Gavrilo Princip was a name no one knew on June 1, 1914. Back then, he was a poor Bosnian student from a Serb family.

Gavrilo Princip

But on June 28, 19-year-old Princip  murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg in Sarajevo., setting into motion a chain of events that soon led to World War One. 

Princip was apprehended at the scene. He was shoved to the ground and his pistol was seized. Princip had a capsule of cyanide on him. He had planned to kill himself, so as to face no consequences for his crime and he managed to swallow it. But amazingly it did not kill him.

An undated picture acquired from the historical archives of Sarajevo on June 28, 2014 shows Gavrilo Princip (first row-C) and other members of the “Mlada Bosna” (“Young Bosnia”) revolutionary group in court,. AFP PHOTO/HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF SARAJEVO

Because Princip was 19 when he committed the murder, he was too young to be executed. Habsburg law required convicts to be  20 years old to be executed. Therefore, on October 28, 1914, Princip was found guilty of murder and high treason. He received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, meaning he would be 40 years old when he was released.

But Princip did not serve 20 years or even 5 years. He died April 28, 1918 from tuberculosis, a disease which had already caused one of his arms to be amputated.