World War I. This paper discusses World War I. In 1914 the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Ferdinand provided the spark that would ignite World War I. It was nearly a year later on May 7, 1915 that a German submarine shot and sank the British luxury liner Lusitania. There were 1,959 passengers on board, 197 of them were American and 128 of those Americans lost their lives. Such was the event that marked the United States involvement in World War I. Des Hickey and Gus Smith detail the events leading up to and following that fateful day in their insightful book, Seven Days to Disaster: The Sinking of the Lusitania. Pages: 4 Bibliography: 1 source(s) listed Filename: 525 World War I.doc Price: 35.80