On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, assassinated the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. This outrageous act of brutality was aimed at undermining the Austro-Hungarian Empire which had annexed Bosnia into its multi-ethnic Empire in 1908. The murder of the royal couple ushered in the so-called July Crisis which ended with the outbreak of war in August 1914. We remember the date and place of this infamous assassination because the events that followed it led directly into the First World War.

Source: Open Learn