The actions of political leaders always cause an ambiguous assessment in society, but the most brutal and unacceptable form of protest is political murder. Such crimes are committed by single fanatics, terrorist and religious organizations, and sometimes are organized by special services of other countries. We will take a short excursion into history to tell about the most high-profile killings of political leaders in history.
1
Gedalia
The first political assassination recorded in world history occurred in the city of Mitzpe in 586 BC. e.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Babylonians left in Judea their governor named Gedaliah. During his reign, people began to return to the destroyed cities. But not all Jews accepted the situation of the oppressed.
During the feast, soldiers led by Ismail chopped down the swords of the Babylonian governor, as well as all the Babylonians and Jews who were present at the feast. Frightened by reprisal, Ismail and his supporters fled to the country of ammonites. The prophet Jeremiah described these tragic events.
2
Philip II of Macedon
This crime still causes a lot of controversy among historians over the true motives for the murder of the ruler of Macedonia.
Having united all of Greece under his authority, Philip II embarked on a military campaign against Persia. At the same time, a family scandal occurred when the ruler literally exiled his first wife to the Olympics, and decided to marry the young Cleopatra, a noble Macedonian.
This fact upset the Epirus king Alexander, who was the brother of the Olympics. Philip settled the conflict by marrying his daughter Cleopatra as Alexander. During a wedding in the spring of 337 BC e., the Macedonian ruler was stabbed to death by his bodyguard Pausanias.
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3
Guy Julius Caesar
The reforms of Gaius Julius Caesar, and most importantly the proclamation of him as the sole ruler of Rome, caused discontent among the nobles. A conspiracy matured in the Senate, initiated by Mark Junius Brutus and Guy Cassius Longin.
Rumors circulated around the country that Julius Caesar wants to proclaim himself a life ruler and transfer the capital of the state to Alexandria or Troy. On the morning of May 15, 44 BC. e., in the Curia of Troyan began a meeting of the Senate. Caesar took his place, and Lucius Tillius Cimbre approached him. He began to pull off toga from Caesar, which became a signal.
Publius Servilius Casca delivered the first blow to Julius’s neck. The ruler began to fight back, but when he saw that a friend and his comrade-in-arms Brutus had brought a dagger over him, he stopped resisting. Before his death, he managed to say: "And you, my child!" 23 wounds were found on the dictator's body, and he himself fell dead by the statue of Trajan.
4
Commodus
The Roman emperor Commodus, who ruled in the II century, was killed in a conspiracy. But this happened in real life a little differently than shown in the movie "Gladiator".
January 1, 193 was scheduled to celebrate the entry of Commodus to the post of consul. He wanted to appear at a ceremony in a gladiator's armor. Three people prevented these plans from being realized. They were Pretoria Prefect Quintus Amelius Years, the beloved concubine of the emperor, beautiful Marcia, and the administrator of the imperial court, Eclect.
The day before the holiday, they poisoned the emperor, but the poison did not work. Among the conspirators was also the slave Narcissus, with whom the emperor engaged in the struggle. He strangled Commodus, who was weakened by the action of the poison.
5
Wilhelm I of Orange
In 1581, the Netherlands declared independence from Spain, and the leader of the revolution was Wilhelm. This outraged the Catholic Church, which organized and financed the assassination of the Dutch halter.
In 1582, two assassinations were organized, as a result of which William was seriously wounded and went with his family to Delft. Despite poor health, he continued to lead the country, received visitors.
The fanatic Balthazar Gerard, hired by Catholic priests, on July 10, 1584, requested the audience of the Prince of Orange. When the prince went down the stairs, Gerard shot three times at point blank range. The wounds were fatal, and William of Orange died almost immediately.
6
Henry III
The monarch of France, Henry, the last of the Valois dynasty, became a victim of religious confrontation. He put on the crown in the midst of religious wars.
By order of Henry, the brothers of Giza were killed, who led a rebellion in Paris against the king. Catholics were unhappy with the murder of the brothers. At this time, the king's guardsmen besieged rebellious Paris, and the monarch himself was in Saint-Cloud.
Dominican monk Jacques Clement, an ardent Catholic and an enemy of the Huguenots, went to the monarch. During the audience, he handed the papers to Henry. When the monarch began to read, a Catholic fan pulled out a stylet and stabbed the king of France in the stomach. From the wound received, the last Valois died on the night of August 2, 1589.
7
Henry IV
The life of the first French monarch from the Bourbon dynasty tragically ended. He, like his predecessor, also intervened in the religious confrontation between Catholics and Protestants.
The actions of the king of France could lead to a new war in Europe, which the Pope opposed. In Saint-Denis on May 13, 1610 was crowned Maria Medici, the second wife of Henry. Even in her environment were supporters of the removal of the French king.
