Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Oct. 0, 2024.

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.

On Oct. 29, 1940, a blindfolded Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number — 158 — from a glass bowl in America’s first peacetime military draft.

In September, Congress, under direction from President Franklin Roosevelt, had passed the Selective Training and Service Act. It organized the first peacetime draft in American history. The world was at war with Germany. America practiced isolationism for another year until it was forced into the conflict by Japan with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In all, there were seven mass registration dates for World War II. More than 45 million men registered for the draft and over 10 million men

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