List of assassinations & attempts on US presidents, presidents-elect, or presidential candidates
Backgrounder
BEIJING – Former US President-cum-presidential candidate Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally in Butler in the US state of Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Throughout US history, there have been assassination attempts on its presidents, presidents-elect, or presidential candidates.
The following is a list of these events.
Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot in the head by well-known actor John Wilkes Booth while watching a show at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. He died the following morning. Lincoln's support for black people’s rights has been widely viewed as a motive behind his assassination.
James Garfield
On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot twice, one in the arm, the other in the back by Charles Guiteau in the Baltimore and Potomac train station in Washington, DC. The bullets did not kill the president immediately but he succumbed to his injuries 79 days later, on Sept. 19, 1881, after an infection ravaged his body. Guiteau attacked because he felt betrayed by Garfield when the latter did not appoint him to a diplomatic post.
William McKinley
On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot twice in the chest as he was shaking hands with members of the public at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York by Leon Czolgosz. The president survived for eight days after the attack until September 14, 1901 when his health deteriorated rapidly and he died from a gangrene infection. Czolgosz was an anarchist who said he killed McKinley because he was the head of a corrupt government.
John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot as he was driving past the Texas School Book Depository Building in a presidential motorcade through downtown Dallas, Texas. He died 30 minutes later at Parkland Hospital. The killer Lee Harvey Oswald was a former US Marine soldier.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
On February 15, 1933, president-elect Roosevelt was giving a night speech in Miami, Florida when Guiseppe Zangara attempted to kill him with five shots, all missing the target. Roosevelt was not injured. Zangara was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to death.
Harry S. Truman
On November 1, 1950, Truman was staying at Blair House, across the street from the White House when two gunmen broke in. Truman was not injured after an exchange of gunfire killed a White House policeman and one of the assailants. The other assailant, Oscar Callazo, was arrested and sentenced to death but later released in 1979.
Gerald Ford
In 1975, Ford met with two assassination attempts within weeks but was not hurt in either incident. On September 5, Ford was on his way to meet with California's governor in Sacramento when Charles Manson disciple Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme pushed through a crowd on the street and aimed to shoot him with a semi-automatic pistol, but the gun was not fired.
On September 22, outside a hotel in San Francisco, another woman, Sara Jane Moore, fired one shot at Ford but missed. Both attackers were sent to prison and later released.
Ronald Reagan
On March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot while leaving a speech in Washington, D.C. as he walked toward his motorcade. He was seriously wounded but recovered and was released from the hospital on April 11.
George W. Bush
Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi in 2005 with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade was thrown toward him. The grenade did not explode, and no one was hurt.
Theodore Roosevelt, presidential candidate
A former president, Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1912 while campaigning to return to the White House for a third term. He was not seriously hurt.
Robert F. Kennedy, presidential candidate
On June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot at a Los Angeles hotel after giving his victory speech for winning the 1968 California primary to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. He died on the second day.
Kennedy was a US senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated five years earlier.
George C. Wallace, presidential candidate
Wallace was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot during a campaign stop in Maryland in 1972. He was left paralyzed from the waist down.
- Xinhua
Caption: This video screenshot shows former US president Donald Trump pumping his fist while being helped off the stage by Secret Service personnel at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania after an assassination attempt by a 20-year-old American gunman on Saturday. – Xinhua
