From Lincoln to Kennedy: Here are the US Presidents who were assassinated
The shooting incident on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania that injured Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has rocked America and leaders worldwide. The incident, just months before the US elections scheduled for November 2024, might have its effects on the outcome.
The FBI has taken over the probe after the US Secret Service agents on the spot in the Butler rally gunned down the shooter who is said to be identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
The shooting at Trump's rally also reminds of the multiple assassination attempts that America has witnessed wherein at least four former Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln were killed.
Let us take a brief look at the four such assassinations
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was the 16th President of United States. He was shot dead by one John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 at a comic show titled Our American Cousin in Washington's Ford Theatre. Lincoln was at this event with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln.
He was rushed to a nearby house where despite medical treatment, Lincoln succumbed to the bullet injury in the back of his head.
Lincoln is till date remembered for his upfront support of abolishment of slavery in the United States, which is cited as the motive for his assassination. To end slavery within the Confederacy, Lincoln had also introduced the Emancipation Proclamation that granted freedom to slaves.
The officials investigating Lincoln's killing are said to have traced the shooter John Wilkes Booth to a barn near Virginia's Bowling Green where the latter was hiding. Booth was shot dead 12 days after the assassination i.e., on April 26, 1865.
James Garfield
James Garfield served as the 20th President of US. He was shot by one Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881. Garfield was assassinated a meagre six months after he took charge of the office as the President. It is said that he was passing through a train station in Washington to board a train to New England when Guiteau fired the shot that killed him.
As per the Associated Press, the inventor of telephone— Alexander Garham Bell—had designed a device using which he tried to trace the bullet in Garfield's chest. The 20th US President suffered for weeks due to the wound, and succumbed to the same by September 1881.
Garfield was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur. The shooter Charles Guiteau was found guilty and executed in June 1882.
William McKinley
McKinley was the 25th President of the US. He was assassinated on September 6, 1901 in Buffalo, New York. A 28-year-old man who later admitted to his crime, shot two rounds in McKinley's chest when the latter was passing through a line of people while shaking hands with them.
McKinley was shot at point-blank range. Even as doctors hoped for his recovery, McKinley developed gangrene around the bullet wounds and later succumbed to it. The 25th US President passed away on September 14, 1901, just six months after taking over as the President. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
The shooter, Leon F Czolgosz, who was a Detroit resident, admitted to the shooting. He was found guilty at trial and put to death in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.
John F. Kennedy
Kennedy was known for his outspoken attitude in demanding basic rights for citizens in America. He was the youngest man to be elected to the President's office. Kennedy served as the 35th President of the US. In November 1963, he was on a visit to Dallas with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Kennedy was passing through the Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas when he was shot by an assassin armed with a high-powered rifle. Even as Kennedy was rushed to the Parkland Memorial Hospital for treatment, he succumbed to the bullet injuries.
He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B Johnson, who was sworn into office in a conference room aboard Air Force One, and Johnson is the only president to take oath of office on an airplane.
One Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by the police officials investigating Kennedy's assassination. They tracked Oswald after finding a sniper’s perch in a nearby building, the Texas School Book Depository.
However, two days after he was caught, Oswald was shot dead by the Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby when police were ferrying the former to a country prison.