Archuduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip while on tour in Sarajevo. The following are newspaper excerpts recounting the events at Sarajevo.
SPECIAL CABLE TO THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Sarajevo, Bosnia, June 28,- Archduke Francis Ferdinand successor to
the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg,
were shot and killed by a Bosnian student here today. The fatal shooting
was the second attempt upon the lives of the couple during the day, and is believed to have been the result of a political conspiracy.
This morning, as Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess were
driving to a reception at the Town Hall a bomb was thrown at their motor
car. The Archduke pushed it off with his arm.
The bomb did not explode until after the Archduke’s car had passed
on, and the occupants of the next car, Count von Boos-Waldeck and Col.
Morland, the Archduke’s aide de camp, were slightly injured. Among the
spectators, six persons were more or less seriously hurt.
The author of the attempt at assassination was a compositor named
Gabrinovics, who comes from Trebinje.
After the attempt upon his life the Archduke ordered his car to halt,
and after he found out what had happened he drove to the Town Hall, where the Town councilors, with the Mayor at their head, awaited him. The Mayor was about to begin his address of welcome, when the Archduke interrupted him angrily, saying:
“Herr Burgermeister, it is perfectly outrageous! We have come to Sarajevo on a visit and have had a bomb thrown at us.”
The Archduke paused a moment, and then said: ” Now you may go on.”
Thereupon the Mayor delivered his address and the Archduke made a
suitable reply.
The public by this time had heard of the bomb attempt, and burst
into the hall with loud cries of “Zivio!” the Slav word for ” hurrah.”
After going around the Town hall, which took half an hour, the
Archduke started for the Garrison Hospital to visit Col. Morissi, who had
been taken there after the outrage.
As the Archduke reached the corner of Rudolf Street two pistol
shots were fired in quick succession by an individual who called himself
Gavrilo Princip. The first shot struck the Duchess in the abdomen, while
the second hit the Archduke in the neck and pierced his jugular vein. The
Duchess became unconscious immediately and fell across the knees of her husband. The Archduke also lost consciousness in a few seconds.
The motor car in which they were seated drove straight to the
Cognacs, where an army Surgeon rendered first aid, but in vain. Neither the Archduke nor the Duchess gave any sign of life, and the head of the
hospital could only certify they were both dead.
The author of both attacks upon the Archduke are born Bosnians.
Gabrinovics is a compositor, and worked for a few weeks in the
Government printing works at Belgrade. He returned to Sarajevo as a
Serbian chauvinist, and made no concealment of his sympathies with the
King of Serbia. Both he and the actual murderer of the Archduke and the
Duchess expressed themselves to the police in the most cynical fashion
about their crimes.
The front page of Le Petit Journal detailing the assassinations at Sarajevo.
ARCHDUKE HONORED WARNING.
Vienna, June 28.– When the news of the assassination of the
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess was broken to the aged
Emperor Francis Joseph he said:
“Horrible, horrible! No sorrow is spared me.”
The Emperor, who yesterday left here for Ischl, his favorite
Summer resort, and amid acclamations of the people, will return to Vienna at once in spite of the hardships of the journey in the terrible heat.
The Archduke, who was created head of the army, went to Bosnia
to represent the Emperor at the grand manoeuvres there. This was the
first time the Archduke had paid an official visit to Bosnia. The Emperor
visited the provinces immediately after their annexation, in 1908, and the
manner in which he mixed freely with the people was much criticized at
the time, as those in the party were always afraid lest some Slav or
Mohammedan fanatic might attempt the monarch’s life. The Emperor’s
popularity, however saved him from all danger of this kind.
Before the Archduke went to Bosnia last Wednesday the Serbian,
Minister here expressed doubt as to the wisdom of a journey, saying the
country was in a very turbulent condition and the Serbian part of the
population might organize a demonstration against the Archduke. The
Minister said if the Archduke went himself he most certainly ought to
leave his wife at home, because Bosnia was no place for a woman in its
present disturbed state.
The Minister’s word proved correct. The people of Sarajevo
welcomed the Archduke with a display of Serbian flags, and the
authorities had some difficulty in removing them before the Archduke
made his state entry into the city yesterday, after the conclusion of the
manoeuvres. In these manoeuvres were the famous Fifteenth and Sixteenth Army Corps, which were stationed on the frontier throughout the recent Balkan war, and they carried out the evolutions before the Archduke.
Source: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/sarajevo.html
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