At the highest US government post since 1789, 45 presidents have managed to visit. Reforms, laws and transformations, which were implemented by the first persons of the state, did not always please the masses. Intrigues, conspiracies and political intricacies gave rise to more and more attempts at radical interventions in the life of the country's leaders. So how many US presidents have been assassinated? Let's count.
Abraham Lincoln
The sixteenth president, who took the highest state post back in 1861, fell the first fatal victim. Truly grandiose events fell to the share of this representative of the Republican Party. It was during the reign of Abraham that slavery was finally abolished throughout the country. Under Lincoln, the Civil War of 1861-1865 took place. The bloody confrontation between the North and the South ended in victory for the northerners. America has entered a new stage of economic development, defeating the old anddecaying foundations. But the days of the head of state were numbered.
In the Washington theater on April 14 (only five days after the end of hostilities), during the performance of the play "My American Cousin", a single, but such an accurate shot thundered. The bullet hit Lincoln's head, he was able to live another day, but did not regain consciousness. So, how many US presidents have been assassinated? Account opened: "Abraham, you are the first."
Actor John Booth, who fired the devastating shot, managed to escape. However, on April 26, he was overtaken in Virginia, where he resisted arrest and was shot dead.
James Garfield
A short stay among the leaders of the country was expected by the twentieth American president, elected in March 1881. An interesting fact is that the future killer - a supporter of the ultra-right movement, a certain Charles Guiteau - actively supported Garfield during the election campaign and agitated to vote for him.
This man obviously did not suffer from unselfishness: for his participation, he hoped to receive neither more nor less - a responsible post under the wing of the head of the country. However, there were no vacancies in the presidential team, alas. And Charles, who did not cope with the insult, turned out to be a good shooter: on July 2, 1881, he seriously wounded Garfield in the back in Washington, at the railway station. How many US presidents have been killed? Already two. Let the fatal shot not take away life instantly. James passed awayonly on September 19 of the same year. The doctors here were completely unprofessional. Not only did they not extract the bullet, but they also brought the infection. Maybe deliberately… Who knows? The killer survived Garfield, ending his days on the gallows in June 1882.
William McKinley
Answering the question of how many US presidents have been killed in office, we come to the third (penultimate) deadly victim. Republican McKinley was the darling of the American people. He was believed and identified with Lincoln. And their lives ended almost the same way: tragically and sadly.
During his second term in office, on September 5, 1901, William had the misfortune of attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. The killer, anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who is waiting for him, shoots the president in the stomach. The beginning of the 20th century was not distinguished by special miracles in medicine. The infection and subsequent gangrene caused the death of the head of state, who died 9 days after being wounded. The killer was punished with the electric chair.
John F. Kennedy
With the question "how many presidents of America were killed" we got to the final stage, whose name is John F. Kennedy. Here are just the points in this story, alas, not set.
Already the first reforms of the young president, who took over the reins of power in 1961 on January 20, were not to the taste of powerful circles. By opposing the economic course to the largest industrial corporations in the country, John literally forced them to lower their prices.
Of the significant events that marked his reign, it is worth noting the support of Martin King, who fought for the rights of blacks. It was Kennedy who defused military tensions by making concessions to the USSR and removing nuclear missiles from Turkey. As a result, we have the growing authority of the communist power and the discontent of the Pentagon.
Thinking about how many US presidents were killed, one can philosophize. Perhaps Kennedy would have lived happily ever after had he not run for re-election. By that time, in addition to the Pentagon and the CIA, the FBI and the mafia were in a political conspiracy against him. The united powers that be were not going to endure the reforms of the fearless John for another 4 years.
In November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated on his trip to Dallas in front of thousands of people. The guard pretended to be incompetent because they themselves were in cahoots. While poor John was being shot with rifles, the "faithful" bodyguards desperately looked in some other direction.
However, it was possible to put the blame on Lee Harvey Oswald, who once lived in the USSR. According to the official version, he acted alone, and shot the president from the top floor of the book depository. He himself was killed on November 24, two days after Kennedy's death.
Who is lucky?
But not all planned assassinations of American presidents have been successful. Fortunately for the eight US political leaders, many assassination attempts failed due to poor preparation, due to the well-coordinated actions of the guards, by chance or other reasons. leader in thisThe list was Bill Clinton, whose life from 1993 to 1995 was encroached on as many as thirty times. The detainees, in the amount of 95 people, according to official figures, were mentally unbalanced people. They failed to cause significant harm to the he alth of the head of state. Summarizing how many US presidents were killed, let's confidently call the number 4. The list of failed assassination attempts is twice as long. In addition to Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, and a trio of people's deputies were also born in the shirt, which we will talk about in more detail.
Andrew Jackson
The seventh president was the first of those whose life they dared to encroach on. But he did a lot for this … The law he signed, related to the eviction of the Indians, was inhuman. Freeing the fertile lands from the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland, we althy American landowners slowly seized the trophy territories. Meanwhile, settlers were dying by the thousands.
The powerful financial corporation called the Second Bank of the United States was also abolished at the behest of Jackson. Instead, a chain of private credit institutions was formed.
Actually, the assassination attempt took place in January 1835, exactly in the Capitol building. An unemployed house painter, Richard Lawrence, stepped up close to the president (how could that happen?) and pulled the trigger twice. By chance, the gun misfired.
Theodore Roosevelt
Having brilliantly served two terms in the highest government post, Roosevelt did not calm down and, having missed fouryear, began to run again.
During the election campaign in October 1912, he participated in a political rally, where during his own speech he was shot in the chest. The doctors were afraid to remove the bullet: it remained in Theodore's body until the last days. Roosevelt died in 1919.
Ronald Reagan
In March 1981, when leaving the hotel in broad daylight, a young man jumped up to Reagan, who managed to fire as many as six shots. Four people were wounded then, including the head of state.
Ronald was lucky, because he was wounded in the lung not directly, but by a ricochet: the bullet bounced off the glass of the limousine. A successful operation allowed Reagan to return to government post.
Here, perhaps, is the whole chain of successful and failed attempts to end the life of the heads of the country. So how many times have US presidents been assassinated? Now you know.
