![]() ![]() The 30-year-old native of Manchester, Connecticut wasn’t there to harm the president, but rather to sell the commander-in-chief on the merits of his new-fangled Spencer repeater. 18, 1863, an inventor named Christopher Spencer arrived at the White House and marched right into Abraham Lincoln’s office carrying a rifle and a fist full of ammunition. Both weapons were reportedly donated to the museum by the general’s grandson. The Colt is currently exhibited along with the general’s trusty back up gun, a. Patton spent a few extra bucks having an ivory handle custom-made with his initials “G.S.P.” engraved on it. 45 caliber Colt Model 1873 revolver, in 1916 for the then-considerable sum of $50 ( about a third of his monthly salary at the time). Today, that very same sidearm is on display at the General George Patton Museum and Center of Leadership in Fort Knox, Kentucky. “Only a pimp in a New Orleans whorehouse or a tin-horn gambler would carry a pearl-handled pistol,” he once told the press. But one thing that supposedly really set him off was when people described his storied six-shooter as a “pearl-handled” revolver. In fact, the general’s short fuse famously got the better of him on several occasions. Patton was well known for his fiery temper. In 2008, it was temporarily loaned to the Imperial War Museum in London. The pistol went on exhibit with the Archduke’s car and his bloodstained tunic. The late clergyman left the historic cache to his monastery.ĭecades later, the order’s own Austrian archivist unearthed the artifacts and handed them over to the Vienna Military Museum, just in time for the 90 th anniversary of the First World War. He before he could make good on the pledge. Puntigam hoped to build a museum devoted to the Austrian prince one day and display the objects there. His notorious handgun, along with a number of items from Ferdinand and Sophie’s car, was given to Anton Puntigam, the priest that administered the last rites to the dying couple. The sickly Princip died in prison of tuberculosis in April of 1918. The resulting conflict would snuff out 20 million lives before its conclusion. Within a month, all of the major powers of Europe would be on the march. France stood by Russia and Berlin ordered its army to prepare for all out war. Russia leapt to the defence of its Balkan ally, while Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II pledged his unwavering support to the leaders in Vienna. In the days that followed the shooting, Austria Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination and mobilized to invade its smaller neighbour. Ironically, the teenaged killer was spared a death sentence since he was considered too young, yet millions of others would die as a result of his actions. Princip, a member of the secret pro-Serb terrorist organization The Black Hand, was arrested on the spot. ![]() The royal couple bled out en route to the hospital. ![]() ![]() One of the bullets struck the prince in the neck severing his jugular vein the other tore into the duchess’ abdomen. Princip was standing less than five feet away from his victims when he pulled the trigger. The pistol that started World War One - Gavrilo Princip’s FN 1910.Ī 19-year-old Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip fired two rounds from the small six-shot Belgian-made FN Model 1910 handgun directly at the Austrian crown prince and Duchess Sophie as their motorcade passed through the streets of Sarajevo that fateful day. Interestingly, the infamous 9 mm Browning pistol used to murder the Archduke and his wife Sophie was long thought to have been lost to the ages, that is until it turned up in a Jesuit monastery in Austria in 2004. But the phrase also works to describe the assassination of the Austrian Hungarian crown prince, Franz Ferdinand on Jthe event that triggered the First World War. #16 – The Gun that Killed 20 Million PeopleĪmericans may tell you that the so called “ shot heard round the world“, as referenced Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “ Concord Hymn“, was fired at the outset of the American Revolution. The Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo just minutes before their deaths. ![]()
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