Throughout the history of the United States, 45 American presidents have been in power. The first of them was elected in 1789. This is George Washington (1732-1799). He served two terms as president from 1789 to 1797. The current President of the United States is Donald Trump. He was elected to high government office in November 2016. His powers expire on January 20, 2021. All presidents are worthy people. They honestly served the state and did everything to ensure that America became the most powerful power in the world.
But, while implementing reforms and transformations, the people's representatives often caused discontent in certain financial circles. Mentally ill individuals also showed increased interest in the top officials of the state. This provoked attempts on the lives of US presidents. The result was the assassination of 4 American leaders. Below is a list of the most famous assassination attempts.
The assassination of American presidents began on January 30, 1835. But the first pancake turned out to be lumpy. There were attempts to assassinate 7 US President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). He was elected to the presidency in 1829. Left the White House in 1837. Andrew was the first representative of the Democratic Party of the United States to become chief executive.
This man, while in a high government position, carried out a number of very unpopular and even inhumane measures. He signed the Indian Removal Act. The indigenous inhabitants of the mainland were relocated to the so-called Indian Territories. These are the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. And the ancestral fertile lands were seized by rich American landowners.
Thousands of people died during the resettlement. On new lands they also continued to die, as they found themselves in completely different climatic conditions. This can be described as genocide. But this was not the reason for the assassination attempt. Jackson abolished the Second Bank of the United States, a powerful private financial corporation. Instead, many private credit institutions appeared.
The result of this was an assassination attempt on the president. Right in the Capitol building on January 30, 1835, Andrew Johnson was approached by a certain Richard Lawrence. He pulled out a gun and pulled the trigger twice. But the weapon misfired. Richard Lawrence was an unemployed house painter. According to him, the reason for the assassination attempt was chronic lack of money. The painter considered the president to be the main culprit, since it was thanks to his activities that the company where Richard worked went bankrupt.
The series of murders and attempts on American presidents continued on April 14, 1865. The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), was fatally killed by an assassin. This was the first president from the Republican Party. He assumed high government office in 1861. Under Lincoln, the Civil War between North and South occurred (1861-1865), and slavery was completely abolished throughout the country.
After being elected to a second term, Lincoln ended the war victoriously. The southerners were defeated. Thus, the new and progressive defeated the old and decaying. America has moved to a new stage of economic development, but the president himself paid for it with his life. On April 14, 1865, literally 5 days after the end of the war, actor John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) shot the president in the head. It happened in a theater in Washington during the play “My American Cousin.”
The killer managed to escape from the crime scene. But on April 26, the police caught up with him in Virginia. Booth tried to resist arrest and was shot by police sergeant Boston Corbett. The president himself died on April 15 without regaining consciousness. Lincoln is considered a national hero of the American people.
The next victim was the 20th US President James Garfield (1831-1881). He was elected to the presidency in March 1881. Already on July 2 of the same year, he was seriously wounded by a shot in the back at a railway station in Washington. An attempt was made on his life by a certain Charles Guiteau (1841-1882), a supporter of the ultra-right movement.
It is interesting that the killer actively campaigned for Garfield during the election campaign. He hoped that his efforts would be counted, and the elected head of state would appoint him to a responsible post. However, the expectations of this vain man were not met. There was no place for him on the presidential team. Charles harbored a grudge, and its consequence was a fatal shot.
The president died on September 19, 1881. The cause of death was improper treatment. Doctors were unable to remove the bullet, but introduced an infection into the body. Whether this was done intentionally or not is unknown. As for the murderer, he was hanged on June 30, 1882. At the time of his execution he was 40 years old.
The assassinations of American presidents continued at the very beginning of the 20th century. The victim was the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley (1843-1901). He is a Republican and was elected head of state in 1896. In 1900 he was re-elected for a second term. Mortally wounded on September 5, 1901 in Buffalo (New York) while attending the Pan-American Exhibition. The killer is Leon Czolgosz (1873-1901). A native of Prussia, American anarchist.
He shot the president in the stomach. The result was gangrene, and William McKinley died on September 14. This death brought grief to the entire American people. The assassinated president was identified with Lincoln. The killer found his death on October 29, 1901 in the electric chair.
One of the most prominent US presidents is Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). He held the highest government position from 1901 to 1909. This is the 26th President of America. The attempt on his life happened on October 14, 1912. At this time, Roosevelt was not the head of state, but participated in the election campaign for the presidency, seeking to become the 28th president.
Before starting a speech at a rally in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by John Schrank, a mentally unstable man. Despite the injury, the presidential candidate gave a speech that lasted 90 minutes. They did not remove the bullet, as this would only worsen the health condition. She remained in Roosevelt's body until his death in 1919.
They also tried to assassinate 32 US Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945). This is an outstanding personality. It was Franklin Roosevelt who provided invaluable assistance to the USSR during the war with Nazi Germany. He abolished Prohibition, which dealt a serious blow to the mafia, as it lost huge profits. The assassination attempt on this outstanding personality was made on February 15, 1933 by the anarchist Giuseppe Zangarra. This happened after the presidential elections, but even before the inauguration. An unpleasant incident occurred in the city of Miami.
The future president was saved by a simple American woman. When the killer raised his gun to shoot, the courageous woman hit the criminal on the arm. As a result, the bullet went sideways and hit a congressman standing nearby. He was wounded, but Roosevelt remained safe and sound.
Harry Truman (1884-1972) is known throughout the world primarily because, on his orders, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the former USSR he is known as the initiator of the Cold War and the Korean War. This is the 33rd President of the United States. He held his high post from 1945 to 1953.
The assassination attempt on Harry Truman occurred on November 1, 1950. At this time he was in his personal residence. The attackers were Puerto Ricans Griselio Torresola and Oscar Colazzo. These two nationalists opened fire on the guards with machine guns and tried to enter the house. As a result of the shootout, the first attacker was killed and Colazzo was seriously wounded. The court sentenced him to the electric chair, but Truman showed mercy by replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment.
The assassinations of American presidents continued in the second half of the 20th century. The most mysterious murder occurred on November 22, 1963. The victim was the 35th President of the United States, John Kennedy (1917-1963). This is the first head of state who was born in the 20th century. The inauguration took place on January 20, 1961.
The young president contrasted his political and economic course with large industrial corporations. He forced them to lower their prices. This caused discontent in powerful circles. Kennedy supported Martin Luther King in his fight for black rights. Made concessions to the USSR by removing nuclear missiles from Turkey. This removed the military tension that arose as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But at the same time, the authority of the communist power increased, which caused discontent in the Pentagon.
