The onset of war was greeted with huge public interest and dramatic "sandwich board" headlines, like this from The Times, advertising its expanded editions.
This is what the front page of The Times looked like on 5 August, 1914.
Inside, the paper reported all the latest details of the war – including that military activity didn't yet "amount to very much".
There was a report of "breathless anticipation of the beginning of hostilities on a large scale".
As well as its own advert-filled front page, The Daily Telegraph had this vivid photograph.
Let us for the moment drop solicitude for Europe and think of ourselves. We care as little for Belgrade as Belgrade does for Manchester. But, though our neutrality ought to be assured, it isn't.If we, who might remain neutral, rush into war or let our attitude remain doubtful, it will be both a crime and an act of supreme and gratuitous folly.
The same paper's 5 August 1914 edition showed the HQ of the Manchester Territorial Army, where the 8th Manchester regiment was waiting for a medical exam.
The Guardian also focused on the "naval theatre of war".
In the days prior to the war, The Daily Mirror produced some striking front pages, here showing the German soliders who would soon become enemies.
On 5 August, the paper's page one shows a naval fleet and the main political figures in the conflict.
Some local papers, including The Manchester Courier, carried adverts from anti-war groups such as the Neutrality League.
Others had front-page adverts urging the public to sign up for the army – which they did, in their thousands.
The Daily Herald's 5 August edition went to press at 3am.
Germany's failure to respond to Britain's ultimatum over assurances over Belgium's neutrality was front-page news across the country
Fast forward 100 years, and this is how The Times commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War today.
