History UsefulNotes / FranzFerdinandOfAustria

An assassination that led to the event most associated with Franz, even though he obviously didn't live to see it. His murder was the match thrown on the pile of TNT that was 1910s Europe. The very next month would see the entire continent involved in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the bloodiest conflict ever seen carried out by any nation. This war would mark the end of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, as by its conclusion in 1918, entire nationalities deserted from the increasingly inept command of Vienna until nothing was left.

Franz would never ascend all the way to the throne however. On the morning of 28 June, 1914 in Sarajevo (today the capital of UsefulNotes/BosniaAndHerzegovina), a group of Serbian nationalists plotted to assassinate the Archduke on a visit to the city. As he drove towards the Town Hall for a reception, an assassin threw a bomb at the car, but it missed and detonated on a different vehicle in the convoy. After the reception, Ferdinand decided to deviate from his itinerary and visit the victims of the bomb blast at the hospital, but this fact was not properly communicated to his driver. When the driver made a wrong turn due to him following the previously-assumed path, he stopped the vehicle to get his bearings, as fate would have it right in front of assassin Gavrilo Princip, who took the opportunity to shoot both Franz and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Sophie died instantly, while Franz hung on long enough to espouse "It's nothing. It's nothing." before he too succumbed to his wounds.

Franz would never ascend all the way to the throne however. As on a fateful day in June of 1914 in Sarajevo, assassin Gavrilo Princip shot both Franz and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Sophie died instantly, while Franz hung on long enough to espouse "It's nothing. It's nothing." before he too succumbed to his wounds. In a sad twist of fate, Princip only had the shot because Ferdinand's driver got lost on the way to visit the victims of the ''other'' assassination attempt early that day, a bomb that injured several people.

* The episode "[[Recap/TheFairlyOddParentsS5E15HassleInTheCastle Hassle in the Castle]]" of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' reveals that one of Cosmo and Wanda's former godkids, [[EnfantTerrible Maryann]], was responsible for abusing their magic to cause his assassination and thus plunging the world into UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

An assassination which led to the event most associated with Franz, even though he obviously didn't live to see it. His murder was the match thrown on the pile of TNT that was 1910s Europe. The very next month would see the entire continent involved in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, the bloodiest conflict ever seen carried out by any nation. This war would mark the end of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, as by its conclusion in 1918, entire nationalities deserted from the increasingly inept command of Vienna until nothing was left.

Far less attention is paid, except in AlternateHistory, to what Franz Ferdinand intended to do if he had become emperor. He supported a plan that would've ''also'' ended the empire, but not by disintegration. Instead he wanted to transform it into [[TheFederation the United States of Greater Austria]], in which not just Austria and Hungary but also Croatia, Bohemia, Slovakia, Transylvania and 8 other states would be equal partners. The hope was that this would defuse the ethno-nationalist tensions in the empire by giving every nationality a state of their own.

!!In Media

[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* The ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode [[Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS7E10TheFixedPoint "The Fixed Point"]] involves his assassination. Apparently his assassination is a very popular stop for time travelers, as evidenced by the time traveler pub where they gather to watch other visitors try and prevent it.

This is actually a large part of ''why'' Serbian nationalists targeted the man who would've been the Habsburg dynasty's most Serb-friendly ruler ever. They feared that the Serb-majority portions of the empire would've been satisfied with his federal plan, and thus would lose interest in Serbian unification.

An assassination which led to the event most associated with Franz, even though he obviously didn't live to see it. His murder was the match thrown on the pile of TNT that was 1910's Europe. The very next month would see the entire continent involved in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, the bloodiest conflict ever seen carried out by any nation. This war would mark the end of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, as by its conclusion in 1918, entire nationalities deserted from the increasingly inept command of Vienna until nothing was left.

Franz would never ascend all the way to the throne however. As on a fateful day in June of 1914 in Sarajevo, assassin Gavrilo Princip shot both Franz and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Sophie died instantly, while Franz hung on long enough to espouse "It's nothing. It's nothing." before he too succumbed to his wounds.

* Contrary to popular belief, the band Music/FranzFerdinand is only indirectly named after him. They were actually named after a racehorse, Archduke Ferdinand, which ''was'' named after the Austrian Archduke.

Franz would never ascend all the way to the throne however. As on a fateful day in June of 1914 in Sarajevo, assassin Gavrilo Princip shot both Franz and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Sophie died instantly, while Franz hung on long enough to espouse "[[FamousLastWords It's nothing. It's nothing."]] before he too succumbed to his wounds.

* The band Music/FranzFerdinand is named after him.