Shot heard round the world The phrase "shot heard round the world" (alternatively "shots heard round the world" or "shot heard around the world") has also become associated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, an event considered to be one of the immediate causes of World War I. Serbian Gavrilo Princip fired two shots, the first hitting Franz Ferdinand's wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, and the second hitting the Archduke himself. The death of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, propelled Austria-Hungary and the rest of Europe into World War I. The phrase "Shot heard
Archduke Joseph Franz of Austria Archduke Joseph Franz of Austria Archduke Joseph Franz Leopold of Austria (9 April 1799 – 30 June 1807) was the second son and seventh child of Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, daughter of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Maria Carolina of Austria. He was their fourth child to die. Archduke Joseph Franz was born at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where all of his older and younger siblings were born. He was the seventh child born to his parents: Marie Louise was born in 1791,