1914
June: Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, while he is in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
July: The First World War, as it becomes known, begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it fails to meet the unfulfillable 15-point ultimatum to be accepted within 48 hours.
August: The German Empire declares war on Russia following the latter’s mobilization in support of Serbia. Germany invades and occupies Luxembourg, then declaring war on France, Russia’s ally. German troops invade neutral Belgium in advance on France. Britain declares war on Germany after the latter fails to undertake to respect Belgian neutrality. The United States declares neutrality. Japan declares war on Germany. German forces occupy Brussels.
September: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden declare neutrality. All three sign an agreement to defend the neutrality and protect the common economic interests of the Scandinavian countries. Battle of the Marne ends German advance on Paris.
October: The siege of Antwerp ends when German forces occupy the Belgian city. The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the German side when they shell Russian Black Sea ports.
November: The British navy suffers their first defeat at the Battle of Coronel.
1915
January: German zeppelins bomb cities in Britain for the first time. United States Marines occupy Haiti. Germans use poison gas for the first time against the Russians.
March: The Royal Navy sinks the German battleship Dresden off the coast of Chile. The British attack on the Dardanelles fails.
April: The German troops introduce poison gas for the first time on the western front at the Battle of Ypres. Turkish troops begin the Armenian genocide in the Van region. ANZAC (Australia / New Zealand Army Corps) troops land at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
May: The RMS Luisitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198 men, women, and children. The Second Battle of Artois begins. Italy joins the Allies by declaring war on Austria-Hungary.
August: The Battle of Sari Bair begins with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
September: The first prototype tank is tested by the British Army.
1916
January: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli. Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
February: The Battle of Verdun begins in France.
March: Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican followers in an attack on Columbus, Mexico, killing 17 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 American troops across the Mexican border in pursuit.
May: The Battle of Jutland begins off the western coast of Denmark.
June: The Battle of Jutland ends in an effective draw, neither side winning decisively.
July: The Battle of the Somme begins in France with 60,000 soldiers from the British Commonwealth dying on the first day alone. The United States still refuses to join in the war effort.
November: The Battle of the Somme ends with nearly 1,000,000 total deaths. The Hellenic Holocaust begins with a massacre of Greek civilians by the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.
December: The Battle of Magdhaba begins in the Sinai desert with Australian and New Zealand mounted troops capturing the Turkish garrison.
1917
January: Denmark sells the Virgin Islands to the United States for $25 million. The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa. Germany announces its intention to continue unrestricted submarine warfare.
February: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announced their new policy. The Russian Revolution begins to overthrow the Tsar. The Zimmerman Telegram, urging Mexico to declare war on the United States, reaches American hands.
March: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the thrown and the Russian Civil War begins. The Danish officially hand over the Virgin Islands to the United States. The Battle of Gaza begins.
April: The United States declares war on the German Empire, entering the First World War. Canadian troops win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
May: The United States Congress passes the Selective Service Act, initiating the draft in the US.
July: Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
October: A German unit accidentally crosses the border into Denmark while patrolling at night. Shots are exchanged between the Germans (who think they are firing at British) and some Danish soldiers. By the end of the month, Danish troops are rushing to the border and Norwegian and Swedish troops are arriving in Denmark, as per their agreement. [1]
November: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all declare war on Germany, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Sweden only agrees to declare war on Germany if Norway and Denmark support the reconquest of Finland and Karelia. The British proclaim the Balfour Declaration, supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Vladimir Lenin leads a nearly bloodless coup and seizes power in Russia. The Battle of Cambria begins. The Ukraine declares itself a republic.
December: The mostly Danish and Norwegian army push into northern Germany, eventually slowing down on the outskirts of Kiel. American troops, recently arriving in Britain, begin arriving in Denmark to help with the thrust into Germany. The mostly Swedish army pushes east into Russia (although it is not sanctioned by the Allies, no move is made to stop it). Finnish revolutionaries surprisingly side with the Swedes.
[1] In OTL, the commander of this unit successfully steered the company away from the border. However, in TTL, the commander is sick and, thus, the executive officer, accidentally leads them across the border.
1918
January: The Danish-Norwegian-American army captures Kiel and continues south. The Swedish army in Finland, virtually unopposed, capture Tampere and also continue to move south. Another Swedish detachment heads east, for Murmansk.
February: Lithuania declares its independence from both Germany and Russia. The Danish advance comes to a halt outside of Lubeck and, despite repeated attacks, the advance makes no further progress, despite the crumbling German Army.
March: Bolshevist Russia moves its capital from Petrograd to Moscow. In France, the Second Battle of the Somme begins. Swedish forces capture Turku and head for Helsinki. Outside of Lubeck, a young Bavarian Corporal, by the name of Adolf Hitler, is struck by an enemy mortar shell and killed.
May: A Swedish detachment backed by Norwegians, Danes, and Finns lays siege to Murmansk while Swedish forces in the south finally meet some resistance fifty miles outside of Helsinki.
