There has been some kind of disturbance that clearly sets law enforcement and Secret Service into motion. Welcome to Tech Fin Insider, and today we’re looking at 10 infamous assassination attempts.
For this list, we’re examining the most notorious attempts on the lives of public figures throughout history. What other infamous failed hit jobs did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.
1. Donald Trump
While speaking at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13th, 2024, Republican nominee Donald Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt. During the beginning of his speech, gunfire erupted, and Trump fell to the ground as Secret Service agents surrounded him. Trump, bloodied from a bullet that pierced his ear, raised his fist defiantly before being rushed off stage.
One spectator died during the incident, while the gunman was engaged and killed by the US Secret Service Counter Assault Team. This attack, the first on a presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1981, came amid a polarized political atmosphere in America.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
At Bayfront Park, while FDR spoke from an open car, five revolver shots rang out. In November 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election to become the 32nd president of the United States. A few weeks before his inauguration, Roosevelt was delivering a speech at Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida, when he was shot at by Giuseppe Zangara.
Zangara, an unemployed bricklayer, fired six shots at the then President-elect but failed to hit his target. Instead, he hit five other people, including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who later died of his injuries. Zangara was found guilty of first-degree murder and executed by electric chair.
3. Vladimir Lenin
As the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Lenin played a vital role in the 1917 October Revolution that saw him become the first head of Soviet Russia. In 1918, Fanny Kaplan, a disgruntled socialist revolutionary who saw Lenin as a traitor to the revolution, made an attempt to assassinate him.
After Lenin gave a speech at a factory in Moscow, Kaplan fired three close-range shots at him. Although Lenin survived the attack, he was badly wounded and never fully recovered from his injuries. Kaplan was swiftly arrested, took full responsibility for the incident, and was executed a few days later.
4. Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II was the leader of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. Three years into his reign, John Paul II’s life nearly came to an abrupt end in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. On May 13th, 1981, while entering the square to address an audience, the Pope was shot at by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca. Ağca fired four times, with two of the bullets hitting John Paul II in his torso and left index finger.
Luckily, the bullets missed the Pope’s vital organs, and he survived after emergency surgery. Ağca was apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment but was pardoned in 2000 at the Pope’s request.
5. Charles de Gaulle
Throughout his life, French President Charles de Gaulle is believed to have survived around 30 assassination attempts. Arguably the most infamous of all was the 1962 plot led by French Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry.
On August 22nd, 1962, Bastien-Thiry led a group of three shooters to rain down bullets onto de Gaulle’s motorcade. Miraculously, the president, his wife, and his entourage escaped unharmed. For spearheading the assassination plot, Bastien-Thiry was put to death by firing squad.
6. Malala Yousafzai
Born to an education activist, Malala Yousafzai became an advocate for girls’ rights to education from a young age. She remained outspoken against the Pakistani Taliban decree against girls attending school. In retaliation, Yousafzai was targeted by a Taliban gunman who shot her while she was on a bus going home from school on October 9th, 2012.
She was left in a critical state but fully recovered after life-saving surgery in Pakistan and the UK. Despite the attack, Yousafzai continued her activism and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, becoming the world’s youngest Nobel laureate.
7. Theodore Roosevelt
The 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, remained in office from 1901 to 1909. In 1912, Roosevelt made a third bid for the presidency under his newly founded Progressive Party. On October 14th, while at a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt by John Flammang Schrank. Schrank.
Shot the ex-president in the chest, but the bullet was slowed down by an eyeglass case and a 50-page folded document in his pocket. Roosevelt went on to deliver a 90-minute speech before being taken to the hospital. The bullet remained lodged in his chest until his death in 1919.
8. Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was the target of no less than 634 assassination attempts throughout his life. Some of those plots, orchestrated by the CIA, ranged from elaborate to downright comical, including exploding cigars, poisoned pens, booby-trapped seashells, and a contaminated scuba diving suit.
Despite all the efforts, Castro remained a prominent figure in Cuban politics even after his retirement in 2008. He outlasted 10 US presidents before stepping down due to health issues.
9. Ronald Reagan
A few months after his landslide victory against incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan very nearly lost his life. On March 30th, 1981, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. while leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel. Motivated by a desire to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster, Hinckley fired six shots, hitting Reagan once.
Reagan was seriously wounded, suffering a broken rib, collapsed lung, and internal bleeding. He was rushed to the hospital and eventually recovered after emergency surgery.
10. Adolf Hitler
Given the despicable acts he orchestrated, it’s no surprise that there were multiple plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The most infamous being the 20 July plot. About a year before World War II would come to an end, a group of German resistance officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg plotted to assassinate Hitler using explosives. On July 20th, 1944, von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase with explosives in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with some military officers.
However, the briefcase was moved further away from Hitler before it could detonate, sparing him of any serious injuries. Hitler’s grip on power tightened afterwards, and he ordered the execution of almost 5,000 people involved in the failed plot.
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