We, at the DopeLists, present you the top 10 most notable assassinations of the most famous political leaders according to our perspective.
10. Rafic Hariri: Lebanon
Rafic Baha El Deen Al-Hariri was born on the first of November 1944 and died on February the 14-th 2005. He was a successful businessman and the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 200 until his resignation on 20 October 2004. Rafic Hariri dominated the post-war business and political life in Lebanon and is highly respected for reconstructing Beirut after the 15-year civil war.
He was assassinated when explosives were detonated while his motorcade driving past the St. George Hotel in the Lebanese Capital, Beirut. The investigation of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon is still ongoing but its first reports indicated that the Syrian government may be linked to the murder. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news investigation, the UN investigation team had found evidence for Hezbollah to be responsible.
9. Thomas D’Arcy McGee: Canada
Thomas D’Arcy Etienne Hughes McGee was an Irish Nationalist, Catholic spokesman, journalist, and Father of the Canadian Confederation. He fought for the development of Irish and Canadian national identities that would overstep their component groups.
On April 7, 1868, McGee participated in a parliamentary debate that went past midnight. After that, he went to his Sparks St. boarding house at 2:00 AM. The door was locked from the inside. He waited for the landlady to open the door. As the door was being opened he was murdered by Patrick J. Whelan who afterward was convicted and hanged for this crime.
8. Muammar Gaddafi: Libya
Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He ruled Libya as a Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977. After that, he governed as the “Brotherly Leader” of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.
The Arab Spring in 2011 and the protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. A civil war broke out and NATO forces intervened on the side of the opposition. The government was overthrown and Muammar Gaddafi moved to Sirte. He was captured and killed on 20 October 2011 during the Battle of Sirte.
7. King Faisal: Saudi Arabia
Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. His main foreign policy themes were pan-Islamism, anti-Communism, and pro-Palestinian nationalism.
On 25 March 1975, King Faisal was shot and killed by his half-brother’s son, Faisal bin Musaid, who had just come back from the United States. When the Prince went to embrace him, King Faisal leaned to kiss his nephew in accordance with Saudi culture. Prince Faisal took out a pistol and shot him.
6. Martin Luther King, Jr. : United States
Martin Luther King was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for his role in the development of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience.
By the time of his death in 1968, his efforts were focused on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War. On April 4-th, 1968 a shot rang out as King stood on the balcony of a motel. The bullet entered through his right cheek. There was an emergency surgery but unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital in an hour. This murder led to nationwide riots in more than 100 cities.
5. Abraham Lincoln: USA
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until April 1865. He ended slavery within the country’s boundaries. He was mostly connected with the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American War was drawing to a close. Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated because an unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson thirty years before in 1835.
4. Mahatma Gandhi: India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. The most memorable feature of Gandhi was his non-violent resistance and his ability to affect both Hindus and Muslim alike making peace of a kind.
On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha.
3. Indira Gandhi: India
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician who was the third Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and secondly from 1980 to 1984. She remained the second longest-serving female Prime Minister as of 2012. She established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that country to support the conflict with Pakistan.
She was murdered at 9:20 on October 31, 1984, in New Delhi by two of her bodyguards, after Operation Blue Star.
2. John F. Kennedy: USA
John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States from 1961 to 1963.
In 1955 he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History.
In 1959 he was a first-ballot nominee for President.
Winning with a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. On November 22, Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade was passing Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected president and the youngest to die.
1. Benazir Bhutto: Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan and the first woman to lead a Muslim state.
She was the first and so far, the only female Pakistan prime minister.
On 27 December 2007, Bhutto was killed while leaving a campaign rally for the PPP in the city of Rawalpindi. Bhutto was traveling by car. She stood up through its roof to wave to the crowds. A gunman fired shots at her and explosives were detonated near the car killing about 20 people. Bhutto was critically wounded and died in Rawalpindi General Hospital at 18:16 local time.