Narrow Escapes from Assassination

Narrow Escapes from Assassination: History turns on seconds and inches. A purse knocked an arm aside in Miami, a speech and an eyeglass case slowed a bullet in Milwaukee, and a delayed dinner saved a tsar. The cases show how luck, protocol, and human error decided the fate of presidents, kings, and dictators.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: In February 1933 the president elect was in Miami when Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots while standing on a wobbly chair. A bystander, Lillian Cross, said she shoved his arm. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in the crowd instead.

Theodore Roosevelt: Shot in the chest in Milwaukee in 1912, he spoke for about 90 minutes before going to the hospital. A folded 50 page speech and a steel eyeglass case in his breast pocket slowed the bullet, which doctors left in his chest for the rest of his life.

Andrew Jackson: In January 1835, Richard Lawrence aimed a pistol at Jackson at the Capitol and it misfired, and so did his backup pistol. The furious president charged him with his cane. Experts later put the odds of both guns failing as extremely long.

Ronald Reagan: In March 1981, a bullet ricocheted off the presidential limousine and lodged in his lung about an inch from his heart. Reagan walked into the hospital, then told the surgeons he hoped they were all Republicans.

Gerald Ford: In September 1975 he faced two attempts in 17 days. Lynette Fromme's pistol had no round in the chamber, and Sara Jane Moore's shot was deflected when a bystander lunged at her arm.

Harry Truman: On 1 November 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to storm Blair House, where Truman was resting upstairs. Guard Leslie Coffelt killed one attacker from about 30 feet even after being mortally wounded, and the other attacker was captured.

John F. Kennedy: In December 1960, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick planned to ram a car packed with dynamite into the president elect's car at Palm Beach. He called it off when he saw Jackie Kennedy and the children with him, and was arrested days later.

Abraham Lincoln: In February 1861, detective Allan Pinkerton warned of a plot to kill the president elect in Baltimore. Lincoln passed through the city at night on a secret schedule, and critics mocked the maneuver as cowardly.

Georg Elser: In November 1939, this carpenter hid a time bomb in a pillar at a Munich beer hall where Hitler was speaking. Hitler left 13 minutes early because fog grounded his plane, and the blast killed eight people.

Wolf's Lair: On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg's briefcase bomb went off during a conference at Hitler's East Prussian headquarters. The meeting had been moved to a wooden hut, and an officer had shifted the briefcase behind a heavy table leg; Hitler survived with burns and damaged eardrums.

Petit Clamart Ambush: On 22 August 1962, OAS gunmen fired well over 100 rounds at Charles de Gaulle's Citroen DS outside Paris. The tires were shot out but the car kept going, and de Gaulle reportedly dismissed the shooters as poor shots.

Rue Saint Nicaise: On Christmas Eve 1800, a cart loaded with gunpowder exploded in Paris seconds after Napoleon's carriage passed on the way to the opera. The blast killed and injured dozens of bystanders but missed the First Consul.

Alexander II: In February 1880, revolutionaries who had smuggled dynamite into the Winter Palace blew up the dining room beneath the tsar's dinner. He was late because a guest's train was delayed, so the blast killed soldiers instead; he was assassinated in 1881.

Queen Victoria: She survived at least seven attempts on her life, beginning in 1840 when 18 year old Edward Oxford fired two pistols at her carriage. Oxford was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and the law on attacks against the monarch was tightened.

Pope John Paul II: Shot in St. Peter's Square on 13 May 1981, he survived and believed Our Lady of Fatima had guided the bullet. One of the bullets was later placed in the crown of her statue in Portugal.

Benito Mussolini: In April 1926 Irish woman Violet Gibson shot at him from point blank range in Rome. He had turned his head at the last moment, so the bullet only grazed his nose.

Vladimir Lenin: Shot twice in August 1918 by Fanny Kaplan, Lenin survived, with one bullet lodged near his neck for years. The attack helped trigger the Red Terror.

Margaret Thatcher: The IRA bomb that tore through Brighton's Grand Hotel in October 1984 wrecked her bathroom minutes after she left it. She had stayed up late working on her conference speech, and five people died.

Queen Elizabeth II: In June 1981, a teenager fired six blank cartridges at her during Trooping the Colour. She calmed her horse Burmese and rode on.

Pervez Musharraf: In December 2003, a bomb on a Rawalpindi bridge exploded just after his motorcade passed, because an electronic jammer delayed the detonator. Eleven days later suicide bombers struck again and he survived once more.

George W. Bush: In May 2005, a hand grenade thrown at a rally in Tbilisi landed about 60 feet from him but did not explode. It had been wrapped in a handkerchief, which kept the safety lever from releasing.

Augusto Pinochet: In September 1986, leftist guerrillas ambushed his motorcade in the Andes foothills, killing five escorts. A rocket struck his car but failed to explode, and he escaped with minor injuries.

Kashmir Princess: In April 1955, a bomb planted on this Air India plane killed most of those aboard, on a flight meant to carry members of the Chinese delegation to Bandung. Premier Zhou Enlai had changed his travel plans and survived, and investigators blamed Nationalist agents.

Butler Pennsylvania: On 13 July 2024, Donald Trump turned his head toward a screen just as a shot rang out at a rally, and the bullet grazed his ear instead of hitting his head. One spectator was killed and two others were critically wounded.