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Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
The bath-ridden former physicians turned ardent, and radical revolutionary was stabbed to death by Charlotte Corday while soaking in his medicinal tub in Paris. She killed him in disgust of his writings which avocated the murders of enemies to the French Revolution, and believed she would save lives by ridding France of him. She was wrong, and while she was executed by guillotine, he was depicted as a martyr which further intensified the revolution. -
Assassination of Spencer Perceval
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was shot dead by John Bellingham in the House of Commons in London. The assassin believed he was owed damages by the government for false imprisonment in Russia. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The president of the United States was shot in the head whilst watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. not long after the end of the American Civil War. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had hoped that the assassination would revive the Confederate cause. All though he was mistaken and was hung with three other conspirators for the murder. -
Assassination of Alexander II of Russia
The Russian emperor and reformer was fatally wounded by a bomb attack by Ignacy Hryniewiecki, a member of the leftist terrorist group Narodnaya Volya. The group had hoped the assassination would start a revolution to move towards a Constitutent Assembly and democracy. This never materialized. -
Assassination of James Garfield
James Garfield was shot by French-American assassin Charles J, Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station in Washington D.C.. Garfield lived for a time afterwards but died of infection on September 19, 1881. Isanity was widely considered Guiteau's motivation for the killing. -
Assassination of Jules Ferry
The former French prime minister and colonialism promoter was shot by an Alsatian extremist named Aubertin at Paris city hall. He died from a complication from the wound on March 17, 1893 over 5 years from the actual date of the assassination. -
Assassination of Marie Francois Sadi Carnot
The fourth president of France was stabbed to death after giving a speech in Lyon by Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio. He died the next day and the assassin was executed on August 14 of the same year. -
Assassination of Empress Myeongseong of Korea
The Empress of Korea was stabbed to death and burned after a Japanese delegation attacked her palace killing her and several subjects. The Empress had been a major opponent to growing Japanese influence in Korea and had tried to increase ties with Russia, although Korea would later be annexed by Japan. -
Assassination of Elisabeth of Austria
The empress of the Austro-Hunarian empire was stabbed to death by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni while visiting Geneva, Switzerland. -
Assassination of William McKinley
The president of the United States was shot by a Polish-American anarchist while he visited the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. He died eight days later. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
In perhaps what remains the most notorious assassination in all of history Gavrilo Princip shot dead the hier to throne of Austria-Hungary and his wife in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. The assassin being a Serb nationalist and member of the Black Hand led Austria to declare war on Serbia triggering the alliances of Europe and starting World War I in which over 20 million people died. -
Assassination of Count Karl von Sturgkh
The minister responsible for Cisleithania in Austria-Hungary was shot dead by the anarchist Freidrich Adler while having dinner in Vienna. Sturgkh had been growing increasingly unpopular due to censorship and restrictions on public assembly he implemented after the outbreak of World War I. -
Assassination of Grigori Rasputin
The Russian mystic and adviser to the Romanovs was poisoned with cyanide, shot, strangled and finally thrown into the icy Malaya Nevka river where he drowned, by two Russian aristocrats. The man has been extremely controversial for perceived negative influence he had on the royal family. -
Assassination of Nicolas II of Russia
Following the abdication for the throne during the Russian Revolution, the royal family of Russia were held captive until July 1918 when Bolshevik forces fearing the family would be used by the White Army as a rallying cry were taken to the basement of Ipatiev House and then subsequently shot and stabbed until death. The bodies were then taken to the woods, doused with acid and then buried. The tsar, tsarina, the four princesses, the crown prince, and 4 of their servants were all executed. -
Assassination of Michael Collins
The Irish revolutionary leader was shot dead during an ambush in County Cork, Ireland during the Irish Civil War. The exact circumstances of his death remain unknown. -
Assassination of Paul Doumer
The French president was shot in Paris at the opening of a book fair by Paul Gorguloff a mentally disturbed Russian immigrant. He died the next day. -
Assassination of Ernst Rohm
