The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Franz Ferdinand was heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, was killed alongside him on June 28, 1914.
The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student associated with Young Bosnia. He shot the couple after a failed bombing earlier that day and a remarkable motorcade error brought their car to a stop near the Latin Bridge. Sarajevo was then the provincial capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territory formally annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908.
The murders triggered the July Crisis. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, issued an ultimatum, and declared war after diplomatic tensions escalated. Russia then supported Serbia, while Germany backed Austria-Hungary; France and Britain became involved through their alliances. The assassination did not single-handedly cause World War I, but it was the immediate spark that set the existing rivalries and military commitments alight.
A common mix-up is confusing Sarajevo with Belgrade, Serbia's capital, where Princip and other conspirators obtained support and weapons before returning to Bosnia.