John Kennedy ruined relations with many of the powers that be. The result was a political conspiracy. It involved the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI and the mafia. It was subsidized by powerful financial monopolies. The President would not have been killed if he had not expressed a desire to run for a second term. No one was going to tolerate the extravagant actions of young Kennedy for another 4 years.
On November 22, 1963, during a trip to Dallas, Texas, John Kennedy was assassinated in front of many thousands of people. The security showed amazing carelessness. While the president was being shot from rifles, not a single bodyguard even moved. That is, the Secret Service was also part of the conspiracy.
All the blame was placed on a figurehead who at one time lived in the USSR. This is Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963). Allegedly, he single-handedly killed the US President, sitting with a rifle on the top floor of the book depository. There are many inconsistencies and dark spots in this criminal case. Oswald himself was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on November 24. That is, 2 days after the assassination of the president. He killed right in the police station in front of many people.
Jack Ruby is a mafia man. This is evidenced at least by his activities in the field of entertainment business. The assassination of Kennedy was led by a certain Hunt, a CIA officer. Five years later, he also led the assassination of Robert Kennedy, John’s brother. But all these facts were obtained not as a result of the official investigation, but by independent researchers of the most notorious murder of the 20th century.
38 President Gerald Ford (1913-2005) had 2 assassination attempts. This is the only head of state who was not popularly elected to the post of vice president and president. In 1973, he was appointed vice president following the resignation of Spiro Agnew. In 1974, he became president due to the resignation of the 37th US President Nixon. He remained in high office until January 20, 1977.
On September 5, 1975, Gerald Ford was shot by Lynette Fromme. She was a member of a terrorist gang. The gun misfired. A little over 2 weeks passed, and on September 21, Ford was shot again. This happened in Los Angeles. Sarah Jane Moore tried to carry out the assassination attempt. She was one of the activists of the left movement. The woman fired a shot, but missed. The President was not injured.
40 US President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was assassinated on March 30, 1981 in Washington. This happened 2 months after the inauguration. Reagan was leaving the hotel after meeting with members of the construction union. Naturally, a crowd gathered to gaze at the head of state.
Suddenly, a young man rushed towards the president and fired 6 shots. In addition to Reagan, 3 more people were wounded. The President was hit in the lung by a bullet. But it was not a direct hit. First, a red-hot piece of metal hit the armored glass of the limousine, and then ricocheted and hit the head of state.
Ronald Reagan was operated on and returned to his duties. The criminal's name was John Hinckley. He worked as a disc jockey and suffered from mental illness. The man was placed in a psychiatric clinic, where he is still located.
30 assassination attempts were being prepared against 42 US President Bill Clinton (born 1946). 95 people were detained. All of them turned out to be mentally ill people. The assassination attempts occurred between 1993 and 1995.
However, not only killers pose a danger to the powers that be. No less a threat sometimes comes from women. Here we can name Monica Lewinsky, who, while working as an intern at the White House, entered into an intimate relationship with the head of state.
This ugly story happened in 1996, and the details became known in 1998. The press immediately fanned the scandal, which gave rise to Clinton's impeachment proceedings. Fortunately, he escaped with fear and a fine of 25 thousand dollars. But the reputation of the Democratic Party was tarnished, and the Republicans won the next presidential election.
The 43rd President George W. Bush (born 1943) was also blacklisted. The assassination attempt took place on May 10, 2005 in Tbilisi. Georgian citizen Harutyunyan threw a grenade towards the stage that was built on Freedom Square. It did not explode by pure chance, as it was tightly wrapped in a red handkerchief, and the president remained safe and sound.
But the criminal managed to escape. He was detained only on July 20. A Polish photo reporter helped with this, who accidentally photographed the place from which the grenade was thrown. Harutyunyan was arrested near his home in Tbilisi. During his arrest, he killed one of the leaders of Georgian counterintelligence. On January 11, 2006, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced the terrorist to capital punishment - life imprisonment.
In 2007, Jordanian police uncovered a plot against George W. Bush. He was supposed to visit the country in November, but the attackers were arrested back in March. They planned to blow up the US embassy while the president was there.
At the end of August 2008, an assassination attempt was being prepared in Denver on presidential candidate Barack Obama (b. 1961). The pre-election convention of the Democratic Party was taking place in the city at that time. The FBI managed to arrest 3 attackers in time, who categorically did not want an African American to take part in the elections.
Let's hope that the assassinations of American presidents are history. Still, the work of special secret services that ensure the safety of government leaders is improving every year. And therefore the likelihood of a successful assassination attempt is steadily decreasing. Although, who knows. Terrorists also do not stand still and come up with more and more sophisticated ways to destroy people.
From time immemorial, top officials of states were under the constant threat of coups and conspiracies. The number of monarchs who lost their lives by violent means defies description.
The transition to a constitutional monarchy and a republican system, which occurred at a particularly rapid pace in the 20th century, did not change the situation. Only now, along with kings and queens, prime ministers are also at risk.
AiF.ru recalled the loudest and most resonant murders of state leaders that have occurred since the beginning of the 20th century.
US President William McKinley
The last photo of President McKinley. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
William McKinley was elected President of the United States in 1896. His time in the White House is considered the heyday of imperialism and protectionism. In 1898, the United States won a military conflict with Spain, which allowed it to establish control over Cuba, and then over Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Success in foreign policy and economic growth at home made McKinley extremely popular. In 1900, he was re-elected to a new presidential term without any problems.
On September 5, 1901, the president and his wife arrived in Buffalo to take part in the Pan-American Exposition. The official program of the visit included several receptions, a parade and a presidential speech.
On September 6, McKinley attended a public reception held at the Temple of Music Pavilion. A crowd of people gathered around the president, wanting to shake his hand. McKinley never turned anyone down. About ten minutes later, a young man with a bandaged hand approached him. When he handed it to the president, two shots were heard. McKinley was seriously wounded.
The criminal was captured at the scene. He turned out to be an anarchist of Hungarian origin Leon Czolgosz, who considered the US President “a tyrant from whom the world should be rid.” The weapon was hidden in a bandage on his arm, which the guards did not pay attention to.
Of the two bullets, one went tangentially, but the second hit the stomach and hit vital organs. However, after first aid was provided, the president’s condition began to improve. However, on September 12, a deterioration occurred, believed to be due to blood poisoning. On September 14, 1901, William McKinley died.
Court on Leon Czolgosz began nine days after the death of the president and was completed in three days. On September 26, 1901, he was sentenced to death in the electric chair. The sentence was carried out on October 29, 1901.
