The near brush with death of Donald Trump this last weekend and his impassioned response has elevated concern for the safety of high-profile politicians as we go into the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Four Presidents have been assassinated while holding office (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy), but here are some deaths and near deaths you may not be so familiar with.
The earliest presidential assassination attempt happened in 1835. A man named Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson at the capitol but both of his pistols misfired.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912, was shot by John Schrank while he was campaigning in Milwaukee. Roosevelt continued to address the crowd with a bullet in his chest.
President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the victim of an attempt on his life in 1933 by Giuseppe Zangara. Roosevelt was giving a speech from the back of an open car in Miami. Durning the exchange Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was killed.
Huey P. Long, a Senator from Louisiana, was killed on the steps of the state capitol in Louisiana in 1935. It is believed it was actually return fire from his bodyguards that accidentally killed him.
In November 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill President Harry Truman while he temporarily resided at Blair House, across the street from the White House. Policeman Leslie Coffelt killed one of the assailants before they entered the building.
Truman was not injured but one White House policeman was killed and two were wounded. Oscar Callazo was arrested and sentenced to death. Truman commuted the sentence to life in prison. He was released from prison in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter.
Before his death in Dallas, President-Elect John F. Kennedy was the focus of a plan by Richard Paul Pavlick, who planned to crash into Kennedy’s car and blow it up with dynamite. He was arrested in 1960, before carrying out the plot.
In 1968, Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy spoke at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his victory in the California primary the day before. In the parking garage Sirhan Sirhan opened fire and killed Kennedy and wounded five other people.
Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death but that was commuted to life in prison. He still remains there.
In 1972, Presidential Candidate George C. Wallace was in Maryland campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Wallace was the Governor of Alabama, known for segregationist views which he later renounced. Arthur Bremer, who shot him, served in prison until 2007.
In 1974, Samuel Byck hijacked a plane intending to crash it into the White House but police shot him before he could do so. Richard Nixon was the president and target, at the time.
Gerald Ford had two attempts on his life within weeks, in 1975, and was unscathed in both incidents.
On his way to a meeting with the California Governor in Sacramento, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, pushed through a crowd on the street, drew a semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at Ford but the gun wasn’t fired.
Fromme served prison time until 2009.
Seventeen days later, Sara Jane Moore confronted Ford outside a hotel in San Francisco. She fired one shot and missed. A bystander grabbed her arm as she attempted a second shot. She was released from prison in 2007.
President Ronald Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington, D.C. and was shot by John Hinckley Jr. while walking to his car. Reagan recovered from the shooting. Three other people were also shot by Hinckley, who pulled the trigger six times.
Hinckley was confined to a mental hospital until 2022 when a judge freed him as no longer a danger to himself or others.
In 2005, President George W. Bush prepared to speak to supporters at Freedom Square, Tibilisi, Georgia. A grenade was hurled into the crowd but failed to explode.