ONE MINUTE HISTORY - May 7, 2023

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Incitatus Ch.

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Published on May 8, 2023 1:30:16 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nUivewzJI

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On this day, a maritime disaster brought a previously neutral nation much closer to war. On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania was sunk as part of Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare campaign against Britain during World War One. Six days earlier, the Lusitania had left New York with a large amount of ammunition for the British war effort and 1,962 people aboard. This number included 139 American citizens who had ignored a warning from the German embassy that the Lusitania would be targeted by German submarines. On May 7th, the German U-boat U-20 encountered the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland and sunk it with a single torpedo. Nearly 1,200 people lost their lives, causing American public opinion to turn heavily against Germany, and making it much easier for America to abandon neutrality and enter the war two years later.