July: The Second Battle of the Marne begins in France. The entire Romanov family is executed by the Bolsheviks. Both Helsinki and Murmansk are captured as Bolshevist Russia is still unable to mount any successful defense.
August: The “Spanish Flu” becomes a pandemic. Outside of Lubeck, American Corporal Alvin York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132. The Battle of Amiens begins in France.
October: Swedish forces capture Vyborg. Other Swedish and Finn forces approach Petrozavodsk. Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary. The first Polish government in 200 years convenes in Warsaw.
November: Swedish forces capture Petrozavodsk. General armistice throughout Europe as Austria-Hungary collapses and Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates the thrown. Many nations throughout eastern Europe are granted their independence.
December: Iceland becomes an autonomous kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark. Finland, including all of Karelia and the Kola peninsula becomes an autonomous kingdom united with Sweden. European and American delegates arrive in Paris for the peace talks.
1919
January: The 18th Amendment passes in the United States, authorizing Prohibition. The Paris Peace Talks officially open in Paris. The League of Nations is founded to ‘prevent’ future wars on the scale of the First World War.
February: In Italy, Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party.
March: The first meeting of the Communist International (ComIntern) convenes in Moscow. The American Legion, composed of United States veterans, is formed in Paris. Benito Mussolini’s Fascist political movement first gets underway in Milan, Italy.
August: In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is passed into law. Afghanistan gains its independence from Great Britain.
October: United States President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke. Although not killed, the stroke leaves him partially paralyzed. Despite the President’s veto, Prohibition goes into effect in the United States.
November: World Health officials declare the end of the Spanish Flu Pandemic. It has claimed the lives of nearly 25 million human beings, nearly twice as many as the First World War. The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1920
January: League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending the First World War. The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations. The Netherlands refuses to extradite the former Kaiser, Wilhelm II. Turkey gives up all non-Turkish areas of the former Ottoman Empire.
February: Norway is given Svalbard. Estonia declares independence from Russia. Max Bauer, a former General in the German Army, presents his national socialist program in Hannover.
March: The upstart Nordic National Party gains a majority in the Swedish Parliament, or Rikstag. Two of the Nordic nations, Denmark (including Iceland and Greenland), and Norway, form a military alliance which becomes known as the Nordic Defense Alliance (NDA). An associated Nordic Customs Union is in the process of negotiation. It is still unknown whether Sweden, the most powerful Scandinavian nation, will join the Alliance. The NDA is simply an extension and formalization of the agreement which brought the three nations into the First World War. Wolfgang Kapp (which, in TTL, Max Bauer does not participate in) fails at his nationalist coup attempt in Germany due to public resistance and a general strike. The United States Congress refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. The German Government asks France for permission to use its own troops against the Ruhr Red Army in the French occupied area.
April: German army marches to Ruhr to fight the rebellious Ruhr Red Army. Riots occur between Arabs and Jewish settlers in Jerusalem. Germany and Bolshevist Russia agree to the exchange of prisoners of war. French troops occupy Frankfurt. The Russo-Polish War begins when Polish troops attack Russia.
May: Polish troops occupy the city of Kiev. Belgian and French troops leave the German cities they have occupied since 1918.
June: Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population in Treaty of Trianon. The Bolshevist Red Army retakes Kiev. A new border treaty between Denmark and Germany hands over the Danish-occupied city of Kiel to the Danes. The border between the two nations is set less than twenty kilometers south of the city.
July: The Red Army invades Poland. The Bolsheviks recognizes the independence of Lithuania. Poland sues Bolshevist Russia for peace. The terms of peace are rejected and the war continues.
August: Bolshevist Russia recognizes the independence of Estonia and Latvia. The Red Army is defeated at the gates of Warsaw. The 19th Amendment is passed in the United States, guaranteeing women’s suffrage.
September: Max Bauer, the head of the National Socialist German Workers’ (NSDAP or Nazi) Party, makes his first public political speech in Hannover. Bauer turns out to be a gifted orator.
November: The first commercial radio station in the world announces the results of the United States Presidential election. Warren G. Harding becomes the 29thPresident. In Geneva, the first full assembly of the League of Nations is held. The first act is the acceptance of the constitution of Danzig free state.
December: After a long wait, Sweden (including Finland, which, in turn, includes Karelia and the Kola peninsula) joins the Nordic Defense Alliance, granting a larger measure of legitimacy to the organization. Martial law is declared in Ireland after several months of religious terrorism sweep through the major cities.
1921
January: The Republic of Turkey is proclaimed.
February: The Democratic Republic of Georgia is occupied by the Red Army of Bolshevist Russia.
March: Mongolia declares its independence from China. The second Peace of Riga is signed by Poland and Bolshevist Russia. Although Belarus is annexed by Bolshevist Russia, the Ukraine, in light of recent Polish successes (with some help from the NDA), is left independent, for the time being, anyhow.
August: The United States of America formally ends the First World War by declaring peace with Germany.
December: The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed by the British and Irish, creating the Irish Free State.
Next: Interwar Period (1922 - 1938)
