Assassinations

This category covers people in the public eye who were murdered, or assaulted, for political or ideological reasons – or, in some cases, simply by attention–seekers.

Where the victim's name (and their occupation or claim to fame) are in italics, this means that the assassination attempt was unsuccessful.

I haven't hidden the identities of the culprits, where they aren't known (or particularly well–known). Similarly, I haven't hidden the locations, where they're either fairly unremarkable (for example, if it was in the capital city of the victim's home country) or if they're particularly obscure. In other words, if I don't think they're likely to be asked in quizzes.

	Who		When		Where		By whom
	Thomas Becket	Archbishop of Canterbury	29 Dec 1170		Canterbury Cathedral		FitzUrse, de Tracy, de Morville, le Breton
	Francisco Pizarro	Conquistador of Peru; founder of Lima	26 Jun 1541		Lima		Followers of his rival, Diego de Almagro
	Henri IV (de Navarre)	King of France	14 May 1610		Paris (Rue de la Ferronnerie)		Francois Ravaillac
	Jean–Paul Marat	French revolutionary leader	13 July 1793		Paris (in his bath!)		Charlotte Corday
	Jean–Jacques Dessalines	Emperor of Haiti (Jacques I)	17 Oct 1806		Near Port–au–Prince		Opposition supporters
	Spencer Perceval	Prime Minister of Great Britain	11 May 1812		House of Commons lobby		John Bellingham
	Shaka Zulu	King of the Zulus	9 Sep 1828		Near Stanga (now KwaDukuza)		Dingane and Mhlangana (his half brothers)
	Queen Victoria	Queen of Great Britain etc.	10 Jun 1840		London		Edward Oxford
			30 May 1842		St. James's Park, London		John Francis
			3 Mar 1842		The Mall, London		John William Bean
			1849		Constitution Hill, London		William Hamilton
			1850		Outside Cambridge House, Piccadilly		Robert Pate
			29 Feb 1872		Outside Buckingham Palace		Arthur O'Connor
			2 Mar 1882		Windsor station		Roderick Maclean
			20 Jun 1887		Westminster Abbey – 'the Jubilee Plot'		Irish anarchists (ostensibly)
	Joseph Smith, Jr.	Founder of the Mormon Church	27 Jun 1844		Carthage, Illinois (jail)		Mob attack
	Abraham Lincoln	President of the USA	15 Apr 1865		Fords Theatre, Washington DC		John Wilkes Booth
	Crazy Horse	Sioux leader	5 Sep 1877		Fort Robinson, Nebraska		William Gentiles, US army private
	James Abram Garfield	President of the USA	2 Jul 1881		Washington		Charles Jules Guiteau
	Lord Frederick Cavendish	British Chief Secretary for Ireland	6 May 1882		Phoenix Park, Dublin		Irish Nationalist Invincibles
	Thomas Henry Burke	Under–Secretary to the above
	Mari–Francois–Sadi Carnot	President of France	24 Jun 1894		Lyon		Sante Jeronimo Casaiero (Italian anarchist)
	Umberto I	King of Italy	29 Jul 1900		Monza		Gaetano Bresci – Italian–born US anarchist
	William McKinley	President of the USA	6 Sep 1901		Temple of Music, Buffalo, New York		Leon F. Czolgosz (sol–gus) – anarchist
	Carlos I	King of Portugal	1 Feb 1908		Lisbon		Alfredo Costa, Manuel Buica (Republicans) – possibly others
	Luis	Crown prince of Portugal
	Boutros Ghali	Prime minister of Egypt	20 Feb 1910		Cairo		Ibrahim Nassif al–Wardani (nationalist)
