On July 31st 2015, Dennis Cross published the latest instalment to his Centennial Countdown blog. Here’s his email summary of the posting:
“Friends and Followers: It’s the last day of July, so I’ve just posted the new installment of Centennial Countdown to the Great War, reviewing the events of 100 years ago this month. In July 1915 the first year of the Great War comes to an end, but the end of the war itself is nowhere in sight. A German-American plants a bomb in the U.S. Capitol and tries to assassinate a leading American banker; he appears not to have acted alone. Germany and the United States continue their war of words over submarine attacks on civilian ships. The Wilson administration tries to steer a course between pacifists and preparedness advocates, leaving neither satisfied. In the war it’s mostly a bad month for the Allies, as Russia abandons Warsaw, Italy suffers major losses for little gain against Austria-Hungary, and the month ends much as it began on the Western Front and in Gallipoli. Some Allied successes, however, can be found in Africa and Mesopotamia. In the United States, murder is in the news as New York executes a police lieutenant and an inmate spared the death penalty in Georgia is almost killed by a fellow prisoner. An excursion steamer capsizes in the Chicago River, killing hundreds.”