1917. Society (1)

Society

1917. The German High Command resumes unrestricted U-boat attacks despite the probability that such attacks will bring the U.S. into the European war.

1917. Berlin notifies Washington January 31 that unrestricted submarine warfare will begin the next day.

1917. Eleven U.S. senators conduct a filibuster to block arming of U.S. merchant ships running the gauntlet of German U-boats.

1917. V.I. Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders arrive at Petrograd in April. The German high command has sent them by sealed railroad carriage from Switzerland across Germany in a calculated move to undermine the pro-Ally Russian provisional government.

1917. The United States declares war on Germany April 6.

1917. The Jones Act passed by Congress March 2 makes Puerto Rico a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens.

1917. The Danish West Indies which include the Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John with 26,000 inhabitants become a U.S. territory March 31 upon Senate ratification of a treaty giving Denmark $25 million for the 132 square miles of land involved.

To be continued.