Events from the year 1917 in the United States

Incumbents Federal government President: Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey) Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana) Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (Louisiana) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri) Congress: 64th (until March 4), 65th (starting March 4)

State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors

Lieutenant governors

Events January–March

January 1 – The University of Oregon defeats the University of Pennsylvania 14–0 in college football's 3rd Annual Rose Bowl. January 10 – The Silent Sentinels begin their protest in favor of women's suffrage in front of the White House. January 11 – German saboteurs set off the Kingsland explosion at Kingsland, New Jersey (modern-day Lyndhurst), one of the events leading to U.S. involvement in World War I. January 22 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million and become the United States Virgin Islands. An anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco attracts huge crowds to public meetings. At one meeting attended by 7,000 people, 20,000 are kept out for lack of room. In a conference with Rev. Paul Smith, an outspoken foe of prostitution, 300 prostitutes make a plea for toleration, explaining they had been forced into the practice by poverty. When Smith asks if they will take other work at $8 to $10 a week, the ladies laugh derisively, which loses them public sympathy. The police close about 200 houses of prostitution shortly thereafter. January 28 – The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa. January 30 – Pershing's troops in Mexico begin withdrawing back to the United States. They reach Columbus, New Mexico February 5. February 3 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany. February 5 Congress and Senate override a veto by President Woodrow Wilson to reinstate the Immigration Act of 1917, which allows more restrictions on immigration to the U.S., including the wholesale ban of people from much of Asia. The U.S. Army force under command of John J. Pershing reached Columbus, New Mexico, ending the Pancho Villa Expedition. February 17 – New York City Food Riot of 1917 February 24 – World War I: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, Walter H. Page, is shown the intercepted Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico back to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States. March 1 – The U.S. government releases the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public. March 2 – The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship. March 4 President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas R. Marshall begin their second terms. Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives. March 7 – "Livery Stable Blues", recorded with "Dixie Jazz Band One Step" on February 26 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, becomes the first jazz recording commercially released. On August 17 the band records "Tiger Rag". March 8 – The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters. March 26 – The Seattle Metropolitans become the first team based in the United States to win the Stanley Cup. March 31 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies, which become the US Virgin Islands, after paying $25 million to Denmark.

April–June April 2 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. April 6 – World War I: Congress passes a resolution declaring war on Germany that is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson that day. April 10 – Eddystone explosion: an explosion at an ammunition plant near Chester, Pennsylvania, kills 139, mostly female workers. April 27 – Hastings mine explosion: an explosion in a coal mine in Colorado kills 121. May 18 – World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the U.S. Congress, giving the president the power of conscription. April 19 – World War I: Army transport fires the U.S.'s first shots in anger in the war when her gun crew drives off a German U-boat in the English Channel. May 21 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 destroys over 300 acres (73 blocks). May 26 – A tornado strikes Mattoon, Illinois, causing devastation and killing 101 people. June 4 – The very first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert Bayard Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World. June 5 – World War I: Conscription in the United States begins. June 8 – Speculator Mine disaster: a fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator ore mine outside Butte, Montana kills 168 workers. June 13 – Phillips Petroleum Company incorporated in Oklahoma. June 15 – The U.S. enacts the Espionage Act, effectively suppressing dissent about U.S. entry in World War I.

July–September July 1–3 – East St. Louis massacre: A labor dispute ignites a race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, which leaves 250 dead. July 12 – The Phelps Dodge Corporation deports over 1,000 suspected IWW members from Bisbee, Arizona. July 28 – The Silent Parade is organized by the NAACP in New York to protest the East St. Louis massacre of early July, as well as lynchings in Texas and Tennessee. August The Green Corn Rebellion, an uprising by several hundred farmers against the World War I draft, takes place in central Oklahoma. The Messenger, a political and literary magazine by and for African-Americans, begins publication in New York City. August 3 – The New York Guard is founded. August 23 – Following the detention of an African American soldier, 150 soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment march on Houston in what would be called the Houston Riot; four soldiers and 15 civilians die and, following courts-martial, 19 soldiers are hanged.

