100-year Anniversary of World War I examined

“100 Years Ago Today: The History of the First World War” will be presented July 30 as a public talk during the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014.

Rebecca Matzke, associate professor of history at Ripon College will present the talk beginning at 1 p.m. in the Hilton Theater in the EAA AirVenture Museum.

During the first week of August 1914, European governments declared war on each other to start what would become World War I. Their people cheered and young men rushed to join their nations’ armies, everyone confident the war would over by Christmas. Instead, it lasted four long years, and its new technology and new ways of fighting changed the world.

Why did Europe dissolve into war? Why was this war so different from those that came before? What consequences would this struggle have in the new 20th century? At this centennial of World War I aviation, come and learn more about the history of the war in which those early aircraft flew.

Either a daily AirVenture pass or a museum admission pass will allow access to Matzke’s talk. Rates for AirVenture pass are listed on www.airventure.org. Rates for museum admission are available at eaa.org/en/eaa-museum.

For a full schedule of AirVenture activities, visit airventure.org/schedule.