Booth Blog

Presidential assassinations are a sad reality in American political history. Four presidents have died at the hands of murderous gunmen:  Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963. 

However, there is a long list of attempted assassinations, foiled plots, jammed pistols, and deranged people who have tried to kill the president while in office, recently elected to the office, or earlier in their national careers.

Of the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore: Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln, three were targeted for death by opponents. Only Thomas Jefferson was never attacked. 

Here are some of the less familiar attempts:

George Washington:  Yes, someone plotted to kill Washington while he led the Revolutionary Army in 1776.  A British loyalist, Thomas Hickey, infiltrated Washington’s Life Guard protection group.  While jailed on suspicion of counterfeiting, he bragged about the murderous plot and was tried for treason and sedition. He was hanged before 20,000 people in New York two days after the trial, with the intent to make an example to deter others.

Abraham Lincoln: His assassination by John Wilkes Booth in 1865 is well known. However, nine months earlier, as he rode a horse three miles from the White House to the Soldier’s Home, an assassin fired at him from the side of the road.  The shot knocked his signature stovepipe hat off his head. As Lincoln rode on unhurt, soldiers picked up the hat and saw the bullet hole through the brim.  

In a historical twist, Lincoln signed the law creating the Secret Service on the day of his assassination, April 14, 1865. The intent was to stop counterfeiters.  Its mission was expanded to include presidential protection in 1901 after McKinley’s assassination.

Theodore Roosevelt: assuming the presidency after McKinley’s assassination in Buffalo in 1901, Theodore pursued the White House once more in 1912 while out of office. Running as the candidate of the Bull Moose Party, he was shot at close range by John Schrank in Milwaukee as he exited his car to deliver a speech.  The bullet struck his glasses case and 50-page speech in his breast pocket. While bleeding, he gave the speech anyway, saying “It takes more than one shot to kill a Bull Moose”.

John F. Kennedy: President–Elect Kennedy, the first Catholic president, was targeted by Richard Pavlick in 1960. Pavlick, from Boston, hated Catholics and decided to kill Kennedy. He was ready to detonate explosives as Kennedy was attending church, but ultimately decided not to do it in the presence of Kennedy’s family. Three years later on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald would kill Kennedy in Dallas.

Richard Nixon: in April 1974, six months before Nixon resigned the presidency, Samuel Byck planned to hijack a commercial airliner and fly it into the White House to kill President Nixon. He commandeered a Delta airliner in Baltimore, shot both pilots because they refused to fly him to Washington, and committed suicide after being wounded by police.

Bill Clinton: airplanes were again used to target the president in 1994. A veteran named Frank Corder stole a small plane while drunk and flew it to the White House. He crashed on the White House lawn and was killed. President Clinton was not in the White House at that time, living across the street at Blair House due to renovations.

George W. Bush: while giving a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2005, an assassin threw a live grenade toward the stage where Bush was speaking. It failed to detonate because the assassin, Vladimir Arutyunian, had wrapped it too tightly with a handkerchief.

Barack Obama: while no one ever shot at him, President Obama received an unusually large number of threats. In 2013 a man sent him a letter filled with ricin, a deadly poison. The sender originally appeared to be an Elvis impersonator named Kevin Curtis from Tennessee. However, in a convoluted scheme, a rival of Curtis, Everett Dutschke, had tried to pin the attempt on Curtis. Dutschke remains in prison serving a 25-year sentence.

Other presidents were targeted yet survived in other more publicized attempts:  including Andrew Jackson (two pistols jammed, saving him), Franklin Roosevelt (shots missed FDR but killed the mayor riding with him), Harry Truman (two Puerto Rican assassins stormed the Blair House while Truman was in residence) , Gerald Ford (Squeaky Fromme’s pistol didn’t fire; two weeks later Sarah Moore’s shot missed) and Ronald Reagan (John Hinckley Jr. fired multiple shots, one of which nearly killed Reagan).

Being one of the most visible and at times polarizing figures in the world leads some people to go to extreme measures to eliminate them. Thankfully, the Secret Service has evolved into a robust protective force that has prevented assassinations for the past 60 years. Let’s hope they continue that record of achievement.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

While it’s clear that the President is under no specific obligation to disclose anything about their health, our country has an evolving point of view about it.

Until recent decades, presidents routinely kept any health issues to themselves and close associates. However, for several reasons, more recent presidents have been more forthcoming, even releasing results of exams, tests, and routine checkups.

