TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo along with his
wife, Duchess Sophie. With tensions already running high among Europe’s
powers, the assassination precipitated a rapid descent into World War I.

Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, and his wife Sophie riding
in an open carriage at Sarajevo shortly before their assassination.

The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a 19-
year-old peasant.