The Major Events of World War I

• June 28, 1914
  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, triggering World War I
• September 6, 1914
  The German Schlieffen Plan fails when French forces defeat the German army at the First Battle of the Marne followed by four years of trench warfare on the Western Front
• April 24, 1915
  Massacre of Armenians by Turks begins as part of Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, during which over 1 million Armenian was deported and killed
• February 21, 1916
  Battle of Verdun, which caused one million casualties, begins in Region de Verdun, France, after German General Erich von Falkenhayn attempts to bleed the French Army white
• September 15, 1916
  British Mark I tank is first used at Flers-Courcelette during Battle of the Somme, becoming the world's first tank to enter combat
• March 3, 1918
  Bolshevik government of Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which they surrender large territories to Germany, and formally withdraw from World War I
• June 28, 1919
  The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany and the Allied Powers, blames Germany for World War I, establishes the Weimar Republic, redraws European borders, and creates a League of Nations