William McKinley assassination: September 6, 1901, at the Temple of Music, in Buffalo, New York. President William McKinley, attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist.
John F. Kennedy assassination: Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964 concluded that Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976–1979 determined that Kennedy's murder was probably the result of a conspiracy that included Oswald.
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Attempted Assassinations (included here because they are so relatively unknown)
Andrew Jackson: January 30, 1835: At the Capitol Building, a house painter named Richard Lawrence aimed two flintlock pistols at the President, but both misfired, one of them while Lawrence stood within 13 feet of Jackson and the other at point-blank range. Lawrence was apprehended after Jackson beat him with a cane. Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to a mental institution until his death in 1861.
Theodore Roosevelt: October 13, 1912
After he left office, Roosevelt again ran for President as a member of the Progressive Party. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, John Schrank, a saloon-keeper from New York, shot Roosevelt once with a revolver. A 100-page speech folded over twice and the metal glasses case in Roosevelt's breast pocket slowed the bullet. Roosevelt yelled out "Quiet! I've been shot," and insisted on giving his speech with the bullet still lodged inside him! He went to the hospital, but the bullet was never removed. Roosevelt, remembering that William McKinley died after operations to remove his bullet, chose to have his remain. Schrank said that McKinley's ghost had told him to avenge his assassination, and was was found legally insane and was institutionalized until his death in 1943.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: February 15, 1933
In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt. Four people were wounded and Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, was killed. Zangara was found guilty of murder and was executed March 20, 1933. Cermak may have been the real target that day, as the mayor was a staunch foe of Al Capone's Chicago mob organization.
Harry S Truman: In 1950, two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists attempted to kill Truman, resulting in the murder of one White House police officer and the death of one assassin; Truman was not harmed.
John F. Kennedy: December 11, 1960
While vacationing in Palm Beach, Kennedy's life was threatened by Richard Paul Pavlick, a 73-year-old former postal worker. Pavlick's plan was to serve as a suicide bomber by crashing his dynamite-laden 1950 Buick into Kennedy's vehicle, but the plan was disrupted when Pavlick saw Kennedy's wife and daughter bidding him goodbye (an assassin with a kind heart?). Pavlick's was arrested by Secret Service three days later, when he was stopped for a violation, with the dynamite still in his car, and spent six years in federal prison and mental institutions, released in December 1966.
Richard M. Nixon, First assassination attempt: April 14, 1972:
Milwaukeean Arthur Bremer arrived in Ottawa, Canada on April 10 spending five days in Canada's national capital in an effort to shoot and kill President Nixon. On April 14, Nixon made an appearance in a limousine at Parliament Hill, which Bremer attended, carrying a loaded revolver in his pocket. Bremer did manage to get close enough, but the President was in his limousine with the windows closed. The President sped past unharmed. The following month Bremer shot U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate George Wallace, lodging a bullet in his spine and leaving him paralyzed for life.
Nixon, assassination attempt 2, February 22, 1974
Samuel Byck planned to kill Nixon by crashing a commercial airliner into the White House. On the plane, he was informed that it could not take off with the wheel blocks still in place. He shot the pilot and copilot before killing himself.
Gerald R. Ford: Ford endured two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring within three weeks of each other: while in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975, Charlie Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, pointed a Colt 45-caliber handgun at Ford. As Fromme pulled the trigger, Larry Buendorf, a Secret Service agent, grabbed the gun, inserting the webbing of his thumb under the hammer, preventing the gun from firing. Fromme was taken into custody; she was later convicted of attempted assassination of the President and sentenced to life.
The Secret Service started to keep Ford at a distance from anonymous crowds, a strategy that may have saved his life seventeen days later: as he left a hotel in downtown San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore, standing in a crowd of onlookers across the street, pointed her pistol at him. Just before she fired, ex-Marine Oliver Sipple deflected her shot; she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on December 31, 2007, having served 32 years.
Jimmy Carter: May 5, 1979
Before Carter was about to speak at the Los Angelese Civic Center, Raymond Lee Harvey was arrested carrying a pistol, telling authorities he and another man were hired to create a diversion so that Mexican hit men armed with sniper rifles could kill Carter. Charges against him were dismissed for lack of evidence.
Ronald Reagan: March 30, 1981
Reagan was shot in the lung by John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley hoped that assassinating the president would earn enough notoriety to impress Jodie Foster. He also shot Press Secretary James Brady along with an officer and a security agent. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and sentenced to life in a mental institution.
George H.W. Bush: April 13, 1993
Sixteen men, in the alleged employment of Saddam Hussein, smuggled a car bomb into Kuwait with the intent of killing Bush as he spoke at Kuwait University. Kuwaiti officials found the bomb and arrested the suspected assassins. Bush left office in January 1993. On June 26, 1993, the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the attempted attack against Bush; Iraqi Intelligence Service was accused of being behind the plot.
