Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The shots heard round the world hurriedly fired at point-blank range from the steps of a delicatessen in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, found their royal targets, mortally wounding Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Archduke Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863 - June 28, 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. What unfolded from June 28 to the outbreak of continental war a month later began in Sarajevo, the picturesque provincial capital of the province of Bosnia, a Balkan land annexed in 1908 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Following the death of Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889 and the death of Karl Ludwig in 1896, Franz Ferdinand became the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Franz Ferdinand held significant influence over the military, and in 1913 he was appointed inspector general of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces.