Attacks on U.S. political leaders

U.S. political history is peppered with incidents of assassination attempts on presidents or candidates for office, sometimes successfully so

Donald Trump
Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada
Sep 2024: Ryan Routh allegedly lays in wait at golf course to shoot Trump, but is caught before firing rifle
Jul 2024: Thomas Crooks shoots Trump in ear at rally near Pittsburgh, before being killed by Secret Service
Jun 2016: UK citizen Michael Sandford tries to grab gun from police officer to kill Trump at Las Vegas rally

Ronald Reagan
Washington DC
1981: John Hinckley Jr fires six shots at president, hitting him and three others – they all survive

Gerald Ford
California
1975: Two failed attempts on president by Sara Moore and Lynette Fromme (latter follower of Charles Manson)

Robert F. Kennedy
California
1968: Sirhan Sirhan shoots and kills Kennedy in Los Angeles as he campaigns in Democratic primaries

John F. Kennedy
Texas
1963: Lee Harvey Oswald shoots and kills president in Dallas as he is driven past in motorcade. Assassination continues to spark debate about whether Oswald, who was killed by Jack Ruby two days later, acted alone

Theodore Roosevelt
Wisconsin
1912: John Schrank shoots former president who is saved by bullet hitting his speech notes and glasses case

William McKinley
New York
1901: Leon Czolgosz shoots president who later dies. VP Roosevelt assumes presidency

James Garfield
Washington DC
1881: Writer and lawyer Charles Guiteau shoots president, who dies from his wounds two months later

Abraham Lincoln
Washington DC
1865: John Wilkes Booth fatally shoots president while he watches play – later killed after manhunt
                    
Source: Bloomberg
Pictures: Getty Images, Creative Commons
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