The Blind Young Man prophesied: 'In a time when one has been lord over Bohemia for longer than 60 years, a prince-murder will spark a great war. Then the crowned heads will fall like ripe apples from the trees. The Bohemian lion will no longer be subject, but will rule himself.' This was fulfilled with astonishing precision: Emperor Franz Joseph I ruled Austria-Hungary for 68 years (1848–1916). The assassination of his heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo (June 28, 1914) triggered World War I. After the war, European monarchies fell one after another (Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanov, Ottoman) — 'crowned heads fell like ripe apples.' Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918 — 'the Bohemian lion ruled himself.'