The commander of the SA was killed during the Night of Long Knives. Hitler determined to curb the power of the organization in order to gain support of the army had Rohm arrested, brought to a prison, and after failing to persuade him to kill himself, was then shot in the chest by guards at point-blank range. -
Assassination of Engelbert Dollfuss
The Chancellor of Austria was shot to death in his office by Nazi agents during a failed coup d'état in Vienna. -
Assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia
The king of Yugoslvia and French foreign minister, Louis Barthou, were gunned down as they were being driven through Marseille, France. The gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, an extreme Bulgarian nationalist was then beaten to death by the crowd. It was one of the first filmed assassinations. -
Assassination of Huey Long
The Democratic Louisiana governor was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss just a month after announcing his intention to run for the president of the United States. The motive of the shooting is unknown as Long's guards then opened fire on Weiss after the shooting and killed him. -
Assassination of Ernst vom Rath
The German diplomat was shot by a young Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan in Paris, and died two days later. Herschel was angry about his family being deported from German back to Poland. The Nazi government used this assassination as the justification for Kristallnacht, a series of pogroms against Jews living in Germany. -
Assassination of Leon Trotsky
The Marxist theory and founder of the Red Army was killed by Ramon Mercader under the orders of Joseph Stalin. The assassination was infamously done with an icepick to the brain. Although it was poorly done and Trotsky did not die until the next day. -
Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Two Czech resistance fighters ambushed the vehicle of the Nazi SS General in Prague. During the ambush Reinhard was wounded by a grenade explosion which would ultimately prove fatal on June 4. Hitler was furious at this assassination and had the villages of Lidice and Lezaky razed and all male citizens killed, even though there was no link between the villages and the assassination. -
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse shot this champion of non-violent resistance three times during a prayer meeting in New Dehli, India. -
Assassination of Folke Bernadotte
The Swedish diplomat who also served as the U.N. mediator for the Israeli-Arab conflict was ambushed by the extreme Zionist group Lehi while being driven through the Katamon quarter in Jerusalem. Bernadotte and French U.N. observer André Serot were shot dead. The incident lead to a major dispute between Sweden and Israel, and Sweden attempted to block Israel's accession to the U.N. albeit unsuccessfully. -
Assassination of Inejiro Asanuma
While making a televised speech, the head of Japan's Socialist Party was stabbed by a wakizashi-wielding, ultra-nationalist named Otoya Yamaguchi. -
Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
The first Prime Minister of Congo was deposed due to Belgian and American interferance in the newly independent Congo in September 1960. He was kept under house-arrest until he was shot dead along with two of his former ministers in January 1961. This event caused much controversy in the Third World. -
Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The widely unpopular president of South Vietnam was deposed in a military coup by General Duong Van Minh, and subsequently kidnapped. He was later executed in the back of a military vehicle in Saigon along with his brother. The murders caused much controvery in the U.S. who were involved in the Vietnam war and the motivations for the murders are still not fully understood. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
The President of the United States was shot clean through the head whie riding in an open motorcade in Dallas, Texas. The assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was soon captured. -
Assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald
The accussed assassin of President John F. Kennedy was himself assassinated in Dallas two days after the president's murder by Jack Ruby. Ruby shot Oswald supposedly due to anger from the assassination, though some believe him to have been involved in a conspiracy to cover up J.F.K.'s assassination. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X a Muslim minister and human rights activist was killed by shotgun blasts while making an address in New York City. He was assassinated by Nation of Islam members. -
Assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd
The Prime Minister of South Africa and mastermind behind Apartheid was stabbed to death at the House of Assembly in Cape Town by parliamentary messenger Dimitri Tsafendas. -
Assassination of Che Guevara
The famous Marxist revolutionary was shot dead by a joint CIA-Bolivian government operation in Bolivia. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The famous American civil rights leader was shot dead on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. -
Assassination of Robert Kennedy
Senator Robert Kennedy was shot by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan after his victory in the California primary during the 1968 presidential campaign. He died the following day. Sirhan Sirhan claimed support for Israel was the motive for the assassination. -