French President Paul Doumer
Paul Doomer on his deathbed, 1932. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Experienced French politician Paul Doumer became president at the end of his career, defeating the much more famous and charismatic Aristide Briana. This was explained by the fact that Doumer, a moderate in his views, was considered a neutral candidate, while Briand had many irreconcilable opponents.
Doumer took office at age 74, becoming one of the oldest French presidents. He remained in office for less than a year.
On May 6, 1932, President Doumer opened a charity book fair for World War I veterans in Paris. The head of state himself lost four sons in this war.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, shortly after the president arrived at the event, shots rang out. Russian emigrant shot Pavel Gorgulov, who entered the exhibition with an invitation card addressed to “veteran writer Paul Breda.”
The president was hit by two bullets: in the base of the skull and in the right shoulder blade. Dumer, who lost consciousness, was taken to the hospital, where during the operation he came to his senses and asked: “What happened to me?” They answered: “You were in a car accident.” “Wow, I didn’t notice anything!” - said Doumer, fell into oblivion again and died at 4 a.m. on May 7.
The killer was beaten by others and detained at the crime scene. During the search, a political declaration was seized from Gorgulov entitled “Memoirs of Dr. Pavel Gorgulov, the supreme chairman of the political party of Russian fascists, who killed the president of the republic.”
Pavel Gorgulov after his arrest. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
According to the criminal, he acted alone, of his own free will, and took revenge on France, which refused the anti-Bolshevik intervention in the USSR.
Several versions were put forward about the involvement of intelligence services of various countries in the murder of Doumer, but all of them were not confirmed. Investigators who worked with Gorgulov doubted his mental adequacy. Doctors, however, came to the conclusion that the killer was sane.
In July 1932, the court sentenced Pavel Gorgulov to death. On the morning of September 14, 1932, the murderer of Paul Doumer was executed by guillotine.
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia Karageorgevich
Alexander I Karageorgevich. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Alexander I Karadjordjevic, Supreme Commander of the Serbian Army during World War I, ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1921. In 1929, the king carried out a coup, establishing a military-monarchical dictatorship in the country, which in many ways copied the state structure of Tsarist Russia. The country was renamed Yugoslavia.
In 1934, Alexander I Karageorgevich went on an official visit to France, where, in particular, he was supposed to meet with the head of the French Foreign Ministry, the former Prime Minister Louis Barthoux.
Barth nurtured the idea of a system of collective European security, which, according to his plan, was to include the Soviet Union. The visit of the King of Yugoslavia was an important stage in the negotiation process, which was led by the head of the French Foreign Ministry.
On October 9, 1934, Alexander I Karageorgevich arrived on the destroyer Dubrovnik in the port of Marseille, where he was met by Barthou and other high-ranking representatives of France.
After welcoming speeches, the king and the minister left the port for the municipal building, where negotiations were to take place. They were driving an unarmored Delage-DM car with large windows and wide running boards the entire length of the cabin, from the front to the rear fender, and a convertible top in the rear.
Instead of the planned escort of motorcyclists, the limousine was accompanied by two mounted guards. In addition, the car was moving at an extremely low speed - 4 km per hour instead of the required 20 km per hour in such cases.
As the car approached its destination, a man jumped out of the crowd, jumped on the running board and opened fire. Before the guards managed to neutralize the terrorist, he wounded the king twice, the French General Georges, who was in the car, four times, as well as Barta and the policeman who was in the cordon.
Attempt on the life of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseille, 1934. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Only after this, one of the horsemen accompanying the car managed to strike the attacker two times with a saber, after which he fell. In the ensuing chaos, the police opened indiscriminate fire, killing two people in the crowd and injuring several more.
Alexander I Karageorgevich was taken to the municipal building, where he died a few minutes later. Louis Barthou died from blood loss due to an incorrectly applied bandage. The doctors managed to save the general’s life.
The terrorist died from his wounds in the evening of the same day. He was identified as Velichko Georgiev, militant of the Bulgarian terrorist organization VMORO, also known as Vlado Chernozemsky. Three accomplices of the killer were identified, detained and sentenced to death. According to the widespread version, the secret services of Nazi Germany stood behind the Bulgarian terrorists.
US President John Kennedy
John Kennedy. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy is one of the most notorious in a series of cases of violent death of political leaders. Despite the fact that dozens of books have been written about this crime and several films have been made, there is still no final clarity on what actually happened even half a century later.
On November 22, 1963, current US President John F. Kennedy arrived in the city of Dallas as part of the campaign in preparation for the 1964 presidential election, in which he was going to run for a second term.
At 11:40 on November 22, the President's plane arrived at Love Field Airport. Ten minutes later, the presidential motorcade left the airport for the city. Kennedy and his wife were in an open limousine, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connolly with his wife, as well as two US Secret Service agents.
After the limousine passed the school book depository located on the corner of Houston and Elm Streets, shots were fired at exactly 12:30 p.m.
According to the official version, the first bullet hit John Kennedy in the back, passed through and exited through the neck, also wounding the man sitting in front of him in the back and wrist John Connolly. The second bullet struck Kennedy in the head, creating a fist-sized exit hole in the right side of his head, so that parts of the interior were splattered with brain fragments.
Kennedy in the presidential limousine moments before the assassination. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The President's motorcade immediately accelerated, and five minutes later Kennedy was taken to Parkland Hospital, where doctors attempted to save the President's life. At the same time, doctors initially considered the head wound fatal. At 13:00 the death of John Kennedy was officially recorded.
One of the eyewitnesses Howard Brennan, testified that he saw a man shooting from the window of the sixth floor of the book depository. Book Depository Officer Roy Truly told the police that his subordinate Lee Harvey Oswald left the building immediately after the shots were fired.
A carbine with a telescopic sight was discovered on the sixth floor of the book depository.
The police, having established Oswald's home address, went to his home, but by this time Kennedy's alleged assassin was no longer there. On the street, a patrolman tried to stop Oswald, but he responded by opening fire with a revolver and killing the policeman.
Lee Harvey Oswald was detained in a movie theater an hour and twenty minutes after Kennedy was shot.
That same night he was charged with the murder of the president and a policeman, but the detainee denied his guilt.
On November 24, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot dead as he was leaving the police station accompanied by police officers. nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
Ruby, who was arrested at the crime scene, said that he had helped the city of Dallas "vindicate" itself in the eyes of the public and that he did not regret Oswald's death and did so in order to spare Mrs. Kennedy from having to act as a witness in the presidential assassination trial.
On March 4, 1964, Jack Ruby was found guilty of premeditated murder, for which the death penalty was imposed. Ruby did not wait for the sentence to be carried out - on January 3, 1967, he died of a pulmonary embolism in the very hospital where Oswald died and where Kennedy’s death was recorded.
