1 August 1914 – 9 Av 5674
Germany declared war on Russia, and marking the transition of Austria-Hungary’s war with Serbia from a regional to a world conflict – the First World War. The chain of events leading up to the outbreak of war had started a month earlier, with the assassination of Grand Duke Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo on June 28 (4 Tammuz). By July 28, Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia, but only Germany’s declaration of aggression, first against Russia, and two days later, against France, triggered the complex system of alliances and mutual defense pacts that drew the European powers, and their empires, into the universal slaughter that would ensue.