EUROPE: One Morning in Bosnia

The date was June 28, 1914, a memorable day, 25 years ago this week. It was the 550th anniversary, of the battle of Kossovo ("the Field of Blackbirds") in which the Serbs lost their independence to the Turks. It was the day which Franz Ferdinand—Archduke of Austria-Este, Heir Apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne—and his good Czech wife, Sophie, chose to visit Sarajevo, and it was the day when the trigger was pulled which set off World War I.

Franz Ferdinand was a barrel-chested, walrus-mustached man of 51, unusually able and liberal by...