The official version of the murder has been criticized for decades. Researchers believe that the US President was the victim of a conspiracy, not a lone killer. However, there is still no conclusive evidence for any of the theories.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, who assumed the presidency of Egypt in 1970, after his death Gamal Abdel Nasser, decisively revised the country's foreign policy. Instead of close relations with the USSR, Sadat began rapprochement with the West, and in 1976 he denounced the Soviet-Egyptian friendship treaty.
In 1978, at Camp David, Sadat reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Menahin Begin about peace, mutual recognition and the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The peace treaty was concluded on March 26, 1979.
Camp David Agreement. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
In the Arab world, Sadat's agreement with Israel was seen by many as a betrayal. In addition, within Egypt, radical Islamists opposed Sadat’s policies, dissatisfied with the introduction of Western values into the life of the country.
On October 6, 1981, a military parade was held in Cairo to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The parade began exactly at 11:00 local time. Having received a report from the parade commander, the Egyptian President, accompanied by a group of dignitaries and senior army officers, ascended to the podium for the guests of honor. Anwar Sadat took a central place in the first row on the podium.
Towards the end of the parade, at approximately 11:40, an artillery truck, which was moving through the square in a formation of military equipment, suddenly braked. Located in it Lieutenant Khaled Ahmed al-Islambuli in paratrooper uniform, he jumped from the car and threw a hand grenade towards the podium. It exploded before reaching its target. A few seconds later, five more paratroopers jumped from the truck platform and opened machine-gun fire at the government podium.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat with Vice President Hosni Mubarak on the day of President Sadat's assassination. October 1981. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Sadat rose from his seat, and the bullets pierced his neck and chest, hitting the pulmonary artery. The President was taken to the hospital, where he died. During the resulting shootout, some government members and foreign guests present at the parade were killed or wounded - 7 killed and 28 wounded.
The organizers of the terrorist attack were the groups Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. After the assassination of Sadat, some of the protesters fled abroad. Three perpetrators of the terrorist attack were captured on the spot, and another three days later. Was also arrested engineer Mohammed Abdel Salam Farrag, who developed the plan to assassinate Sadat. On 15 April 1982, Farragh and two civilian conspirators were hanged, and the former military Islambuli And Abbas Ali shot.
Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Daughter the first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru Indira Gandhi was very popular all over the world, including in the USSR.
People who sympathized with the charming woman hardly thought about the fact that under this appearance was hidden a tough and decisive politician. Indira Gandhi served as Prime Minister of India for 15 years, largely due to her ability to make and implement extremely tough decisions.
In the early 1980s, India faced the problem of Sikh terrorism. Extremist Sikh organizations demanded the autonomy of the state of Punjab and the creation of a Khalistan state there. The religious leader of Sikh extremism was considered Jarnail Singh Bindranwal. In 1982, Bindranwal settled on the grounds of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the main Sikh shrine, which as a result became not only a radical stronghold, but also a weapons factory.
Having failed to resolve the problem through negotiations, Indira Gandhi decided to resort to military force.
In June 1984, the Indian Army, on the orders of the Prime Minister, carried out Operation Blue Star to eliminate the terrorists holed up in the Golden Temple.
According to official Indian data, 83 military personnel and 492 people, both militants and peaceful pilgrims, including 30 women and 5 children, were killed during the assault. Among those killed was extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bindranwal. Sikh representatives claimed that 10,000 people died during the storming of the temple.
Indira Gandhi received threats of revenge. She was strongly advised to abandon the Sikh bodyguards who were part of her personal security. However, the Prime Minister refused to do this.
On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was scheduled to have an interview with English actor and playwright Peter Ustinov. The film crew was waiting for her at the reception residence of the Prime Minister. The road to the reception area led through an open courtyard and was strewn with white gravel. Two Sikh bodyguards in blue turbans were on duty at the edges - Beant Singh And Satwant Singh. Having caught up with them, Indira Gandhi smiled welcomingly, in response, Beant Singh, who was standing on the left, pulled out a revolver and fired three bullets at her. After that, Satwant Singh, point-blank, slashed at the already fallen woman with a burst of 25 bullets from an automatic rifle.
The killers surrendered to guards from the Indo-Tibetan Border Guard who arrived. A few minutes later, at the guard house, Beant Singh was killed and Satwant Singh was seriously wounded. It is still unclear whether they tried to resist or became victims of lynching.
The wounded Indira Gandhi was urgently taken to the Indian Institute of Medicine, but the doctors could not do anything - eight bullets hit her vital organs. A few hours later she died.
Satwant Singh and another conspirator, Kehar Singh, were sentenced to death and hanged at Tihar Jail in New Delhi on January 6, 1989. Another accused - Balbir Singh— was also sentenced to death, but in 1988 the Supreme Court of India found him not guilty and acquitted him.
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme
Olof Palme (1968). Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
For prosperous and stable Sweden in the mid-1980s, the murder of the country's prime minister came as a bolt from the blue. The leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Sweden, Olof Palme, served as head of government for a total of more than ten years, but it seemed that he could not provoke anyone into a terrorist attack with his activities.
Until 1986, Swedish politicians led a free lifestyle, unencumbered by the need to surround themselves with a whole staff of security guards. The country's Prime Minister attended public events without fear for his safety.
There were no guards near Palme on February 26, 1986, when he and his wife went to the Grand cinema in Stockholm in the evening. After the end of the session, the Palme couple went home. At the intersection of Sveavegen and Tunnelgatan streets, a lone man approached them and fired twice from a Smith & Wesson revolver.
Olof Palme's death occurred almost instantly - after being shot in the back, the bullet passed through the chest, rupturing the aorta. The prime minister's wife was slightly wounded by the second bullet. Lisbeth Palme.
Roses for Olof Palme at the crime scene, March 3, 1986. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Over three decades, several dozen versions of the prime minister’s murder have been put forward, involving right- and left-wing radicals, MOSSAD, the CIA and the KGB, supporters of South African apartheid and large Swedish industrialists. None of the hypotheses, however, are supported by convincing evidence.
Christer Pettersson. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
In December 1988, Palme was arrested on charges of murder. Christer Pettersson- an unbalanced person with no specific activities, known to use drugs. He was involved with a criminal Lars Thingström nicknamed Demoman, whom he became friends with in prison. It was known that there was an agreement between them that if the Demoman was again in prison, then Pettersson would avenge him in such a way that it would go down in history. At the same time, both friends hated Olof Palme.
