A 19-year-old Bosnian Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, fired two shots into the open car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie. The killings, following a botched bombing attempt earlier that day, set off a diplomatic crisis that within five weeks dragged Europe's great powers into a war that would kill over 17 million people.
The assassination almost didn't happen. Earlier that morning, a fellow conspirator had thrown a bomb at the Archduke's motorcade that missed its mark, and Franz Ferdinand, furious but unharmed, insisted on continuing his visit to Sarajevo despite the obvious danger. His driver, unfamiliar with a last-minute route change, took a wrong turn directly past a café where Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia movement, happened to be standing.
Princip, seizing an accident of geography, stepped forward and fired twice at point-blank range. Sophie died almost instantly; Franz Ferdinand, mortally wounded, reportedly begged her to live for their children before losing consciousness himself. Both were dead within the hour.
The killing exploited a tangle of European alliances like a lit match near dry kindling. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and issued an ultimatum; Russia mobilized to defend Serbia; Germany backed Austria-Hungary; France and Britain were drawn in through their own treaties. By August, the continent was at war. Princip, too young for execution under Austrian law, died in prison in 1918 of tuberculosis, months before the war he ignited finally ended.
Key people: Gavrilo Princip, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg