World War 1 started on 28 July 1914 and ended on 11 November 1918.

Key dates

  • Start of WW1: 28 July 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
  • End of WW1: 11 November 1918, when the armistice between Germany and the Allies came into effect, stopping the fighting on the Western Front.

Quick Scoop

  • The war is usually dated from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918, covering just over four years of large-scale industrialized warfare.
  • Peace treaties, like the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, legally finalized the postwar settlement, but the fighting phase of WW1 is defined by those start and end dates.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.