August 4, 2014

Some 50 heads of state and various royals—including King Philippe of Belgium and Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge of the United Kingdom—gathered in Liege, Belgium, today to mark the 100th anniversary of the German invasion of Belgium in World War I (1914-1918). In Glasgow, Scotland, Prince Charles and British Prime Minister David Cameron attended a ceremony observing the United Kingdom’s entry in the war. In London, 888,246 ceramic poppies have been placed in the dry moat at the Tower of London, one for each soldier who died fighting for the United Kingdom in the war. The total includes soldiers from the then British Empire, including Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, far right, was shot to death on June 28, 1914, shortly after this photo was taken. His assassination triggered the outbreak of World War I (UPI/Bettman Newsphotos).

The war was triggered by the assassination—by a Serbian nationalist—of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo, Serbia, on June 28, 1914. World War I officially began on August 3, 1914, when Germany declared war on France. The “war to end all wars” failed to live up to that promise but did, quite literally, reshape the modern political world: it destroyed the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires; brought down Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; left much of Europe prostrate; and made the United States recognized as a world power.  About 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians died in the war. (A 1918-1919 flu epidemic, directly related to the war, left many more millions dead.) Just 21 years later, Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War II (1939-1945).

Additional World Book articles:

• Influenza: A New Threat from an Old Foe (a special report)
• A Mirror on the Turn of the Century (a special report)
• Albert Schweitzer Speaks Out (a historic special report by the famous philosopher, physician, missionary, and writer on theology)