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April 28, 2008
Extracts from: A Brief History of the Balkans
This, according to some, is the most influential man in the 20th century:
Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand Gang, who, on the afternoon of June 28, 1914, sprang from a side street in Sarajevo, with the safety catch of his 9mm FN semi-automatic, blow-back, pistol in the off position.
On the road, touring the area, was Archduke Franz Ferdinand Karl Giuermo Anikň Strezpek Belschwitz Mňric Pinche Bálint Szilveszter Gömpi Maurice Bzoch János Frajkor Ludwig van Haverbeke Josef von Habsburg-Lothringen, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, with his wife, Sophie.
Gavrilo fired two shots. One hit Sophie, the other hit the Archduke. Apparently the Archduke’s aides couldn’t get to the wound because the Archduke had been sewn into his jacket to make him look thinner. Both the Archduke and Sophie died in the next few minutes.
Your man, Gavrilo’s, actions were the catalyst that sparked off the First World War, and therefore by association the Second World War, and so the Cold War and a lot of the trouble in the Middle East. Not bad for a hot-headed twenty year old.
Posted by john at April 28, 2008 02:32 PM