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Archduke Ferdinand and his wife boarding a car just prior to their assassination in Sarajevo. AP/Press Association Images

100 years since the double assassination which sparked WWI

Controversy and debate continue over the character of Gavrilo Princip, the man who shot the Austro-Hungarian heir.

Today marks the centenary of the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife, sparking the First World War and leading to the deaths of 14 million people.

Tensions among competing European powers were already simmering when the double assassination pushed the situation to a critical point. Austria, backed by Germany, declared war on Serbia a month later in response to the killings, and Serbia was supported by Russia and France.

ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY : CIRCA 1914. Photo circa 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, his wife Sophie, and their children Maximilian, Ernst and Sophie. PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were visiting the city shortly after Bosnia became part of the Austro-Hungarian empire when they were targeted by a Yugoslav group seeking separation from Austria.

After a failed assassination attempt by a co-conspirator earlier on the day of 28 June, Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip fired the fatal shots into the royals’s open-air carriage. (As this 2011 Smithsonian article shows, the issue of whether or not Princip was grabbing a quick sandwich at a nearby cafe when he saw an unexpected opportunity to strike the archduke is still contended among historians.)

WWI Sarajevo Assassination Front page of London newspaper The Times on June 29, 1914, AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Nineteen-year-old Princip was quickly arrested for the killings, sentenced to a 20-year term, and died in custody from TB in April 1918.

In Sarajevo today, public opinion on the assassin’s actions remains divided along ethnic divisions.

World War One - Franz Ferdinand - 1914 Franz Ferdinand and Sophie lying in state in Vienna, 1914. PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

“Gavrilo Princip will, just like the past 100 years, remain a hero for some and a terrorist to others,” said the head of the Sarajevo History Institute, Husnija Kamberovic told the AP. “It is a matter of feelings toward what he did, and not a matter of serious historical arguments.”

Christian Orthodox Serbs celebrate Princip as someone who saw Bosnia as part of the Serb national territory. The same idea inspired the Serbs in 1992 to fight the decision by Muslim Bosnians and Catholic Croats to declare the former republic of Bosnia independent when Serb-dominated Yugoslavia fell apart.

In Serb history books, the “great liberation act” of Princip and his comrades is described for over 20 pages.

First World War - Gavrilo Princip Gavrilo Princip, the 19-year-old student who killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie in 1914. PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

“They were heroes who were ready to sacrifice their own lives for freedom and liberation,” said Jovan Medosevic, a primary school history teacher in the Bosnian Serb town of Pale, near Sarajevo.

That’s exactly what makes Princip unpopular among Muslim Bosnians and Catholic Croats. In their official textbooks, Princip is mentioned in just one sentence as a member of a secret terrorist organization who “did not assassinate Franz Ferdinand to liberate Bosnia from the occupier, but wanted Bosnia to become a part of Kingdom of Serbia,” high school student Ermin Lazovic said.

 

CORRECTION World War One Centenary Timeline June 28, 1914 photo depicting the arrest of a man previously identified as Gavrilo Princip. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

- Additional reporting by the AP

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46 Comments
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    Mute Noel Byrne
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:10 AM

    Dense drivers ain’t gonna help either.

    481
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    Mute Patrice Ahern
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:28 AM

    Heavy fog on way to work. Of the 100s of cars I saw only 2 had fog lights on. Talk about dense – in every sense of the word!

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    Mute Philip Murphy
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:14 AM

    @Patrice Ahern: I Hope they turn them off when fog has lifted

    186
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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:26 AM

    @Philip Murphy: that’s the problem, some don’t. You regularly see some thickos have their front fog lights on 24/7, no matter the weather. Maybe they think it makes them look ‘brighter’ (I’ll get my coat) in

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    Mute Sami Hentunen
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:29 AM

    @Patrice Ahern: If you can see the cars ahead without the foglights, foglights are not needed. It’s really dense to use foglights on bumper to bumper traffic blinding everybody behind you where you can see the queue ahead anyway.

    132
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    Mute Denis Conroy
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    Jan 8th 2024, 11:18 AM

    @Sami Hentunen: Correct, fog lights should be used like full headlights, turn them on and off as required but that won’t happen…

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    Mute IMHO
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    Jan 8th 2024, 12:57 PM

    @Patrice Ahern: I’d hazard a guess they weren’t driving any slower than usual either.

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    Mute Fiona Wyse
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:07 AM

    Never mind the fog it’s an ice rink in Navan, move over ice man of 2010…. there is a new kid in town….me lol ouch

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:01 AM

    No fog here in West Cork and all Priority 1 and Priority 2 roads gritted. Well done to Cork Co. Co!!

    129
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    Mute Denis Conroy
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    Jan 8th 2024, 11:17 AM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: How did Cork Co Co get rid of the fog? Please let us know, don’t be keeping all the secrets in Cork

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    Mute F Fitzgerald
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:15 PM

    @Denis Conroy: Maybe they sold it on eBay?

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    Mute Barry Williams
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    Jan 8th 2024, 2:58 PM

    My favourite part of the article was tonight is described as “very cold” by met eireann .. just had a vision of fr ted talking to dougal

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    Mute Gerry R
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:37 AM

    I live in Dublin and there was no fog or frost this morning

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    Mute Tom Dillon
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    Jan 8th 2024, 12:01 PM

    @Gerry R: Good job you told us!

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    Mute P. V. Aglue
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    Jan 8th 2024, 4:39 PM

    @Gerry R: the sea breeze rose the coastal temperature above freezing

    34
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    Mute Shane O Mac
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:45 AM

    This is the time they won’t turn on their fog lights.

    71
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    Mute Thom Thumb
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    Jan 8th 2024, 1:02 PM

    Everyday is a fog day in my head.

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Jan 8th 2024, 5:16 PM

    Tipping minus 8 for last few nights in w cork. Just about made 2degrees for an hour and heading south again. The light showers today will make roads lethal by 8pm. For God’s sake stay at home and only travel for emergency. Your worth it.

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    Mute Gavin Gray
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    Jan 8th 2024, 2:56 PM

    I’m working from home tomorrow, thank god. I almost broke my neck on numerous occasions this morning.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:18 PM

    @Gavin Gray: Slow down my man,there’s no need to go at break neck speed.

    40
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    Mute F Fitzgerald
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:16 PM

    @Gavin Gray: Get ice grips at least, it’s lethal underfoot without them.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 8th 2024, 10:23 PM

    @F Fitzgerald: Hi FF,good to see ya again. Well,that broke the ice

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    Mute danny sherrard
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    Jan 8th 2024, 3:31 PM

    You wouldn’t be long getting frost bit.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:17 AM

    Coldplay. It was all yellow.

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    Mute Bass Boss
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    Jan 8th 2024, 7:14 PM

    jaysus it’s called winter.. natin to do with klimaat change..

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    Mute Ham Hat
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:30 PM

    Children in Gaza sleeping in DIY tents. How cold is that? israel

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    Mute P. V. Aglue
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    Jan 8th 2024, 4:47 PM

    @Barry Williams. Those sheep are cold, the one’s over there are far far colder.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 8th 2024, 9:16 PM

    @P. V. Aglue: It’s nice to have a happy ewe near

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    Mute HurdyGurdyMan
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    Jan 9th 2024, 1:43 AM

    Snowing in my part of Wexford now… 0145

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