What was the key driver of a change toward more open disclosure of the president’s health?  Many point to the beginning of the nuclear age in 1945, with the advent of powerful weapons that require a fully functioning and vigilant president.  The public should know when the awesome power to launch nuclear war with the survival of mankind in the balance is in the hands of a person who is physically or mentally unwell.

The evolution was memorialized in the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution in 1967.  That amendment, among other things, allows a president to transfer the powers of his office formally and temporarily to the vice president.  George W. Bush was the first to use the 25^th Amendment for that purpose, transferring power to Dick Cheney during his colonoscopy in 2002. Joe Biden recently did the same this past November. Interestingly, Ronald Reagan did not use the 25^th when he underwent colon surgery in 1985.

That’s a far cry from Grover Cleveland’s decision, in 1893, to not tell the public of his rapidly spreading cancer of the mouth.

Early in Cleveland’s second (a non-consecutive) term, the economic Panic of 1893 gathered speed and threatened to ruin the country. Cleveland felt if he told the public about his cancer, it would add fuel to the panic and make things much worse.  Also, it had only been a few years since President US Grant died of cancer of the throat, stigmatizing the disease. So, Cleveland decided to pursue a path of deception, lies, and smear tactics to keep the secret.

Cleveland told the public he was going on a fishing trip. He was seen boarding a ship to begin the journey. On board were 6 surgeons, all sworn to secrecy, who were standing by to operate on the president. In a 90-minute operation they removed the tumor on the roof of his mouth, 5 teeth, and part of his jawbone, all extracted via his mouth. There were no external incisions, and he retained his trademark moustache. After 4 days, he disembarked on Cape Cod as planned. A short time later, he was fitted for a prosthetic jawbone in a second surgical procedure and spent time learning to speak clearly with it in place.

By now you may be thinking ‘shouldn’t someone have figured this out?’  And you would be right.

2 months after the surgery, E. J. Edwards, a reporter for the Philadelphia Press, broke the whole story wide open when he got it confirmed by one of the surgeons, dentist Ferdinand Hasbrouck.

Did the President then acknowledge the deception?  No.  Cleveland proceeded to conduct a smear campaign to discredit the reporter and did so in such a comprehensive way that the lie was squelched for 24 years, long after Cleveland was deceased. It resurfaced only because another of the surgeons, W. W. Keen, decided to tell the truth and vindicate the reputation of the reporter.

Was Cleveland right to place his duty to protect the public above the public’s need to know? Given the situation and the times, some would say yes.

Later, and more seriously, Woodrow Wilson’s catastrophic stroke in late 1919 and his resultant incapacity was kept hidden by his wife and doctor. They conspired to keep the public and the Congress in the dark about his severe condition for 15 months until the end of his second term in office.

Compared to Cleveland, Wilson most certainly went too far. He should have resigned for health reasons.

The recent discussions concerning Joe Biden’s mental acuity provides a challenging situation. While he and his doctors proclaim his fitness for office, public debates and appearances cast serious doubts.  His future remains uncertain at this time.

In the 21^st century it’s fair to say that the times have changed. The speed and pervasiveness of instant communications, smart phones, and cameras, plus the added value of the 25^th Amendment, have made it more advantageous for the president to be forthcoming and place the American public in the know about their health.

Deception is out. Disclosure is in.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

For many of us, the Memorial Day weekend is the official start of summer, bringing forth three national holidays and providing welcome chances to hit the road, entertain guests, or just relax.

This got me wondering about the role of the presidents in creating the national holidays.

For the first 87 years of our nation’s history (1776 – 1863), there were no official national holidays.  While many states had various holidays and days of celebration, there were none at the federal level.

Abraham Lincoln got the ball rolling in 1863 when he declared Thanksgiving to be a national holiday on the last Thursday of November.

Then in 1870, President U. S. Grant signed off on legislation to create the first set of national holidays:  New Year’s Day, 4^th of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Realizing they were on to something popular, politicians began extending the concept of national holidays.

Memorial Day

In May 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, soldiers established Decoration Day, urging citizens to decorate the graves of war dead with flowers, wreaths, and flags.  A large celebration was held at Arlington National Cemetery. One of the speakers was Congressman, Civil War General and future president James A. Garfield who said the deceased soldiers had “made immortal their patriotism.”

Later, after World War I, the definition of Decoration Day was expanded to include soldiers of all American wars, not just the Civil War.  Thus began the trend toward calling it Memorial Day, a reality not officially recognized by the federal government until 1971 thanks to legislation signed in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson.

