The dark history of attempted assassinations of American presidents, from Lincoln to Trump

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday shocked the world, with the former president being carried off the stage by Secret Service officers with a bullet wound in his ear and covered in blood.

The gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead at the scene and another person also died.

Follow our live blog for the latest updates after Donald Trump survives assassination attempt at rally

The former president received medical treatment and later said he felt the bullets “cutting his skin.” Rival President Joe Biden condemned the attack, warning that “this type of violence has no place in America.”

The attack was the latest in a string of violent incidents of political violence targeting presidents, former presidents and major party presidential candidates since the nation’s founding in 1776.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President

Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated, when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy “My American Cousin” with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, at Ford Theatre in Washington.

After being shot in the back of the head, Lincoln was taken to a house across from the theater for treatment. He died the following morning. His support for black rights was said to be the motive for the murder.

Two years before his assassination, in the midst of the Civil War over slavery, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, granting freedom to slaves in the Confederacy.

Lincoln was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Booth was discovered hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and shot to death on April 26, 1865.

20th President James A. Garfield

Garfield became the second president to be assassinated six months after taking office: on July 2, 1881, he was shot by Charles Guiteau as he was walking through a Washington train station to board a train for New England.

Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell attempted to locate the bullet in Garfield’s chest using equipment he had specially designed for the president, but was unsuccessful. The mortally wounded president lay in state at the White House for several weeks before being taken to the New Jersey shore where he died in September. He served only six months in office.

Garfield was replaced by Vice President Chester Arthur.

Guiteau was convicted and executed in June 1882.

William McKinley, 25th President

McKinley was shot after giving a speech in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901. As he was shaking hands with people passing through the reception line, a man shot him two bullets into the chest at close range. Doctors expected McKinley to recover, but gangrene developed around the bullet wounds.

McKinley died on September 14, 1901, six months into his second term.

He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

Leon F. Czolgosz, a 28-year-old unemployed man from Detroit, confessed to the shooting. Czolgosz was tried, convicted, and executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.

John F. Kennedy, 35th President

President Kennedy was shot and killed by a hidden assassin armed with a high-powered rifle while visiting Dallas with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in November 1963. Gunfire rang out as the presidential motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died a short time later.

He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took the oath of office in a conference room on Air Force One, the only president to do so on an airplane.

Hours after the assassination, police located the sniper in a nearby building, the Texas School Book Depository, and arrested Lee Harvey Oswald.

Two days later, as Oswald was being taken from police headquarters to the county jail, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby lunged at him and shot him dead.

Gerald Ford, 38th President

Ford was the victim of two assassination attempts within a few weeks of each other in 1975, but was uninjured in either incident.

In the first attempt, Ford was on his way to Sacramento to meet with the Governor of California when Charles Manson protégé Lynette “Squeaky” Fromm pushed through a crowd in the street, pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at Ford. The gun did not fire.

Fromm was sentenced to prison and released in 2009.

Seventeen days later, another woman, Sarah Jane Moore, confronted Ford outside a San Francisco hotel: Moore fired one shot, missed, and was about to fire a second shot when a bystander grabbed her arm.

Moore was sent to prison and released in 2007.

Ronald Reagan, 40th President

President Reagan was walking to his motorcade after delivering a speech in Washington, DC, when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr., who was in the crowd.

President Reagan recovered from a shooting in March 1981. Three others were also shot, including Press Secretary James Brady, who was left partially paralyzed by the gunfire.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a jury for shooting President Reagan, arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital. In 2022, he was released from court supervision after a judge determined he “no longer poses a danger to himself or others.”

George W. Bush, 43rd President

Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2005 when a grenade was hurled at him.

Both men were behind bulletproof barriers when the cloth-wrapped grenade landed about 100 feet away. It did not explode and no one was injured.

Vladimir Arutunian was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy

Kennedy was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was murdered in a Los Angeles hotel shortly after delivering a victory speech to celebrate his victory in the 1968 California primary.

Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated five years earlier.

Five other people were injured in the shooting.

Sirhan Sirhan was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and Sirhan is still serving that sentence after his most recent petition for release last year was rejected.

Presidential candidate George C. Wallace

Wallace was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 when he was shot while campaigning in Maryland and left paralyzed.

Alabama Governor Wallace was known for his racist views, which he later renounced.

Arthur Bremer was convicted and sentenced to prison for the shooting. He was released in 2007.