Sunday 28 June 1914 was a bright and sunny day in Sarajevo.  Sarajevo in Bosnia was preparing for a royal visit from Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.  Crowds lined the streets and waited for the procession of cars to appear.  Hidden among the crowds, however, were six teenage [Bosnian Serbs] terrorists sworn to kill the Archduke.  They hated him and hated Austria.  They were stationed at intervals along the riverside route which the cars would follow on their way to the Town Hall.  They all had bombs and pistols in their pockets and phials of poison which they had promised to swallow if they were caught, so that they would not give the others away.  It seemed as if the plan could not fail.

     Finally, the cavalcade of four large cars came into sight.  The Archduke was in a green open-topped car.  He looked every inch a duke, wearing a pale blue uniform, a row of glittering medals and a military bat decorated with green ostrich feathers.  Beside him sat his wife Sophie, looking beautiful in a white dress and a broad hat and waving politely to the crowd.

     At 10:15 the cars passed Mebmedbasic, the first in line of the waiting killers.  He took fright, did nothing, and then escaped.  The next assassin, Cabriolvic, also lost his nerve and did nothing.  But then as the cars passed the Cumurja Bridge, Cabriolvic threw his bomb, swallowed his poison, and jumped into the river.  The Archduke saw the bomb coming and threw it off his car, but it exploded under the car behind, injuring several people.  Now there was total confusion as the procession accelerated away, fearing more bombs.  Meanwhile the police dragged Cabriolvic out of the river.  His cyanide was old and had not worked.

     The Archduke was driven to the Town Hall, where he demanded to be taken to visit the bomb victims in hospital.  Fearing more terrorists, the officials decided to take a new route to avoid crowds, but this was not properly explained to the driver of the Archduke's car.  Moreover, no police guard went with the procession.

     Meanwhile the other assassins, on hearing the bomb explode, assumed the Archduke was dead and left - all except Princip, who soon discovered the truth.  Miserable he wandered across the street towards Schiller's delicatessen and cafe.

     Princip was standing outside the cafe when, at 10:45, the Archdukes car suddenly appeared beside him and turned into Franz Josef Street.  This was a mistake, for according to the new plan the procession should have continued straight along Appel Quay.  As the driver realized he had taken the wrong turn he stopped and started to reverse.  Princip could hardly believe his luck.  Pulling an automatic pistol from his right-hand pocket of his coat, he fired two shots at a range of just 3 or 4 meters.  He could not miss.  One bullet pierced the Archduke's neck and the other ricocheted of the car into Sophie's stomach.  Fifteen minutes later she died and the Archduke followed soon after.

     Princip was immediately seized.  He managed to swallow his poison, but it did not work and he was taken off to prison.  All the plotters except Mebmedbasic were eventually caught, but only the organizer, Ilic, was hanged, for the others were too young for the death penalty.  Princip died in an Australian jail, however, in April 1918, aged twenty-three.  At his trial, Princip said: "I am not a criminal, for I destroyed a bad man.  I thought I was right."  Two years later he said that he had known what was to follow he would of never of fired the two fatal shots - but his regrets was too late.  Within six weeks of the Archduke's assassination, almost all of Europe had been dragged into the bloodiest war in history.