Thursday, April 6 — On this date one century ago, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany, thus joining the world war that began in August 1914. Involving 15 nations and empires, the conflict saw 65 million men under arms, including 4.3 million Americans. When the conflagration ended in 1918, and the Ottoman, Russian, Austria-Hungarian and German empires had fallen. More than 10 million combatants had been killed out of some 37.5 million casualties. The last American veteran of the so-called Great War, Corporal Frank Buckles, died just over six years ago, age 110 at the time. But there remain just under 19 million living veterans in the U.S., including a bit over 9,500 from the years before World War II.
Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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