ASSASSINATION OF ARCHDUKE FERDINAND -- 100th Anniversary

Today is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary,  by Serbian Gavrilo Principe. Many say this act triggered events that lead to the beginning of the "Great War."

According to Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post, article entitled “The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the drumbeats of war” today, June 28, 2014, “What happened next, as Winston Churchill put it, was a ‘drama never surpassed.’ Ferdinand's death presented leading statesmen in Europe's great powers both a crisis and an opportunity and led to a dizzying series of diplomatic maneuvers, secret negotiations and political escalations that underlay the explosive opening of World War I. A web of alliances between Europe's competing empires -- a 'concert' -- led to Russia coming in on the side of the Serbs, Germany countering Russia, and Britain, France and the waning Ottoman Empire also entering the fray.”

For the past several weeks I have restarted my effort to learn the history of World War I so that I can write the story of Private Russell Archie Harvey, my grand uncle.