Ahead of the US presidential election scheduled to take place on November 5, 2024, the recent assassination attempt on former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a reminder of past assassination attempts on US political leaders. evoked. Trump is not the first former president to survive an assassination attempt, and the events of recent months are echoed in U.S. history.
The political histories of the other leaders mentioned below are littered with assassination attempts against presidents and candidates.
donald trump
The assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump in September is nothing new for him, as he was also targeted in July of this year. On September 15, 2024, Trump was reportedly the target of a “possible assassination attempt” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, the FBI said. The incident was the most shocking moment in a campaign year of unprecedented upheaval. Nine weeks ago, on July 13, the Republican presidential candidate was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with a bullet grazing his ear, but he survived another attempt on his life. Ryan Routh, the suspect involved in the September assassination plot, was arrested, and the Secret Service also killed Thomas Crooks, the other suspect who shot President Trump in the ear at a 2024 rally. July 13 was not the first time the 78-year-old’s life was threatened. Similar efforts date back to 2016, when he first ran for president.
ronald reagan
On March 30, 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after giving a speech at the Washington Hilton. His life was saved by the quick actions of his lead Secret Service agent and hospital personnel. And his courage in overcoming those tense hours during the shootings solidified his relationship with the American people, his political standing, and changed the way he approached his work over the next eight years.
gerald ford
In September 1975, former US President Gerald Ford faced two assassination attempts in one month. The attempts took place within just 17 days of each other, and both were conducted by women in California. The first incident occurred on September 5, 1975, when assassin Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromm was tried and convicted. A second assassination attempt occurred on September 22, 1975, when he was again in California to speak at the AFL-CIO’s annual convention. The assassin was identified as Sarah Jane Moore. Meanwhile, after both attempts, a bulletproof trench coat was given to Ford the following month, in October 1975.
Robert F. Kennedy
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was one of the four major assassinations in the United States in the 1960s, several years after the assassinations of Kennedy’s brother John in 1963 and Malcolm X in 1965; This happened two months after the assassination of X. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Robert Francis Kennedy was 42 years old when he was shot down in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. Kennedy, a United States senator and candidate in the 1968 Democratic presidential primary, won the California and South Dakota primaries in June. 4 He then stepped down from the podium and exited through the kitchen hallway before addressing his campaign supporters. He was fatally wounded by multiple bullets fired by Sirhan and died 25 hours later.
John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated while riding in the presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting. He was shot and killed by former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald never faced a murder trial because he was shot and killed by distraught Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being transported after being taken into custody.
theodore roosevelt
On October 14, 1912, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot just before he was scheduled to take the stage at a campaign event. Roosevelt, who survived an assassination attempt by John Schrank, continued to speak despite being shot in the chest. The incident remains one of the most sensational, yet largely forgotten, events in American political history. He stoically delivered an 84-minute campaign speech that night with a .38 revolver lodged in his chest cavity.
William McKinley
William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States. He died on September 14, 1901, due to complications from a gunshot wound inflicted by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot and killed the president while shaking hands with members of the public during a public appearance, receiving two shots in the abdomen. He was the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.
james garfield
James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was shot to death on July 2, 1881 at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, DC. He died two and a half months later, on September 19, in Elberon, New Jersey. 1881. The shooting occurred less than four months after he took office. Charles J. Guiteau was convicted of Garfield’s murder and executed by hanging a year after the shooting.
abraham lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln died the next morning. Lincoln’s death plunged much of the country into despair, and the search for Booth and his accomplices became the largest manhunt in American history to that day.
issued – October 29, 2024 12:37 PM IST
