From Abraham Lincoln To John F. Kennedy, How Many U.S. Presidents Have Been Assassinated?

During a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, former US President Donald Trump was hurried off the stage with blood visible on his ear and face after loud cracking noises were heard. The incident occurred on Saturday evening, which was early Sunday morning in India.

Many on the Internet claimed that Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. On similar lines, let’s take a look at how many US Presidents have been assassinated.

Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated while in office, and many others have faced serious attempts on their lives. Andrew Jackson was the first sitting president to survive a significant assassination attempt, which occurred in 1835. Thirty years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated.

Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12, 1809–April 15, 1865)

On April 15, 1865, just five days after the Civil War officially ended, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife attended Ford’s Theatre to watch the play “Our American Cousin.” During the performance, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln, fatally injured, was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died at 7:22 the next morning.

Booth, a failed actor and Confederate sympathizer, escaped and evaded capture for nearly two weeks. On April 26, U.S. Army troops cornered him in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Booth was shot and killed after refusing to surrender.

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James Garfield (Nov 19, 1831–Sept 19, 1881)

President James Garfield might have survived the July 2, 1881 assassination attempt if penicillin had been discovered at that time. Without antibiotics and modern hygienic practices, doctors repeatedly probed the entry wound in Garfield’s lower back in an unsuccessful effort to locate the two bullets. The president endured for more than two months before passing away.

Charles Guiteau, Garfield’s assassin, was a mentally disturbed man who had stalked the president for weeks in a delusional attempt to secure a federal job. On July 2, he shot President Garfield at a Washington D.C. train station as the president was preparing to board a train. Guiteau was immediately arrested. After a swift trial, he was executed by hanging on June 30, 1882.

William McKinley (March 4, 1897–Sept 14, 1901)

President William McKinley was greeting visitors at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 6, 1901, when Leon Czolgosz emerged from the crowd, drew a gun, and shot McKinley twice in the abdomen at close range. The bullets did not kill McKinley immediately; he lived for another eight days before succumbing to gangrene caused by the wounds.

Czolgosz, a self-proclaimed anarchist, was attacked by the crowd and might have been killed had the police not intervened. He was arrested, tried, and found guilty on September 24. Czolgosz was executed by electric chair on October 29. His last words, as reported by witnesses, were, “I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father.”

John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917–Nov 22, 1963)

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, during a motorcade in downtown Dallas. He was fatally shot in the neck and head while riding with his wife Jackie in an open convertible. Texas Gov. John Connally, also in the car with his wife, was injured by another bullet.

Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, fired from the sixth floor of the Texas State Book Depository overlooking the motorcade route. After the shooting, Oswald fled but was captured later that day after killing a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippit.

Kennedy’s assassination was a landmark event in modern media, dominating TV and radio broadcasts for weeks. Oswald himself was shot and killed on live television two days later while in police custody. Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald, died in prison on January 3, 1967.

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