Nov. 22, 1963 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy is the fourth President of the United States to be killed by an assassin. Two other Presidents were attacked, but these attempts failed. In addition, attempts were made on a former President and two attempts were made on Presidents-elect. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley were killed in office in 1865, 1881, and 1901 respectively. The abortive attempts were on Andrew Jackson in 1835 and Harry S. Truman in 1950. The two Presidents-elect were Lincoln in 1861 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The former President who escaped an assassin’s bullet was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. He was wounded in the chest. The first President assassinated was Lincoln, who was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at a theater performance he had not wished to attend. He had gone to Ford’s Theater out of a sense of obligation to a public that had expected to see General Ulysses S. Grant, who was unable to attend. Lincoln was killed by a bullet that entered the back of his head. He lingered unconscious until 7:22 a.m. the following day, when he died. Among other historic assassinations of recent times were those of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, Leon Trotsky in 1940, and Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife in 1914, which touched off World War I. Other major assassinations have included U.S. Senator Huey P. Long in 1935, King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934, and Francisco “Pancho” Villa in 1923.
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