The day after the coronation of Mary, the king rode in a carriage along the Parisian street of Rue de la Ferronri. Right on the go, the Jesuit Francois Ravalliac jumped into the carriage and inflicted three fatal stabs to the monarch. The nearby Governor of Paris, Hercule de Rogan Monbazon, could not help Henry IV.
8
Spencer Percival
A simple British entrepreneur, John Bellingham, remained in history as the killer of the British Prime Minister. And the reason was personal hostility.
In 1804, John was forced to go to Russia to investigate the death of the Russian ship Soyuz, insured by Lloyd. In Russia, he was detained twice, was in prison, and was able to return to his homeland only after five years. Upon his return, he tried to obtain compensation from the government for his misadventures in the Russian Empire and to recover at work. Prime Spencer refused Bellingham.
On May 11, 1812, he came to the courtyard of the parliament, where the prime minister was to appear. When the prime minister stepped onto the track, Bellingham shot him in the heart without taking a pistol from his coat pocket.
9
Abraham Lincoln
Continuing our list on thebiggest is the first American president to fall at the hands of a killer. The reason was the state activity of Lincoln, namely the abolition of slavery in the United States and the victory of the North over the Confederates.
It was the fifth day after the end of the Civil War. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, the president went to the Ford Theater to enjoy the play “My American Cousin”.
During the performance, the actor, an ardent supporter of the southerners, John Wilkes Booth, entered the presidential box, bypassing the guards. It was a funny production, and when the audience burst into laughter, Booth shot Lincoln in the head. Laughter drowned out the sound of a shot. The next morning, from the wound received, the 16th president died in the house opposite the theater.
10
Alexander II
For the first time, the simple peasant Osip Komissarov saved the death of the Russian emperor, who was subsequently nicknamed the Liberator. When Dmitry Karakozov shot at the tsar, he accidentally pushed the shooter, and a bullet went over Alexander's head.
After this, six more assassinations were committed, and the seventh turned out to be fatal. The Volunteers planned the assassination of the king on March 1, 1881. For this, a trench for laying a bomb was dug on Malaya Sadovaya Street. But the emperor’s motorcade went on a different route.
But the participants in the attempt did not abandon their plans, and on the same day the emperor was mortally wounded on the embankment of the Catherine’s canal. The first bomb, thrown under the horse’s legs, did not catch the king. He went to Nikolai Rysakov, who was detained by the police, and then Ignatius Grinevitsky threw a second bomb. The emperor was wounded and died an hour after the assassination attempt.
11
Franz Ferdinand
The Archduke was not the head of state, but was considered only the heir to the throne, powerful at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Republic.
Franz Ferdinand and his wife went on a visit to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The Young Bosnia organization, which advocated the withdrawal of the South Slavic territories from the empire, decided to kill the heir in order to destabilize the situation. The sentence was executed by Gavril Princip, who killed the Archduke and his wife with pistol shots.
The Sarajevo assassination changed the course of world history, as European countries used it as a pretext for the outbreak of the First World War.
12
Alexander I Karageorgievich
The attempt on the king of Yugoslavia went down in history under the name "Marseilles murder", and this happened on October 9, 1934.
This became one of the most high-profile murders of the twentieth century. The Yugoslav monarch arrived in France on a visit. When the motorcade of Alexander I drove to the Marseille square of the Exchange, Vlado Chernozemsky, a member of the Macedonian nationalist organization, ran up to the car. He shot the king and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthes with shots.
Croat assassins were involved in the assassination attempt. There is a version that the operation was developed by the Gestapo, and was called the Teutonic Sword.
13
Mahatma Gandhi
The prominent Indian public and political Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did a lot for India to gain independence from Great Britain.
He sought to reconcile the Indians and Muslims, which was the reason for the murder. The political power of the Hindus, the Hindu Mahasabha, declared Gandhi a blood enemy. The organization was headed by the millionaire Vinayak Savarkar, who created the terrorist groups.
A conspiracy matured among the extreme right-wingers, and on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was killed on a street in New Delhi. The editor of the Hindu Rashtra newspaper, a native of the orthodox Brahman family Nathuram Vinayak Godze, shot him.
14
John Kennedy
Lee Harvey Oswald is considered the main suspect in the murder of the 35th US president, but the case has not yet been resolved. Several versions have been put forward, including a version on CIA involvement.
John Kennedy arrived in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and in an open limousine drove along city streets, meeting the enthusiastic cries of the Americans. Shots rang out as the motorcade drove along Elm Street. The first bullet hit right through the neck, the second got stuck in the head.
