100 years ago today, the US officially entered World War I (pictures)

That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming..

Many people have no idea just a large a role WWI plays in todays events.

I am amazingly interested in WWI yet probably know the least about it of all the eats the U.S. Has been in.

Hard to realize it was 100 years ago.

PBS will be premiering a WW1 documentary (part of the American Experience series) on April 10

I see boobs

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Many people have no idea just a large a role WWI plays in todays events

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End of imperialism and formation of many new independent nations, end of monarch rule for several world powers. World would've looked a lot different today.

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I am amazingly interested in WWI yet probably know the least about it of all the eats the U.S. Has been in

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Plan a trip to Kansas City and go to the WWI museum.

It's eye opening seeing the weapons used and just how awful those trenches and trench warfare was.

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PBS will be premiering a WW1 documentary (part of the American Experience series) on April 10

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American Heroes Channel has a pretty good documentary series on it too called Armageddon: WW1. Been out for a while now, but it was pretty interesting and informative to watch.

If it weren't for a nasty case of trench foot that got him evacuated to England, we probably wouldn't know who JRR Tolkien was and the Lord of the Rings would have never been a thing.

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Many people have no idea just a large a role WWI plays in todays events.

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Very much this. WWI basically shaped our entire world that we live in today. No other event since the discovery of the New World has transformed the world as did WWI.

Interesting side note, the declaration of War in Germany happened in 1917. But tension had been high between us and the Germans for almost 20 years. In the late 19th century there were three pretty big confrontations between us and them

(1) the Philippines - Germany briefly thought of taking control there directly following the Spanish-American War. Things got so tense Admiral Dewy at one point was firing warning shots over the bow of German cruisers trying to enter Manila Bay.

(2) Samoa - these islands were divided between Germany, Great Britain, and the US. The Germans wanted full control while GB and the US wanted eventual independence for the Samoans. No warning shots were fired here but again there was a naval standoff.

(4) Venezuela - in 1899 (or there abouts) a dictator by the name of Castro (no relation to Fidel as far as I know) seized power and declared all of Venuzuela's foreign debt was now null and void. This was a problem to Great Britain, Germany, and Italy as all three of these countries were owed a substantial fortune from Venezuela. Both Great Britain and Germany threatened to blockade Venezuelan ports to force them to pay up. However, President Teddy Roosevelt was afraid Germany planed on seizing at least one Venezuelan port and possibly use it to build a naval base and exert control over the still under construction Panama Canal. So, citing the Monroe Doctrine, along with sending Admiral Dewy and a fleet of over 50 warships to the Carribean, Teddy basically told the European powers they'd get paid but there was no way he'd let them exert any military power in the Westen Hemesphere. They blinked but Venezuela did eventually pay up.

And during all these confrontations, things got so bad that the Kiaser had the Imperial Navy and Army draw up plans to bombard New York and even stage an invasion between Boston and New York. He even went so far as to order a timetable in when such an attack could be mounted.

Sources: my brain