When was the last assassination attempt on a U.S. president? | Here’s a look at the history

DALLAS — An assassination attempt was made on former president Donald Trump Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

That has led many to ask questions about past presidential assassinations, plots and attempts.

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown.

Four sitting U.S. presidents have been assassinated. 

In chronological order, they are Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The details of their assassinations are written later in this article.

Including Donald Trump, three presidents — former and sitting — have been wounded in assassination attempts, and survived. 

In order, they are Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Donald Trump in 2024.

Roosevelt was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee for the 1912 presidential election more than three years after leaving office. Would-be assassin John Schrank shot Roosevelt once in the chest with a .38-caliber pistol, but the copy of his speech and metal glasses in Roosevelt’s pocket slowed the bullet and saved the former president’s life. Schrank was arrested, deemed insane, and institutionalized for the remainder of his life.

Reagan was severely injured in Washington D.C. three months after taking office. John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots, hitting the sitting president and three others on the streets of the city. Reagan suffered a broken rib, a punctured lung and severe internal bleeding as a result. He was eventually stabilized and released from the hospital 12 days later. Hinckley was arrested and deemed insane.

Donald Trump was shot on July 13, 2024, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president was shot in the ear by an unidentified shooter. Secret Service agents rushed the president to safety. The shooter and at least one bystander were killed in the assassination attempt.

At least 19 U.S. presidents have been targets of attempted assassinations, successful or unsuccessful.

In order, they are Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Andrew Jackson, America’s 6th president, was the first target of an attempted assassination. In 1835, Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot Jackson in Washington D.C. Lawrence tried to shoot Jackson with two pistols, but both misfired. Lawrence was deemed insane and institutionalized until his death.

Before his death at the hands of John Wilkes Booth, two other would-be assassins tried to kill Lincoln. In 1861, while Lincoln was president-elect, Confederate sympathizers plotted to kill Lincoln on his way to his inauguration. Agents of Allan Pinkerton made sure the way was safe, though. An 1864 attempt came much closer to taking Lincoln’s life. An unknown sniper fired a shot that narrowly missed Lincoln’s head, passing through his hat, while the president was riding through Washington D.C. In 1865, John Wilkes Booth successfully assassinated President Lincoln at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.  

James Garfield was assassinated in 1881. Lawyer Charles J. Guiteau shot the president at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington D.C. Garfield lived for 79 days before succumbing to infections from the bullet wounds. Guiteau was hanged in D.C. two days shy of the shooting’s anniversary.

William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot at McKinley twice, but only one bullet hit the president, passing through his stomach. Doctors thought McKinley was recovering, but the president died of gangrene from the wounds just eight days later. Police arrested Czolgosz and beat him to near death. Czolgosz survived the beating but was later sentenced to death by electric chair. After McKinley’s death, Congress issued the Secret Service to serve as the president’s security.

William Howard Taft was the target of an assassination plot in 1909. Taft was meeting with Mexican president Porfirio Díaz in El Paso, Texas, in a historic negotiation over the two nations’ ongoing land disputes. A 52-year-old man named Julius Bergerson had a concealed palm pistol, but was captured by Texas Ranger C.R. Moore.  

Theodore Roosevelt was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee for the 1912 presidential election more than three years after leaving office. Would-be assassin John Schrank shot Roosevelt once in the chest with a .38-caliber pistol, but the copy of his speech and metal glasses in Roosevelt’s pocket slowed the bullet and saved the former president’s life. Schrank was arrested, deemed insane, and institutionalized for the remainder of his life.

In 1928, an attempt was made on Herbert Hoover’s life in the Andes Mountains near the border of Chile and Argentina. Hoover, who was president-elect, was targeted by a group of Argentine anarchists. The group plotted to explode Hoover’s train, but the bomber was arrested before their plan was executed. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the second Roosevelt to be targeted by assassins. Just days before his inauguration in 1933, Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at FDR, but none hit. Zangara did end up shooting five other people, however, including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died from his wounds. Zangara pleaded guilty to the death of Cermak and was executed by electric chair.

In 1947, Harry Truman was the target of a bombing attempt. Before the State of Israel was formed, the Zionist insurgent group Lehi allegedly mailed bombs to the president and other White House officials. The incident is detailed in Margaret Truman’s biography. In 1950, two activists for an independent Puerto Rico also attempted to take Truman’s life. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to kill Truman at the Blair House while the White House was undergoing renovations. The pair shot three police officers and killed one. Torresalo was shot in the head and killed, and Collazo was shot in the stomach. Collazo survived and was imprisoned until 1979 when President Jimmy Carter commuted his sentence. Truman was not harmed in the plot.

Before his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy was the target of an assassination plot in Palm Beach, Florida. In 1960, 73-year-old Richard Paul Pavlick plotted to crash into Kennedy’s car and blow it up with dynamite. Ultimately, Pavlick, who was driven by a hatred of Catholics, did not go through with it but was arrested by the Secret Service after police found dynamite in his car. Pavlick was going to be charged with threatening Kennedy’s life, but the charges were dropped after JFK’s death in 1963. Pavlick was instead hospitalized until 1966. President Kennedy was later successfully assassinated in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. You can read more about JFK’s assassination here. 