	Archduke Franz Ferdinand	Archduke of Austria – heir to the Austro–Hungarian throne	28 Jun 1914		Sarajevo		Gavrilo Princip – Bosnian Serb nationalist
	Countess Sophie, Duchess of Hohenburg	Wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
	Jean Jaurès	French social democrat leader	31 Jul 1914		Paris (Le Croissant café)		Raoul Villain (wanted war with Germany)
	Grigori Rasputin	Russian mystic	16 Dec 1916		St. Petersburg		Prince Felix Yusupov (and others)
	Emiliano Zapata	Mexican revolutionary	10 Apr 1919		Chinameca, Ayala municipality		Bounty hunters
	Michael Collins	Irish nationalist politician	22 Aug 1922		Beal na Blath, Co. Cork		Opponents of the Anglo–Irish Treaty
	Francisco 'Pancho' Villa	General of the Mexican revolution	20 Jul 1923		Parral, Chihuahua		Unknown
	Zog I	King of Albania	21 Feb 1931		Outside the Vienna State Opera		Aziz Çami (Albanian army officer)
	Franklin D. Roosevelt	US President–elect	15 Feb 1933		Miami, Florida		Giuseppe Zangara
	Engelbert Dolfuss	Austrian dictator	25 Jul 1934		Vienna		Austrian Nazis
	Huey Long	Senator; former governor of Louisiana	10 Sep 1935		Baton Rouge, Louisiana		Carl Weiss (son–in–law of a political opponent)
	Federico Garcia Lorca	Spanish poet	19 Aug 1936		In or near Granada		Nationalist partisans
	Ernst vom Rath	German diplomat	7 Nov 1938		Paris		Herschel Grynszpan
	Leon Trotsky	Russian Communist leader	21 Aug 1940		Mexico City		Ramon Mercador
	Reinhard Heydrich	German "Protector" of Bohemia and Moravia	27 May 1942		Prague		British–trained Czech agents
	Benito Mussolini	Italian Fascist leader	28 Apr 1945		Near Dongo, on the shore of Lake Como		Italian partisans
	Clara Petacci	Mistress of Benito Mussolini	28 Apr 1945		Near Dongo, on the shore of Lake Como		Italian partisans
	Mahatma Gandhi	Civil rights leader	30 Jan 1948		New Delhi		Nathuran Godse
	Harry S. Truman	US president	1 Nov 1950		Washington DC (Blair House)		Griselio Torresloa, Oscar Collazo
	Liaquat Ali Khan	Prime Minister of Pakistan	16 Oct 1951		Rawalpindi		Saad Akbar
	S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike	Prime Minister of Ceylon	26 Sep 1959		Colombo		Talduwe Somarama (a Buddhist monk)
	John Fitzgerald Kennedy	President of the USA	22 Nov 1963		Dallas, Texas		Lee Harvey Oswald (alleged)
	Lee Harvey Oswald	Alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy	24 Nov 1963		Dallas, Texas		Jack Ruby
	Malcolm X	Black activist	21 Feb 1965		Audubon Ballroom, Harlem, New York		Talmadge Hayer (and allegedly others)
	Hendrik Verwoerd	Prime Minister of South Africa	6 Sep 1966		South African Parliament, Cape Town		Dimitri Tsafendas (Parliamentary messenger)
	Che Guevara	Marxist revolutionary	9 Oct 1967		La Higuera, Bolivia		Bolivian soldiers (allegedly CIA–backed)
	Martin Luther King	US human rights campaigner	4 Apr 1968		Memphis, Tennessee		James Earl Ray
	Robert Kennedy	US Presidential candidate	6 Jun 1968		Los Angeles		Sirhan Sirhan
	Pierre Laporte	Quebec Labour Minister	Oct 1970		In or near Montreal		Front de Liberation de Quebec (FLQ)
	George Wallace *	Governor of Alabama, US Presidential candidate	15 May 1972		Laurel, Maryland		Arthur Bremer (self–publicist)