Pettersson was identified as the killer by Lisbeth Palme. Based on this testimony, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, the Court of Cassation in 1989 overturned the verdict due to insufficient evidence: there was no weapon for the crime, and the prosecution’s position was based mainly on evidence of Pettersson’s presence in the area where the murder occurred at the time of its commission.
Even after Pettersson's release, many Swedes were convinced that he was the killer of Olof Palme. However, it was never possible to prove this.
In September 2004, Pettersson, leaving the emergency room after breaking his arm, fell and hit his head on the asphalt. Doctors discovered he had a fracture of the base of his skull and a cerebral hemorrhage.
Despite all the efforts of doctors, Christer Pettersson died without regaining consciousness on September 29, 2004.
President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana and President of Burundi Cyprien Natparyamira
President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana (left) and President of Burundi Cyprien Natparyamira Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
On April 6, 1994, the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi were returning on the same plane from Tanzania, where they participated in an international conference related to the process of political stabilization in Rwanda in accordance with the Arusha Accords on August 4, 1993.
On approach to the airport of the capital of Rwanda, Kigali, the presidential plane Dassault Falcon 50 was attacked from a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system. As a result, the plane was shot down and everyone on board died.
Both Habyarimana and Natparyamira belonged to the Hutu people, who are in conflict with their Tutsi neighbors.
Immediately after the death of the presidents, Tutsi representatives were accused of the terrorist attack. Kigali airport, which was under the control of the international UN contingent, was captured within half an hour by the presidential guard of the deceased president, and Rwandan army and militia checkpoints began to appear in the city.
That same night, massacres of Tutsis began in Kigali, sweeping the entire country. In response, the opposition Rwandan Patriotic Front, which was based on Tutsi representatives, began to kill Hutu representatives.
Over the next three and a half months, about 1 million people were killed in Rwanda, and the reprisals were carried out with extreme cruelty.
It has not yet been possible to identify those responsible for the murder of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, which served as the impetus for the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (right), Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat (left) received the Nobel Peace Prize after the Oslo agreement. 1994 Photo: www.globallookpress.com
In the 1950s and 1960s, Yitzhak Rabin became famous as a brilliant military man. During the Six-Day War, Rabin was the Chief of the Israeli General Staff and in this capacity led the Israeli army to a magnificent victory over the armed forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
In the early 1990s, the experienced politician Yitzhak Rabin, who became the country's prime minister, came to the conclusion that peace in Israel could be brought not by military action, but by an agreement with the Palestinians.
In 1993, Rabin signed an agreement with head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat- the so-called “Declaration of Principles”. It contained the main parameters of an interim agreement on Palestinian self-government, agreed upon between the parties: the immediate establishment of Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho enclave, its early extension to the Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria, an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian government and the election of a legislative council.The agreement that led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority was highly praised throughout the world. Rabin, Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, both Arab and Israeli radicals were hostile to the agreement, accusing the leaders of treason.
On November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin participated in a rally of thousands in support of the peace process, which was held in the Square of the Kings of Israel in Tel Aviv.
After the end of the rally, the Prime Minister was approaching his car, and at that moment three shots were fired at him. The wounded Rabin was rushed to the Ichilov hospital, where the prime minister died forty minutes later.
The killer was detained at the crime scene. It turned out to be far-right religious and political extremist Yigal Amir. The criminal explained his actions with a desire to protect the Israelis from agreements with the Palestinians.
On March 27, 1996, the court sentenced Yigal Amir to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Yigal's brother, Hagai Amir, was found to be an accomplice to the murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Hagai Amir was released in 2012, Yigal Amir remains in prison. Both of them have repeatedly stated that they do not repent, but, on the contrary, are proud of what they did.
Abraham Lincoln, with his enacted reforms, defeated the southern slaveholders who had formed during Pierce's administration.
Under McKinley's leadership, grandiose colonial conquests took place. It was thanks to this that the Hawaiian Islands began to become part of America.
Woodrow Wilson raised America from its knees, making it one of the most powerful countries. During his reign, the US economy became the first in the world.
Truman signed the decision to drop nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He was remembered by the people as a despotic barbarian ruler.
Johnson Lyndon started the Vietnam War. Years later, George Bush Sr. would decide on military action in different parts of the world. Bush Jr. will continue his policy by starting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Territorial merits of presidents
Initially, America was not such a big country. Over the 230 years of its existence, it has almost doubled its territory.
Many US presidents, an impressive list of them, have achieved significant expansion of American territory through reform and conquest. Under James Monroe, five states were added to the country. John Tyler achieved the entry of the state of Texas into the territory subject to the United States. Thanks to James Knox Polk, America was replenished with states such as Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada. Later it was decided to annex the state of Colorado.
Under Zachary Taylor, the so-called gold rush began. It was during his tenure as president that gold deposits were discovered in the state of California.
At the instigation of James Buchanan, negotiations began with Russia on the annexation of Alaska. William McKinley, thanks to the conquests, appropriated the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Coins depicting US presidents
The 1 cent coin features Abraham Lincoln in profile. This coin first saw the world in 1982 and was issued until 2008. On the other side is a mausoleum.
The five cents feature a bust of Jefferson. He was the third President of the United States. The reverse side is replete with images of the family estate Monticello.
Franklin Roosevelt left his image on the 10-cent coin. On the other side, a burning torch is drawn between the branches. George Washington immortalized his bust on a 25-cent coin. People remembered it with the inscription on the left side “In God We Trust” and the image of an eagle with outstretched wings. 50 cents are decorated with a portrait of John Kennedy. The anniversary issue of coins falls on 1976.
The $1 coin features Sacagawea with a child on his shoulder. The image is printed on both sides of the coin. US presidents, the list of which is quite large, contributed a lot to the development of the national currency. But not everyone deserved to be immortalized on a metal monetary equivalent. Images of the heads are imprinted not only on coins, but also on the national currency of America - the dollar.
Assassinated US Presidents
The list is small, but it was America that became famous for the death of its heads of state due to murder.
The first president to be assassinated was Andrew Jackson. Then the gun did not fire, and he remained alive.
Abraham Lincoln was shot in the theater and died the next day. James Garfield was shot at a Washington train station. William McKinley also did not escape violent death; he died 8 days after the assassination attempt in Chicago.
There was also an attempt to kill Theodore Roosevelt. It all ended with the president being wounded in the chest.
The most notorious assassination attempt was the assassination of John Kennedy. To this day it remains a mystery to the people.
Gerald Ford almost lost his life. The bullet flew only a few centimeters from the president.
According to media reports, over 30 attempts were made to take the life of Bill Clinton, and all of them ended unsuccessfully.
