(Thursday, January 28, 1915, 9:00 a.m. local time; during World War I) — The American merchant vessel SS William P. Frye, en route to England with a cargo of wheat, became the first U.S. ship to be sunk during World War I (in the South Atlantic Ocean off the Brazilian coast) by a German cruiser, the SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, even though the United States was not at war.