US leaders who were killed or survived assassination attempts

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump was shot by a gunman during a campaign rally on Saturday in what the FBI called an...
Updated 14 Jul, 2024

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump was shot by a gunman during a campaign rally on Saturday in what the FBI called an attempted assassination of the former U.S. president, who survived the attack and appeared to have a wounded ear.

Below is a list of other previous attempts on the lives of American leaders, successful or not.

Trump urges unity after assassination attempt

Assassinations

  • Four U.S. presidents were assassinated while in office

Abraham Lincoln: Killed in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington.

James Garfield: Shot in 1881 in Washington at a train station, and died of his wounds two and a half months later.

William McKinley: Assassinated in 1901 by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York.

John F. Kennedy: Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy in 1963 in Dallas, Texas as the president rode in a motorcade.

  • Leaders who survived assassination attempts

Three presidents were wounded but survived assassination attempts, while in office or afterwards.

Donald Trump: Trump had just started a campaign speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday, when shots rang out. A bullet appeared to have grazed his ear, which was bleeding. He was rushed by security officials to a black SUV.

Ronald Reagan: He was shot in 1981 outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington but survived the attack. Reagan was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off a limousine and struck him under the left armpit.

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President Gerald Ford: Survived two attempts on his life in less than three weeks in 1975 without being hurt.

Theodore Roosevelt: He was shot in the chest in 1912 while campaigning for elections in Milwaukee and survived.

  • Assassination attempts on other US leaders

Robert F. Kennedy: A U.S. presidential candidate, Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 42 by a gunman in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Alabama Governor George C. Wallace: Shot in 1982 and became paralyzed from the waist down.

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