Assassinations That Changed History

Assassinations That Changed History: Political killings have repeatedly turned single moments into turning points, toppling dynasties, triggering world wars and derailing peace deals, often producing the exact opposite of what the assassin wanted.

Julius Caesar: The senators who stabbed him 23 times in 44 BC wanted to save the Roman Republic, but their plot sparked civil wars that ended with his adopted heir Augustus becoming Rome's first emperor.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand: His driver took a wrong turn in Sarajevo in 1914 and stalled right in front of Gavrilo Princip, whose two shots set off World War I and the collapse of four empires.

Abraham Lincoln: Shot at Ford's Theatre just five days after Lee's surrender, he was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, whose lenient Reconstruction let much of the old Southern order claw back power.

Philip II of Macedon: His own bodyguard killed him at his daughter's wedding in 336 BC, handing the throne to his 20 year old son Alexander, who went on to conquer the Persian Empire.

Henry IV of France: A religious fanatic stabbed him in 1610 when his carriage got stuck in Paris traffic, leaving the crown to a nine year old Louis XIII.

Spencer Perceval: The only British prime minister ever assassinated was shot in the House of Commons lobby in 1812 by a merchant with a grudge over unpaid debts in Russia.

Tsar Alexander II: The reformer who freed Russia's serfs was blown up in 1881 on the very day he approved plans for an elected advisory body, and his son spent his reign crushing reform instead.

Mahatma Gandhi: His 1948 killing by Nathuram Godse shocked a newly partitioned India so deeply that communal rioting eased and the government temporarily banned the RSS.

Ito Hirobumi: Korean independence activist An Jung-geun shot Japan's first prime minister in Harbin in 1909, and Japan formally annexed Korea the following year.

Yitzhak Rabin: He was shot by an Israeli extremist in 1995 minutes after singing at a peace rally, and the Oslo peace process never regained its momentum.

Anwar Sadat: Soldiers opened fire from a truck during a 1981 military parade, killing the Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel and ushering in Hosni Mubarak's 30 year rule.

John F. Kennedy: His death in Dallas put Lyndon Johnson in the White House, and Johnson used the national grief to push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Martin Luther King Jr.: His 1968 murder set off unrest in more than 100 American cities, and Congress passed the Fair Housing Act just one week later.

Rafic Hariri: The 2005 truck bombing that killed Lebanon's former prime minister sparked the Cedar Revolution, which forced Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years.

Juvénal Habyarimana: When his plane was shot down over Kigali in April 1994, killing him and Burundi's president, the Rwandan genocide began within hours.

Reinhard Heydrich: Czech paratroopers ambushed the Nazi architect of the Holocaust in Prague in 1942 after a Sten gun jammed, and the reprisals wiped the village of Lidice off the map.

Inukai Tsuyoshi: Young naval officers shot Japan's prime minister in the 1932 May 15 Incident, effectively ending party government and clearing the way for military rule.

Shinzo Abe: The homemade gun that killed him in 2022 was built by a man angry at the Unification Church, and the backlash led a Tokyo court to order the church dissolved.

Caligula: After the Praetorian Guard murdered him in 41 AD, soldiers found his uncle Claudius hiding behind a curtain and made him emperor on the spot.

William McKinley: His 1901 assassination made 42 year old Theodore Roosevelt the youngest president ever and led the Secret Service to take on full time presidential protection.

Indira Gandhi: Her own Sikh bodyguards killed her in 1984 after the army stormed the Golden Temple, and her son Rajiv, who succeeded her, was himself assassinated seven years later.

Patrice Lumumba: Congo's first prime minister was executed in 1961 with Belgian involvement, paving the way for Mobutu's 32 year dictatorship; Belgium returned his gold capped tooth to his family in 2022.

Order of Assassins: This medieval Nizari Ismaili sect killed sultans and crusader lords from mountain fortresses like Alamut, and their name became the word we still use for political murder.

Jean-Paul Marat: Charlotte Corday stabbed the radical journalist in his bathtub in 1793 hoping to calm the French Revolution, but his martyrdom helped intensify the Reign of Terror instead.