Birth of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The tragic figure whose death led to the outbreak of the First World War was born on 18 December 1863.
Born at the Herberstein Palace in Graz at 7.15 in the morning, Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig and a nephew of the Emperor Franz Josef I, who had been ruling the Austro-Hungarian empire since 1848. His mother, Maria Annunziata, a Bourbon princess of the Two Sicilies, died when Franz Ferdinand was seven. He was educated at home by private tutors and sent into the army. An enthusiast for shooting, he later particularly enjoyed mowing down kangaroos and emus on a trip to Australia and over his lifetime he accumulated an enormous collection of stuffed animals.
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