As a result of the shots, the governor of Texas and one of the casual passers-by were wounded. Half an hour later, in the operating room of the Dallas hospital, John Kennedy died of gunshot wounds.
15
Anwar Sadat
The two Islamic terrorist groups Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and Egyptian Islamic Jihad have teamed up to avenge the president of Egypt for his rapprochement with Israel. Among the motivation for the assassination was revenge for the arrested members of Islamic organizations.
In honor of the end of the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. On October 6, 1981, a military parade was held in the Egyptian capital. Sadat was on the government platform when a military truck suddenly stopped, from which paratroopers jumped. Khaled al-Islambuli threw a grenade, the rest began to fire from machine guns.
The president initially mistook this for a staging, and even got up from his chair to consider the action. At that moment, a sniper killed Anwar Sadat with two bullets.
16
Indira gandhi
In 1981, the Prime Minister of India conducted a successful military operation against the Sikhs. Their main weapons base was destroyed, but many people died as a result of the operation. The radical leaders of the Sikhs fired up the idea of revenge.
On the day of the assassination, on October 31, 1984, Gandhi was scheduled to meet with a British journalist. For the sake of meeting, she took off her body armor and put on a traditional Indian sari.
Indira left her residence and headed across the courtyard to the meeting place with reporters. Along the edges of the path stood her personal bodyguards Beant Singh and Satvant Singh. When she caught up with them, one of them shot the prime minister three times with a pistol, and the second fired an automatic rifle. For five hours, doctors fought for the life of the Prime Minister of India, but she died at 14.20.
17
Olof Palme
The assassination of the Swedish prime minister has still not been disclosed. There are many versions, but not one of them has collected enough evidence.
On that day, December 28, 1986, Olof and his wife Lisbeth returned home after watching a movie at the Grand Cinema. There was no guard near them, as the prime minister liked to spend personal time without bodyguards. When the couple left Sveavegen Street at the intersection with Tunnelgatan Street, a man came out to meet them and fired two deadly shots from a revolver.
One remarkable point. After 3 days, the Swedish Prime Minister was to pay an official visit to the USSR, and the Cold War was only just beginning to thaw.
18
Rajiv Gandhi
After the murder of his mother, his son Rajiv took over as prime minister of India, and continued his policy of fighting extremist organizations. In 1987, he sent a military mission to Sri Lanka to suppress the Tamil separatists, united in the group "Tigers of the Liberation of Tamil Ilam."
The radical right-wing separatist organizations decided to respond by not allowing the re-election of Gandhi to the post of prime minister. As part of the election program on May 21, 1991, Rajiv spoke at a rally in front of his supporters.
After the rally, a woman approached him, supposedly with the aim of greeting the leader of the nation. At that moment, the suicide bomber detonated an explosive device. Rajiv Gandhi died immediately, and the Tigers of Liberation claimed responsibility for the attack.
19
Yitzhak Rabin
The Prime Minister of Israel signed an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Oslo in 1993. These documents gave hope for a resolution to the conflict.
But there will always be a political force, or a separate fanatic who will be against rapprochement between Israel and Palestine. The right-wing Israeli extremist Yigal Amir turned out to be such a person.
After speaking at a rally in support of the peace agreements on October 4, 1995, Yitzhak went to his car. Yigal went to the prime minister and fired three shots at close range. After 40 minutes, the wounded Israeli leader died in a hospital.
20
Benazir Bhutto
One of the most beautiful women state leaders in history died as a result of a terrorist act on December 27, 2007. Twice was the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
In 2007, Benazir returned to her homeland from political exile, and immediately joined the political struggle. Her popularity among the people for the third time could make Benazir the head of state. In October, President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in the country, wanting to prevent Bhutto from taking power.
After speaking at a rally in the city of Rawalpindi with a large crowd of people, the former prime minister got into the car, but then leaned out of the hatch. At this moment, a young man came up and shot at a woman point-blank. After that, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb. As a result of the attack, 20 people died, and Benazir Bhutto herself died in the hospital without regaining consciousness.
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Conclusion
Anticipating the criticism of history connoisseurs, we note that we have described only part of the killings of state leaders. There were other attempts in history.US President James Garfield died two months after being shot in the back, and 25th President William McKinley passed away a week later, having received a bullet in his stomach. The king of Italy, Umberto I, the president of France, Sadi Carnot, and other leaders were killed.
Fortunately, there are fewer such crimes. All of them lead to different consequences, and sometimes radically change the course of history. Today, some killings of political leaders remain unsolved, which generates a lot of rumors and speculation in the world community. TheBiggest.ru asks you to write which killings of political leaders are the most tragic both for you personally and for the country.