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 Viktor of Austria-Este Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria-Este Ferdinand Karl Viktor (20 July 1821 – 15 December 1849) was Archduke of Austria-Este and Prince of Modena. Born in Modena, he was the second son of Francis IV of Modena and his niece-consort Maria Beatrice of Savoy. His paternal grandmother had been heiress to the Duchy of Modena, because her father Ercole III d'Este had no sons. Ferdinand married Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria, daughter of Archduke Josef Anton of Austria and his third wife Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg on 4 December 1846 in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Elisabeth and Ferdinand