June 28, 1914

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie in Sarajevo

The bomb bounced away from the archduke's car and exploded under the next vehicle. Franz Ferdinand then changed his route to visit the wounded — a decision that placed him in front of Gavrilo Princip.

28 June 1914: six men on Appel Quay

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand — heir presumptive of Austria-Hungary — and his wife Sophie rode in an open motorcade toward Sarajevo's City Hall while six assassins waited along Appel Quay. Black Hand operatives in Serbia supplied and trained three conspirators, while Danilo Ilić recruited and positioned the local assassination team.

Nedeljko Čabrinović attacked first, throwing a bomb that failed to kill the couple and exploded beneath a following car, injuring members of the party and bystanders. His cyanide failed too, and police arrested him.

A wrong turn near the Latin Bridge

After the City Hall reception, Franz Ferdinand changed his route to visit people wounded in the bomb attack. His chauffeur mistakenly followed the original route and stopped while reversing near the Latin Bridge — bringing the car to a halt only steps from Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb of the Young Bosnia milieu.

Princip fired twice at close range, striking Franz Ferdinand in the neck and Sophie in the abdomen. He later said the second bullet was meant for Governor Oskar Potiorek. Both victims were dead by approximately 11 a.m.; Princip was arrested on the spot. The famous detail that he had been eating a sandwich is unsupported by the principal historical accounts.

That evening, and the month that followed

Anti-Serb demonstrations began in Sarajevo that same evening, developing into destructive riots and pogrom-like violence that continued the next day, encouraged by Potiorek. Of the 25 people later tried in Sarajevo, three — Ilić, Veljko Čubrilović and Miško Jovanović — were executed; Princip, who was 19, received a 20-year sentence.

The assassination did not mechanically cause World War I. Austria-Hungary issued its ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July and declared war on 28 July — decisions of the July Crisis, made by governments over the following month. How much the Serbian state knew remains historiographically contested; the evidence firmly supports aid from individual Black Hand operatives.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The assassins' precise organizational relationship to the Black Hand and the extent of knowledge within the Serbian state remain historiographically contested. The evidence firmly supports aid from individual Black Hand operatives, not a simple claim that Serbia as a state ordered the murder.
Sources differ in labeling the early Zagreb disturbances as beginning late June 28 or on June 29; the major anti-Serb demonstrations there are well documented on June 29.