Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie paused at the National Library (then the town hall) on that fateful day in 1914. Despite an earlier unsuccessful assassination attempt that day, they rode west along the riverside in an open car to the Latin Bridge. It was here that Gavrilo Princip stepped forward to fire his pistol, killing them both and sparking off war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Thanks to a series of European alliances, this escalated into WWI.