In 1972, Arthur Bremer attempted to assassinate President Richard Nixon but failed because he could never get a good shot. A month later, Bremer tried to kill Alabama Governor George Wallace but only paralyzed the governor from the waist down. Bremer served 35 years in prison. In 1974, Samuel Byck plotted to crash a plane into the White House and kill Nixon. Byck hijacked a flight at Baltimore-Washington International Airport after shooting the two pilots. An officer shot Byck before he could take off, and Byck later shot and killed himself.

Gerald Ford was the target of three assassination attempts. In 1974, the Alphabet Bomber, who killed three people in a bombing at LAX, threatened to throw a nerve gas bomb at Ford. The next day, the Secret Service and CIA identified him as Muharem Kurbegovic, a terrorist from the defunct nation of Yugoslavia. Kurbegovic was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today. In 1975, Lynette Fromme, a member of the Manson family, attempted to shoot Ford, but her gun did not fire. Fromme was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. She was later released in 2009. 17 days after Fromme’s attempt, Sara Jane Moore tried to shoot the president but missed. Before she got a second shot off, Oliver Sipple, a former marine, grabbed her arm, causing the second shot to miss. Moore was sentenced to life in prison but was released in 2007.

Jimmy Carter was targeted by would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr., but Hinckley did not go through with the plot. However, Hinckley later shot and severely injured Ronald Reagan.

In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots on Reagan three months after he took office, hitting the sitting president and three others on the streets of the city. Reagan suffered a broken rib, a punctured lung and severe internal bleeding as a result. He was eventually stabilized and released from the hospital 12 days later. Hinckley was arrested and deemed insane.

In 1993, George H.W. Bush was targeted by Kuwaiti and Iraqi men believed to be working for Saddam Hussein. The men plotted to assassinate Bush by planting a car bomb during his visit to Kuwait. However, Kuwaiti officials foiled the plot.

Both in and out of office, Bill Clinton was the target of five assassination plots. In 1994, Ronald Gene Barbour plotted to kill Clinton. He never went through with the plot but was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison just the same. Also in 1994, Francisco Martin Duran fired 29 shots at the White House. Duran was tackled by a group of men before he could injure anyone and was later sentenced to 40 years in prison. In November 1994, Osama bin Laden tasked Ramzi Yousef with assassinating Clinton, but Yousef instead chose to target Pope John Paul II. In 1996, Osama bin Laden tried to orchestrate another attempt on Clinton’s life. While in Manila, the Secret Service rerouted the president’s motorcade after intercepting the assassination plot. When agents looked into the planned route, a bomb was discovered under a bridge along the way. Out of office in 2018, Bill and Hillary Clinton were mailed a pipe bomb to their home in New York. The Secret Service intercepted the package and matched fingerprints on the box to Cesar Sayoc. Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

George W. Bush was targeted once in office and once out of office. In 2005, Vladimir Arutyunian threw a grenade at President Bush during a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia. The grenade did not explode, although the pin was pulled. Arutyunian was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. In 2022, Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab plotted to assassinate Bush but was thwarted by undercover FBI informants. Shihab and one of the informants even traveled to Bush’s home in Dallas for surveillance.

Barack Obama was targeted by at least eight assassination plots. In 2008, U.S. Marine Kody Brittingham plotted to kill President Obama, calling him a domestic enemy. Brittingham was arrested and sentenced to more than eight years in prison. In 2009, a man carrying forged press credentials was part of a plot to kill Obama with a knife in Istanbul. In 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez travelled from Idaho to Washington D.C. He fired several shots at the White House in an attempt to kill President Obama. No one was injured in the shooting, and Ortega-Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years in prison. From 2011 to 2012, the domestic terrorist group FEAR plotted to kill Obama. Four of the members were arrested, and the plot dissolved. In 2012, a man confessed to plotting to kill Obama with a shotgun in Boulder, Colorado. In 2013, Obama was mailed a letter containing ricin, a toxin that is deadly when inhaled or ingested. In 2013, white supremacists Glendon Scott Crawford and Eric Feight admitted to plotting to kill President Obama with a homemade radiation gun. In 2018, Obama was mailed a pipe bomb that the Secret Service intercepted.

Donald Trump has now been the target of at least four assassination attempts. In 2016, Michael Steven Stanford tried to grab a police officer’s gun to kill President Trump in Las Vegas. He was sentenced to one year in prison but was later deported to the UK. In 2017, Gregory Lee Leingang tried to kill Trump using a stolen forklift. Leingang admitted his intent to flip the presidential motorcade with the forklift and kill Trump. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Also in 2017, a man affiliated with ISIL plotted to kill Trump during the ASEAN Summit in Manila. On July 13, 2024, a man attempted to kill Trump during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing the former president’s ear. The shooter was killed in the attempt.

Joe Biden has been the target of one assassination plot. In 2023, Sau Varshith Kandula drove a box truck onto White House grounds with the intent to kill Biden. Kandula was arrested and is yet to be sentenced.