This Day In History June 21

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June 21

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Theodore Roosevelt blames Woodrow Wilson for the sinking of Lusitania, killing 1198 people in 1915. Image: Deutsches Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-61-17 / CC-BY-SA 3. Discover more on Day in History.

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June 21, 1915

Wilson wanted to ascertain all the facts; he wanted to reach a determination; he wanted, then and only then, to write the Imperial German government, a sharp letter. He was still gathering information when, on May 7th, another German U-Boat torpedoed and sank the British luxury ocean liner RMS Luisitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. This time Wilson did voice a protest – but that was all. “Americans must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation in the world,” he declared. “There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.” Roosevelt was apoplectic.

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