Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Shots fired at Archduke Franz Ferdinand


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July 17, 1909

The New York Times' London bureau received a dispatch earlier today from Vienna regarding a shooting incident that involved Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austrian throne.


The Archduke was on  a train that was bringing him back from a visit to Romania when "four shots were fired at the royal compartment, passing the frontier, one of which narrowly missed the Archduke."

The train "immediately stopped" and a search carried out to find the shooter.  A local landowner, who was carrying a gun, was arrested.  He told the police that he was "merely shooting at bears" and he did not know that his shots had hit the train.

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