World War I

World War I. , The war began between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, on June 28, 1914, when Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were murdered by a Bosnian slav. A number of Serbian government officials were also involved in the plot. This set in motion a system of alliances that the rival nations had been creating for years against such an event. Within a week of the assassinations, all Europe was at war. , On May 7, 1915, a British passenger ship, Lusitania was sunk by the Germans off the coast of Ireland. 1,134 lives were lost, including 114 Americans. Soon after his inauguration for his second term, president Woodrow Wilson called a special session of congress and stated that the aim of the U.S. in entering the war was "to make the world safe for democracy." , The selective service act of 1917 drafted the staggering total of 4,800,000 American men into military service. Over 65,000,000 men were mobilized for the armies and navies of both sides. The war cost the lives of more than 8,000,000 men, with the United States losing 116,516 in little more than one year of action.