HOWPRINCIP TRIGGERED WORLD WAR 100 YRS AGO.

IRONICALLY enough, his name was derived from the Archangel Gabriel. A little before noon on June 28, 1914, Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip changed the course of history in Sarajevo while loitering outside Moritz Schiller's cafe. In his waistband was a .38 pistol, a weapon Princip could not use just about an hour ago in a failed bid to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro- Hungarian empire. Six conspirators, armed with grenades and pistols, had lined up the route taken by the Archduke and his wife Sophia on his visit to inaugurate a hospital at the invitation of the governor of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The first conspirator's nerve failed him as the cavalcade approached; the target was in an open car right after the lead vehicle.

The second conspirator threw his grenade. It had a 10- second fuse, and the Archduke's car sped away. The grenade exploded near the fourth car, injuring many.

The other four conspirators, including Princip, fled. One took cyanide; it was old and didn't work. He jumped into the Miljacka river, but it wasn't deep enough to drown him.

A defeated Princip was loitering outside the cafe when the car with the Archduke and Sophia stopped nearby after a mixup in directions soon after their morning escape, the driver stuck in an attempt to reverse. Princip acted; two steps and he was on his target. The first bullet hit the Archduke in the neck, killing him near instantly. As Sophia leaned over her husband, the second bullet entered her abdomen.

Princip was less than 20 and couldn't be given death by the law. He got 20 years, and died in 1918--wracked by tuberculosis, one arm amputated, his weight only 48 kg.

But the world was on fire already.

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Publication:	Mail Today (New Delhi, India)
Date:	Jun 29, 2014
Words:	311
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