Baseball World Series begins a month early; Boston Red Sox defeat Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Comiskey Park
- 1918-09-12 WWI: US forces launch an attack on German-occupied St Mihiel
- 1918-09-14 WWI: Austria-Hungary sends a note to the Allies requesting peace discussions, but the Allies reject the offer
- 1918-09-26 Beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, more than 1 million American soldiers in the largest and most costly offensive of WWI
- 1918-09-29 WWI: Allied forces score a decisive breakthrough of Hindenburg Line
Capture of Damascus
1918-10-01 World War I: Combined Arab and British force under the Lawrence of Arabia, T. E. Lawrence captures Damascus from the Turks
End of World War I
1918-10-20 In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions
- 1918-10-30 WWI: Turkey signs an armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon on 31 October
- 1918-11-06 WWI: On the Western Front, Germany is now retreating as French and American troops cross the Meuse and move to take Sedan
- 1918-11-07 United Press erroneously reports WWI armistice had been signed
Wilhelm II Abdicates
1918-11-09 Emperor Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in World War I
- 1918-11-09 Following the collapse of Germany in World War I, the Weimar Republic of Germany is proclaimed
The War's Over, But Don't Get Too Excited
1918-11-11 WWI Armistice signed by the Allies and Germany comes into effect and World War I hostilities end at 11am, "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"
- 1919-01-18 The Paris peace conference (aka the Versailles peace conference) opens to draw up the treaties formally ending the Great War (WWI)
- 1919-04-05 Antwerp is officially declared the host city for the Games of the 7th Olympiad to be conducted in 1920; first post WWI Olympics
- 1919-05-08 Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, leads to the creation of Remembrance Day
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
1919-06-28 Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, ending World War I and establishing the League of Nations
- 1919-07-19 Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall.
NYC Welcomes Pershing
1919-09-10 NYC welcomes home General John J. Pershing and 25,000 WWI soldiers
- 1922-03-15 France, which up until now has insisted on currency for all WWI reparation payments from Germany, now accepts raw materials as payment
- 1922-10-06 The great powers of the first world war withdraw from Istanbul
Nobels to Bohr, Aston and Nansen
1922-12-10 Nobel prizes awarded to Danish physicist Niels Bohr for his work on the structure of atoms, Francis William Aston for Chemistry and a Peace Prize to Fridtjof Nansen for his work on behalf of displaced victims of World War I at a ceremony in Copenhagen
- 1924-08-29 Germany's Reichstag approves the Dawes Plan, which sought to solve the WWI reparations problem
- 1925-11-11 City of Chicago, Illinois renames Municipal Grant Park Stadium, as Soldier Field, in honor of US soldiers killed in combat during World War I
- 1929-06-27 German President Paul von Hindenburg refuses to pay the German reparation debt of WWI
- 1929-08-06 Young Plan, which sought to settle German reparations debts after World War I, is agreed
Young Plan
1929-08-31 Committee chaired by Owen D. Young finalizes the "Young Plan" to reduce German reparations from World War I to 112 billion Gold Marks ($US8 billion) paid over 59 years
- 1932-05-29 The Bonus Army of World War I veterans begins to assemble in Washington, D.C. to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945
- 1932-06-17 Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the US Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits
- 1932-07-20 In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House
Bonus Army Evicted
1932-07-28 US President Herbert Hoover uses federal troops to evict the Bonus Army (WWI veterans and their families) from their encampment, 4 die
- 1932-07-29 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans
"This Accursed Man"
1933-01-30 After Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, his former WWI colleague General Erich Ludendorff sends a letter to him stating "this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery"
- 1939-09-25 Andorra and Germany sign a treaty ending World War I, as Versailles Peace Treaty forgot to include Andorra
Philippe Pétain Heads Vichy Government
1940-07-11 Marshall Philippe Pétain, French hero of World War I, becomes head of the Vichy collaborationist government of France
- 1940-08-03 German occupiers in France impose censorship rules on film, requiring approval prior to exhibition, and forbidding depiction of German losses in WWI
- 1942-07-01 WWI: German troops conquer Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, Crimea, after a 250 battle; Russia takes it back in 1944
Gallipoli: Guts, Glory and Defeat
2015-04-25 100 year anniversary of the Gallipoli Peninsula landings in Turkey by ANZAC forces during WWI
Battle of Passchendaele
2017-07-30 1st centenary of WWI Battle of Passchendaele marked at ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium
- 2018-11-11 On centenary of WWI Armistice Day French President Macron urges world to reject Nationalism in speech to under Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Famous Deaths
Deaths 101 - 115 of 115
- 2005-11-21 Alfred Anderson, last Scottish World War I (and Christmas Truce) veteran (b. 1896)
- 2007-02-22 Howard Verne Ramsey, oldest U.S. veteran of WWI (b. 1898)
- 2007-05-09 Dwight Wilson, second-to-last Canadian WWI veteran, dies at 106
- 2007-10-05 Justin Tuveri, Italian veteran of the First World War (b. 1898)
- 2008-01-20 Louis de Cazenave, France's oldest living man (oldest survivor from WWI), dies at 110
- 2008-03-12 Lazare Ponticelli, the last "poilu", French foot soldier of World War One, dies at 110 (b. 1897)
- 2008-05-27 Franz Künstler, Last remaining Austro-Hungarian Empire World War I veteran (b. 1900)
- 2008-08-22 Gladys Powers, Canadian World War I veteran (b. 1899)
- 2009-01-10 Bill Stone, British serviceman; one of the last surviving veterans of World War I, dies at 108
- 2009-07-18 Henry Allingham, British supercentenarian and World War I veteran, dies at 113
- 2009-07-25 Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier to have served in the trenches in World War I, dies at 111 (b. 1898)
- 2010-02-18 John Babcock, Last known Canadian veteran of World War I (b. 1900)
- 2011-02-27 Frank Buckles, last surviving American World War I veteran (b. 1901)
- 2011-05-05 Claude Choules, British-Australian sailor and last surviving combat veteran of both World War I and World War II, dies at 110
- 2012-02-04 Florence Green, last surviving veteran of World War One, dies at 110