Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often but not always a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment.

An assassination may be prompted by religious, political, or military motives; it is an act that may be done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security or insurgent group's command to carry out the homicide.

Notables

• Julius Caesar (-44)
• Abraham Lincoln (1865)
• Tsar Alexander II (1881)
• Song Jiaoren (1913)
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914)
• Leon Trotsky (1940)
• Mahatma Ghandi (1948)
• John F. Kennedy (1963)
• Malcolm X (1965)
• Martin Luther King (1968)
• Robert Kennedy (1968)
• Steve Biko (1977)
• Louis Mountbatten (1979)
• John Lennon (1980)
• Indira Ghandi (1984)
• Yitzhak Rabin (1995)

Resources

• List of Assassinations
• Notorious Assassinations
• Assassinology (archived)

  ---

jump back to Cause of death portal