The siege of Sarajevo began, the longest of any capital in modern war

On April 5, 1992, as Bosnia and Herzegovina moved toward independence from Yugoslavia, forces in the hills ringing Sarajevo closed in. What began that day became the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

For roughly 1,425 days, until early 1996, the city lived under near-constant shelling and sniper fire. Water, electricity, gas, and food were cut. Residents crossed exposed intersections at a run; one notorious stretch earned the name Sniper Alley.

The siege ran more than three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad.

Thousands of civilians were killed, including hundreds of children, and much of the historic city was reduced to rubble. Yet Sarajevo never fell. Its endurance, sustained partly by a United Nations airlift and a secret tunnel under the airport, became one of the defining images of the Bosnian War.