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HISTORY
TIMELINE
Timeline of the
Great War (WWI) and other world events from 1914 to 1919.
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A
DAY IN THE LIFE DURING ... THE GREAT WAR
by Jacquelin Cangro
Meet young British soldier Simon Broadhurst and hear about
his experiences during the Christmas truce on the Western
Front in 1914.
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GAVRILO
PRINCIP AND THE BLACK HAND SECRET SOCIETY
by Anna Davies
When nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip leveled his revolver
and fired, he did not know the bullet hurtling through the
air toward Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria would spark
the greatest war Europe had ever witnessed. Who was Gavrilo
Princip? What happened that June day in 1914? And how was
it that one young man unwittingly launched the Great War?
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LIFE
IN THE TRENCHES: A WORLD BELOW GROUND
by Joanne Liu
At the beginning of World War I, the British army owned twenty-five
hundred shovels. Just four years later, it had over ten and
a half million. Why did one army accumulate so many shovels?
To dig trenches—deep, gaping holes in the ground. Find
out what life was like for those who lived, fought, and died
in these trenches.
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ACES HIGH: THE
AVIATORS OF WORLD WAR I
by Hilary Smillie
Nothing excited people on the home front more than reading
stories about dogfights, or battles between fighter planes
above the air in war-torn Europe. Before the Great War, the
use of aircraft in warfare was unheard of. By the end of the
war, the part aircraft and aviators played were legendary.
Hear the story of the evolution of fighter planes during the
war and meet the famous aces from both sides who flew them.
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LANDSHIPS: TANKS IN THE GREAT WAR
by Captain Edward H. Carpenter
Impressed by a demonstration of a prototype armored vehicle
mounted on caterpillar tracks rolling over a barbed-wire obstacle
in 1915, Winston Churchill sponsored the development of the
landship – whose codename was “tank.” Find
out the role these new vehicles played in the First World War.
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AN
AMERICAN AMBULANCIER IN FRANCE
Ellen B. Cutler
The people of the United States watched anxiously from the
sidelines for almost three years after the onset of World
War I in 1914. Thousands of Americans volunteered to help
France and England in any way they could; many of them drove
ambulances overseas. The French army, in particular, depended
on these brave volunteers. Read a true account of one of these
brave volunteers, Jerome “Jerry” Preston of Massachusetts.
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TOP SECRET:
THE WAR PROPAGANDA BUREAU
by Shahbano Bilgrami
In August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the war, David
Lloyd George, the British chancellor of the exchequer, was
asked to set up the War Propaganda Bureau (WPB). The aim of
the Bureau was to recruit volunteers to the armed forces,
as well as to help combat German war propaganda. Take a tour
through the WPB and see what an average day’s work there
was like.
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EDITH
CAVELL AND THE BELGIAN RESISTANCE
by Pat Sherman
Can you imagine
being an English nurse in Belgium during the Great War and
joining the Belgian resistance, knowing that the penalty if
you got caught was death? That is exactly what Miss Edith
Cavell did! Read about the bravery of this dedicated nurse
and how she became an inspiration to millions.
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THE
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY OF THE LUSITANIA
by Sierra Morningstar
NOTICE! TRAVELERS intending to embark on the Atlantic
voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany
and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the
zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles;
that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial
German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain,
or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters
and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great
Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
This was the notice
that the Germans placed in newspapers before the Lusitania
set sail. Learn about the last voyage of the doomed ship and
how it fanned the flames of war in the United States.
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BREAKING
THE CODE: THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM
by Rachel Hartman
Did you know that the Germans tried to get Mexico to join
its side in World War I with the promise of helping Mexico
regain territory it had lost to the United States? This is
what was proposed in the Zimmermann Telegram - learn more
about the men who deciphered the telegram and what the impact
of this document was.
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MOINA MICHAEL AND THE START OF A TRADITION
by Rebecca Salomonsson
The Memorial Day poppy was once a well-kept tradition in the
United States – a tradition dating back to World War I,
initiated by a woman named Moina Belle Michael. For many years,
the poppy stood as a symbol for the fallen, and many veterans’
organizations sold them to help raise money for veterans in
need. The tradition has more or less fallen by the wayside in
the United States, but just who was the woman who inspired the
long-lived tradition?
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THE SEEDS OF VICTORY: LIBERTY GARDENS
IN WORLD WAR I
by Kelly Austin
How do you feed an army of four million soldiers? The U.S. government
realized that there wasn’t going to be enough food for
everyone after America entered the war. Its citizens would have
to conserve the food that was left and start growing their own.
Find out how victory gardens helped play a role in feeding a
nation.
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A
DEADLY CLOUD OF POISON GAS
by Amy O'Quinn
The date: April 22, 1915.
The place: Ypres,
France.
The significance: the Germans debuted chlorine gas as a weapon
against the French army at the start of the Second Battle
of Ypres. Chlorine gas was the first poison gas used in World
War I, and the results were deadly. Learn how the use of poison
gas in WWI opened Pandora's box and ushered in an era of new
horror in warfare.
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SENDING
MESSAGES: THE CHOCTAW CODE TALKERS
by Annie Laura Smith
When America entered World War I in 1917, the lack of secure
communications was a critical problem. Coding and decoding
messages was very time-consuming and delayed important information.
Enter Native American soldiers from the Choctaw tribe. Discover
how the Choctaw language provided the only coded messages
never broken by the German army in WWI.
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THE PURPLE
DEATH: SPANISH INFLUENZA
by Sara Francis Fujimura
In 1918, the Spanish flu, or influenza, left its devastating
mark in both world and American history that year. The microscopic
killer claimed the lives of more than twenty-one million people
as it circled the earth. The United States lost more lives
to the Spanish flu in one year – 675,000 people –
than it did to the whole Great
War! Find out where the flu began, how soldiers unwittingly
spread it and why the Spanish flu is in the news again today.
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NOT WILLING TO FIGHT: CONSCIENTOUS
OBJECTORS
by Jim Cort
The battlefields of World War I were hungry. They devoured
men in wholesale lots. To meet the demand for replacement
troops, most governments turned to conscription, or the draft.
Formal, large-scale conscription was an invention of the twentieth
century. But with this new practice came a new problem. Conscription
cast a wide net. In addition to the willing, it gathered up
men who were not willing to become soldiers. These were the
conscientious objectors. Find out why some men did not want
to fight and how each warring nation dealt with them. |
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CAPTURING
THE KAISER
by Melanie Storie
Learn about the dramatic failed attempt of a former U.S. senator
who hatched a plot to capture Kaiser Wilhelm II in Holland
in order to hold him accountable for war crimes at the Paris
Peace Conference in 1919.
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