Film adaptation of the lives of presidents
Films about US presidents, the list of which is presented below, tell about the lives of heads of state. There are films based on real events.
In 1995, the world saw the film “The American President,” presenting the owner of the White House as a wonderful father and just a good family man.
In the same year, a work about the life of the 37th President of the United States, Nixon, was released. This is not the only film material made about the life of Richard Nixon. At the beginning of 2008, the premiere of the film “Frost vs. Nixon” took place.
A film about George W. Bush, based on real events, was released in 2008. It details his rise to power.
In 2012, President Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was released. The film is more fantasy than real film history. That same year, a biographical confession of President Lincoln was presented to the public. The film describes his life during the Civil War.
US presidents, a list of 44 individuals who have contributed to the development of the state, are part of its history.
Since 1789, 45 presidents have held the highest government position in the United States. The reforms, laws and transformations that were implemented by the top officials 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 do the math.
Abraham Lincoln
The first fatal victim was the sixteenth president, who took the highest government post back in 1861. This representative of the Republican Party experienced truly grandiose events. 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 North and South ended in victory for the northerners. America has entered a new stage of economic development, having defeated the old and decaying 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 the military events), during the production of the play “My American Cousin,” a single, but such an accurate shot rang out. The bullet hit Lincoln in the head, he was able to live another day, but never regained consciousness. So, how many US presidents have been assassinated? The score is open: “Abraham, you are first.”
Actor John Booth, who fired the fatal shot, managed to escape. However, on April 26, he was overtaken in Virginia, where he resisted arrest and was shot.
James Garfield
A short stay among the country's leaders awaited 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 campaigned to vote for him.
This man clearly did not suffer from selflessness: for his participation he hoped to receive nothing less than a responsible post under the wing of the head of the country. However, unfortunately, there was no vacancy in the presidential team. And Charles, who could 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. Do we count how many US presidents have been assassinated? Already two. Even if the fatal shot did not claim life instantly. James died only on September 19 of the same year. The doctors here also acted completely unprofessionally. Not only did they not remove the bullet, but they also introduced an infection. Maybe deliberately... Who knows? The killer outlived Garfield, ending his days on the gallows in June 1882.
William McKinley
In answering the question of how many US presidents have been assassinated in office, we have come to the third (penultimate) fatality. Republican McKinley was a favorite 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 Exhibition in Buffalo. The waiting assassin, anarchist Leon Czolgosz, shoots the president in the stomach. The beginning of the 20th century was not distinguished by any special miracles in medicine. Infection and subsequent gangrene caused the death of the head of state, who died 9 days after being wounded. The killer faced punishment in the form of the electric chair.
John Kennedy
With the question “how many were killed,” we have reached the final stage, the name of which is - But, alas, there is no end to this story.
Already the first reforms of the young president, who took the reins of power in 1961 on January 20, did not please the taste of powerful circles. By contrasting the economic course of the country's largest industrial corporations, John literally forced them to lower prices.
Among 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 eased military tensions by making concessions to the USSR and removing nuclear missiles from Turkey. As a result, we have an increased authority of the communist power and discontent of the Pentagon.
When discussing how many US presidents have been assassinated, one can get philosophical. Perhaps Kennedy would have lived happily if he had not run for office again. 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 tolerate the reforms of the fearless John for another 4 years.
In November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated while traveling to Dallas in front of thousands of people. The security pretended to be incompetent, since they themselves were in a conspiracy. While poor John was being shot with rifles, the “faithful” bodyguards desperately looked in some other direction.
However, they managed to shift the blame to 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 assassinated on November 24, two days after Kennedy's death.
Who's lucky?
But not all planned assassinations of American presidents were successful. Fortunately for the eight US political leaders, many assassination attempts were foiled due to poor preparation, security coordination, chance, or other reasons. The leader on this list was whose life was encroached upon as many as thirty times from 1993 to 1995. The detainees, numbering 95 people, according to official data, were mentally unstable people. They failed to cause significant harm to the health of the head of state. Summarizing how many US presidents have been killed, we can 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 three other people's representatives were also born in the shirt, about whom we will talk in more detail.
Andrew Jackson
The seventh president became the first of those whose lives they dared to attempt. But he did a lot for this... The law he signed related to the eviction of Indians was inhumane. Liberating fertile lands from the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland, wealthy American landowners slowly seized trophy territories. Meanwhile, the displaced people died in the thousands.
A powerful financial corporation called the Second Bank of the United States was also abolished by Jackson. Instead, a chain of private credit institutions was formed.
The actual assassination attempt took place in January 1835, right in the Capitol building. Unemployed painter Richard Lawrence walked right up to the president (how could this happen?) and pulled the trigger twice. By chance, the gun misfired.
Theodore Roosevelt
Having brilliantly survived two terms in the highest government post, Roosevelt did not calm down and, after missing four years according to all the rules, began to run again.
During the election campaign in October 1912, he participated in a political rally, where he was shot in the chest during his own speech. The doctors were afraid to remove the bullet: it remained in Theodore’s body until his last days. Roosevelt died in 1919.
Ronald Reagan
In March 1981, while leaving the hotel in broad daylight, a young man jumped up to Reagan and managed to fire as many as six shots. Four 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 window of the limousine. The successful operation allowed Reagan to return to government post.
This, perhaps, is the whole chain of successful and failed attempts to end the lives of the heads of the country. So how many times have US presidents been assassinated? Now you know.
24.11.2013 16:00
Fifty years ago, on November 22, 1963, US President John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy was assassinated. Traditionally, the perpetrator of the murder is considered to be Lee Harvey Oswald, a man of unclear fate - a former marine who left for the USSR in 1959 and returned in 1962. Oswald himself denied his participation in the assassination attempt on the president, but did not live to see the trial - two days later In front of millions of television viewers, police officers, and a crowd of reporters, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, another mysterious figure. There are many conspiracy theories, contrary to the opinion of the Warren Commission (then chairman of the US Armed Forces) - it concluded that Oswald acted alone.
William McKinley, US President. Killed on September 14, 1901 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
Society was outraged, but anarchists welcomed Czolgosz’s “feat”, comparing it to tyrannicide. Czolgosz himself, before his execution on October 21, 1901, stated that “he killed the president because he was the enemy of good people - good hard-working people. I am not ashamed of my crime.”
Ramon Caceres, President of the Dominican Republic. Killed November 19, 1911
There was a constant struggle for power in the country, and as far as we know, the car with the president was ambushed, allegedly set up by some rebels.
Sidonio Pais, President of Portugal.
