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World War One
timeline 1917
January |
February |
March |
April |
May |
June |
July |
August |
September |
October |
November |
December
January
1. |
Turkey declares its independence of suzerainty of European
powers. Ivernia, Cunard liner, is sunk in Mediterranean. |
3. |
Germany announces resumption of unrestricted U-boat warfare |
9. |
German leaders decide to launch unrestricted U-boat warfare |
10. |
Allies state war objectives in response to Wilson's peace note
of 18 December
|
February
1. |
British troops on the Ancre capture German positions. |
24. |
Great Britain releases Zimmermann Note to US. |
25. |
Laconia, Cunard liner, sunk off Irish coast. |
26.
|
Wilson requests authority from Congress to arm US merchant
ships. |
26. |
Kut-el-Amara recaptured from Turks by new British Mesopotamian
expedition under command of Gen. Sir Stanley
Maude. |
28. |
United States government makes public a communication from
Germans to Mexico proposing an alliance, and
offering as a reward the
return of Mexico's lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. |
28. |
Submarine campaign of Germans results in the sinking of 134
vessels.
|
March
1. |
Zimmermann Note released to press by State Department; Armed
Ship Bill passes House |
3.
|
British advance on Bapaume. Mexico denies having received an
offer from Germany suggesting an alliance. |
4. |
Senate adjourns without passing Armed Ship Bill; "Little group
of wilful men" successfully filibuster |
8. |
US Naval Act carried appropriation of $1 million for purchase of
basic aeronautical patents by the Federal
Government. |
10. |
Russian Czar suspends sittings of the Duma. |
11. |
Baghdad captured by British forces under Gen. Maude. |
12. |
Wilson announces arming of merchant ships by executive order |
14. |
China breaks with Germany. |
15.
|
Culmination of "February Revolution"; Czar Nicholas II
abdicates. Prince Lvoff heads new cabinet. |
17. |
Bapaume falls to British. Roye and Lassigny occupied by French. |
18. |
Peronne, Chaulnes, Nesle and Noyon evacuated by Germans,
who retire on an 85-mile front. City of Memphis, Illinois and Vigilancia,
American ships, torpedoed. |
19. |
Alexander Ribot becomes French premier, succeeding Briand. |
20. |
Wilson's Cabinet votes unanimously for war |
21. |
Healdton, American ship, bound from Philadelphia to Rotterdam,
sunk without warning; 21 men lost. |
26-31. |
British advance on Cambrai. |
29. |
War College Division issues report:
Calls for large force of between 500,000 and 1,000,000 --
and optimistically
estimates that at least ten months would be required to
ship a force of 500,000 to Europe once it was raised and
trained, putting the earliest effects of US involvement
in mid- to late-1918; openly plans to send US force
overseas,
but argues against offensives through Macedonia or
Holland; repeats opposition to sending an untrained
American
army overseas; Wilson publicly calls for a national army
to be "raised and maintained exclusively by selective
draft."
The NACA recommended preparation of 3-year programs for
aircraft production to the Secretaries of War and the
Navy.
|
April
1. |
German submarine campaign exacts heaviest damage of war: 881,027
gross tons, 500,000 of which are British Aztec, American armed ship, sunk in submarine zone. |
2. |
Wilson delivers war address to Congress at 8:32 pm |
5. |
Missourian, American steamer, sunk in Mediterranean. |
6. |
United States declares war on Germany. The Aviation Section of
the Signal Corps consisted of 35 pilots, 1,987 enlisted men, and 55
training airplanes. Navy Aviation and Marine Corps combined had 48
officer-pilots, 239 men, 54 airplanes, 1 airship, 3 balloons, and 1 air
station.
|
7. |
Cuba and Panama at war with Germany. |
8. |
Austria-Hungary breaks with United States. |
9.
|
Germans retreat before British on long front. |
10. |
Sir William Robertson advocates to Haig the dispatch of
immediate American expeditionary force "to get some
Americans killed and
so get the country to take a real interest in the war". |
13. |
Bolivia severs relations with Germany |
13. |
Vimy, Givenchy, Bailleul and positions about Lens taken by
Canadians. |
16. |
Lenin arrives in Russia 20. Turkey breaks with United
States. |
22. |
President Wilson suggests to the belligerents a peace without
victory. |
31. |
Germany announces intention of sinking all vessels in war zone
around British Isles.
