The Slow Slide to War - Part 2
June 28 - Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a Bosnian nationalist with Serbian terrorist training.
July 23 - Austria-Hungary, with the backing of Germany, delivers an ultimatum to Serbia - lay down all your weapons or expect war
July 25 - Serbians refuse the ultimatum - with Russian encouragement.
July 25 - Austria-Hungary begins to mobilize its troops for war with Serbia.
July 26 - The Russians prepare their army for possible war against either Austria-Hungary alone or against both Austria-Hungary and Germany.
July 28 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
July 29 - Britain calls for international mediation to resolve the worsening crisis. The call falls on deaf ears. The Russians begin partial troop mobilization as a precaution. The Germans then begin to mobilize themselves.
July 30 - Austrian warships bombard Belgrade, capital of Serbia.
July 31 - Reacting to the Austrian attack on Serbia, Russia begins full mobilization of its troops. Germany demands that it stop.
August 1 - Germany declares war on Russia. France and Belgium begin full mobilization.
August 3 - Germany declares war on France, and invades neutral Belgium. Britain then sends an ultimatum, rejected by the Germans, to withdraw from Belgium.
August 4 - Great Britain declares war on Germany. The declaration is binding on all British colonies including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.
August 4 - The United States declares its neutrality.
August 4-16 - German forces initiate their master attack plan - the Schlieffen Plan. As a first step, Germans attack the Belgian fortress city of Liege. The forts surrounding the city are bombarded into submission by German shells. The main German army then advances towards France while the surviving Belgian troops retreat northward.
August 6 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
August 7 - The first British troops land in France. The 120,000 highly trained members of the regular British Army form the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)
August 7-24 The French Army initiates their master attack plan - Plan 17 - and invade the German provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
The French attack is stopped cold by strong German defences including massed heavy artillery and machine-guns. The French suffer extremely heavy casualties and the attack collapses with 300,000 total casualties.
August 12 - Great Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary. Serbia is invaded by Austria-Hungary.
