Today in history . . .

[indianasmith]

98 years ago today, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne of Austro-Hungary, was assassinated by a Serbian radical.  Six shots from a single revolver killed the Archduke, his wife, and fourteen million men, women, and children from over two dozen different nations, as the train of events set in motion that day triggered the Great War, which we call World War I today. Ancient dynasties were toppled, the map of Europe redrawn, European Christianity suffered a blow from which it has never recovered, and the British Empire, the mightiest nation on earth, entered a decline that in power and influence that lasted for the next forty years. Those who survived called themselves "the Lost Generation."  A single Serbian anarchist, hiding in an alley, was the spark that ignited the world. 

Nothing would ever be the same.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Amazing really... an unknown anarcist kills a relatively minor-league noble who is friend;y with the Keiser, and the world falls to bits. 
I saw an analysis once about how WWI was largely a feud between Queen Victoria's grandchildren.   King George, Keiser Wilhelm, and Tsar Nicholas were all first cousins.  In Applachia, they would be fussina nd feudin...in Europe they change the world.

[Leah]

It was because of a sandwich stop. A sandwich stop caused WWI! That is the most bizarre and awesome reason why WWI started! Oh and Princip wasn't an anarchist, he was part of a group that was trying to stop Austria-Hungary to not take over Serbia.

[indianasmith]

Actually, he would be considered a Serbian nationalist.  He was a member of the Black Hand, a group working to free Serbian territory from Austrian rule (the Habsburgs had controlled all or most of Serbia for several centuries, I believe.)  The Black Hand has been painted as anarchists, nationalists, revolutionaries, and terrorists according to which historian you believe.

[Raffine]

I wonder if Ferdinand and Sophie were the first persons murdered while riding in an automobile.

[ER]

I couldn't help but cringe when The Onion did a wicked follow-up to this in Our Dumb Century that had the  Eurotrash Archduke reappearing in November 1918, having faked his death in Sarajevo four years earlier, totally unconcerned that he'd caused a war just so he could get away from the pressures of court life and play with his toy trains or whatever.


PS You guys ever read about what happened to the people who owned the car after that day?

thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/haunted35.html

[indianasmith]

I've read the condensed version, but that car had one unlucky history, as I recall!

[Mofo Rising]

Black humor and about as irresponsible as you can get, but anybody who teaches young people knows how hard it is to convince them that they can make a change in the world.

Gavrilo Princip was 19 years old when he assassinated Franz Ferdinand. Single-handedly changed the course of human history. Not for the better, but he made his mark.

[indianasmith]

Very true!

[Raffine]

Black humor and about as irresponsible as you can get, but anybody who teaches young people knows how hard it is to convince them that they can make a change in the world.

Gavrilo Princip was 19 years old when he assassinated Franz Ferdinand. Single-handedly changed the course of human history. Not for the better, but he made his mark.

A musical response from Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, featuring Neil Patrick Harris as Lee Harvey Oswald:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7XRg8scL7o

[indianasmith]

Wow.  That was . . . . interesting!

[Raffine]

Wow.  That was . . . . interesting!

to satisfy your historical and musical curiosity, the characters are, in order of appearance:

John Wilkes Booth, Leon Czolgosz, Sarah Jane Moore, Charles Guiteau, Giuseppe Zangara, Samuel Byck, John Hinkley, Jr, Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, and Oswald.

Sirhan Sirhan, James Earl Ray, and Arthur Bremer have cameos.