|
May
7. |
First aerial bombing of London by German bombers at night. |
9. |
Liberia breaks with Germany. |
11. |
Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates demands
peace conference. |
15. |
Gen. Petain succeeds Gen. Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of
French armies. Gen. Foch is appointed Chief of Staff. |
16. |
Bullecourt captured by British in the Arras battles. |
17. |
Honduras breaks with German. |
18. |
Conscription begins, with the Selective Service Act signed by
President Wilson. |
19. |
Nicaragua breaks with Germany. |
20. |
First aircraft sinking of a submarine, the German U-36, in the
North Sea by a British flying boat. |
22-26. |
Italians advance on the Carso. |
28. |
Pershing leaves New York harbour for France aboard Baltic
|
June
2. |
Aviation Section became the Airplane Division of the Army Signal
Corps, and Maj. B. D. Foulois was appointed officer-in-charge on July 23. |
4. |
Aircraft Production Board and the Joint Technical Board on
Aircraft authorized the construction of five prototype models of 8- and
the 12-cylinder Liberty motors. Engine designs had been worked out in a
Washington hotel room by J. G. Vincent of Packard Motor Car Co. and E. J.
Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Car Co. during the previous week, applying
current engineering practices to mass production techniques. |
5. |
Registration day for new draft army in United States. |
7. |
General Staff issues plan to ship American forces at a rate of
120,000 per month beginning in August; this rate of dispatch would not be
realized until April 1918 |
7. |
Messines-Wytschaete ridge in English hands. |
8. |
Gen. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of American expeditionary
force, arrives in England en route to France. |
14. |
Wilson, in his Flag Day Address, declares that the initial
American Expeditionary Force will be followed by more soldiers as quickly
as possible, and that these soldiers will not be held in the US for
training |
18. |
Haiti breaks with Germany. |
26. |
First US troops (1st Division) arrive in France
|
July
1. |
Russians begin offensive in Gallicia, Kerensky, Minister of War,
leading in person. |
2. |
Pershing makes first request for a US army of 1,000,000 |
3. |
American expeditionary force arrives in France. |
4. |
First 8-cylinder Liberty aircraft engine arrived in Washington,
D.C., for test by the National Bureau of Standards. Design, manufacture,
and assembly of this motor had required less than 6 weeks. |
6. |
Canadian House of Commons passes Compulsory Military Service
Bill. |
11. |
Pershing suggests that figure of 1,000,000 is only initial
size, and a total force of 3,000,000 should be the goal |
12. |
King Constantine of Greece abdicates in favour of his second son,
Alexander. |
16-23. |
Retreat of Russians on a front of 155 miles. |
20. |
Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian premier, succeeding Lvoff. |
20. |
Drawing of draft number for American conscript army begins. |
22. |
Siam at war with Germany and Austria. |
27. |
First British DH-4 arrived in United States and became model
for the first combat aircraft produced in volume in the United States. |
31. |
Passchendaele offensive (Third Battle of Ypres) opens in
Flanders |
31. |
Franco-British attack penetrates German lines on a 20-mile
front.
|
August
1. |
Pope Benedict XV makes plea for peace on a basis of no
annexation, no indemnity. |
7. |
Liberia at war with Germany. |
8. |
Canadian Conscription Bill passes its third reading in Senate. |
14. |
China at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. |
15. |
Canadian troops capture Hill 70, dominating Lens. |
17. |
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Chairman of a Sub-committee
on Imperial Defence, submitted classic proposal for creation of an
autonomous air force in the British military structure. |
19. |
Italians cross the Isonzo and take Austrian positions. |
21. |
First airplane powered by Liberty engine successfully flown,
the L. W. F. Engineering Co.'s "Model F" biplane. |
25. |
US Navy "NC" flying boat development was initiated by Chief
Constructor of the Navy, D. W. Taylor, in a memo outlining general
requirements of such an aircraft to combat the submarine menace and "to
fly across the Atlantic to avoid difficulties of delivery, etc." Acting
Secretary of the Navy, F. D. Roosevelt, authorized development of "NC"
flying boats capable of flying the Atlantic. 12-cylinder Liberty motor
passed a 50-hour test with power output of over 300 hp prior to being
ordered into mass production. |
28. |
Pope Benedict's peace plea rejected by President Wilson.
|
September
1. |
Pershing establishes his general headquarters at Chaumont |
3. |
Riga captured by Germans.
