June 28, 1914 –
Archduck Franz Ferdinand was having an extremely bad day.
He was touring Serbia with his wife, the Mallard Sophie. The purpose of his tour was to get Serbia to calm down, it having become extremely irritable for reasons known only to itself -possibly related to Austria’s occupation of the region. (Either that or gas.)
During their tour, Nedjelko Cabrinovic tossed a grenade into the automobile carrying Archduck Franz Ferdinand and the Mallard Sophie. But Ferdinand heroically knocked the bomb away with his arm, and the driver sped off from the would-be assassin. The driver was naturally addled, and the Archduck and Mallard Sophie became lost. They stopped to ask for directions from a young boy on the side of the road (and, as most men know, this is a no-no – if you are lost, never ask for directions). The conversation went something like this:
"Say, lad, I'm the Austrian Archduck Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne, and this is my wife, the Mallard Sophie. We seem to be lost. If we don't find our way back, I might never have the chance to take the Austrian throne and continue the ruthless and relentless persecution of the Serbian peoples. Could you give us a hand?"
The boy was Gavrilo Princip, and he had just started World War I.
The war ended exactly five years later, on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles is best known for having caused the Second World War.
Gavrilo Princip died of tuberculosis in his jail cell. After his death, the following graffiti was discovered on the wall:
Our ghosts will walk through Vienna, wander through castles, and scare the lords!
The Haus of Dcaligari 