Infamy

On June 28 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian empire, was murdered in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

I refer those among you who are interested in the really dramatic circumstances which followed and led to the outbreak of world war I, to "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman.

On August 1 Germany declared war on Russia ; on August 3 Germany declared war on France.

On August 4, a day of infamy, Germany invaded neutral Belgium, and as a consequence, Great Britain declared war on Germany. US President Woodrow Wilson declared policy of US neutrality.

One of the most monstruous of slaughterhouses in human history was opened. Over the following four years, millions of promising young lives were snuffed out through the criminal stupidity of their leaders, and the seeds of the second world war were sown.

And all that because a none too smart archduke had been murdered by an overheated Serbian nationalist.