October–December October 12 – The first regiment is stationed at the newly commissioned Naval Operating Base in Norfolk, VA. October 19 – Dallas Love Field opens as an airfield in Texas. November 7 – Women's suffrage in the United States: Women win the right to vote in New York State. November 14 – Night of Terror: The superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia orders the guards to brutalize the suffragist inmates. November 17 – Action of 17 November 1917: United States Navy destroyers USS Fanning and USS Nicholson capture Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-58 off the south-west coast of Ireland, the first combat action in which U.S. ships take a submarine (which is then scuttled). November 24 – In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most fatal single event in U.S. police history until the September 11, 2001 attacks. December 1–31 – A severe cold wave in Interior Alaska produces the coldest recorded mean monthly temperatures in the United States. Fort Yukon averages and Eagle .Day, Preston C.; ‘Extreme Cold in the Yukon Region’; in ‘The Cold Winter of 1917-18’; Monthly Weather Review; 46(12), pp. 571-572 December 6 – U.S. Navy destroyer is torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean south west of the British Isles by German submarine , killing 66 crew in the first significant American naval loss of the war, the first ever U.S. destroyer loss to an enemy. December 7 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. December 20 – Shepherdsville train wreck kills 49 and injuries 52 people. It becomes the deadliest train wreck in Kentucky history. December 25 – Why Marry?, the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City. December 26 – United States president Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, with the aim of transporting troops and materials for the war effort more efficiently.

Undated George Drumm writes the concert march "Hail, America" in New York City. The calendar year is the coolest averaged over the contiguous United States in mean temperature (average of against a long-term average of )Contiguous U.S. Average Temperature, January to December and minimum temperature ( against a long-term average of ).Contiguous U.S. Minimum Temperature, January to December it is also the second-driest with a coast-to-coast average precipitation of against a long-term mean of .Contiguous US Precipitation, January to December

Ongoing Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–34) U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916-1924) Pancho Villa Expedition (1916–17) World War I, U.S. involvement (1917–18) First Red Scare (1917–20)

Births

January–February January 1 Shannon Bolin, actress and singer (died 2016) Albin F. Irzyk, Brigadier General (died 2018) January 3 Roger W. Straus, Jr., publisher (died 2004) Jesse White, actor (died 1997) January 5 Francis L. Kellogg, diplomat and socialite (died 2006) Jane Wyman, film actress and philanthropist (died 2007) January 10 – Jerry Wexler, record producer (died 2008) January 11 – Henry Morgenthau III, author and television producer (died 2018) January 12 – Jimmy Skinner, ice hockey coach (Detroit Red Wings) (died 2007) January 16 – Carl Karcher, businessman, founder of the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain (died 2008) January 22 – Michael Elkins, broadcaster and journalist (died 2001) January 24 – Ernest Borgnine, film actor (died 2012) January 26 William Verity Jr., politician (died 2007) Louis Zamperini, American prisoner of war (World War II), Olympic distance athlete (1936), and Christian evangelist (died 2014) January 29 John Raitt, actor and singer (died 2005) David Rubitsky, U.S. Army sergeant (died 2013) February 6 – Arnold Spielberg, electrical engineer and father of Steven Spielberg (died 2020) February 11 – Sidney Sheldon, author and television writer (died 2007) February 12 – Dom DiMaggio, baseball player (died 2009) February 14 – Herbert A. Hauptman, mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985 (died 2011) February 15 – Meg Wyllie, actress (died 2002) February 19 – Carson McCullers, author (died 1967) February 20 Manny Farber, painter and film critic (died 2008) Wilma Vinsant, flight nurse who served during WWII (died 1945) February 22 – Reed Crandall, illustrator (died 1982) February 25 – Brenda Joyce, film actress (died 2009) February 26 – Robert Taft Jr., American politician (died 1993) February 27 – John Connally, Governor of Texas from 1963 to 1969 (died 1993) February 28 – Bentley Kassal, attorney (died 2019)

March–April March 1 – Robert Lowell, poet (died 1997) March 4 – Clyde McCullough, baseball catcher (died 1982) March 8 – George H. Gay Jr., United States Navy officer (died 1994) March 10 – Edith Iglauer, writer (died 2019) March 11 – James Megellas, United States Army officer (died 2020) March 12 – Milton Resnick, painter (died 2004) March 19 – Peggy Ahern, actress (died 2012) March 21 – Anton Coppola, orchestra conductor and composer (died 2020) March 23 – Kenneth Tobey, actor (died 2002) March 26 – Rufus Thomas, African American R&B singer (died 2001) March 27 – Cyrus Vance, U.S. Secretary of State from 1977 to 1980 (died 2002) March 29 – Man o' War, racehorse (died 1947) April 1 Sheldon Mayer, author and illustrator (died 1991) Leon Janney, actor (died 1980) April 2 – Dabbs Greer, actor (died 2007) April 5 – Robert Bloch, author (died 1994) April 7 – R. G. Armstrong, Western film character actor (died 2012)