In Focus

Yale remembers World War I

On a warm August evening in the city of Liege in 1914, German forces opened fire on a Belgian fortification — the opening salvo of what is now known as the First World War.

The world had never seen death and destruction on such a scale. More than 16 million troops and civilians died; 20 million more were wounded.

In 1917, America entered the conflict, an event that many experts say marked a turning point in the war and signaled the entry of the United States onto the world stage.

For the centennial of the United States’ entry into the war in 2014, the university hosted talks, exhibits, and other events exploring how Yale faculty, staff, alumni, and students have helped shape American foreign and military policy in the last century. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the war’s end on Nov. 11 — Armistice Day around the globe and Veterans Day in the U.S. — YaleNews is revisiting these stories and others here.

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Kimberly Goff-Crews, Paul Kennedy, Thomas J. Opladen ’66, Janet Lindner, and Peter Salovey at a Veterans Day ceremony.

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Yale honors veterans, marks 100th anniversary of WWI armistice

The Yale Alumni War Memorial with a wreath laid at the base.

Yale’s Veterans Day events to mark centennial of the end of World War I

The Yale Concert Band performing at Woolsey Hall.

V-Day concert to celebrate centennials of both The Armistice and Yale Bands

Poems by Siegfried Sassoon and Owen Johnson in a display case.

Beinecke displays World War I writings by Siegfried Sassoon, Owen Johnson

Yale law professor on ‘Lincoln’s Code’ and the laws of war

2017: Remembering when America — and Yale — went to war

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Yale Goes to War: Answering the call

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Yale Goes to War: The First Yale Unit

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Yale Goes to War: Profiles in aviation

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Yale Goes to War: Helen Hagan

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Yale Goes to War: The history of ‘The Yale Unit,’ Mobile Hospital No. 39

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Yale Goes to War: Profiles in medicine

President Woodrow Wilson, left, and Col. Edward M. House, who was Wilson’s confidant and adviser on foreign affairs.

Archive provides vivid picture of American entry into WWI

titleThe men and women of Yale Mobile Hospital Unit 39

Exhibit highlights Yale Medicine’s role in WWI

Events emphasize Yale’s military history ahead of WWI anniversary

2014: Commemorating the start of The Great War

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Yale collections are time capsules of the people and politics of WWI

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Archivist Judith Schiff on honoring Yale’s fallen

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Judith Schiff on chronicling “The Great War” in Yale’s collections

In Conversation

War is a Pandora’s box: Historian Jay Winter on the conflict’s centennial

In Conversation

David Bromwich on the great poetry of World War I

Defending Allied skies: Yale’s pioneering pilots form first aviation unit

Campus & Community

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