IN 1913, the gilded world of the European aristocracy seemed at its zenith. In fact, fashionable society, like the rest of mankind, stood one step from the abyss. Within five years, three European empires would be be defeated, three emperors would die or flee into exile and the ancient dynasties of Hapsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov would crumble. Twenty million men, aristocrats and commoners alike, would perish.

—Nicholas and Alexandra
© 1967 by Robert K. Massie
originally published by Atheneum Publishers in 1967
excerpt taken from Ballentine Books Edition published by Random House p. 235

Timeline for The Great War (Later known as World War I)
June 28, 1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife at Sarajevo, Bosnia.
July 5 Germany pledges to support Austria-Hungary in whatever response it deems necessary. This pledge is aimed primarily at forestalling a Russian mobilization which might be triggered by an invasion of Serbia.
July 23 Austria delivers an ultimatum to Serbia.
July 26 Austria rejects the conciliatory Serbian reply
July 28 Austria declares was on Serbia.
July 31 An ally of Serbia, Russia begins full military mobilization.
August 1 Germany declares war on Russia. France orders mobilization.
August 2 Germany demands free passage through Belgium.
August 3 Germany declares war on France. Belgium rejects Germany's demand.
August 4 Germany declares war on Belgium, a neutral country. Troops under Gen. Von Kluck cross border. Halted at Liège. Great Britain declares war on Germany. Kitchener becomes Secretary of War.
August 6 Austria-Hungary at war with Russia.
August 7 French forces invade Alsace. Gen. Joffre in supreme command of French army. Montenegro at war with Austria. Great Britain's Expeditionary Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dunkirk.
August 8 British seize German Togoland. Serbia at war with Germany. Portugal announces readiness to stand by alliance with England.
August 12 Great Britain at war with Austria-Hungary. Montenegro at war with Germany.
August 20 Germans occupy Brussels.
August 22 "The Battle of the Frontiers" takes place east of Paris as the French generals enact, disastrously as it turns out, Plan 17.
August 23 Japan at war with Germany. Begins attack on the German colony of Tsingtau (on the eastern coast of China about halfway between Beijing and Shanghai — modern day Qingdao)
August 24 Germans enter France near Lille.
August 25 Austria at war with Japan
August 26 Louvain sacked and burned by Germans. Viviani becomes premier of France.
August 28 British fleet sinks three German cruisers and two destroyers off Heligoland. Austria declares war on Belgium.
August 31 Russian army of invasion in East Prussia defeated at Tannenberg by Germans under Von Hindenberg By an imperial decree issued by Tsar Nicholas II, the name of Russia's (then) capital city was changed from the Germanic-sounding "St. Petersburg" to a Slav equivalent: Petrograd.
September 3 Paris placed in a state of siege; government transferred to Bordeaux. Lemberg, Gallicia occupied by Russians.
September 4 Germans occupy Rheims.
Sept. 6-10 Battle of Marne. German army retreats from Paris and falls back to the Soissons-Rheims line. As armies settle in for a protracted struggle, the first trenches appear.
October 6 Japan seizes Marshall Islands in Pacific
October 9 Antwerp surrenders to Germans. Belgian government removed to Ostend and, eventually to Havre, France.
October 13 British occupy Ypres. The next day 32,000 men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force arrive at Plymouth.
November 1 "The Battle of Coronel" — British cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope are sunk off the coast of Chile by German squadron under the command of Admiral Von Spee.
November 5 Great Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
December 8 Off the Falkland Islands, British squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Sturdee sinks three of the German cruisers which had sunk Monmouth and Good Hope on Nov. 1.
February 10, 1915 Russians defeated by Germans in Battle of Masurian Lakes.
February 4 German declares a submarine "blockade" of the British Isles; any ship bound for England in the open seas will be considered a military target.
April 22 Poison gas first used by Germans in attack on Canadians at Ypres, Belgium
April 25 Allied launch a sea borne invasion against the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli with troops drawn mostly from Australia and New Zealand.
May 7 The Cunard passenger liner Lusitania is sunk by German submarine off the coast of Kinsale Head on the Irish coast. A total of 1198 lives are lost, including 128 Americans.
May 31 German Zeppelins bombard suburbs of London.
June 4-6 German aircraft bombard English towns.
June 15 Allied aircraft carry out retaliatory bombardment of Karlsruhe, Baden.
August 6 Gallipoli campaign enters 2nd phase as British troop come ashore at Sulva Bay on the west of the peninsula.
August 19 Arabic, White Star liner, sunk by submarine off Fastnet; 44 lives lost; 2 Americans
August 25 Brest-Litovsk, Russian fortress, captured by Austro-Germans
September 6 Czar Nicholas of Russia assumes command of Russian armies. Grand Duke Nicholas is transferred to the Caucasus.
October 14 Bulgaria at war with Serbia.
October 15-19 Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia all at was with Bulgaria
December 15 Gen. Sir Douglas Haig succeeds Field Marshall Sir John French as Commander In Chief of British forces in France.
December 20 Dardanelles operation ends without success; British troops begin withdrawal from positions on Suvla Bay and Gallipoli Peninsula.
February 10, 1916 British conscription law goes into effect.
February 21 Battle of Verdun begins; Germans take Houmont.
April 20 Russian troops land at Marseilles for service on French front.
April 24 Irish rebellion begins in Dublin. Republic declared. Patrick Pearse announced as first president.
April 29 British force of 9,000 men, under Gen. Townshend, besieged in Kut-el-Amara, surrenders to Turks.
April 30 Irish rebellion ends with unconditional surrender of Pearse and other leaders, who are tried by court-martial and executed.
May 15 Vimy Ridge gained by British
May 31 Jutland naval battle; British and German fleets engaged; heavy losses on both sides.
