Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo Bosnia on 28th of June 1914. A month after the Sarajevo assassination, Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia on 28th of July 1914 and with the involvement of several other countries in the conflict World War I broke out. Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830–1916), who had been Emperor of Austria for 68 years, died in the middle of the war on 21st of November 1916 in Vienna. His grand-nephew Charles I (1887–1922; Emperor of Austria 1916–1918) ascended the throne.