July 31
Berlin: German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg sends a telegram to Austrian Foreign Minister, Count Leopold Berhtold, asking Austria not to mobilise against Russia. At the same time General Helmuth von Moltke advises Austrian General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf to mobilise immediately.
Germany gives Russia an ultimatum to halt all war mobilisation. Russia refuses.
Germany asks France for a guarantee of neutrality. France refuses.
French Ambassador to Germany Jules Cambon and Belgian Minister Baron Beyens write to the American Ambassador, James W. Gerard, asking him to intervene. Gerard writes to Bethmann-Hollweg, asking "Is there nothing my country can do? Nothing that I can do towards stopping this dreadful war?" He recieves no reply.
Industrialist Walther Rathenau publishes an article in the Berliner Tageblat saying that without Germany's blind loyalty to Austria, that nation would not have been so bold in her war policy.
Paris: Socialist leader Jean Jaurès, who has been trying to organize a peace movement, is assassinated. Most of France fully supports a war with Germany.
The London Stock Exchange closes. Stock Markets in Berlin, Rome and Vienna have already closed. To prevent massive selling and a possible crash, the New York Stock Exchange also closes.
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“Never do anything you can't take back.”
—Rocky Russo
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