A Brief History
On May 12, 1982, a bayonet wielding assassin was wrestled into custody by the bodyguards of Pope John Paul II at Fatima, Portugal only a year after John Paul II had been shot and seriously wounded in another assassination attempt! The would be assassin was a defrocked Catholic priest, a journalist and lawyer, a veritable living cliché! At least one other attempt was to be made on John Paul’s life, this time foiled when the assassins suffered a fire while building the bomb intended for the murder.
Digging Deeper
Many world leaders have survived assassination attempts, including US presidents, such as the attempted shooting of Andy Jackson in 1835, who promptly beat his assassin senseless, the shooting of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 after which he calmly continued his speech, President Ford survived back to back assassination attempts by women in 1975, and President Reagan survived being shot in 1981.
Question for students (and subscribers): What failed assassination is the most famous? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Novecosky, Patrick. 100 Ways John Paul II Changed the World. Our Sunday Visitor, 2020.
Watkins, Gary. Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts: Assassinations and the American Presidency. CreateSpace, 2014.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Jebulon of the Fiat Campagnola popemobile in which Pope John Paul II was the subject of an assassination attempt in May 1981, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
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