US president Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany, 2 April 1917. Image courtesy The Library of Congress.
- Edgar George Clarke is killed in action in France
- The Millthorpe Druids Lodge holds a musical and social evening to unveil their members’ Roll of Honour
- The Win The War League urges the sportsmen of the Central West to join “the greatest happening in history…to come with us, and play the game tor your country on the battlefield” in the Sportsmen’s Reinforcement Unit. An Open Letter Which All Should Read
- Private Joergen Christian Jensen of the AIF 50th Battalion wins the Victoria Cross at Noreuil in France
- British troops on the Western Front advance west and north of St Quentin capturing nine villages
- US president Woodrow Wilson appeals to Congress that a declaration of war be made against Germany. Making the World “Safe for Democracy”: Woodrow Wilson Asks for War
It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.
To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.
