m the mail any material in violation of Section 1.
27/6/1917. American troops arrived in France to fight with the Allies. The American expeditionary force was commanded by General John Pershing.
15/6/1917, The US passed the Espionage Act, under which persons could be fined or imprisoned for hindering the war effort; the Federal Government took control of the US railways.
18/5/1917. The US introduced conscription under the Selective Service Act. This required every male aged 21 to 31 to register for the draft on 6/6/1917. Local Boards would select half a million men for military service..
3/5/1917, US destroyers arrived to join the British navy.
24/4/1917, In the US the Liberty Loan Act authorised the issue of War Bonds.
20/4/1917. The US broke off relations with Turkey.
6/4/1917. The USA declared war against Germany, with a declaration signed by President Woodrow Wilson. This followed the revealing by the British on 1/3/1917 of the Zimmerman Telegram, a missive from Germany to Mexico urging it to declare war on the USA and recover its lost territories. The German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman, had sent a coded telegram to the German Ambassador in Mexico offering an alliance against the US, in which Mexico would recover its territories of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. British naval intelligence intercepted and decoded the message and passed it to President Wilson. American shipping bound for Britain had also been attacked by German submarines.
The Germans did not believe that the US could raise and equip an effective army quickly enough to make a difference in Europe, and that even if they did, it could not be transported across a submarine-infested ocean. They seriously underestimated the determination and resources of the US.
Meanwhile this day the King and Queen of England attended a Thanksgiving service at St Pauls Cathedral for the US’s entry into the ‘war for freedom’.
2/4/1917, US President Wilson asked the US Congress to pass a resolution to declare war on Germany.
1/4/1917, Scott Joplin, American composer, died in poverty in an asylum.
9/3/1917, Dante Fascell, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from Florida) was born in Bridgehampton, New York (d. 1998).
8/3/1917. US marines landed in Cuba to help the civil authorities.
7/3/1917. The Dixie Band One-Step was the world’s first jazz record to be released. Ironically it was by the all-white Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
2/3/1917. The US Congress passed the Jones Act, making Puerto Rico a US territory.
26/2/1917. News of the sinking of the Cunard liner Laconia by German U-boats reached capitol Hill just as Congress was debating measures to protect US shipping from the growing menace of U boats in the Atrlantic. Earlier in February 1917 a US ship, the Housatonic was sunk, making a total of 134 neutral ships destroyed by the Germans in the last 3 weeks. The US navy was already mounting patrols to protect its ships in the Atlantic.
20/2/1917, The USA bought the Dutch West Indies.
7/2/1917. All US citizens in Germany were held as hostages.
3/2/1917. The USA broke off relations with Germany.
31/1/1917. Germany announced a policy of unrestricted naval warfare. All ships, passenger or cargo, found by Germans could now be sunk without warning. This was a calculated risk by Germany because it was bound to involve US shipping being sunk, and would therefore bring the USA in against Germany. But Germany reckoned on the inevitability of the USA entering the war against here soon anyway, and believed she could win the war before this happened. The German Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Von Holtzendorff, presented a memo to the Kaiser saying that if 600,000 tons of Allied shipping could be sunk each month, within five months Britain would have to surrender. In fact, in the worst month, April 1917, German U-boats sank 869,103 tons of shipping, 373 ships. The British adopted a convoy system, despite fears that a convoy’s speed was limited to that of the slowest ship. The Navy had feared it had too few destroyers for this job but then realised that it had enough if