Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip, a teenager, carried out the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, setting off the biggest flashpoint of the 20th century. The two shots he fired would alter the course of human history, setting off a terrible series of occurrences that would eventually result in the start of the First World War, which would result in 15 million dead in addition to numerous other effects. Princip, a proponent of South Slavic nationalism, sought to end Austro-Hungarian control in the Balkans and bring all South Slavs together into one federal state. Being a Bosnian Serb, he believed Serbia's duty to support this cause as a free Slavic state. Princip joined and received training from the Serbian State-backed secret nationalist group Blank Hand.

He would be one of three men sent by Dragutin Dimitrijevic, the leader of the Black Hand and the head of the Serbian Army's intelligence department, to kill the Archduke in 1914. On June 28, Princip and his accomplices lined Appel Quay along the path that the Archduke's cavalcade was supposed to traverse. After Nedjelko Cabrinovic's initial attempt at assassination was unsuccessful, Princip saw an opportunity to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, the presumed successor to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when he returned from the city hall. The incident would force Europe into the July Crisis, a diplomatic crisis that would eventually lead to World War I. In Sarajevo, Princip would stand trial and receive a 20-year prison term. In 1918, he pass away in a hospital close to his prison.

Lifespan: July 25, 1894 – April 28, 1918

Nation: Austrian-occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina