On May 31st 2015, Dennis Cross published the latest instalment to his Centennial Countdown blog. Here’s his email summary of the posting:
“As the month begins, the Lusitania sets sail from the west side of Manhattan on its regular transatlantic voyage to Liverpool. Six days later, as it passes along the south coast of Ireland, it is torpedoed by a German submarine. It sinks in minutes, killing over a thousand passengers and crew, including 128 Americans. In President Wilson’s first public statement after the sinking, he suggests America might be “too proud to fight,” but a rupture in diplomatic relations seems possible. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, in the midst of defending himself in a libel suit, tells reporters the United States must take action in defense of “humanity” and “our own national self-respect.” Meanwhile the war goes on. On the Eastern Front a combined Austrian-German offensive pushes the Russians back in the Carpathians, while on the Western Front coordinated British and French offensives in the vicinity of Artois fail to achieve any measurable success. Stalemate also threatens the armies on the Gallipoli Peninsula, as Turkish and German naval forces demonstrate the vulnerability of the Allied fleet offshore. A political crisis in Great Britain brings a new coalition government and the demotion of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. Italy joins the war and invades Austria-Hungary. The Allies serve notice that members of the Ottoman government will be held “personally responsible” for the ongoing massacre of Armenians. John McCrae writes a poem about the poppies growing “In Flanders Fields.” In the United States a new speed record is set at the Indianapolis 500, Thomas Edison invents a machine for recording telephone conversations, and a New York City Police Lieutenant’s fate appears sealed when his murder conviction is affirmed on appeal.”
The blog can be read here.