Jumonville Glen - The Spark of a World War

May 28, 1754

Washington, now a lieutenant colonel, ambushed a French diplomatic party in a western Pennsylvania glen. A French officer was killed - Washington claimed after surrendering - in cold blood. The skirmish lit a fuse that would burn through India, the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Philippines. Horace Walpole later quipped that a volley fired by a young Virginian set the world on fire.