The 35th president of the United States, who served between 1961 and 1963, faced a number of foreign crises, particularly in Cuba and Berlin. Though he managed to secure achievements such as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. Kennedy was the youngest President to serve at the White House and the first Roman Catholic to be elected to the presidency of the United States. His main concern had always been with foreign affairs. In his memorable inaugural address, he called on Americans to 'bear the burden of a long twilight struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
In addition, he also declared: 'In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it... the energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.' Kennedy was a true inspiration, sadly his administration lasted 1,037 days as he was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.
The accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald. History records at 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963, from a window on the sixth floor of the depository building, Oswald, using a mail-order rifle, allegedly fired three shots that killed the President and wounded the Texas Governor, John B. Connally in an open-car motorcade in Dealey Plaza.
Oswald departed the scene via a bus and a taxi to his rooming house, then departed once again and about a mile away, he was stopped by Patrolman J.D. Tippit, who had believed that Oswald resembled the suspect already being described over the police radio. At 1:15 pm Oswald killed Tippit. Then, at about 1.45 pm, Oswald was arrested in the Texas Theater by police officers. He was formally arraigned for the murder of President Kennedy at 1:30 am on November 23. Oswald was then shot on the morning of November 24, while being transferred from a jail cell to an interrogation office by Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, who was tried and found guilty of murder on March 14 1964 and sentenced to death.
The 16th President of the United States served from 1861 to 1865. He preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves. Till today, Lincoln continues to have a unique appeal for his fellow countrymen and also for people of other lands, possibly due to his remarkable life story - the rise from humble origins, the dramatic death and his distinctively human and humane personality. To this day, scholars find him a rich subject for research. However, his racial views, as well as his political side, have recently come under fire.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a member of one of the United States' most distinguished acting families of the 19th century. He was a vigorous supporter of the Southern cause and outspoken in his advocacy of slavery as well as his hatred of Lincoln. By the autumn of 1864 Booth had begun to plan a sensational abduction of President Lincoln. In the winter of 1864-65, Booth recruited several conspirators who frequently met in Washington D.C. where they mapped out a number of alternative abduction plans.
After several failed attempts, Booth had resolved to destroy the president and his officers no matter what the cost. On April 14 1865, Booth learned that the president was to attend an evening performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in the capital. With this information at hand, he assigned each member his task, including the murder of Secretary State William Seward. He planned to kill Lincoln himself.
At 6pm, Booth entered the deserted theater where he tampered with the outer door of the presidential box so that it could be jammed shut from the inside. During the play of the third act, he returned to find Lincoln and his guests unguarded. He drew a pistol and shot Lincoln through the back of his head. He grappled with a patron then swung over the balustrade. As he lept off, he shouted: 'Sic semper tyrannis!' which means, 'Thus always Tyrants!' and 'The South is avenged!'
He broke his leg upon landing on stage but managed to escape to the alleyway. Lincoln died shortly after seven the following morning. But the attempt on Seward's life failed. 11 days after Lincoln's assassination, Federal troops arrived at a farm in Virginia, where a man said to be Booth was hiding in a tobacco barn. David Harold, another conspirator was with Booth, but he gave himself up before the barn was set afire. Booth, however, refused to surrender. After being shot (it's unclear whether he was shot by himself or another soldier) Booth was carried to the porch of the farmhouse, where he died. However, there is no acceptable evidence to support the rumors, the time doubting that the man who had been killed was actually Booth.
Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister and social activist, led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement's success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South as well as other parts of the United States. He promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963) to achieve civil rights.
He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Even in the years after his death, he remained as a widely known African American leader of his era. Meanwhile, King's assassin, James Earl Ray was a small-time crook, a robber of gas stations and stores, who served time in prison. On April 23 1967, Ray escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary, and nearly a year later, from a window of a neighboring rooming house, he shot King, who was standing on the balcony of a motel room.
He fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, then flew to London. He was apprehended by London police at Heathrow Airport just as he was about to embark for Brussels. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Mohandas Gandhi was a leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule. He is considered to be the father of his country and is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protests to achieve political and social progress. While Gandhi and his colleagues were in jail, Muslim separatism had received a great boost and in 1946-47, as the final constitutional arrangements were being negotiated, the outbreak of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims created a climate in which Gandhi's appeal to reason, justice, tolerance, and trust had little chance.
When the partition of the subcontinent was accepted - against his wishes and advice - he dedicated his heart and soul into the task of healing the scars of the communal conflict, toured the riot-torn areas in Bengal and Bihar, admonished the bigots, consoled the victims and tried to rehabilitate the refugees. But Gandhi was blamed by partisans of both the communities. So, when the persuasion failed, he went on a fast.
In September 1947, his fasting stopped the rioting in Calcutta, and in January 1948, he shamed the city of Delhi into a communal truce. But on January 30 while he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting in Delhi, he was shot down by Nathuram Godse, a young Hindu fanatic. Godse believed that Gandhi treated Muslims with more respect then Hindus, by incorporating the Koran into his teachings in Hindu temples, while refusing to read from the Bhagavad Gita in mosques. Gandhi was thought to have died almost immediately and Godse was immediately apprehended.
Under the 25th president (1897-1901), William McKinley, the United States went to war against Spain in 1898 thereby acquiring a global empire, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Although the president had not entered the war for territorial aggrandizement, he was convinced that the United States had an obligation to assume responsibility for the 'welfare of an alien people'.
When he was renominated for another term without opposition, McKinley faced Democrat William Jennings Byran in the presidential election of 1900. Margins showed that his victory was greater than it had been four years before - this reflected the satisfaction with the outcome of the war and with the widespread prosperity that the country enjoyed. Following his inauguration in 1901, McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo New York.
On September 6 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots at the president's chest and abdomen. He was rushed to hospital inBuffalo but died a week later in the early morning hours of September 14.
Czolgosz was a millworker who became an anarchist after considering the disparity between rich and poor and witnessing tensions between workers and managers at the factories where he worked. He was 28 years old when he shot McKinley. Only one bullet had punctured the President, which struck him in his abdomen, injuring his stomach, pancreas, and kidney. Prior to being arrested and taken away, Czolgosz was brutally beaten. He was executed in the electric chair on October 29 1901.
