Politicians who died violently; through …stamps!

In this post we are referring in politicians who did not die by a natural death or illness, but we did try to find politicians that they die by violent acts such as murder or fatal injuries as plane crash, terrorist attacks or from the hangings and other similar episodes. We cannot fit all those politicians who ended their lives in such manners, but we are sure that friends collectors, if they are interested they will find out more of these incidents. Many of these stamps you can probably find them under Stamps Category in eCharta.

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 and he became the 16th U.S. president. He started his life very poor and became a lawyer. He started the American Civil War in 1861-1865, to empower black people and not break apart a united America. The United States, owe to him their character today. On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Booth, shot him in the gallery of the Ford Theater in Washington. Lincoln died the next day at the nearby hospital.

Ioannis Capodistrias, born in Corfu and he was a descendant of an aristocratic family. He rarely trained with a high level of education for that time and reached up to become Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Tsar in Russia. Switzerland owes the independence of its territories to him. However they have been no dedicated a single stamp. He was invited in Greece for Governor, but the known interests of the rich Koundouriotis family of Hydra and the ambitiousness of Mavromichalis family destroyed him. He was very powerful politician and he never dropped by anything from his main beliefs. So, inevitably, he was murdered by Mavromichalis family in Nafplion on September 27, 1831.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917 and he was the 35th U.S. president. He came from a very wealthy family of politicians and he was the most beloved president. Since 1947 onwards, he did not lose any election. He became an MP, Senator and finally the youngest U.S. president in 1961. He failed in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, but he succeeded in many other cases, such as missile crisis in Cuba. On November 22, 1963, he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, from sniper, in his open car, in front of his wife.

Robert Francis Kennedy was born in 1925 and he was the brother of John Fitzgerald. He serviced White House from many places: as Senate, as Prosecutor and Governor and as Minister of Justice with excellent intuitions, even in the very sensitive issue of the era, the apartheid. In 1968, he was ready to become the new U.S. president, but after a speech at the Hotel AMBASSADOR of Los Angeles, was killed by a Palestinian fugitive.

Benito Mussolini was born in Predappio, Italy in 1883. It was the first known fascist in Europe, known as “Il Duce». He started his career as a teacher and journalist and imposed strictly in politics. He got involved his country in World War II, which almost devastated it. The dictator was executed by partisans near Como, at the end of the war in 1945.

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn, in Austria-Hungary. The famous Nazi leader and German Chancellor, who led the world in the Second World War, had in his mind the welfare of his country at the cost of the misery of others. When the Allies invaded Germany and the Russians were approaching the Chancellery in Berlin on April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his secret sanctuary.

John Kranidiotis was born in 1947, a native of Cyprus political family. He serviced in many government offices with PASOK political party, in the Foreign Ministry, reaching the position of Deputy Minister. During an official trip to Romania, the plane suffered serious damage and without crashing, Kranidiotis killed with his son Nicholas, in the airspace of Romania in 1999.

Saddam Hussein was born in 1937 and served as President-dictator of Iraq. He had an adventurous life, with many attempts for murder, imprisonments and unlawful acts. He was the president who made the war with Iran in 1980 when he was a “friend” of the Americans. In 1990, making the mistake to occupy Kuwait, thus declaring his opposition to his previous “friends”, he was arrested and hanged at the end of December 2006.

James Abraham Garfield was born in 1931 and he was the 20th U.S. president. Guyton shot him on July 2, 1881. He had only four months as a President. After 80 days that he was in intensive care in a hospital, finally on September 19, 1881, succumbed to his wounds.

William McKinley was born in 1943 and he was the 25th U.S. president (1897-1901). He made war with Spain in the Cuban island and annexed as “new states” of the U.S. Puerto Rico and Guam. On September 6, 1901, he was shot by anarchist and died of his wounds.

Muhammad Anwar al Sadat was born in 1918 and he was an officer and president of Egypt. He was with Nasser, at the coup of 1952 and when Nasser died, he became the next president of Egypt. In 1973 he made the Yom Kippur war with Israel, which brought his country in a very difficult position. Later, he made peace and he awarded the appropriate Nobel Prize. Peace was not a forgiveness for Muslim extremists and they killed him during a parade in 1981.

