Gavrilo Princip fired the shots on June 28 , 1914 . He fatally wounded Austro - Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife . But there are also a number of Bosnian Serbs who view him as a hero . The assassination is considered the beginning of World War I .
Gavrilo Princip fired the shots on June 28 , 1914 . He fatally wounded Austro - Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife . The assassination is considered the beginning of World War I .