The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was a momentous event that played a pivotal role in the lead-up to #worldwari . On June 28, 1914, while visiting #Sarajevo, #Bosnia, with his wife Sophie, the Archduke fell victim to an #assassination plot by the #BlackHand, a Serbian nationalist secret society. A young Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, managed to shoot and fatally wound both #FranzFerdinand and his wife as their motorcade passed through the city streets. This act intensified tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which were already strained due to nationalist movements within the empire. Austria-Hungary's aggressive reaction to the assassination and the complex web of alliances among European powers led to a domino effect of declarations of #war, culminating in the outbreak of #worldwarone , one of the deadliest conflicts in #history.