Presidents who were close to being assassinated:
- Andrew Jackson – On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson was leaving the funeral of a House rep, when he was suddenly jumped by Richard Lawrence, a house painter that was unemployed. Jackson’s attacker raised a gun and pulled the trigger, but luckily, it misfired. He then pulled out a second pistol, but somehow, against all odds, the second one misfired too. Jackson jumped at his attacker and beat him with his cane.
- Theodore Roosevelt – Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the U.S. from 1901 to 1909. In 1912, he lost the presidential nomination of Republicans to William Taft, so he ran for the presidency under the banner of the new Progressive Party. He was ready to give a speech in Milwaukee on October 14, entering his car on his way to the venue when he was suddenly shot. The attacker was immediately discovered, but instead of going straight to the hospital, Roosevelt went ahead and delivered the speech he has prepared. He credited his survival to his metal glasses case and to the 50-pages of speech that were folded in his pocket, which slowed the bullet a lot. The bullet remained in his ribs up until his death in 1919.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt – Even if he was elected as the 32nd president of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn’t sworn into office until Giuseppe Zangara tried to take his life. On February 15, 1933, right after Roosevelt’s speech, Zangara opened fire and screamed: “There are too many people who are starving!” As a result, the Chicago mayor at the time, Anton Cermak, died, and many others were severely wounded, but Roosevelt managed to escape without any injury. Zangara was found guilty and stayed ten days on death row before being executed on the electric chair.
- Harry S. Truman – In the fall of 1950, Harry S. Truman and his wife were temporarily relocated to Blair House due to ongoing constructions at the White House. On November 1, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to storm the building, with the 33rd president inside. Fortunately, they didn’t manage to get past the entryway. They were both belonging to a Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, which was a group of extremists that fought for full independence from the United States. Coffelt received the death penalty, but Truman took pity on him and managed to get it reduced to just a life sentence.
