Which world leader(s) - that we’ll define as the head of their country, be the president, prime minister, king/queen, or dictator etc. - was the quickest to be assassinated after assuming power? Human assassins only, please, not examples like president William Henry Harrison.
And has there ever been a world leader who was assassinated before they even officially took power? I guess I’m assuming that this leader’s society would’ve had a similar election system to the US when power changes hands a bit after the election, not immediately.
Well, in terms of quickness, James Garfield was shot 4 months after he took power and died about 6 months after taking power. Balbenus and his coemperor Pupienus, of Rome, were emperors for about 3 months before they were assassinated. Pertinax was emperor for about 86 days before he was assassinated.
Le Trung Tong was crowned as Emperor of Vietnam in 1005, and then was assassinated by his brother after 3 days.
Sigeric, who was king of the Visigoths in 415, was killed a week later.
Honorable mention should go to Ronald Reagan, who (barely) survived an assassination attempt just 69 days after he took office. Without modern medicine, he certainly would have died.
I don’t know if you’d count Biblical kings, but Shallum, king of Israel, reigned for only a month before he was assassinated and supplanted by Menahem.
The OP specifically asks about such cases, so obviously he intended they should count. If you want to nitpick, you can call them prospective leaders. And Gemayal was the leader of his party and of a militia.
The northern Chinese Emperor Mo of Jin reigned for half a day or so before being killed in combat against the Mongols in 1234.
Lê Trung Tông of Vietnam was assassinated on order of his brother after a reign of three days in 1005.
The infant John I of France was king for his entire life, all five days of it, in 1316. He may have died of natural causes, but rumors circulated that he had been poisoned by his uncle and regent, who succeeded him as king.
Luis Felipe of Portugal was assassinated together with his father (King Carlos) by republicans in 1908.
He survived his father by 20 minutes, but is not usually counted as a reigning king.
Dipendra of Nepal massacred his family and then shot himself. He was legally King, unconscious and dying, for 56 hours.
FDR had an assassination * attempt* when he was president elect, but someone jostled the assassin’s arm so he hit Chicago mayor Marv Cermak. Roosevelt didn’t realize he was the target and thought it was a mob hit on the mayor.
I thought it was Tony Cermak? Anyway he died, after a couple weeks. The trial of his killer was switched midstream to a murder trial. The perp was tried, convicted and executed in 32 days.