Giacomo Matteotti was born in 1885 and he was an Italian socialist leader. In 1924 he dared to denounce the fascist Mussolini’s terror of the people and in a few days, on 10 June of that year, six fascists killed him and buried him. In the great crisis that followed, Mussolini continued to irritate, saying that he was the one which assassinated Matteotti. Mussolini’s government was shaken, but he remained in power with the known later consequences.

The Austrian politician Engelbert Dollfuss was born in 1892 and he became Chancellor in 1932. He was opposed in the union of Austria with Nazi Germany, where he paid dearly after he was assassinated in 1934 in the same Chancellery Building of Austria by Nazis.

The Chilean Marxist Salvador Allende was born in 1908 and he was a doctor. He became president of Chile and clashed openly with the U.S. policy of nationalization and his ideas. Thus, in a coup, the Pinochet junta, killed him on September 11, 1973 in the presidential palace in Santiago, after strong resistance.

Luis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Maountmpanten, Prince of Maountmpanten, British politician and naval leader, a relative of the English Royal Family, was born in 1900 in Windsor. He became the last Regent of India, and became Viscount in 1946, Earl in 1947 and Admiral in 1956. He played an important role in the independence of India but when installed as a Governor of Ireland, was murdered by the IRA in 1979.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, with the common name Mahatma (the man with the great soul) was born in Porbandar, India in 1896. He is the liberator of the Indian nation from the English with his method, without violence but endless struggles. He was assassinated by Hindu fanatic on January 31, 1948. The British honoured the great personality, issuing stamps. It should be noted that, Indira Gandhi, had no affinity with him.
Indira Gandhi was born in 1917 in India and served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. She was the daughter of Prime Minister Nehru Jawaharlal. She was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards in New Delhi in 1984.
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was born in Bombay in 1944.

He was the son of Indira and grandson of Nehru. He became Prime Minister of India in 1984 following the murder of his mother until 1989. He was generally conciliatory, but was assassinated by suicide bomber in 1991 belonging in Tamil (LTTE).

The Swedish Prime Minister from 1969 to 1976 and from 1982 to 1986, Olof Sven Palme was born in Stockholm in 1927. He was peace lover and socialist. Security had never been a major issue, and Olof Palme could often be seen without any bodyguard protection. The night of his murder was one such occasion. Walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen, close to midnight on February 28, 1986, the couple was attacked by an assassin. Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range.

The Mexican politician Francisco Madero was born in Parras de la Fuente in 1873. He led the Democratic Movement and he was a strong supporter of the poor farmers. He succeeded Porphyry Diaz and became President of Mexico in 1911. He assassinated by the coup of General Huerta in February 1913 in Mexico City.

The twice UN Secretary General Swedish, Dag Hammarskjold, economist and politician, son of a Prime Minister, was born in 1905 and became Finance Minister in his country. He commanded the UN, very robust in many crises. While he was conducting peace process in Katanga of Congo, was killed in a plane crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia in 1961.

Patrick Emery Lumumba was born in the Belgian Congo in 1925. He was a nationalist leader and became the first Prime Minister of his country. He wanted a united Africa without European colonization. On December 2, 1960 he was arrested by Kasa-Vubu and murdered in Katanga of Congo on January 17, 1961.

The French politician and orator, Jean Zaures was born in 1859. He was the founder of the French Socialist Party and tried to avert the risk of First World War between France and Germany but he was murdered by nationalists in Paris in 1914.

The astronomer and politician Milan Rastislav Štefánik was born in 1880. In collaboration with Masaryk founded Czechoslovakia. He killed in a plane crash in May 1919. The same fate had Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as first President of Czechoslovakia. On March 10, 1948, was found dead beneath a window of the Foreign Ministry Building.

And the list goes on and on.

I’m sure that the collectors that decide to start such thematic gathering they’ll find a lot more and interesting material. Enjoy!

James Long for eCharta