1915
Lusitania Sinks
On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania
is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of
Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959
passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The
attack aroused considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany
defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack
all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson
pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of
Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America’s closest trading
partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the
latter’s attempted quarantine of the British isles. Several U.S. ships
traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915
Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Britain.
In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a
warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British
or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. The announcement was
placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent sailing of the Lusitania
liner from New York back to Liverpool. The sinkings of merchant ships off the
south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania
to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse
U-boats plotting the vessel’s course. The captain of the Lusitania
ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7 the 32,000-ton ship
was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was
followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers, and the ship
sunk in 20 minutes.
It was revealed that the Lusitania was carrying about 173
tons of war munitions for Britain, which the Germans cited as further
justification for the attack. The United States eventually sent three notes to
Berlin protesting the action, and Germany apologized and pledged to end
unrestricted submarine warfare. In November, however, a U-boat sunk an Italian
liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public
opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany.
On January 31, 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of
attrition against the Allies, announced that it would resume unrestricted
warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke
diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner
Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed
a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States
ready for war. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and
on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a
declaration of war against Germany. On April 4, the Senate voted to declare war
against Germany, and two days later the House of Representatives endorsed the
declaration. With that, America entered World War I.
Bonus Story
1901
Gary Cooper Born
On this day in 1901, Gary Cooper, who will become famous for his
performances in such movies as High Noon and The Pride of the
Yankees, is born in Helena, Montana.
Cooper grew up on the ranch owned by his wealthy father, a
Montana Supreme Court Justice. He was educated largely in England through high
school, and the diverse experiences of his upbringing later informed his screen
persona, at once rugged frontier hero and blue-blooded gentleman. In 1924,
after dropping out of college, Cooper headed to Hollywood, where he got his
start in movies as a cowboy extra in a Western film. He landed his first
starring role two years later, in the silent film The Winning of Barbara
Worth. His first successful “talkie,” The Virginian (1929), elevated
Cooper to A-list status, and he went on to appear in a number of films in the
1930s, including Morocco (1930), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Design
for Living (1933), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), Desire
(1936), The Plainsman (1937), Beau Geste (1939) and The
Westerner (1940).
Cooper and his notably understated, laconic acting style won
special notice as the unlikely everyman hero in two films directed by Frank
Capra: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), for which he received an Academy
Award nomination, and Meet John Doe (1941). Also in 1941, Cooper won the
Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the real-life World War I hero Alvin
York in Sergeant York. He turned in another acclaimed performance as the
baseball legend Lou Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees (1942). Cooper’s
other notable 1940s films included Ball of Fire (1941), For Whom the
Bell Tolls (1943) and The Fountainhead (1949).
In 1947, Cooper appeared as a “friendly” witness before the
House Un-American Activities Committee, testifying as to the existence of a
Communist influence in Hollywood. According to Cooper, he had “turned down
quite a few scripts because I thought they were tinged with communistic ideas.”
Despite his indirect participation in the hated blacklisting practice that
followed, Cooper retained his status as one of Hollywood’s most revered leading
men. He won his second Best Actor Oscar as an aging lawman in the classic High
Noon (1952). Among his last films were Friendly Persuasion (1956)
and Love in the Afternoon (1957).
In all, Cooper made more than 100 films over the course of his
career. Married to the socialite Veronica Balfe (who had a short-lived acting
career as Sandra Shaw) since 1933, Cooper was also known for his many romances
with co-stars, including Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and Patricia
Neal. Late in his life, Cooper suffered from recurring illnesses, including
lung cancer. Though he kept the information secret, the public got a hint in
April 1961, when Jimmy Stewart made an emotional speech while accepting a
lifetime achievement Academy Award for his ailing friend. Cooper died a month
later, days after his 60th birthday.