	Luis Carrero Blanco	Prime minister of Spain	20 Sep 1973		Madrid		ETA bomb
	King Faisal	King of Saudi Arabia	25 Mar 1975		Riyadh		Prince Faisal ibn Museid (his nephew)
	Sheikh Mujibur Rahman	President and PM of Bangladesh	15 Aug 1975		Dacca (at his home)		Military coup
	Gerald Ford	President of the USA	5 Sep 1975		Sacramento, California		Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme
			22 Sep 1975		San Francisco		Sara Jane Moore
	Ross McWhirter	Records compiler and publisher	27 Nov 1975		Enfield, Middlesex (outside his home)		Shot by the IRA
	Christopher Ewart–Biggs	UK ambassador to Dublin	21 Jul 1976		Sandyford, Dublin		Landmine (assumed planted by the IRA)
	Aldo Moro	Prime minister of Italy	9 May 1978		In or near Rome		Red Brigades
	Airey Neave	Conservative MP	30 Mar 1979		House of Commons car park		INLA car bomb
	Lord Mountbatten of Burma	Last Viceroy of India	27 Aug 1979		Donegal Bay		IRA bomb (Thomas McMahon)
	John Lennon	Former Beatle	8 Dec 1980		New York		Mark Chapman
	Oscar Romero	Archbishop	24 Mar 1980		El Salvador		Right–wing death squad
	Ronald Reagan	President of the USA	30 Mar 1981		Washington		John Hinckley
	John Paul II	Pope	13 May 1981		Rome		Mehmet Ali Aga
	Anwar Sadat	President of Egypt	6 Oct 1981		Cairo		Members of his own armed forces
	Indira Gandhi	Prime Minister of India	31 Oct 1984		New Delhi		Sikh guards (Satwant Singh and Beant Singh)
	Jerzy Popieluszko	Polish priest	19 Oct 1984		At or near Wloklawek reservoir		Polish security forces
	Dian Fossey	US ethologist (gorilla expert)	26 Dec 1985		Ruhengeri, Rwanda		Unknown
	Olaf Palme	Prime Minister of Sweden	28 Feb 1986		Stockholm		Unknown
	George Adamson	British naturalist	20 Aug 1989		Kora nature reserve, Kenya		Somali bandits
	Ian Gow	Conservative MP	30 Jul 1990		Hankham, East Sussex (outside his home)		IRA car bomb
	Rajiv Gandhi	Prime minister of India, 1984–9	21 May 1991		Sriperumbudur, near Madras		Thenmozhi Rajaratnam
	Luis Donaldo Colosio	Mexican Presidential candidate	24 Mar 1994		Tijuana, Mexico		Mario Aburto Martinez
	Yitzak Rabin	Prime minister of Israel	4 Nov 1995		Tel Aviv		Yigal Amir (Israeli Jew)
	Veronica "Ronnie" Guerin	Irish investigative journalist	26 Jun 1996		Newlands Cross, Dublin		Unknown (drug–related crime)
	Gianni Versace	Fashion designer	15 Jul 1997		Miami Beach, Florida		Andrew Cunanan
	King Birendra of Nepal	King of Nepal	1 Jun 2001		Kathmandu		Prince Dipendra, his son and heir
	Pim Fortuyn	Dutch right wing politician	6 May 2002		Hilversum		Volkert van der Graaf – environmentalist
	Ibrahim al–Makadmeh	Leader and co–founder of Hammas	8 Mar 2003		Gaza strip		Israeli forces
	Anna Lindh	Swedish foreign minister	11 Sep 2003		Stockholm		Mijailo Mijailovich
	Sheikh Ahmed Yassin	Leader and founder of Hammas	22 Mar 2004		Gaza Strip		Israeli gun attack from a helicopter
	Abdel Aziz al–Rantissi	Leader of Hammas	17 Apr 2004		Gaza Strip		Israeli forces
	Theo van Gogh	Dutch film director	2 Nov 2004		Amsterdam		Mohammed Bouyeri – Muslim extremist
	Benazir Bhutto	Former Prime Minister of Pakistan	27 Dec 2007		Rawalpindi		Suicide bomb; al–Qaeda suspected

© Haydn Thompson 2017–21