History

Famous Assassinations in History

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Source:Community curated
Updated:3/7/2026
20/20
Victim
Year
Location
Assassin
Method
Known For
Julius Caesar
44 BCRome, Roman RepublicBrutus, Cassius & senatorsStabbing (23 wounds)Triggered fall of Roman Republic; immortalized by Shakespeare's 'Et tu, Brute?'
Abraham Lincoln
1865Washington, D.C., USAJohn Wilkes BoothGunshotFirst US president assassinated; shot at Ford's Theatre during the Civil War's end
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1914Sarajevo, BosniaGavrilo PrincipGunshotTriggered World War I; most consequential assassination in modern history
Mahatma Gandhi
1948New Delhi, IndiaNathuram GodseGunshotFather of Indian independence; killed by Hindu nationalist extremist
John F. Kennedy
1963Dallas, Texas, USALee Harvey OswaldGunshot (rifle)35th US president; spawned decades of conspiracy theories; Zapruder film
Martin Luther King Jr.
1968Memphis, Tennessee, USAJames Earl RayGunshot (rifle)Civil rights leader; assassination sparked riots across 100+ US cities
Robert F. Kennedy
1968Los Angeles, California, USASirhan SirhanGunshotPresidential candidate and brother of JFK; killed during campaign
Anwar Sadat
1981Cairo, EgyptKhalid IslambouliGunshotEgyptian president killed during military parade; peace with Israel angered extremists
Indira Gandhi
1984New Delhi, IndiaSatwant Singh & Beant Singh (bodyguards)GunshotIndian PM killed by Sikh bodyguards after Operation Blue Star; triggered anti-Sikh riots
Olof Palme
1986Stockholm, SwedenUnknown (case closed 2020)GunshotSwedish PM shot walking home from cinema; one of the most famous unsolved cases
Yitzhak Rabin
1995Tel Aviv, IsraelYigal AmirGunshotIsraeli PM killed for signing Oslo Accords; derailed Middle East peace process
Benazir Bhutto
2007Rawalpindi, PakistanSuicide bomber (al-Qaeda linked)Gunshot and bombingFirst female PM of a Muslim-majority country; killed during election rally
Philip II of Macedon
336 BCAegae, MacedonPausanias of OrestisStabbingFather of Alexander the Great; assassination enabled Alexander's rise to power
Thomas Becket
1170Canterbury Cathedral, EnglandFour knights of Henry IISwordArchbishop murdered in cathedral; became saint; Henry II did public penance
William the Silent
1584Delft, NetherlandsBalthasar GerardGunshot (pistol)First head of state assassinated by handgun; leader of Dutch independence
Jean-Paul Marat
1793Paris, FranceCharlotte CordayStabbingFrench Revolution radical killed in his bathtub; immortalized in Jacques-Louis David painting
Alexander II of Russia
1881St. Petersburg, RussiaIgnacy Hryniewiecki (Narodnaya Volya)BombTsar who freed the serfs; killed by anarchist bomb after surviving first blast
Leon Trotsky
1940Mexico City, MexicoRamon Mercader (Soviet agent)Ice axeBolshevik revolutionary; killed on Stalin's orders while in exile
Park Chung-hee
1979Seoul, South KoreaKim Jae-gyu (intelligence chief)GunshotSouth Korean president killed by his own spy chief at a private dinner
Rajiv Gandhi
1991Sriperumbudur, IndiaThenmozhi Rajaratnam (LTTE)Suicide bombingFormer Indian PM killed during election campaign by Tamil Tigers suicide bomber

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