HEIR TO THRONE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ASSASSINATED
Sarajevo, Bosnia (JFK+50) On June 28, 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand*, was assassinated and his wife, Sophia, was shot and killed as they rode in an open touring car here in Sarajevo. The Royal couple were on a state visit and celebrating their wedding anniversary.
The assassin, a young Serbian named Gavrilo Princip, fired shots which hit the Archduke in the neck and his wife in the stomach. Princip, who was taken into custody, was a member of The Black Hand**. Six co-conspirators along with Princip lined the Archduke's motorcade route.
Count Franz von Harrach, a bodyguard riding on the running board of the Archduke's car, saw "a thin stream of blood" spurt from Ferdinand's mouth and then heard him say...
"Sophia, Sophia, don't die. Stay alive for the children."
The assassination would trigger a chain reaction of events which led to a declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia and the beginning of world war.
*Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) was born in Giaz, Austrian Empire. He served in the Austrian-Hungarian Army and had a fondness for trophy hunting. AFF is described as "a man of uninspired energy who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence & recklessness."
**The Black Hand Society was a secret military society formed by officers in the Serbian army in 1901 & renamed in 1911 'Unification or Death.'
SOURCES
Sarajevo, Bosnia (JFK+50) On June 28, 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand*, was assassinated and his wife, Sophia, was shot and killed as they rode in an open touring car here in Sarajevo. The Royal couple were on a state visit and celebrating their wedding anniversary.
The assassin, a young Serbian named Gavrilo Princip, fired shots which hit the Archduke in the neck and his wife in the stomach. Princip, who was taken into custody, was a member of The Black Hand**. Six co-conspirators along with Princip lined the Archduke's motorcade route.
Count Franz von Harrach, a bodyguard riding on the running board of the Archduke's car, saw "a thin stream of blood" spurt from Ferdinand's mouth and then heard him say...
"Sophia, Sophia, don't die. Stay alive for the children."
The assassination would trigger a chain reaction of events which led to a declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia and the beginning of world war.
*Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) was born in Giaz, Austrian Empire. He served in the Austrian-Hungarian Army and had a fondness for trophy hunting. AFF is described as "a man of uninspired energy who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence & recklessness."
**The Black Hand Society was a secret military society formed by officers in the Serbian army in 1901 & renamed in 1911 'Unification or Death.'
SOURCES
"Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914," Eyewitnesstohistory.com/
"Sarajevo marks 100 years since Archduke Francis Ferdinand shooting," by Allan Little, June 28, 2014, www.bbc.com/
"Sarajevo marks 100 years since Archduke Francis Ferdinand shooting," by Allan Little, June 28, 2014, www.bbc.com/
Murder in Sarajevo
