Famous people don't always die a natural death. They often die at the hands of calculating political opponents or insane fanatics. Here is a list of the murders that have shocked humanity the most over the past two hundred years.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was shot dead in a theater box on April 14, 1865. He was 56 years old. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a staunch Confederate and fiercely hated the president for his desire to free black Americans. He watched the president for a long time, and on April 14, he finally had a convenient moment: during the performance, Lincoln's guard went into a nearby saloon to wet his throat, and the president was left without protection. In the confusion, Booth managed to escape, but 12 days later he was shot and killed by the police.
James Garfield
The 20th President of the United States, James Garfield, only held this post for 200 days. His killer, lawyer and preacher Charles Guito, actively campaigned for Garfield in the elections, hoping to get the post of ambassador. But, not having achieved what he wanted, in anger he decided to kill Garfield. On July 2, 1881, he followed the President on a walk through Baltimore, and finally, when he approached him, he fired two shots at point-blank range in the back. Garfield died in hospital two months later from blood poisoning. Guito was captured, convicted and hanged in June 1882.
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Robert Kennedy
Senator Robert Kennedy, brother of the assassinated president and Democratic presidential candidate, was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. The senator had just won the California primaries, but winning the presidential race took a lot of effort, and performances were one after another. After meeting with supporters at the Ambassador Hotel, Robert Kennedy, despite warnings from the guards, decided to take a shortcut through the hotel's kitchen. Here he was trapped by the Palestinian immigrant Serhan Serhan, who shot three times at Kennedy at point-blank range. The senator died a day later in the hospital, and the killer was sentenced to life imprisonment, which is still serving today.
Faisal ibn Abdul-Aziz
King Faisal ruled Saudi Arabia from 1965 to 1975. On March 25, 1975, he was shot and killed by his own nephew, Faisal bin Musaid. Returning from a trip to the United States, Faisal bin Musaid went to greet his uncle. The king rose from the throne to meet him - and was immediately shot two times in the head. The king died instantly. And the nephew was tried, found guilty and after a couple of months was hanged in Riyadh.
William McKinley
William McKinley became the third American president to be assassinated during his term. McKinley liked to appear in public and was reluctant to accept security. With this, he gave a chance to the unemployed anarchist Leon Czolgosh, who decided to kill the president as a representative of the exploiting class. On September 6, 1901, at the concert hall at the Pan American World's Fair in Buffalo, McKinley approached Czolgosh to shake his hand - and was shot at point-blank range. Czolgosz was electrocuted, and the security of the US presidents has been provided by a special secret service ever since.
Harvey Bernard Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk became the first openly gay person elected to government office in California: he became a member of the supervisory board. His unlucky opponent in the elections, Conservative Dan White, who hated "gay" in general and Milk personally, decided to take matters into his own hands - and shot Milk. The assassination took place on November 27, 197, almost a year after Milk took office. Subsequently, the biopic about Milka was shot not by anyone, but by the intellectual and reckless Gus Van Sant.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was attempted twice, but only the third time did the assassin achieve his goal. On January 30, 1948, as Gandhi went to the temple to pray, the killer approached him in a crowd of admirers and fired three shots at point-blank range. One of them turned out to be fatal: the bullet hit the heart area. Gandhi died on the spot, having only had time to make it clear that he forgave his killer. It turned out to be the nationalist Naturkham Godse, who believed that Gandhi's policies led to an excessive subordination of India to Pakistani interests. And although Gandhi forgave Godse, the court did not: he was hanged in November 1949.
John F. Kennedy
The Dallas shots, fired on November 22, 1963, were perhaps the most researched public assassination in world history. Kennedy's trip to Dallas, who had just announced his upcoming second term, was covered by dozens of journalists. The car that started, the body of the president, jerking and limply thrown back on the seat, Jacqueline Kennedy, picking up pieces of her husband's brain from the bumper of the car - all this was carefully recorded on film. But who was behind the shooter Lee Harvey Oswald, and even whether it was Oswald who actually fired the fatal bullets - this still remains one of the main mysteries of modern history.
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswadd survived John F. Kennedy by only two days. On November 24, 1963, while being transported from the Dallas Police Department to the prison, he was shot by a single shot from Dallas resident Jack Ruby. Ruby attributed his actions to personal hatred of the killer; the court sentenced him to death, but the sentence was challenged. In the midst of the trial, Ruby died of lung cancer, which he had suffered for a long time, becoming another mysterious page in the mysterious story of the Kennedy assassination.
Georgy Markov
Bulgarian writer and dissident Georgi Markov, who fled to England in 1969, was killed on September 7, 1978 in London. It is believed that the killer was a Bulgarian KGB agent, although he was never found. Markov's death became widely known because of the method of murder: a passer-by on the street seemed to accidentally prick him in the leg with an umbrella, thus injecting a capsule with poison under Markov's skin, from which Markov died a few days later. Subsequently, this incredible plot was used in the scripts of several films - from serious political detective stories to the funny French comedy "The Umbrella Stab".
Martin Luther King Jr
A preacher, lawyer and brilliant speaker, Martin Luther King was one of the leaders of the All-American movement against racial segregation. He was shot and killed on April 4, 1968 in Memphis. King was standing on the second floor balcony when a sniper's bullet hit him in the neck. An hour later, 39-year-old King passed away. The killer turned out to be James Earl Ray, a committed racist with a criminal record. Ray himself claimed that he was only a pawn in a big conspiracy, but no evidence of this was found, although King's relatives remained for a long time convinced that the American government was involved in his death.
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer who fled from Russia to England, became Georgy Markov of our day. He died in November 2006 in a London hospital from acute poisoning with symptoms of radiation sickness. The investigation found out that a few weeks before Litvinenko's death he drank tea in a London hotel, where in his cup was somehow a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210. The investigation into the Litvinenko case is still ongoing, and the "polonium seagulls" have long been a famous Internet meme.
Malcolm X
A renowned US black rights advocate, Malcolm X was shot 21 point-blank shots at the start of his speech to members of the Organization of African American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Members of the Nation of Islam, an extremist organization of the black population of America, claimed responsibility for the murder. Malcolm once entered it, but then, disillusioned with the ideals of black racism, left the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was no less popular among black Americans than Martin Luther King: several tens of thousands of people came to say goodbye to him.
Benazir Bhutto
The only woman in history - the Prime Minister of Pakistan was killed after returning to the country from years of exile. When Bhutto, who served as prime minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996, announced that she would run again in 2007, she was immediately assassinated. The first attempt took place on October 15, 1993. More than 130 people died, but Bhutto survived. Finally, on December 27, 2007, while Bhutto was driving in an open-top car to greet voters, a terrorist opened fire on her, simultaneously detonating several explosive devices. More than 20 people died on the spot, Bhutto died an hour later on the operating table. The killer was never found, although no one doubts that he belonged to one of the radical Islamic groups.
John Lennon
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon, along with Yoko Ono, was returning from the studio when they called him near the house. Lennon turned around and the killer, Mark David Chapman, fired five bullets at him. Four reached the goal, and John Lennon died in a matter of minutes from acute blood loss. Chapman explained his act by striving for fame; he showed clear signs of mental problems, but was declared sane and sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, Chapman has filed requests for clemency eight times, but they were all rejected.