People in the News

• Joseph Glidden was a farmer who patented barbed wire in 1874. Barbed wire covered the battlefields of World War I. During World War I, both sides laid barbed wire in front of trenches to slow enemy attacks. The wire was so effective at stopping troops that it gave defenders a great advantage in the war.
• John J. "Blackjack" Pershing was promoted to General of the Armies during World War I, the highest rank ever held in the United States Army. With nearly two million men under his command, Pershing was responsible for more troops than any commander in American history. Furthermore, he helped keep American forces independent, despite repeated European requests to put American troops under foreign command. Pershing's soldiers helped turn the tide of World War I to the Allies, and his refusal to allow American soldiers to enter the line before they were fully trained was credited with saving countless lives.
• Gavrilo Princip was a Serbian member of the Black Hand, a terrosist group that served as a catalyst for World War I when he assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The murder started a chain reaction that led to the beginning of World War One. Princip seized his opportunity when a wrong turn forced Ferdinand's car to stall right in front of him. Princip then shot the Archduke and his wife, Sophie, killing them both. At only nineteen years old, he was too young to face the death penalty and was sentenced instead to the maximum penalty, twenty years in prison and later died of tuberculosis.