Profile of the Day: Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and family

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist during an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia. His assassination sparked a chain of events that would lead to the beginning of World War I.

Ferdinand was the eldest son of Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, who was the younger brother of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, and Maximilian I, the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. After the death of his father in 1896, Ferdinand was groomed to inherit the throne.

In 1914, Ferdinand and his wife traveled to Sarajevo on an official visit to the Bosnian capital. While riding in their motorcade, the couple was shot and killed by a Serbian national. The event would lead directly to the beginning of one of the most devastating wars in human history. Five years later to the day, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially marking the end of World War I.

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Image: Library of Congress