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Today in history: Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated, which sparks WWI

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Share your family's memories. Tell us the war stories of the WWI veterans in your family as well as the tales of those left at home

Ninety-nine years ago today, on 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated, sparking a chain of events that led to World War I in early August of the same year. It is estimated that 65m men were mobilized to fight in the bloody battle that lasted more than four years, and and many of those who served didn't make it out alive.

Five years later on 28 June 1919 – today's other anniversary – Germany and the Allied Powers signed the famous Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of the Great War.

Did anyone in your family serve in WWI? Did your grandfathers or great-grandfathers march into battle? Did your grandmothers or great-grandmothers hold down the fort at home or did they pick up the trades their husbands had left behind? How did the First World War change their lives – did they tell you their stories when you were growing up?

Share your personal memories of the stories the WWI veterans in your family told you. Tell us what they did, which countries they fought for and what kind of legacies they left behind.


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