The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Lusitania
(looh-suh-TAY-nee-uh) A British passenger ship sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in 1915. Germany, then at war with Britain but not with the United States (seeWorld War I), had warned Americans against traveling on the ship. More than a hundred Americans died in the sinking. The incident worsened relations between Germany and the United States and encouraged American involvement in the war.