He was popularly known as the “King President” for his dictatorial habits - after the military coup in December 1917, he simultaneously held the positions of head of state, head of government, minister of defense and minister of foreign affairs, and practically did not pay attention to the constitution and parliament.
Killed on December 14, 1918 by Julio José da Costa, a republican activist who shot the president at the Lisbon train station as he was about to board a train to negotiate with monarchist leaders in the north of the country.
Gabriel Narutowicz, President of Poland. The first elected president of independent Poland, he held this post for only five days. Killed December 16, 1922
Far-right extremist, critic and artist Eligiusz Niewiadomski shot him dead at an art exhibition. In the elections, Narutowicz was supported by the left and a coalition of national minorities (Jews, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, etc.), the nationalists hated him instantly and declared him “the president of the Jews who does not know Polish.” Niewiadomsky was sentenced to death and executed on January 31, 1923.
Paul Doumer, President of France. Killed May 7, 1932
Pavel Gorgulov, a writer, Russian emigrant, who held extreme right-wing views and, apparently, was not completely mentally healthy, mortally wounded him with a Browning gun at the opening of a book fair. During a search, the killer was found with a text entitled “Memoirs of Dr. Pavel Gorgulov, the supreme chairman of the political party of Russian fascists, who killed the president of the republic.” At first it was assumed that the assassination attempt was the result of a conspiracy - either white, or red, or brown, but after a series of investigations that did not give any reason to suspect external influence, it is believed that Gorgulov acted alone. The killer was sentenced to death and guillotined on September 14, 1932.
Luis Miguel Sanchez Cerro, President of Peru.
Abelardo de Mendoza, a member of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance - at that time a very influential organization - shot him while reviewing 25,000 recruits mobilized for the expected war with Colombia. The fate of the killer is unknown, as is the reason for the murder. It can be assumed that the issue was due to political differences: the Alliance disputed Cerro's victory in the elections in October 1932, and the elections themselves were carried out by the junta that seized power in 1930.
Jose Antonio Remon Cantera, President of Panama. Killed January 2, 1955
The circumstances of his death are still not entirely clear. It is known that he was literally riddled with bullets at the hippodrome, but even the number of attackers is not known exactly. According to the most popular version, the president was shot by Ruben Miro, a lawyer by profession, and six other people acting on the orders of Jose Ramon Guizado, who replaced Cantero as president. Guizado was deposed and sentenced to six years in prison, but he was released two years later after Miro and his alleged accomplices were acquitted.
Anastasio Somoza Garcia, President of Nicaragua. A de facto dictator since 1936 and the founder of a dynasty of presidents, his sons Luis and then Anastasio ruled the country for another 23 years after his death.
According to one version, it was about him that US President Roosevelt said the catchphrase about “our son of a bitch” - America supported Somoza as a bastion of anti-communism in the region.
Killed on September 21, 1956. The poet Rigoberto López Pérez infiltrated a party held by the Club Social de Obreros de Leon (León Workers' Club) and shot him dead. Perez himself was killed on the spot by the president's guards.
Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala.
Vázquez, a palace security officer, shot him for an unknown reason, possibly as a result of a conspiracy by Armas' opponents in the leadership of the ruling junta or by supporters of the previously ousted President Arbenz. Vasquez himself was soon also found dead - it is believed that he committed suicide.
Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic.
He was distinguished by an unshakable love for his own person, power and money, and did not hesitate in his means: one of his favorite sayings was: “He who is not my friend is my enemy, and, therefore, he will pay for it.” The country was flooded with lifetime monuments, and up to half of the state budget was spent on the army and police.
Killed on May 30, 1961. The President was ambushed on a road in the vicinity of the capital and was shot by a team of seven people. The assassination attempt was organized by a group of military men and businessmen who intended to take power into their own hands after the murder of Trujillo. But the Trujillo family and their associates managed to retain power, and within a few months, almost all participants in the conspiracy were captured and then executed. Of the perpetrators of the assassination attempt, only one escaped. Presumably, the CIA was also involved in the assassination attempt, because the United States no longer wanted to support a completely discredited ruler who was causing more and more trouble.
Abdirashid Ali Shermark, President of Somalia (pictured right). Killed October 15, 1969
A policeman guarding the president's residence during a visit to the city of Las Anod in the north of the country shot him with a machine gun. It is believed that the motives for the murder were personal, not political. The name and fate of this policeman are unknown.
Richard Ratzimandrava, President of Madagascar (pictured left). Killed February 11, 1975
Six days after taking office, Ratsimandrava was shot dead on his way home from the presidential palace. The military that seized power announced that the killers were Samuel Rabotovao and Bernard Rakutuarison, officers of the Mobile Police Group, which had recently been disbanded. There was no shortage of versions - the clients were various army groups, businessmen, both foreign and local, people from the south of the island who were taking revenge for the suppression of the uprising several years earlier, traditionalists offended by the transfer of power to a representative of the low class, as well as Didier Ratsiraku, who received power four months after the death of Ratsimandrava. However, there is still no single substantiated version regarding the customers and motives for the murder.
Marien Ngouabi, President of the Republic of the Congo.
There is little information about this assassination attempt, except that he was allegedly killed by a suicide bomber, and that several people were tried for involvement in the plot and some of them were executed, including the country's former president Alphonse Massamba-Debat, who was overthrown by Ngouabi in 1968
Ibrahim Mohammed Hamdi, President of the Yemen Arab Republic.
He is still the most popular leader of the country - he has done a lot to modernize it, building hundreds of schools and hospitals and laying thousands of kilometers of roads.
Assassinated on October 11, 1977, his brother and two French dancers were killed along with the president - it is believed that this was done in order to present the president as morally bankrupt and thereby instill doubt in the hearts of his supporters. According to one version, the murder was organized by agents financed by the Al-Ahmar tribe, which was under the patronage of the Saudi monarchy, which wanted to prevent the unification of the two Yemen. According to another, the assassination attempt was the work of al-Hamdi’s successor, General al-Gashimi. However, a full investigation was never carried out.
Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt. Killed October 6, 1981
During the parade in honor of the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, one of the army trucks passing by the presidential podium suddenly braked, and it was fired upon by five paratroopers who jumped out of the vehicle. The President rose from his chair in amazement and was shot by a sniper. Sadat was succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country under a state of emergency declared after the assassination of Sadat until February 2011.
