WatchMojo.com presents a countdown of the top 10 most impactful assassinations in history. The list includes:
10. Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), whose death led to the rise of his son Alexander the Great.
9. Malcolm X (1965), a civil rights leader whose death was a significant loss for the movement.
8. Benazir Bhutto (2007), the first female leader of Pakistan, whose death sparked riots and instability.
7. Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914), whose assassination led to the start of World War I.
6. John Lennon (1980), whose death shocked the world and had a significant impact on popular culture.
5. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968), a civil rights leader whose death widened the gap between whites and blacks.
4. John F. Kennedy (1963), the US President whose death led to widespread conspiracy theories.
3. Abraham Lincoln (1865), the US President whose death occurred just days after the end of the Civil War.
2. Julius Caesar (44 BC), whose assassination is one of the most famous in history.
1. Mahatma Gandhi (1948), whose death marked the end of an era of nonviolent resistance in India.
Honorable mentions include Anwar El-Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, and others.
Here are the key facts from the text:
1. Philip II of Macedon was a successful ruler who was killed by one of his bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis, in 336 BC.
2. Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, by three men while giving a speech in Manhattan.
3. Benazir Bhutto was killed on December 27, 2007, while campaigning for the parliamentary elections in Pakistan.
4. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, leading to the start of World War I.
5. John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980, outside his apartment building in New York City.
6. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
7. John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open-top car in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
8. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
9. Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC, by a group of senators who stabbed him to death in the Roman Senate.
10. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, while he was in New Delhi.
11. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Israeli extremist, while attending a rally in Tel Aviv.
12. Anwar El-Sadat was assassinated on October 6, 1981, by Khalid Islambouli, a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.