Saravejo??

Question:Describe the event involving Saravejo that sparked World War One. Please be specific and use sources...all sources are accepted except wikipedia.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Describe the event involving Saravejo that sparked World War One. Please be specific and use sources...all sources are accepted except wikipedia.

Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, shot by a gunman.

I am attaching a page about Gavrilo Princeps. He was a member of "Young Bosnia" a revolutionary group that had planned to assassinate the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. The occasion was a state visit, with the Archduke coming to review exercises by the army. When he and his wife Sophie arrived in Sarajevo, someone from the Young Bosnia movement tried to throw a bomb into their open car. It bounced off the fender and injured a police officer. When they arrived at the hotel, the Mayor of Sarajevo started delivering his speech. The Archduke asked if he was mad, they had no sooner arrived in his city and someone threw a bomb at them.

They were later traveling through the city, and their driver apparently took a wrong turn, evidently entirely by accident, and they were suddenly stopped by an obstruction right in front of Princep, who had stopped to console himself with a snack from a street vendor, over having failed at the first attempt. He looked up, and there was his target. He fired and hit both the Archduke and his wife. They were rushed to a hospital, with the Archduke calling to his wife to live for their children. Neither survived the day.

This was on June 28, 1914.

The Emperor apparently sent a letter to Sarajevo officials afterward congratulating them on their efforts at security. It isn't thought he was being sarcastic. The Austrians sent Serbia a list of demands that were degrading, which they knew Serbia would refuse, and used the refusal as an excuse for war.

The other links are to non wikipedia sites, the one on firstworldwar.com looks quite good, so I have attached the one on the Archduke, and the front page site.