Test Your Knowledge of World War I

German boxer Joseph Pilates was detained in England as an enemy alien during World War I, and interned in a war camp on the Isle of Man. He had to get creative to stay in shape, and developed a system of mind and body conditioning he called “Contrology.” He used springs and straps from the bed to create resistance machines and exercises that evolved into the Pilates workouts popular today.

You had to be at least 5' 3" with a chest size of 34 inches to enlist in the British Army. But a lot of shorter men wanted to enlist, so the British created a special battalion for these volunteers, nicknamed the Bantams after the reputation of the small ferocious birds.

As industrialized nations streamlined the production of goods to aid the war effort, the world of fashion generally became more practical, sticking to somber colors and minimal materials. French designer Coco Chanel, however, used surplus jersey fabric – elastic material commonly used in uniforms and men’s underwear – to create sport suits that paired jackets with skirts, and became popular among European women at the time.

More than 30 nations fought in World War I, but only one independent country from the African continent took part: Liberia. The western African nation was heavily influenced to join the war by its ally, the United States, which also officially joined the conflict in 1917.

Tanks made their debut as a weapon of war in World War I, during the infamous Battle of the Somme. Originally, the deadly vehicles were split into two groups according to “gender.” Tanks that had cannons were considered male, and tanks with machine guns were considered female.

Kleenex originated when the paper company Kimberly-Clark developed a paper-based material it called “cellucotton” to use as filters for gas masks in World War I. While the filter wasn’t a perfect fit for battle, it was rebranded as a makeup remover and sold as “Kleenex” starting in 1924. The brand name came from a combination of the word “clean” and “Kotex.” Kotex sanitary pads were Kimberly-Clark’s first commercial product, getting the name from a combination of the words “cotton” and “texture.”

Big Bertha refers to a giant gun used by the German Army to fire massive 1,785-pound projectiles as far as six miles. The gun was given its nickname by German troops. There were 12 Big Bertha weapons used in World War I.

The Landships Committee was established in early 1915 by Winston Churchill, Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty at the time. The goal was to create fighting vessels that combined armor and new technology in combustion engines. The name "tank" was something of a code name; the British maintained secrecy by pretending the project was for new water tanks.

In a tremendous twist for conspiracy theorists, the license plate number of the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was driving when he was assassinated read: “AIII 118.” The number matched the date on which the historic armistice was signed to end the war on November 11, 1918 — or 11/11/18. The “A” can be interpreted to stand for “Armistice Day.”

With more than 250 ships and 100,000 troops, the 1916 Battle of Jutland was WWI’s most important naval clash. Fought off the coast of Denmark, it was the first and only battle between the major British and German navies. Both sides suffered significant losses, but Germany was never again able to challenge British naval power during the war.

The “Doughboys” nickname for U.S. soldiers likely predates WWI; it’s believed it originated with the American soldiers who fought in Mexico against the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in 1916. Soldiers’ uniforms were often covered in white dust from clay adobe homes, spawning the nickname “dobies.” Many of these same troops served in Europe during World War I, and the moniker traveled with them overseas.

The B.F. Goodrich Company debuted the name “zipper” for its new fastener in 1923, but the invention itself first showed up during World War I. U.S. army uniforms did not have pockets at the time, so the army made an order for zippers to be used with money belts that would carry accessories. While buttons remained the standard for fastening uniforms, zippers also started being sewn into the suits of military pilots in the 1920s.

Created by German officer Alfred von Schlieffen more than a decade before the war, the Schlieffen Plan called for a quick German military assault to knock out France, followed by a second assault against Russia. It relied on precision timing and had little in the way of contingency plans. When France proved more powerful than expected, the plan became ineffective, and a bloody stalemate set in on the Western Front.

In the early years of WWI, Winston Churchill held a government post as civilian head of the British Navy. With a stalemate on the Western Front, he called for a second front against the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, a massive invasion of Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula turned disastrous, with more than 250,000 Allied casualties. After the debacle, Churchill briefly left the government to lead an infantry battalion in France.

Germany began experimenting with poison gas at the start of WWI, and the first effective use was in April 1915, when German troops unleashed 150 tons of chlorine gas on Allied troops in Belgium at the Battle of Ypres. This led the Allied force to begin its own poison gas production. By the end of the war, more than 100,000 tons of chemical weapons had been used, resulting in half a million wounded and nearly 30,000 deaths.

