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Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria-Este, (born December 18, 1863, Graz, Austria—died June 28, 1914, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary [now in Bosnia and Herzogovina]), Austrian archduke whose assassination (1914) was the immediate cause of World War I.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was one of the key events that led to World War I. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip.

Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria, on December 18, 1863, the oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig, who was the younger brother of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph.

Serbia proposed arbitration to resolve the dispute, but Austria-Hungary instead declared war on July 28, 1914, exactly a month after Ferdinand’s death. By the following week, Germany, Russia ...

Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863–June 28, 1914) was a member of the royal Habsburg dynasty, which ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After his father died in 1896, Ferdinand became next in line for the throne. His assassination in 1914 at the hands of a Bosnian revolutionary led to the outbreak of World War I.