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President Woodrow Wilson addressed a Joint Session of Congress on April 2, 1917, to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. Debate lasted for several days, ending on April 6 in a 373-50 vote to enter the war. Jeannette Rankin, sworn in as the first woman in Congress just four days earlier, voted against intervening in the war, stating, “I want to stand by my country—but I cannot vote for war.”
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Declaration of War Against Germany,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/PA2011/PA2011-07-0016/ (May 27, 2022)
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