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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 Read
this article by clicking on the link.
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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