KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Foreign dignitaries from around the world are converging on Kansas City, Missouri, and its towering World War I monument to observe the 100th anniversary of the day the U.S. entered “The Great War.”

A sellout crowd of 3,000 onlookers also snapped up tickets for the daylong observance Thursday titled, “In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace.”

The event on the grounds of the Liberty Memorial — the nation’s official WWI monument — will feature patriotic music, speeches and readings from the time America declared war on Germany.

As president and CEO of the city’s National World War I Museum and Memorial, Matt Naylor says Thursday’s event that’s been years in the making “is commemorating, not celebrating” the day the U.S. was drawn into war.