How Many Presidents Have Been Assassinated?

Which four presidents were assassinated?

The four presidents killed in office were Abraham Lincoln (16th), James A. Garfield (20th), William McKinley (25th) and John F. Kennedy (35th). That is four of the 45 people who have held the office as of November 2026, counting Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump once each even though both served two separate terms. Our complete list of U.S. presidents in order shows where each one falls.

The four deaths are spread across almost a century. Lincoln was killed in the last days of the Civil War, Garfield and McKinley in the decades of rapid industrial growth that followed, and Kennedy at the height of the Cold War. The chart below sets out the basic facts side by side, using dates from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia and the National Park Service.

Every one of the four was succeeded by his vice president within hours or days, and the government kept working each time. Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson all took the oath without a dispute over who was in charge. Roosevelt, sworn in at 42, became the youngest president in U.S. history.

What happened to Abraham Lincoln in 1865?

Lincoln was shot on the evening of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., five days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox ^[1]. His attacker was John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, who was part of a plot that also targeted other senior officials, including Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Lincoln was carried across the street to a boarding house owned by William and Anna Petersen. He died there at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, at the age of 56 ^[5]. About three and a half hours later, Chief Justice Salmon Chase swore in Andrew Johnson as the 17th president at the Kirkwood House, a hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue ^[6].

The timing shaped everything that followed. Lincoln died just as the Civil War was ending, and Johnson, a Tennessean, led the first years of Reconstruction, often in sharp conflict with Congress. For the background to the war itself, see why the Civil War started.

How did James Garfield's death change government jobs?

Garfield was shot on the morning of July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington, less than four months after his inauguration ^[2]. The man arrested was Charles J. Guiteau, whom the National Archives describes as a disgruntled job seeker.

Garfield did not die quickly. He lived for about two and a half months, and the National Archives notes that he was at times delirious or unable to communicate during that period ^[12]. Vice President Chester A. Arthur had no clear constitutional way to act in his place. Garfield died on September 19, 1881, in Elberon, a village on the New Jersey shore, at 49. His presidency of 199 days is the second shortest on record.

Garfield's death turned the "spoils system," in which federal jobs went to political supporters, into a national scandal. Congress responded with the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, approved on January 16, 1883, which required that many federal jobs be filled on merit. Arthur, who signed it, had become a committed reformer after Garfield's assassination ^[9].

What happened to William McKinley in Buffalo?

McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, at about 4:07 p.m., in the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. The attacker was Leon F. Czolgosz ^[3]. McKinley died eight days later, on September 14, 1901, at age 58.

That same day, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office in a private home in Buffalo, now a National Historic Site ^[7]. McKinley's death had the most direct effect on presidential security of the four. After it, Congress asked the Secret Service to protect the president, and in 1902 the agency took on full-time responsibility for that job ^[10]. Before then, protection had been informal and part-time.

What happened to John F. Kennedy in Dallas?

Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, during a political trip. He died the same day, at 46, the youngest of the four at the time of his death. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested hours later and was himself killed two days after that. The Warren Commission, appointed to investigate, concluded that Oswald had acted alone ^[4]. That conclusion is the official finding, although public debate about it has continued for decades.

Later that afternoon, Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas, with President Kennedy's casket on the plane ^[8]. Kennedy's death came during a tense period of the Cold War, and the calm transfer of power was widely seen as important at home and abroad.

How did presidential protection change after each assassination?

Protection grew in steps, and almost every step followed a death or a close call. The Secret Service itself was created on July 5, 1865, less than three months after Lincoln's death, but as a Treasury Department agency to fight counterfeit money, not as a bodyguard. It began informal, part-time protection of President Grover Cleveland in 1894 ^[10].

The main changes, according to the Secret Service's own timeline, were:

• 1901 to 1902: after McKinley's death, Congress asked for Secret Service protection of the president, and the agency took it on full time in 1902.
• 1913: Congress made protection of the president permanent in law; in 1951 it passed a further law permanently authorizing that protection.
• 1965: after Kennedy's death, attempting to assassinate the president became a federal crime.
• 1968: after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, protection was extended to major presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Kennedy's death also changed the Constitution. Kennedy's assassination pushed Congress to fix gaps in presidential succession that Garfield's long illness had already exposed. When Lyndon Johnson moved up, the vice presidency was left empty, and there was still no clear rule for a president who was alive but unable to serve ^[12]. The result was the 25th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 6, 1965, and ratified on February 10, 1967. Its first section states plainly that if the president dies, resigns or is removed, the vice president becomes president, and a later section lets the president fill a vacant vice presidency with the approval of both houses of Congress ^[11].

Which presidents survived assassination attempts?

Several presidents and presidents-elect survived attacks. The list below includes only attempts recorded in the U.S. Secret Service's official history timeline ^[10].

Year	President	What the record shows
1933	Franklin D. Roosevelt (president-elect)	Attempt in Miami, Florida, on February 15
1950	Harry S. Truman	White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt was killed protecting Truman at Blair House
1975	Gerald Ford	Two attempts in California: Sacramento on September 5 and San Francisco on September 22
1981	Ronald Reagan	Attempt in Washington, D.C., on March 30

Most attempts on presidents have failed, and those failures are part of why protection kept growing. Reagan was wounded in 1981 and recovered, serving out two full terms. He was 69 at his first inauguration, which made him the oldest president to take office until later presidents passed him. Other attacks on former presidents and candidates fall outside this list, which covers sitting presidents and a president-elect only.