Prior to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, there have been numerous assassination attempts and political violence targeting US presidents, former presidents, and major party presidential candidates.
The AP news agency has reviewed some of the assassinations and assassination plots that have occurred since the United States was founded in 1776.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN - 16th president
Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended a special performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC.
Lincoln was taken to a house across the street from the theater for medical treatment after being shot in the back of the head. He died the next morning. Lincoln's support for black rights is considered the main reason for his assassination.
Two years before this assassination, during the Civil War over the abolition of slavery, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, granting freedom to slaves in the Confederacy.
After the horrific incident, Lincoln's presidency was passed to Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Murderer Wilkes Booth was shot dead on April 26, 1865, after being found hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia.
JAMES GARFIELD, 20th president
Garfield was the second US president to be assassinated, just six months after taking office. He was walking through a Washington train station on July 2, 1881, to catch a train to New England when he was shot by Charles Guiteau.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, tried unsuccessfully to find the bullet in Garfield's chest with a device he had designed for the president. The president was mortally wounded and remained in the White House for several weeks, eventually dying in September after being taken to the New Jersey shore. He served as president for six months. Garfield was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur.
Guiteau was convicted and executed in June 1882.
WILLIAM McKINLEY, 25th president
President William McKinley was shot after giving a speech in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901. He was shaking hands with supporters when a man shot him twice in the chest at close range. Doctors expected McKinley to recover, but the area around his bullet wound later became gangrenous.
McKinley died on September 14, 1901, six months after he began his second term in the White House. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Leon F. Czolgosz, an unemployed 28-year-old Detroit resident, confessed to the assassination. Czolgosz was convicted at trial and executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 32nd president
Roosevelt, then the US president-elect, had just given a speech in Miami from the back of an open car when shots rang out.
Roosevelt was uninjured in this February 1933 shooting, but the incident left Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak dead.
The perpetrator Guiseppe Zangara was convicted and sentenced to death.
HARRY S. TRUMAN, 33rd president
President Truman was staying at Blair House, a building across from the White House, in November 1950 when two gunmen broke in.
Mr. Truman was not injured, but a White House police officer and one of the attackers were killed in the gun battle. Two other White House police officers were wounded.
The other gunman, Oscar Callazo, was captured and sentenced to death. In 1952, President Truman commuted his sentence to life in prison. He was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter and released in 1979.
JOHN F. KENNEDY, 35th President
President Kennedy was shot dead by an unknown assassin armed with a high-caliber rifle while visiting Dallas in November 1963 with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The shots rang out as the presidential motorcade rolled through Dealey Plaza in downtown.
Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died shortly thereafter. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was sworn in aboard Air Force One. He is the only president to be sworn in on an airplane.
Hours after the assassination, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald after locating the sniper at a nearby building, the Texas School Book Depository.
Two days later, Oswald was being taken from police headquarters to the county jail when a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, shot and killed him.
GERALD FORD, 38th president
President Ford faced two assassination attempts within weeks of each other in 1975, but was fortunately unhurt in both incidents.
In the first incident, Mr. Ford was on his way to a meeting with the governor of California in Sacramento when a woman named Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme charged through a crowd on the street, pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at Ford. The gun apparently misfired and failed to fire. Fromme was sentenced to prison and released in 2009.
Seventeen days later, a woman, Sara Jane Moore, confronted President Ford outside a San Francisco hotel. Moore fired one shot and missed. A bystander grabbed her arm as Moore attempted a second shot.
Moore was held in prison and released in 2007.
RONALD REAGAN, 40th president
President Reagan had just left the stage where he was giving a speech in Washington, DC, and was walking toward his motorcade when he was shot. The gunman was John Hinckley Jr., who was in the crowd.
Mr. Reagan recovered from the shooting in March 1981. However, three others were shot in the same incident, including the president's press secretary, James Brady, who was partially paralyzed by his injuries.
Hinckley was arrested and committed to a mental hospital after a jury found him not guilty of shooting Reagan while in a state of insanity.
In 2022, Hinckley was released from custody after a judge determined he was “no longer a danger to himself or others.”
GEORGE W. BUSH, 43rd president
President Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi in 2005 with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when a grenade was thrown at him.
Both leaders were standing behind a bulletproof fence when the grenade, wrapped in cloth, landed about 30 meters away. It failed to explode and no one was injured.
The grenade thrower, Vladimir Arutyunian, was sentenced to life in prison.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, presidential candidate
The former US president was shot in Milwaukee in 1912 while campaigning to return to the White House.
Theodore Roosevelt previously served two terms as president and is running for re-election as a third-party candidate.
He later revealed that the folded 50-page photocopy of the speech and the metal glasses case in Roosevelt's pocket appeared to have lessened the impact of the bullet, saving him from serious injury.
The killer, John Schrank, was arrested and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, presidential candidate
Robert Kennedy was running for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was assassinated at a Los Angeles hotel - shortly after giving his victory speech in the 1968 California primary.
Robert Kennedy was a senator representing New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated five years earlier.
Five others were injured in the shooting.
The perpetrator, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. But that sentence was commuted to life in prison, and Sirhan remains in prison after his latest application for release in 2023 was denied.
GEORGE C. WALLACE, presidential candidate
Wallace was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot at a rally in Maryland in 1972. The incident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
As Governor of Alabama, Wallace was known for his racist views, which he later renounced.
The shooter, Arthur Bremer, was sentenced to prison and eventually released in 2007.