June 5 Kitchener, British Secretary of War, looses his life when the cruiser Hampshire, on which he was voyaging to Russia, is sunk off the Orkney Islands, Scotland.
July 1 British and French attack north and south of the Somme.
September 15 British use tanks for the first time; capture Flers, Courcelette and other German positions.
December 15 French complete recapture of ground taken by Germans in Verdun battle.
December 18 President Wilson makes peace overtures to belligerents.
December 26 Germany replies to President's note and suggests a peace conference.
December 30 French government on behalf of Entente Allies replies to President Wilson's note and refuses to discuss peace till Germany agrees to give 'restitution, reparation and guarantees.'
January 31, 1917 Germany announces intention of sinking all vessels in war zone around British Isles.
February 3 United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
February 7 California, Anchor liner, is sunk off the Irish coast. In succeeding days, Afric, a White Star liner is sunk by submarine on Feb. 13; Laconia, a Cunard liner is sunk off the Irish coast on Feb. 25. In all during February, the German submarine campaign results in the sinking of 134 vessels.
February 28 The United States make public a communication from Germany to Mexico proposing an alliance and offering as a reward the return of Mexico's lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The incident has since become known as "the Zimmerman telegram."
March 10 In an effort to quell growing instability within Russia (owing to political conflict aggravated by the strain of war, winter, and a general economic breakdown), Tsar Nicholas II suspends sittings of the Duma. From a train bound for his military headquarters, Nicholas cables the Military Governor of Petrograd, "I order that the disorders in the capital... be ended tomorrow."
March 11 Russia begins a headlong slide into revolution; the president of the Duma cables the Tsar, "There is anarchy in the capital. The government is paralyzed. Transportation of food and fuel is completely disorganized... There is disorderly firing in the streets. A person trusted by the country must be charged immediately to form a ministry."
March 15 Tsar Nicholas II abdicates.
Mar. 18 -Apr. 5 Four more American ships are sunk.
April 6 United States declares war on Germany.
July 1 Russians begin offensive in Gallicia, Alexander Kerensky, mInister of war, leading in person.
July 3 American expeditionary force arrives in France.
August 1 Pope Benedict XV makes a plea for peace based on no annexation, no indemnity.
August 28 Pope Benedict's peace plea rejected by President Wilson.
September 3 Riga captured by Germans.
September 16 Russia proclaimed a republic by Kerensky.
September 26 Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood, and Tower Hamlets, east of Ypres, taken by British.
October 24 Austro-Germans begin great offensive on Italian positions.
October 25 Italians retreat across the Isonzo and evacuate the Bainsizza Plateau.
October 27 Goritzia recaptured by Austro-Germans.
October 31 Italians retreat to the Tagliamento. Beersheba, in Palestine, occupied by British.
November 1 Germans abandon position on Chemin des Dames.
November 6 Passchendaele captured by Canadians.
November 7 In Russia, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Trotsky, seize Petrograd and depose Kerensky.
November 8 Gen. Diaz succeeds Gen. Cadorna as commander in chief of Italian armies.
November 9 Italian retreat the Piave.
November 23 Italians repulse Germans on the whole front from the Asiago Plateau to the Brenta River.
December 3 Bolsheviks arrange armistice with Germans.
December 8 Jerusalem, held by Turks for 673 years, surrenders to the British under Gen. Allenby.
December 15 Armistice signed between Germany and Russia at Brest-Litovsk.
January 29, 1918 Italians capture Monte di val Belle.
February 27 Japan proposes joint military operations with the Allies in Siberia.
March 3 Peace treaty between Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers signed at Brest-Litovsk
March 9 Russian capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow.
March 14 Russo-German peace treaty ratified by All-Russian Congress of Soviets at Moscow.
March 21 Germans begin great drive on 50-mile front from Arras to La Fere. Bombardment of Paris by German long-range gun from distance of 76 miles.
April 5 Japanese forces landed at Vladivostok.
April 9 Second German drive begun in Flanders.
April 15 Second German drive halted before Ypres after maximum advance of 10 miles.
April 21 Baron von Richthofen, Germany's premier fighter pilot, killed in France.
May 27 Third German drive begins on Aisne-Marne from of 30 miles between Soissons and Rheims.
May 31 Marne Rivers crossed by Germans who reach Château Thierry, 40 miles from Paris.
June 3-6 American Marines and regulars check advance of Germans at Château Thierry and Neuilly, after a maximum advance of Germans of 32 miles.
July 16 Nicholas Romanoff, former Tsar of Russia, is murdered by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg along with his wife, son, and four daughters.
August 2 French troops recapture Soissons.
August 3 President Wilson announces new policy regarding Russia and agrees to cooperate with Great Britain, France, and Japan in sending forces to Murmansk and Vladivostok.
August 7 Franco-American troops cross the Vesle.
August 8 New Allied drive begun by Field Marshall Haig in Picardy.
September 11 Germans are driven back to the Hindenberg line which they held in November 1917.
October 1 St. Quentin, cornerstone of Hindenberg line, captured.
October 28 When ordered to sail for an anticipated major sea battle against the British navy, German sailors in Kiel refused to go and, instead, took up arms and embarked on 6-day mutiny. The incident inspired open revolt among other sailors, soldiers and citizens in Germany.
October 30 Turkey surrenders; conditions include free passage of the Dardanelles.
November 9 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates.
November 10 New German republic founded
November 11 War ends officially as Germany and the Allies sign an armistice.

Timeline drawn from several sources including:
History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War
© 1918 by Francis A. March, Ph.D.,in collaboration with Richard J. Beamish, Special War Correspondent and Military Analyst
Available from The Gutenberg Project