Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Ferdinand and his wife with a lying in state aboard SMS "Viribus Unitis". On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at about 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The perpetrator was 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized and armed by the Black Hand. Earlier in the day, the couple had been attacked by Nedeljko Čabrinović, who had thrown a grenade at their car. However, the bomb detonated behind them, injuring the occupants in the following car. On
Serbian historiography a Macedonian nation was nonexistent and that local Slavs were either Serbian or Bulgarian. The assassin Gavrilo Princip who in Sarajevo (1914) killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand is viewed by Serbian historians as a Serbian hero. A majority of Serbian historians view Austria-Hungary and Germany (Central Powers) as instigating the First World War while the actions of "Mlada Bosna" are presented as being autonomous and not dependent on Serbian government circles. The role of the Russian Empire and the position it took on the eve of war is portrayed favorably within Serbian historiography. Some Serbian historians are of the view that