(Department of Defense)
When Gavrilo Princip shot Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, he did it with an FN Model 1910 pistol. The assassination of the archduke became the catalyst of World War I, which itself laid the groundwork for World War II, and later the Cold War.
This lightweight weapon was easily concealed and perfectly engineered by American firearms designer John Moses Browning. Browning’s weapons not only changed the course of the 20th century, it would help the United States win its coming conflicts and usher in the “American Century.”
A new book from former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Nathan Gorenstein, “The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of The Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World,” details the list of Browning’s engineering feats. It tells the incredible history of the boy who built his first firearm in 1865 at age 10 from scrap parts in his father’s workshop to the designs that are still in use today.