The recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump marks the fourth time in U.S. history that an assassination attempt has been made on a presidential candidate.
The most infamous of these occurred shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, when Senator Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., was fatally shot by 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. The attack happened moments after Kennedy claimed victory in the California Democratic presidential primary, as he made his way through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy’s assassination dramatically altered the course of the 1968 presidential race and American politics.
Another significant attempt was on May 15, 1972, when Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot four times by Arthur Bremer while campaigning in a shopping center in Laurel, Maryland. Although Wallace survived, one of the bullets struck his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the remainder of his life. This attack effectively ended Wallace’s campaign, despite his subsequent victories in the Maryland and Michigan primaries. Wallace continued to serve as governor and remained a notable figure in American politics until his death in 1998.
The first assassination attempt on a presidential candidate actually targeted a former president, Theodore Roosevelt, who was running for office again in 1912 as the Progressive Party candidate after losing the Republican nomination to incumbent President William Howard Taft. On October 14, 1912, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot by John Schrank, an unemployed saloon keeper. Remarkably, Roosevelt proceeded to deliver a 90-minute speech with the bullet lodged in his chest, famously stating, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” Roosevelt survived the attack and carried the bullet for the rest of his life, though he ultimately lost the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
These incidents highlight the dangerous intersections of politics and violence in American history, demonstrating the resilience of the affected candidates and the profound impact such attacks can have on the nation’s political trajectory.
