Bosnia marks the day 100 years ago when two shots changed course of history
Bosnia marks the day when two shots changed the course of history
Artists and diplomats have declared a new century of peace and unity in Europe in the city where the first two shots of the first world war were fired 100 years ago.
On June 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian crown prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, where he had come to inspect his occupying troops in the empire's eastern province.
The shots fired by Serb teenager Gavrilo Princip sparked the Great War, which was followed decades later by a second world conflict.
Europeans have learnt that no problem can be solved by war
Together the two wars cost 80 million European their lives, ended four empires - including the Austro-Hungarian - and changed the world forever.
A century later, Sarajevans again crowded the same street along the river where Princip fired his shots. And the Austrians were also back, this time with music instead of military: The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performed works of European composers reflecting the catastrophic events and concluded with a symbol of unity in Europe - Beethoven's Ode of Joy.
The continent's violent century started in Sarajevo and ended there with the 1992-95 war that took 100,000 Bosnian lives.