Sinking of the Lusitania
On 7 May 1915, the British Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was struck by a single torpedo from the German submarine U-20 off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. The ship sank in eighteen minutes, killing 1,198 of the 1,962 people on board, including 128 American citizens. Germany had declared the waters around Britain a war zone and had warned that enemy vessels would be sunk, but the speed of the sinking and the civilian death toll caused international outrage. US President Woodrow Wilson sent three increasingly sharp diplomatic protests to Berlin. The German government partially curtailed its unrestricted submarine campaign in the face of American pressure. The sinking became a powerful propaganda tool for Allied recruitment and shaped American public attitudes toward Germany and the war. When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917, the memory of the Lusitania made the American public far more receptive to entering the conflict.
- Year: 1915 CE
- Category: Military
