I find it fascinating - the extent of assinations in the USA and in particular like most, that of JFK.
Assassination attempts and plots on Presidents of the United States have been numerous: more than 20 attempts to kill sitting and former presidents, as well as the Presidents-elect, are known.
Four sitting presidents have been killed, all of them by gunshot:
Abraham Lincoln
James A. Garfield
William McKinley
and John F. Kennedy.
Two presidents were injured in attempted assassinations, also by gunshot: Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Robert F. Kennedy was assinated most likely because he would have been President as a leading Democratic presidential candidate in 1968.
The US has made more than 50 attempts to assassinate political party leaders according to William Blum in"Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II"
Of the 10 most famous assinations the US makes for 4 of the top10
- Abraham Lincoln
- JF Kennedy
- Martin Luther King Jr
- Malcolm X
John F Kennedy -
Much I sourced at wikipedia and you can find a lot more there.
Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. He was born into one of America’s wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shock waves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history.
JFK joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety, and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower. Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast–becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.
In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to win the ongoing Cold War against communism around the world. Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
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