Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 18:51:10 +0200 From: "R.H. van Gent" <r.h.vangent@phys.uu.nl>
We are currently producing a documentary for Channel 4 about Rasputin. The director has a theory that he would like to put in the film. On June 27th 1914 Frans Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo, which ultimately started the First World War. On that same day Rasputin was stabbed in Tyumen in Russia. His theory is that these two events happened around the same time across different time zones. The shooting in Sarajevo happened at 12 noon.
What are your primary sources for the date and the hour of Rasputin's stabbing? They do not sound very reliable to me.
For what it's worth, <http://www.geocities.com/jesusib/Spala.html> says that Rasputin was stabbed "some hours before" Franz Ferdinand was killed. Even if the two events actually occurred at the same time, it was entirely accidental. That is because the Sarajevo assassinations (of Franz Ferdinand and his wife) were done opportunistically. The planned assassination (earlier that day) had failed. The actual assassinations took place only because Franz Ferdinand's driver took a wrong turn and had to stop to back up, and this happened to occur in front of a store where one of the assassins happened to be buying lunch. So I strongly suspect that Franz Ferdinand's shooting didn't occur exactly at noon Sarajevo time. For what it's worth <http://www.considerations-mag.com/1901.htm> claims that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand occurred at 09:34 Universal Time, which would be 10:34 Sarajevo time.