President Woodrow Wilson signed the Selective Services Act on May 18, 1917, in preparation for U.S. involvement in World War I. The United States had a standing army of just over 100,000 at the time.
The initial act required all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register with the newly created Selective Service System. By the end of World War I in November 1918, roughly 24 million men had registered and 2.8 million were drafted into the armed forces. The draft was dissolved after World War I.
In September 1940, Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act, which imposed the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States.
The registration of men between the ages of 21 and 36 began one month later, as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimsonâa key player in moving the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt away from a foreign policy of neutralityâbegan drawing draft numbers out of a big glass bowl. The draft numbers were handed to the president, who read them aloud for public announcement.
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