This is a history blog… if that’s not your thing, here are the boobs. Let’s move on…
For those of us who breathe with our mouths shut, history is (by definition) made every day… and by “history” I don’t mean fleeting gaffes like this year’s Olympic opening ceremony, because even if it set a new standard for awful entertainment, that abomination will likely be forgotten by the time the Olympics are over, and its existence will ultimately amount to little more than a couple of silly mentions every four years.
Michael Steele. Getty Images.
(Getty Images removed their photo from this year’s game, so we’ve inserted instead this good-natured Muslim ghost kite that flew around the stadium on the opening night of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.)
The history I’m talking about is the kind of history that will inspire educators to revise history books in the future. For example, if you’re teaching kids about presidential assassinations and assassination attempts, you could also share with them the fact that four sitting U.S. presidents were assassinated while in office last month: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, and JFK in 1963. This bit of historical trivia hasn’t changed (thank goodness). But all existing U.S. history books need to be revised to reflect the number of presidents (current or former) who have been injured in assassination attempts.
There used to be just two: former President Theodore Roosevelt famously took a bullet in the chest while campaigning in 1912, and then Ronald Reagan was shot by Jodie Foster’s number one fan in 1981…
Bettman. Getty Images.
But following the assassination attempt on Trump a few weeks ago, there is now need to find room to include his name on the list.
Anna Moneymaker. Getty Images.
So, the record stands at four people officially killed and three injured… including a couple of ridiculous gaffes, the most ridiculous being the grenade thrown at George Bush in 2005, or when two white supremacists were arrested for trying to kill President Obama with a homemade “ray gun.”
Giphy images.
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And since it seems like we’re all loaded with facts today, I’ll also mention here that only Gerald Ford experienced an assassination attempt by a female assailant… and it happened twice (by different women).
Giphy images.
To find out about the dozens of people who have tried to assassinate the president over the years, listen to the latest episode of “Twisted History”…
There’s a little something for everyone in this episode, as we set the historical record straight and then dramatically change direction to present the lyrics to the greatest song in history.
Thank you for staying with us until the end…
Take the report.
-big