Assassination of Mohammed Daoud Khan
The first President of Afghanistan was killed along with his family at the presidential palace in Kabul during the communist Saur Revolution which triggered the Soviet-Afghan war. -
Assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten
The uncle of Prince Phillip and a prominent British statesman was assassinated after a bomb exploded on his boat while vacationing in Ireland - killing him and 3 other family members. The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing. -
Assassination of Park Chung-hee
The president, and by some accounts dictator, of South Korea was shot dead while attending a dinner at the presidential compound in Seoul. The assassin was the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency Kim Jae-kyu. -
Assassination of John Lennon
The famous member of The Beatles was gunned down by Mark David Chapman, a disturbed man, while walking to the entrance of The Dakota in New York City. -
Assassination of Anwar Sadat
The President of Egypt was killed by gunmen along with eleven others at a military parade in Cairo, Egypt. The attack was in retaliation for Sadat's participation in the Camp David accords with Israel. -
Assassination of Indira Gandhi
The Prime Minister of India was gunned down by her Sikh bodyguards at her compound in New Dehli. The assassins killed her in retaliation for Operation Blue Star which resulted in the destruction of holy Golden Temple in Amritsar. -
Assassination of Olof Palme
The staunchly neutral Prime Minister of Sweden was shot dead by unknown perpetrators while walking with his wife in Stockholm. The murder remains unsolved. -
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi
The former Prime Minister of India was assassinated by car bomb while campaigning for re-election in Sriperumbudur by Tamil extremists. -
Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana
The Rwandan president's private plane was shot down by two surface to air missles killing him and all 11 others on the plane. Much of the blame has fallen on the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or Hutu extremists. Either way the aftermath of the assassination was cataclysmic as it triggered the Rwandan Genocide which resulted in the deaths of nearly 800,000 people. -
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Prime Minister of Israel was shot dead at a rally in Tel Aviv by far right extremist Yigal Amir for his part in the Oslo Peace Accords. -
Assassination of Birendra of Nepal
The King of Nepal, the Queen, and 7 other members of the royal family were shot dead by the Crown Prince Dipendra. The crown prince was also wounded and died shortly after. The cause of the massacre was believed to be a marriage dispute between the prince and his father. Although some members of the royal family survived this event sped up the downfall of the monarchy and its ultimate collapse in 2008. -
Assassination of Zoran Dindic
Zoran Dindic the Prime Minister of Serbia was assassinated by a sniper as he left the main Serbian government building in Belgrade, his bodyguard was also wounded. The assassin was Zvezdan Jovanovic a former Serbian forces operative who had ties to the Serbian mafia. -
Assassination of Sergio Vieira de Mello
The U.N.'s Special Representative in Iraq, and possible future Secretary General was killed along with 22 others (including the bomber) in a truck bomb targeting his hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombing and stated it specifically targeted Vieira de Mello for his work in getting East Timor its independence, which they saw as stealing territory from the Islamic Caliphate. -
Assassination of Anna Lindh
Anna Lindh the foreign minister of Sweden was stabbed to death by Mijailo Mijailovic in a store in Stockholm. The killer cited a hatred for politicians. -
Assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov
The First President of Chechnya and a Vladimir Putin ally was killed by a bomb blast along with a dozen other people during a Victory Day ceremony at Dinamo stadium in Grozny. The Islamist Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the assassination. -
Assassination of Rafic Hariri
The former prime minister of Lebanon was killed in a car bomb along with 21 others as his motorcade was passing the St. George hotel in Beirut. It is believed Hezbollah was responsible for the assassination although no one has been brought to justice for the killing. -
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
First female prime minister of Pakistan assasinated by car bomb in Rawalpindi, Pakistan by terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. -
Assassination of Osama Bin Laden
The leader of al-Qaeda and one of the chief architects of the 9/11 attacks on the United States was shot dead by U.S. Navy SEALS while hiding at his compound in Abottabad, Pakistan. His body was later dumped at sea by the Americans in order to prevent his body becoming a shrine to Muslim extremists. -
Assassination of Muammar Gaddafi
The longtime Libyan dictator was captured during the Fall of Sirte during the conclusion of the Libyan Civil War and was executed by the rebels via a shot to the stomach, although there are reports he was simply hit by gunfire during the battle. His son, who was also a military leader, was also killed.
