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 Ferdinand Karl of Austria Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, later known as Ferdinand Burg (Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Johann Maria; Vienna, 27 December 1868 – Munich, 12 March 1915) He was the third son of Archduke Charles Louis of Austria and Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 launched World War I, was his elder brother. He was a major-general in the Austrian Army. Like his brother, in 1909 he concluded an unequal marriage with Bertha Czuber (1879–1979), daughter of Emanuel Czuber. Unlike his brother, he did so without