FOX Facts: Attacks on American Officials Abroad and at Home
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}April 14, 1865: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth; died April 15.
April 14, 1865: Secretary of State William H. Seward escaped assassination (though injured) in Washington, DC, by Lewis Powell (or Paine), accomplice of John Wilkes Booth.
July 2, 1881: U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot in Washington, D.C., by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker who wanted to be appointed U.S. consul to Paris; died Sept. 19.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sept. 6, 1901: U.S. President William McKinley was shot in Buffalo by Leon Czolgosz, a factory worker who was an anarchist; died Sept. 14.
Oct. 14, 1912: Ex-U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt escaped assassination (though shot) in Milwaukee while campaigning for president. The man who shot him, Nepomuk Schrank, was placed in a mental hospital.
Feb. 15, 1933: Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was shot in Miami by Giuseppe Zangara, who attempted to assassinate Franklin D. Roosevelt; Cermak died March 6.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 15, 1933: President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped assassination by Giuseppe Zangara unhurt in Miami.
Sept. 8, 1935: U.S. Louisiana Sen. Huey P. Long was shot in Baton Rouge by Dr. Carl A. Weiss; died Sept. 10.
Nov. 1, 1950: U.S. President Harry S. Truman escaped assassination unhurt in Washington, D.C., as two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to shoot their way into Blair House.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nov. 22, 1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald; died same day. Injured was Gov. John B. Connally of Texas. Oswald was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby.
June 12, 1963: Civil rights activist Medgar Evans, the NAACP's Mississippi field secretary for 9 years, was shot in the back and killed early in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the crime in 1994.
Feb. 21, 1965: Black activist Malcolm X, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was shot and killed in a New York City auditorium; his killer(s) were never positively identified.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}April 4, 1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis by James Earl Ray; died same day.
June 5, 1968: U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, from New York, was shot in Los Angeles by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan; died June 6.
Aug. 28, 1968: U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala John Gordon Mein was murdered by a rebel faction when gunmen forced his official car off the road in Guatemala City and raked the vehicle with gunfire.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}July 30, 1969: U.S. Ambassador to Japan A.H. Meyer was attacked by a knife-wielding Japanese citizen.
Sept. 3, 1969: U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Charles Burke Elbrick was kidnapped by the Marxist revolutionary group MR-8.
July 31, 1970: In Montevideo, Uruguay, the Tupamaros terrorist group kidnapped AID Police adviser Dan Mitrione; his body was found on Aug.10.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}May 15, 1972: Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and critically wounded in assassination attempt at Laurel, Md., by Arthur Herman Bremer. Wallace paralyzed from waist down.
March 2, 1973: U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo A. Noel and other diplomats were assassinated at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum by members of the Black September organization.
May 4, 1973: U.S. Consul General in Guadalajara Terrence Leonhardy was kidnapped by members of the People's Revolutionary Armed Forces.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Aug. 19, 1974: U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus Rodger P. Davies and his Greek Cypriot secretary were shot and killed by snipers during a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia.
Sept. 5, 1975: Ford, Gerald R. (president of U.S.): Escaped assassination attempt, in Sacramento, Calif., by Lynette Alice (Squeaky) Fromme, who pointed but did not fire .45-caliber pistol. Escaped assassination attempt in San Francisco, Calif., Sept. 22, 1975, by Sara Jane Moore, who fired one shot from a .38-caliber pistol that was deflected.
June 16, 1976: Ambassador Francis E. Meloy, Jr. and Economic Counselor Robert O. Waring were kidnapped in Beirut while on their way to meet with President-elect Sarkis. Meloy, Waring, and their Lebanese chauffeur were found dead near a beach several hours alter. No demands were made, and the assassins remain unknown.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 14, 1979: Ambassador to Afghanistan Assassinated, Four Afghans kidnapped U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs in Kabul and demanded the release of various "religious figures." Dubs was killed, along with four alleged terrorists, when Afghan police stormed the hotel room where he was being held.
March 30, 1981: U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot in left lung in Washington by John W. Hinckley, Jr.; three others also wounded.
May 29, 1980: Civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan was shot and critically wounded in assassination attempt in Fort Wayne, Ind.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Aug. 27, 1980: Unknown assailants in Beirut fired on Ambassador John Gunther Dean's car. He and his party escaped unharmed.
May 13, 1981: Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by a gunman as he was riding in an open car in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Shot in the abdomen, arm and hand, the pope eventually recovered fully from his injuries. The pope's would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, was immediately arrested, and in July he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court.
March 16, 1984: The Islamic Jihad kidnapped and later murdered Political Officer William Buckley in Beirut, Lebanon. Other U.S. citizens not connected to the U.S. government were seized over a succeeding two-year period.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}June 28, 1988: The Defense Attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Greece was killed when a car-bomb was detonated outside his home in Athens.
Feb. 13, 1991: Three Red Army Faction members fired automatic rifles from across the Rhine River at the U.S. Embassy Chancery. No one was hurt.
April 14, 1993: The Iraqi intelligence service attempted to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait. In retaliation, the U.S. launched a cruise missile attack 2 months later on the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}March 8, 1995: Two unidentified gunmen killed two U.S. diplomats and wounded a third in Karachi, Pakistan.
Sept. 13, 1995: A rocket-propelled grenade was fired through the window of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, ostensibly in retaliation for U.S. strikes on Serb positions in Bosnia.
Aug. 7, 1998: A bomb exploded at the rear entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 12 U.S. citizens, 32 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), and 247 Kenyan citizens. Approximately 5,000 Kenyans, 6 U.S. citizens, and 13 FSNs were injured. The U.S. Embassy building sustained extensive structural damage. Almost simultaneously, a bomb detonated outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 7 FSNs and 3 Tanzanian citizens, and injuring 1 U.S. citizen and 76 Tanzanians. The explosion caused major structural damage to the U.S. Embassy facility. The U.S. Government held Usama Bin Laden responsible.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jan. 22, 2002: Armed militants on motorcycles fired on the U.S. Consulate in Calcutta, India, killing 5 Indian security personnel and wounding 13 others. The Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami and the Asif Raza Commandoes claimed responsibility. Indian police later killed two suspects, one of whom confessed to belonging to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba as he died.
Oct. 28, 2002: Gunmen in Amman assassinated Laurence Foley, Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission in Jordan. The Honest People of Jordan claimed responsibility.
Oct. 15, 2003: A remote-controlled bomb exploded under a car in a U.S. diplomatic convoy passing through the northern Gaza Strip. Three security guards, all employees of DynCorp, were killed. A fourth was wounded. The diplomats were on their way to interview Palestinian candidates for Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States. Palestinian President Arafat and Prime Minister Qurei condemned the attack, while the major Palestinian militant groups denied responsibility. The next day, Palestinian security forces arrested several suspects, some of whom belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sources: Facts on File, Office of the Historian -- U.S. Department of State, Infoplease Almanac.