America’s military was strictly segregated during WWI, but several all-Black units served in the conflict. The most famous of these was the 369th Infantry Regiment, better known as the Harlem Hellfighters, who spent more time in combat than any other American unit and received France’s highest award for bravery. The unit also helped introduce jazz to Europe, but despite its many accomplishments, its members, like other Black soldiers, continued to face racism at home after the war.

You may love or hate the seasonal shifts of the clock, but you can thank the Germans for the invention of Daylight Savings Time. It was implemented in April 1916 to address wartime coal shortages and keep German cities dark during nighttime air raids. The Allies followed suit, and DST is still used in many countries today.

Social and political unrest in Russia preceded the First World War, but came to a head thanks to the inept management of the war effort by Tsar Nicholas II. High casualties and food storages led to a March 1917 revolution that toppled Russia’s powerful Romanov dynasty, followed by a second revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power.

Before wristwatches, pocket watches were the timekeeping norm for centuries. Wristwatches were invented in the 1800s, but they didn't catch on at first, particularly in the U.S. But when World War I broke out in 1914, soldiers realized that the smaller, secure timekeeping device was a lot better suited to combat. Soldiers kept their watches on when they came home, and the rest of the population warmed up to wristwatches, too.

The U.S. Army Signal Corps used approximately 600 carrier pigeons to communicate during World War I. Cher Ami was a pigeon that famously helped to save the "Lost Battalion" in the Battle of the Argonne by delivering a message that helped locate the troops. The winged hero was awarded one of France's most prestigious military honors, the Croix de Guerre.

In 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson received a deciphered telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to a German diplomat in Mexico. The message exhorted Mexico to join the Axis Powers in exchange for U.S. territory that was once part of Mexico. The American public was outraged, a sentiment bolstered when Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. In response, the U.S. abandoned neutrality and entered WWI in April of that year.

Long before the “freedom fries” of the early 21st century, there was “liberty cabbage,” the name given to sauerkraut in the U.S. during World War I, when Americans began the habit of renaming products associated with countries they were at war with. Not only was sauerkraut renamed, but frankfurters became “liberty sausage” and hamburgers “liberty steak.”

After a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July 1914. Austria-Hungary’s ally, Germany, then declared war on Russia. A domino effect followed, until much of the world found itself at war.

The Western Front covered a roughly 30-mile stretch across modern-day Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and other parts of Western Europe, and it was one of the most violent theaters of the war. Yet remarkably, beginning on Christmas Eve and running through Christmas Day in 1914, roughly two-thirds of the Western Front stopped fighting in an impromptu and unsanctioned ceasefire for the holiday.

In addition to Russia, WWI led to the breakup of several imperial dynasties, including the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German empires. The Treaty of Versailles broke these empires into several smaller nations in Europe and the Middle East. However, these hastily drawn new borders proved shortsighted and arbitrary, worsening existing tensions between nationalist groups and setting the stage for future conflicts.

In June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the palace of Versailles in Paris, signifying the end of World War I. While it was meant to formalize peace, the treaty itself imposed harsh punishment on Germany, which had to take responsibility for the war as a whole and pay massive reparations.

The Wright brothers took their first famous flight 11 years before the outbreak of World War I, the first major conflict to use airplanes. Planes were pivotal in spying on the frontlines and in helping the Allies drive the Germans out of France.

The League of Nations was first proposed by President Woodrow Wilson as a postwar international organization aimed at preventing future conflicts. However, growing isolationist sentiment in America meant the U.S. never joined the league. Largely ineffective, the league was unable to prevent the outbreak of WWII, and was disbanded in 1946 after the creation of the United Nations.

President Woodrow Wilson was first elected in 1912 and was reelected to a second term in 1916. Even though his reelection campaign slogan was "He Kept Us Out of War," the United States eventually entered the global conflict, declaring war in April 1917.

The agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front of World War I was signed on November 11, 1918, later dubbed Armistice Day. Although the fighting continued in other areas, and the conflict formally ended in June 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, Armistice Day is widely recognized as the end of the First World War. The date is now honored on Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom and on Veterans Day in the United States.