Staunton Star - Times - Published in the Interest of the Staunton Community for Over 143 Years

It was called the “Great War” and the “war to end all wars.” Unfortunately for mankind, there

were even greater, and more deadly, wars to come.

Though overshadowed by the Second World War today, the effects of the first world conflict defined the remainder of the twentieth century.

The war ostensibly began when Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by a 19-year-old Serbian liberator named Gavrilo Princip.

The killing sparked a firestorm of diplomatic tensions between most European powers. Though Princip’s shot was the catalyst, the...