Being the President of the United States is a profession not only of great responsibility but also of high risk. Many of the nation’s highest leaders have been shot and killed by individuals who, for various reasons, have attempted to take their lives.
Here is a list of American presidents who have been victims of assassinations or assassination attempts:
- April 1865: Abraham Lincoln shot at point-blank range in Washington.
- July 1881: James A. Garfield dies two months after being wounded.
- September 1901: William McKinley’s assassin shouted, “I have done my duty.”
- October 1912: Theodore Roosevelt survives.
- February 1933: Failed assassination attempt on Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- November 1950: Three men attempt to assassinate President Harry Truman.
- November 1963: John F. Kennedy dies in Dallas in a televised assassination.
- March 1981: Attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan fails.
- July 2024: Assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
The list of assassinated U.S. presidents
The black list of assassinated presidents began with Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), who was also the first president elected by the Republican Party. He won the 1860 election, led the North to victory in the Civil War, and was re-elected in 1864. On April 2, 1865, the Southern actor John W. Booth shot him in a Washington theater.
The next was James A. Garfield, a Republican who began his term in 1881 and lasted only 6 months and 15 days in office, as he died on September 19 of that year after being shot in July by the unemployed Charles Guiteau.
The third, also a Republican, was William McKinley, who in 1901, five years after taking office, was the victim of an anarchist attack at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
Finally, the Democrat John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, in one of the most remembered assassinations in history.
