A long history of attacks against US presidents and candidates

Donald Trump was injured on Saturday in the ear by one of the several shots that were heard during a Republican rally, an attack that investigators are treating as a possible assassination attempt on former president.

From Abraham Lincoln to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, these are some of the Gun attacks on American presidents or presidential candidates:

– Ronald Reagan (1981) –

President Reagan was seriously wounded by several gunshots as he left an event at the Hilton Hotel in Washington. The attacker, John Hinckley Jr., was released from prison on parole in 2016.

Reagan spent 12 days in the hospital. The attack boosted the popularity of the then president, who displayed humor and resilience during his recovery.

– Gerald Ford (1975) –

President Ford emerged unscathed from two assassination attempts by women in September 1975, both in California and within a 17-day period.

– George Wallace (1972) –

While campaigning for the Democratic nomination, Wallace was shot four times at a shopping mall in Laurel, Maryland, and left paralyzed.

The assassination of Wallace, known for his segregationist views and populist appeal, highlighted political tensions in the United States.

– Robert F. Kennedy (1968) –

Former President John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, was shot dead at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, an attack that had a major impact on the 1968 presidential race.

Robert’s death came just two months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., which exacerbated the political and social turmoil in the United States of the late 1960s.

– John F. Kennedy (1963) –

President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald as he was driving an open-top car with his wife Jackie. A commission of inquiry set up by JFK’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who had lived in the Soviet Union, had acted alone.

Many Americans believe that JFK’s death ushered in a more violent period in American politics and society, with the buildup to the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights as a backdrop.

– Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933) –

As president-elect, Roosevelt was the victim of an assassination attempt in Miami, Florida. He escaped unharmed, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was killed in the attack.

– Theodore Roosevelt (1912) –

Like Trump, Roosevelt was seeking re-election as president when he was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The 50 folded sheets of paper containing the speech he was to give and the steel spectacle case he carried in his shirt pocket stopped the bullet, which remained inside his chest for life. Roosevelt decided to deliver his scheduled speech despite the attack.

– William McKinley (1901) –

President McKinley was shot and assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York.

– Abraham Lincoln (1865) –

Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington.

The attack occurred just days after the surrender of the Confederate States during the Civil War.

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