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George Washington
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Franklin D. Roosevelt - Assassination AttemptFranklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president in November of 1932. He didn't take office until March 4, 1933. On February 15, 1933. Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate Roosevelt. Roosevelt was on vacation in Miami, Florida. He went to give a speech at Bay Front Park in Miami. Zangara went to park with a .32 caliber revolver. He hope to get a front row seat, but people got there before him. He was only five feet tall so he could hardly see over the people in front of him. At one point Zangara planned on assassinating Herbert Hoover, but he heard Roosevelt was going to be in Miami so he changed his plans. He was rumored to have said "Hoover and Roosevelt. Everyone the same." After his speech Roosevelt was talking to the mayor of Miami, Anton Cermak. Cermack was an old friend of Roosevelt. As the crowed started to thin, Giuseppe Zangara climbed on a chair and fired at Franklin Roosevelt. Lillian Cross who was sitting in front of him and others grabbed him as he fired five more times. Five people were hurt including Anton Cermak, the mayor. Roosevelt order the Secret Service to take Cermak to the hospital. FDR comforted Cermak on the way to the hospital. Mayor Cermak died two and a half weeks later from the bullet shot in is lung. Giuseppe Zangara was sentence to die for the attempted assassination and the murder of Mayor Cermak. On March 20, 1933 after ten days in jail Zangara was executed. Interesting notes: 1. Florida law prohibited convicted murders from being in the same cell. Another prisoner was in the "death" cell so they had to build another cell. So the cells were called "death row." 2. On the way to the hospital Cermak said to Roosevelt "I'm glad it was me and not you, Mr. President." Those words on on a plaque in Bayfront Park. |
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Sources:
The Presidents of the United States. 22 September 2004: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ Davis, Gibbs and Ilus. David A. Johnson. Wackiest White House Pets. New York: Scholastic Press, October 2004 James, Barber and Amy Pastan. Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies. New York: DK Publishing, 2002 Kane, Joseph Natan. Facts about the Presidents from Washington to Johnson. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1964. McCullough, Noah, The Essential Book of Presidential Trivia. Random House, USA, 2006 Pine, Joslyn, Presidential Wit and Wisdom: Memorable Quotes from George Washington to Barack Obama . Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 2009 Huffington Post web site. Lang, Stephen, The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 2011 O'Reilly, Bill, and Dugard, Martin, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2011 St. George, Judith In the Line of Fire: Presidents' Lives at Stake , Scholastic Inc. New York, 2001 In addition to these books, I have also read and have used information from those listed on my Books About Presidents page.
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