Brig. Gen. W. L. Kenly appointed Chief of the Air Service, AEF, the first
time control of Army air activities was placed under a single head. |
14. |
Paul Painleve becomes French premier, succeeding Ribot. |
16. |
Russia proclaimed a republic by Kerensky. |
20. |
Costa Rica breaks with Germany. |
21. |
Gen. Tasker H. Bliss named Chief of Staff of the United States
Army. |
26. |
Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood and Tower Hamlets, east of Ypres, taken
by British. |
29. |
Turkish Mesopotamian army, under Ahmed Bey, captured by
British.
|
October
3. |
War Revenue Act; graduated income tax authorized (USA) |
6. |
Peru and Uruguay break with Germany. |
9. |
Poelcapelle and other German positions captured in Franco-
British attack. |
11. |
Brazil severs relations with Germany |
17. |
Antilles, American transport, westbound from France, sunk by
submarine; 67 lost. |
18. |
British De Havilland DH-4 ordered into series production in the
United States 6 months after U.S. entry into World War I. By the end of
the war, about 4,500 had been built, and of the total of 1,216
American-built planes to reach the Western Front, all but three (two Le
Peres and one experimental DH-9) were DH-4's. |
23. |
American troops in France fire their first shot in trench
warfare. |
23. |
French advance northeast of Soissons. |
24. |
Austro-German breakthrough at Caporetto on Italian front |
25. |
Italians retreat across the Isonzo and evacuate the Bainsizza
Plateau. |
26. |
Brazil at war with Germany. |
29. |
First DH-4 completed, flown at Dayton, Ohio. |
31. |
Beersheba, in Palestine, occupied by British.
|
November
1. |
Germans abandon position on Chemin des Dames. |
3. |
Americans in trenches suffer 20 casualties in German attacks. |
6. |
Passchendaele captured by Canadians. |
6. |
British Mesopotamian forces reach Tekrit, 100 miles northwest of
Baghdad. |
7. |
The Russian Bolsheviks seize power in Russia, led by Lenin and
Trotzsky, seize Potrograd and depose Kerensky. Allied Supreme War Council
created at Rapollo, Italy. |
8. |
Gen. Diaz succeeds Gen. Cadorna as Commander-in-Chief of Italian
armies. |
10. |
Lenin becomes Premier of Russia, succeeding Kerensky. |
15. |
Georges Clemenceau becomes Premier of France, succeeding
Painlove. |
20. |
British launch surprise tank attack at Cambrai. |
21. |
Ribecourt, Flesquieres, Havrincourt, Marcoing and other German
positions captured by British. |
23. |
Italians repulse Germans on the whole front from the Asiago
Plateau to the Brenta River. |
24. |
Cambrai menaced by British, who approach within three miles,
capturing Bourlon Wood.
|
December
1. |
German East Africa reported completely conquered. Allies'
Supreme War Council, representing the United States, France, Great Britain
and Italy, holds first meeting at Versailles. |
3. |
Russian Bolsheviki arrange armistice with Germans. |
5. |
British retire from Bourlon Wood, Graincourt and other positions
west of Cambrai. |
7. |
Finland declares independence. |
7. |
United States and Austria-Hungary at war. |
8. |
Jerusalem, held by the Turks for 673 years, surrenders to
British, under Gen. Allenby. |
9. |
Jerusalem captured by British |
10. |
Panama at war with Austria-Hungary. |
11. |
United States at war with Austria-Hungary. |
15. |
Armistice signed between Germany and Russia at Brest-Litovsk.
U.S. Navy airplane design placed under LCdr. W. Starling Burgess, Bureau
of Construction and Repair. |
17. |
Coalition government of Sir Robert Borden is returned and
considered
confirmed in Canada. |
22. |
Central Powers and Soviets open peace negotiations at
Brest-Litovsk. |
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