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
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand of these dreadnoughts, the navy shifted "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" and her sisters to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron. The ship was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. At that time, the battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of the "Radetzky" class, the "Tegetthoff" class, and the older and es. Along with the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of and . The two German ships broke out of Messina, which was surrounded by the British navy,