June 23, 2004

Gun used to start WWI found

The gun used by Gavrilo Princip to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand thus sparking the Great War (WWI) has been found.

The Browning pistol that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked World War I has been located in a Jesuit house in Austria, The Telegraph said Tuesday.

The gun was last fired June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo by a Belgrade university student named Gavrilo Princip, who killed Ferdinand and his wife with seven shots.

Anton Puntigam, a Jesuit priest who was at the scene gave the couple last rites, and made it known he would one day open a museum in memory of the archduke.

Read the whole story here.

June 28 marks the 90th anniversary of the act that started the Great War. It's an event that changed our world forever...effectively marking the beginning of the modern era of both politics and warfare. We still feel the effects of that war today.

I highly recommend that you read The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. It's a very interesting book that lays out the political and military ideals that led up to the Great War. It then covers the first month of the war right up until stalemate is reached and miserable trench warfare becomes the order of the day. Even if you aren't interested in World War I history, you will still find this book a good read.

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