The History Room
Top 10 Assassination Attempts
I am just going to give snip of each of each one. Check out the link for it all. It is odd that they didn't include archduke Franz Ferdinand and WWI.
10. Andrew Jackson: Andrew Jackson would become the first (and only US President) to personally beat the crap out of their would-be assassin. On January 30, 1835, President Jackson was attending the funeral of a South Carolina Representative when Richard Lawrence made his move. Lawrence fired two pistols at Jackson both misfired then the President charged at the man and began to beat him with his cane. It took several aides to restrain the 67-year-old Commander in Chief while Davey Crockett apprehended Lawrence.
9. Ronald Reagan: Upon watching the movie Taxi Driver approximately 15 times a man named John Hinckley Jr. became enamored with actress Jodie Foster. After several “rejections” on Foster’s part, Hinckley decided to kill the President of the United States. On March 30, 1981 Hinckley traveled to the Washington Hilton Hotel where Reagan was speaking that day. After Reagan had finished his speech and was about to drive away in his limousine six shots were fired.
One hit Press Secretary James Brady, another struck Washington DC officer Thomas Delahaney, and another hit Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. Two others hit the limousine and one ricocheted off the door of the limo traveling under Reagan’s left armpit. Many didn’t realize that the President had indeed been shot as he was shoved into the limo and driven away.
8. Adolf Hitler: The attempts on Hilter’s life are many and the July 20th Plot of 1944 is probably the most famous of attempts on Hitler’s life, it was also probably the closest to achieving its goal. The one chosen to attack Hitler was Claus von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was in command of the German Reserve Army; he had close personal access to Hitler and he often advised him militarily along with other top Nazi’s
On July 20th, Stauffenberg entered the conference room in Rastenburg, Germany. He planted the device at 12:10 hours and excused himself from the room. The bomb went off at 12:40 hours and Adolf Hitler escaped from the attack with only minor injuries. Stauffenberg fled to Rangsdorff Airport while the rest of the coconspirators were in panic. At 19:00 hours that night he and several others were captured. They were flown to Bendlerblock, Germany’s military headquarters and found guilty of high treason. Claus von Stauffenberg was shot at 1:00 hours on July 21, 1944. Some several hundred others were found guilty in mock trials over the next few months.
7. V.I. Lenin: On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan fired three shots at Vladimir Lenin after he finished a speech in a Moscow factory and was getting into his car. One bullet hit his shoulder and another entered his jaw, the third passed through his coat. The shots rendered him unconscious. Lenin was rushed to his Kremlin apartment and when he regained consciousness he refused to go to the hospital paranoid that he would be finished off there.
6. Viktor Yushchenko: Viktor Yushchenko, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine announced his bid to run for President on the Independent ticket in 2004 against incumbent Viktor Yanukovych. In early September of 2004 Yushchenko was flown to Vienna, Austria and was diagnosed with “acute pancreatitis” due to “a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products.” He was also plagued with jaundice and bloated pockmarks; after seeing his visage on television Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer contacted the Vienna hospital and told them to test for Dioxin. It was concluded that Yushchenko’s condition was indeed from “high concentrations of Dioxin,” with concentration measures about 1,000 times normal in the human body.
5. Pope John Paul II: On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II entered St. Peter’s Square to give a speech and Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot at him. The shots hit his abdominal area. The Pope was pulled into the Vatican then rushed to Gemelli Hospital losing consciousness on the way. He was very near exsanguination upon arrival and spent 5 hours in surgery.
4. Benazir Bhutto: Benazir Bhutto was the first female Prime Minister of any Islamic Nation. She exiled herself for several years after charges of corruption in her ministry and counts of money laundering. In response to the 2007 elections Bhutto promised to return to Pakistan and run again.
On October 18, 2007, Benazir Bhutto arrived in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, to a welcoming crowd. Rumors had been spreading for weeks of an assassination attempt and as she was leaving the airport two bombs went off. Al-Qaeda supporters claimed responsibility for what was revealed to be suicide bombers. Bhutto was unharmed but in the blast 136 people were killed, about 50 were apart of her escort, and around 450 people were injured.
3. Theodore Roosevelt: Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (also called TR) had already served two terms as president when he decided to run for the office again. On October 14, 1912, Teddy was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was about to give a speech when John Schrank shot at the former president. Roosevelt was indeed struck, the projectile passed through his speech and eyeglass case. It went through his skin but didn’t puncture the lung and as a skilled hunter he assessed that since he wasn’t coughing up blood this was the case.
He went on to deliver his speech anyways, blood seeping through his coat, and first said to the crowds, “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” After the speech he went to the doctors where they determined that the bullet had penetrated three inches of skin and chest muscle. Since it was deemed more dangerous to remove the bullet Roosevelt carried the memento with him for the rest of his life.
2. Tsar Nicholas II: He traveled through Kagoshima, then Nagasaki, Kobe and Kyoto. Nicholas was falling for the Japanese culture, it is said that he even got a Japanese tattoo. However on May 11, 1891 at Lake Biwa in Otsu, Tsuda Sanzo, one of the native escorts accompanying the two princes, attacked him. Tsuda’s first swing with a saber struck Nicholas’ forhead. The next was blocked by Prince George’s cane. Tsuda’s motive stems from the belief that he, as a strict Shinto believer, thought it was unholy for Nicholas, a Russian Orthodox, to be visiting holy sites as part of his tour.
1. The Gunpowder Plot: The head of the plot was actually Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes was the one who was to prepare and plant the explosives in the House of Lords during the Parliament sessions. They would mine under a house that one of the plotters rented so that the explosives could be placed and set off when King James and other important Protestant members would be there.
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Originally Posted by Peter1469