Presidents Day

The first national holiday to celebrate an individual was in honor of George Washington’s birthday on February 22. It was created in 1879 by President Rutherford B. Hayes and only covered Washington DC. In 1885, under President Grover Cleveland, Washington’s Birthday became a national holiday.

While no one begrudged Washington the honor, some wondered why Abraham Lincoln, also born in February, was also not recognized.  After decades of debate, in 1968, Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays were combined into Presidents Day and set up on the third Monday of February.  Lyndon B. Johnson signed this legislation, called the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, that not only created Presidents Day, but also moved Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day to Mondays, creating three-day weekends and, in theory, to boost retail sales and reduce workplace absenteeism.

Labor Day

Following years of labor unrest in the 1880s and growing popular sentiment, in 1894 Grover Cleveland, in the second of his non-consecutive terms, signed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday on the first Monday in September.

Columbus Day

Franklin Roosevelt created Columbus Day as a national holiday in 1937 to recognize the explorer’s arrival in the New World in 1492. It is now referred to as Indigenous Peoples Day by 19 states who recognize the indigenous communities that have lived in the Americas for thousands of years.

Armistice Day

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating Armistice Day in 1938 to recognize the end of hostilities in World War I. It would be celebrated on November 11 each year.  In 1954, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, famed Supreme Allied Commander in World War II, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day to expand the concept of recognition to include World War II and the Korean War.

Thanksgiving with a Twist

As mentioned above, President Lincoln authorized a day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.  However, in 1938, during the depths of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to switch Thanksgiving Day to the next to last Thursday of November, thinking it would boost sales and revenue by extending the Christmas shopping season.  He persisted in this for three years with a proclamation as to the new date for celebrating.  He had to finally give up the idea, signing legislation on December 26, 1941, permanently making Thanksgiving Day the fourth Thursday of November.

Recent New Holidays

Since 1968 only two additional national holidays have been created. In 1983, Ronald Reagan signed off on the creation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, observed on the third Monday in January, King’s birth month.

Recently, in 2021, Joe Biden created Juneteenth Day to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, as reflected in the June 19, 1865, General Order No. 3 issued by Major General Gordon Granger which notified the people of Texas that all slaves in former Confederate States were free.

As we swing into summer and encounter multiple national holidays, consider the evolution of these important days and their real and symbolic roles in our American life.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

The gun didn’t fire.  The shot missed. A bystander grabbed their arm. The wound wasn’t fatal.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I’m a great believer in luck” — and lucky for him no one ever fired a shot his way. But you may be surprised to know there have been over 30 attempts to assassinate US presidents plus many other incidents in which they narrowly avoided death, usually through pure, blind luck.

Let’s work through some of these lucky presidents in chronological order.

In 1835, Andrew Jackson had ‘double luck’ when a house painter armed with two pistols tried to shoot him at close range. Both guns misfired and Jackson beat him severely with his cane.

In 1844, John Tyler was aboard the Princeton with a crowd of hundreds to observe the firing of a new 27,000-pound cannon called The Peacemaker. In awe he watched the thunderous weapon fire twice, then moved below deck for a celebratory lunch.  The third firing caused a catastrophic explosion, killing several people including two cabinet members.  It was a lucky lunch for Tyler.

With William McKinley’s assassination in 1901, the Secret Service’s mission was broadened from pursuing counterfeiters to include round-the-clock protection of the president.  Theodore Roosevelt was the first to receive this protection, and none too soon.

Roosevelt was riding to an event in an open carriage in Pittsfield Massachusetts when a runaway rail trolley slammed into it at high speed throwing Roosevelt from the carriage face down in the mud. The Secret Service Agent who had been riding with him was thrown under the trolley and killed instantly.  Days later, Roosevelt needed surgery to treat his gashed and infected leg.

That wouldn’t be the last lucky break for Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912, while running for President from the Bull Moose Party, he was shot in the chest by a saloon keeper, but his folded 50-page speech plus his glasses case in his breast pocket slowed the bullet, causing only a flesh wound. The attempt on his life didn’t stop Roosevelt from making his 84-minute speech, saying “It takes more than that to stop a bull moose!”

Many people know that Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times, but few know that he escaped assassination as President Elect before ever taking office.  He was in Miami in an open car in 1933 when Italian immigrant Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots. None hit Roosevelt, but the Mayor of Chicago was mortally wounded.  How might history have been different if FDR had never become President?

FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, had his own date with lady luck right across the street from the White House. Living at Blair House while the White House was renovated, Truman’s life was directly threatened by two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists. They stormed the front door with guns blazing. One Secret Service Agent was mortally wounded but killed one assassin before dying. The other man was wounded and stopped. Truman himself was in his second-floor street side bedroom, and heard it all, but was unharmed.

Gerald Ford escaped two assassination attempts within two weeks of each other in California in 1975. In the first attempt, a follower of Charles Manson named Lynette Fromme was lined up to shake Ford’s hand, but, her gun, which had four rounds in the magazine, but none in the chamber, did not fire and she was stopped by the Secret Service.  The second attempt was foiled by a bystander who grabbed the arm of the assailant, Mary Jane Moore.  The bullet missed Ford and hit the side of the hotel he was exiting.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan was attacked as he exited a Washington hotel. John Hinckley fired six rounds at Reagan. Only one hit the president, ricocheting off his limousine and striking his chest. He was quickly thrown into the limo, which roared away.  Agent Jerry Parr saved his life by inspecting Reagan for injury and seeing blood, directed the driver to not return to the White House but to go to the hospital instead.  Reagan the movie star quipped that he hoped all the doctors were Republicans, but in truth, he very nearly died.

Most recently, Donald Trump, running for re-election in 2024, survived an attempt on his life by turning his head, causing the bullet to merely graze his ear.

Some say that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  The Secret Service and their meticulous preparation deserve much credit for paving the way for better ‘luck’ against the odds, although they too have failed at times. As a related factor, one questions why it took until 1967 to approve an amendment to the Constitution that guides the replacement of a vacant vice presidency, or what to do if a president is incapacitated.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

In the late 19^th century, college football was nothing like the game we know today. There were 15-20 men on a side. Equipment was primitive. Mass motion plays, called the Flying Wedge, were popular and violent. Gang tackling, late hits, gouging eyes, and breaking bones were common—and encouraged. Good players were targeted for injury to force them out of the game. Schools routinely brought in ‘ringers’—older, faster, non-student players—to assure their dominance. Incredibly, 330 players died from 1890-1905, a period of just fifteen years.

In 1897 a University of Georgia player died on the field due to multiple concussions inflicted by the University of Virginia team. That was it. Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Mercer suspended their football programs. Harvard was contemplating withdrawing from the sport entirely. Other football powerhouse schools like Yale, Princeton, and Stanford were on the brink, too.

Only one man could save the game from itself: President Theodore Roosevelt. While he had never played football, he was a big supporter of it and wanted to see it survive and thrive. He was a believer in ‘the strenuous life’, pushing yourself and your body to develop manly traits and learn teamwork. His two sons were playing football at the time (and getting injured).

By 1905, President Roosevelt had already extended the power of the presidency to new heights, partly by exploiting what he called the Bully Pulpit. In his unique way, he was able to speak out on a social issue of his choosing and sway public opinion that went beyond executive orders or formal legislation.

For example, in that same year he brokered a peace agreement between Japan and Russia, for which he later won the Nobel Peace Prize. Such assertive engagement in foreign affairs was new for an American president.

When he got a letter from the headmaster at Groton, where his son Kermit was at school and playing football, saving college football became for Roosevelt one of his bully pulpit efforts, and he approached it with urgency.

He faced a daunting task. Roosevelt started by calling a summit meeting of the leaders of Harvard (his alma mater), Yale and Princeton, schools with a large presence in the sport. He sought their agreement that serious changes in the game were needed to preserve it. He didn’t make much progress in that first meeting, but in a couple of months, he expanded the gathering at the White House to include 13 schools searching for solutions.

Simultaneously he wrote letters of encouragement to the leaders and influencers of the day, urging them to come up with their own ideas to improve the game.

Those 13 schools couldn’t agree either, but soon a gathering of 62 schools met and formed the precursor to today’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). They banned mass movement plays, legalized the forward pass, disallowed linking of arms, and standardized the number of downs and distance to earn a first down. They created the line of scrimmage and the neutral zone so referees could have an unobstructed view of the play. They created penalties for kneeing, kicking, elbowing, or striking the opponent. And many, many more.

By the time these improvements took hold, Roosevelt was no longer in office. But his intervention and willingness to use the power of his office to be a catalyst for change clearly made the difference. He was ‘that one man’ who pulled it off.

As the 2024 college football season begins, you can thank Theodore Roosevelt for using his bully pulpit to keep football alive. If not for his efforts, today’s fans might be tailgating at soccer or rugby games instead!

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.