100 Years ago, Today · 8:33pm Jul 28th, 2014
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, marking the start of World War I. Both side's allies quickly intervened, and within a month the continent was engulfed in the cataclysm. 17 million lives were lost before it ended, four years later. Even more disastrous proved the peace that followed - the humiliated, desperate Germany would launch World War II, furthering the death toll by 60 million.
"So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, 'My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?'
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half'd the seed of Europe, one by one."
-The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, by Wilfred Owen