Three perpetrators of the terrorist attack were captured on the spot, another three days later. The engineer Mohammed Abdel Salam Farrag, who developed the murder plan, was also arrested. Farrag and two civilian conspirators were hanged and the military men were shot. But it is still unclear how the militants brought weapons and grenades into the truck, and why Sadat’s bodyguards left their posts around the podium a few seconds before the attack. It is believed that the assassination attempt was organized by the Islamist terrorist groups Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya and Egyptian Islamic Jihad to take revenge on him for rapprochement with Israel and refusal to Islamize society. According to another version, American or Egyptian intelligence services, or even the KGB, were behind the terrorist attack: shortly before his death, Sadat unexpectedly broke the friendship treaty with the USSR.
Ranasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka.
During the May Day demonstration, a suicide bomber belonging to the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonated a bomb that killed Premadasa.
Ahmad Hussein Ghashmi, President of the Yemen Arab Republic. Killed June 24, 1978
This politician was eliminated in a not the most trivial way: during negotiations with the representative of the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, one of Gashimi's assistants put a diplomat on the table, which allegedly contained a secret message from the President of the PDRY - the matter was once again about the possible unification of the two Yemen. When the briefcase was opened, it exploded, killing both Gashimi and his counterpart. As in the case of Yemen's previous president, Ibrahim Hamdi, suspicions - however unproven - fell on Saudi Arabia, an opponent of unification.
Park Chung-hee, President of the Republic of Korea.
He had, as they wrote about him, an iron will and inexorably led South Korea to prosperity, quite successfully, it should be noted. But, as often happens with patriotic dictators, he did not leave on time.
Killed on October 26, 1979. Kim Jae-gyu, no less than the director of South Korean intelligence, shot and killed Park during a dinner with the participation of those closest to the head of state. Next, it was planned to carry out a coup and introduce martial law, but due to Kim’s tactical mistakes, the conspirators were defeated and were hanged by court verdict. Kim Jae-kyu himself stated after the arrest that the president had become a brake on the development of democracy (which is probably true), and the murder was committed for patriotic reasons.
Hafizullah Amin, head of Afghanistan (Secretary General of the PDPA Central Committee). Killed December 27, 1979
Amin came to power under the slogans of democratization, but in reality he destroyed his opponents with even greater zeal than his predecessors, which deprived his regime of support; There were also suspicions that Amin was collaborating with the CIA and could become closer to Western countries. Meanwhile, it was important for his Moscow patrons to keep Afghanistan in the Soviet sphere of influence. On December 12, 1979, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee made a fateful decision - to eliminate Amin, replace him with Babrak Karmal and send troops to Afghanistan to strengthen their positions. The first part of the plan was carried out by the KGB Alpha group, although it is still disputed whether Amin was killed by special forces or shot himself.
Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh. The most beloved leader of the country to this day.
The persons involved in the assassination of the president are known. 16 army officers were the direct perpetrators, and the organizer is believed to have been General Mansur. The events were similar to an action movie - the so-called assault. The Chittagong Round House, where Rahman spent the night, began with Lieutenant Colonel Fazle Hossain firing two rockets towards the house, thereby making a huge hole in the wall. The President was found and shot. What remains unknown is the motive for the crime - whether it was the first stage of a pre-prepared coup, or a consequence of the growing tensions between Rahman and Mansur, who did not receive the coveted post of Chief of the General Staff. One way or another, 12 officers were executed, some managed to escape abroad, and Mansur himself died under unknown circumstances after being captured by the military.
Mohammad Ali Rajai, President of Iran.
In this case, the method of murder is strikingly reminiscent of the method used three years earlier to eliminate YAR President Ahmad Gashimi: during Rajai’s meeting with the country’s prime minister and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the presidential adviser appeared, placed a briefcase on the table between him and the prime minister, and quietly left. Someone opened the briefcase - there was an explosion, the president and prime minister were killed. It later turned out that this adviser's name was Massoud Kashrimi, and that he was an infiltrated operative from the left-wing radical organization Mujahedin-e Khalq ("People's Mujahideen", pers.), fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Haruo Remeliik, President of Palau (pictured right). Killed June 30, 1985
The motives and perpetrator of the murder committed near the president's house remain unknown.
Rene Moawad, President of Lebanon.
Many believe that with his murder the last hope for peace in Lebanon, whose capital, Beirut, was called the Paris of the East before the outbreak of the civil war.
Killed on November 22, 1989. The newly elected president (Moawad held office for only 17 days) was returning from celebrations on the occasion of Lebanese Independence Day. As the cavalcade passed by one of the closed shops in West Beirut, a powerful explosion was heard, killing the president and 23 other people on the spot. The force of the explosion was so great that several trees were uprooted, and the engine of the car in which Moawad was traveling was found 50 meters from the scene of the assassination attempt. The motives, organizers and perpetrators of the assassination attempt have never been established.
Mohamed Boudiaf, Chairman of the Supreme Council of State of Algeria. Killed June 29, 1992
The death was horrifyingly public - the president's bodyguard, Lieutenant Lembarek Boumarafi, shot him dead during a televised appearance. It is unclear what was the reason, whether the killer's Islamist sympathies, or a military conspiracy to hide their responsibility for the coup and military rule. The fact is that Boudiaf began to actively fight corruption and managed to remove several high-ranking military officers from their posts. Lieutenant Bamarafi was sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out.
Juvenal Habyarinama, President of Rwanda.
The plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down as it approached Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The perpetrators and motives remained unknown, but the consequences turned out to be, according to some criteria, comparable to the results of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. Within half an hour, the presidential army, consisting mainly of representatives of the Hutu people, took control of the country, and 100 days of genocide began - according to various estimates Between 500,000 and 1 million people were killed, 90% of them Tutsis. The rate of extermination of people exceeded that achieved in the Nazi death camps.
Sipien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi.
Together with Habyarinama, the President of Rwanda, he was returning from Tanzania, where they had participated in a peace conference aimed at resolving armed conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi and neighboring Rwanda. One of the popular versions was a conspiracy by the Rwandan military, who belonged mainly to the Hutus, with the aim of “the final solution to the Tutsi question”; It is worth remembering that in 1993, the Burundian Tutsi military staged a coup that led to the death of tens of thousands of people. However, both Ntaryamira and Habyarinama were themselves Hutus, and the latter was also a high-ranking military man.
Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Rashidi Muzele, one of the president's bodyguards, shot him and died while trying to escape. It is believed that the assassination attempt was ordered by the authorities of neighboring Rwanda, the organization was led by Colonel Eddie Capend, one of Kabila’s cousins, and a certain Lebanese jewelry dealer was responsible for the logistics. Eight people were executed that evening, and during the ensuing investigation, 135 people were put on trial. Of these, 26 people were sentenced to death (the sentence was not carried out), 64 were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment (from six months to life), and the remaining 45 were acquitted.
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