ASSASSINATED US PRESIDENTS LIST

Introduction - Assassinated Presidents

Every kid who has taken a history class knows about the assassinations of the American presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy; however few know that a total of four US Presidents have been assassinated. They are listed below along with information on when they were shot, who shot them, where the assassination took place, and when they died. On this page you will also find information about several Presidential assassination attempts that failed. There are links to additional information about each of the assassinated presidents including more detailed information about their deaths.

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Assassinated U.S. Presidents

Abraham Lincoln - President Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. while watching the play Our American Cousin. He died the following morning at a boarding house across from the theater. His assassination occurred five days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant effectively ending the American Civil War. Eleven days after Lincoln's death his assassin John Wilkes Booth was tracked down and shot after refusing to surrender. Several other co-conspirators were later executed.
James A. Garfield - On July 2, 1881 less than four months after being sworn in as President Garfield was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. He died eleven weeks later, on September 19th 1881. His assassin, an insane man named Charles Guiteau, was captured immediately and was eventually hung for his crime.
William McKinley - On Friday, September 6, 1901 McKinley was shot at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He died on September 14, 1901 from gangrene in his wounds. His assassin Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist who felt it was his duty to kill the president who he regarded as a symbol of oppression. Czolgosz was eventually put to death in the electric chair for his crime.
John F. Kennedy - President Kennedy was shot and died on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. Although there is much controversy about the assassination the Warren Commission concluded the assassination was the work of a lone assassin; Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald shot the president with a high powered rifle from a window in the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald was arrested 70 minutes after the assassination and was himself shot dead at the Dallas Police Headquarters by a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby.

Below we have listed just a few of the failed assassination attempts on US Presidents. Along with these failed actual attempts there have been numerous failed plots that were either stopped or abandoned before an assassination attempt actually took place.

List of Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents

Andrew Jackson (January 30, 1835) - An insane man attempted to shoot Jackson but his two guns misfired. Jackson beat him with his cane and the man was apprehended.
Gerald Ford (September 5, 1975) - Lynette Fromme, who was a follower of Charles Manson, tried to shoot the president but had no bullets in the guns firing chamber. She was quickly apprehended.
Gerald Ford (September 22, 1975) - Sara Jane Moore fired two shots at the president in San Francisco California. The first shot narrowly missed its target; as she raised her arm to fire again an ex-marine grabbed her causing her to miss again.
Ronald Reagan (March 30, 1981) - Upon returning to his limousine after a speech in Washington DC Reagan was fired upon by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was hit once with a bullet breaking a rib, and puncturing a lung. Three other men were wounded in the assassination attempt.