When La Rondine premieres in 1917:

• German saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland, NJ (now Lyndhurst, NJ), one of the events leading to U.S. involvement in World War I.
• Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.
• World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
• The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
• World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.
• The constitution of Mexico is adopted.
• The first International Women's Day is observed in Russia.
• 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 the American Southwest back to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.
• The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson begins his second term.
• Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.
• World War I: The United States declares war on Germany.
• Three peasant children claim to see the Virgin Mary above a Holm Oak tree in Cova da Iria near Fátima, Portugal.
• World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.
• Why Marry?, the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.