A hundred years ago, the front page of the New York Sun of July 24, 1914 reported that the Panama Canal was scheduled to open on August 15 to vessels drawing less than thirty feet. It reported that the Canadian government’s upgrades to the Cape Race wireless station would double its range to 500 miles, making it the first point of communication with ships sailing to North America.

And it also reported the Austrian government’s July 23 ultimatum to Serbia (then usually spelled Servia) in the wake of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  Another report in the same paper states that Germany and Italy support the Austro-Hungarian action, and that many believed that war was inevitable.

Europe was now days away from war.

Samuel J. Woolf, First Aid Station at Seicheprey, oil, 1919 at Google Books