On a summer morning in June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. As their motorcade navigated the city streets, a grenade was thrown at their open car. However, it missed its intended target, exploding beneath the following car instead.
The grenade was thrown by a member of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, with the aim of breaking off Austria-Hungary's south Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Greater Serbia. The grenade thrower was one of several assassins stationed along the route by the Black Hand. Each was armed with a pistol and a bomb.
The Archduke's driver, hearing the explosion, sped up to escape any further attacks. The royal couple, though shaken, continued with their planned visit. Fate, however, had a tragic twist in store. Later that day, while en route to visit the injured from the earlier bomb attack, their driver made a wrong turn. They happened upon one of the would-be assassins, Gavrilo Princip.
Seizing the opportunity, Princip fired his gun, hitting both the Archduke and his wife. Within an hour, both were dead, setting a series of events into motion that would lead to the outbreak of the First World War. The repercussions of this single act of violence were felt worldwide, forever changing the course of history.