This is a list of persons that were assassinated for political and other reasons.
Please note the annual sorting order.
- Patrice Lumumba, (1961), Prime Minister of the Congo
- Hendrik Verwoerd[?], (1966), Prime Minister of South Africa
- Murtala Ramat Mohammed[?], (1976), President of Nigeria
- Anwar Sadat, (1981), President of Egypt
- Thomas Sankara, (1987), military leader of Burkina Faso
- Juvénal Habyarimana[?], (1994), President of Rwanda
- Cyprien Ntaryamira[?], (1994), President of Burundi
- Laurent-Desire Kabila, (2001), president of the DRC 1997-2001
- Henri III, King of France (1589)
- Henri IV, King of France (1610)
- Jean-Paul Marat, (1793), revolutionary
- Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France (1894)
- Jean Léon Jaurès, (1914), politician, pacifist
- Paul Doumer, (1932), President of France
- Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1811)
- Lord Frederick Cavendish, (1836-1882), Chief Secretary for Ireland (1882
- T.H. Burke[?], Under Secretary for Ireland (1882)
- Charles Lenox Richardson[?], English diplomat (1862)
- Michael Collins, (1922), assassinated President of the Provisional Government[?]
- Christopher Ewart-Biggs, British ambassador to Ireland (1976)
- Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident (1978)
- Airey Neave, British Conservative politician (1979)
- Earl Mountbatten, (1979), Vice-admiral
- Ian Gow[?], British Conservative politician (1990)
- Rev. Robert Bradford[?], Unionist MP in Northern Ireland
Including heads of state and heads of government
- Takahashi Korekiyo, (1936), Japanese author
- Inukai Tsuyoshi, Japanese Prime Minister (1932)
- Ito Hirobumi, Japanese Prime Minister (1909)
- Okubo Toshimichi, Japanese Prime Minister (1878)
- Sirosawa Saneomi[?], Japanese political activist (1871)
- Yokoi Shonai[?], Japanese political activist (1869)
- Sakamoto Ryoma[?], (1867), Japanese author
- Ikeuchi Daigaku[?], Japanese politican (1864)
- Sakuma Shozan[?], Japanese politican (1864)
- Kusaka Gen'nai[?], Japanese politican (1864)
- Serizawa Kamo[?], a chief of Shinsen-gumi[?] (1863)
- Yoshida Toyo[?], Japanese political activist (1863)
- Ii Naosuke[?], Japanese politican (1860)
- Tokugawa Nariaki[?], Japanese daimyo, a relative of Tokugawa shoguns. (1860)
- Shimazu Nariaki[?], Japanese daimyo in Satsuma, now Kogoshima prefecture[?] (1858)
- Oda Nobunaga, (1582), samurai warlord
- The Sogas[?], Japanese political family (645)
- Emperor Sushun of Japan, Emperor of Japan (592)
- Matsudaira Hirotada[?], feudal leader in Japan
- Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Shogan[?], feudal leader in Japan
- Oda Nobuyuki, Japanese samurai, younger brother of Oda Nobunaga
- Ouchi Yoshitaka[?], daimyo, feudal leader in Japan
- Mimura Iechika[?], daimyo, feudal leader in Japan
- Yamanaka Shikanosuke[?], Japanese samurai
- Hashimoto Sanai[?], Japanese political activist
- Hara Kei[?], Japanese political activist
- Francisco I. Madero, (1913), President of Mexico
- Venustiano Carranza[?], (1920), President of Mexico
- Francisco "Pancho" Villa, (1923), revolutionary
- Alvaro Obregon[?], (1928), President-elect
- Leon Trotsky, (1940), Russian communist leader
- Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta[?], 1994, Presidential candidate
- Peter III of Russia, (1762), czar of Russia
- Alexander II of Russia, Tsar (1881)
- Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov[?], Governor-General of Finland (1904
- Peter Stolypin, Russian Prime Minister (1911)
- Grigori Rasputin, (1916), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker
- Nicholas II of Russia, former Tsar of All the Russias (1918)
- Henry Heusken[?], American diplomat (accompanying Townsend Harris[?] from Amsterdam) (1861)
- Abraham Lincoln, (1865), U.S. president
- James Garfield, (1881), U.S. president
- William McKinley, President of the United States (1901)
- John F. Kennedy, (1963), U.S. President
- Medgar Evers, civil rights activist
- Malcolm X, (1965), (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little), leader
- Robert F. Kennedy, (1968), U.S. politician
- Martin Luther King Jr., (1968), U.S. civil rights activist
- Harvey Milk, gay rights campaigner and city supervisor of San Francisco, California (1978)
- John Lennon, (1980), singer
- Tupac Shakur, (1997), American rapper
- The Notorious BIG, rap singer (1997)
- Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia (2003)
- Birendra and Aiswary, King and Queen of Nepal (along with 9 other members of the royal family) (2001)
- Vasgen Sarkissian[?], Prime Minister of Armenia (1999)
- Yitzhak Rabin, (1995), Prime Minister of Israel (1974-1977 and 1992-1995), shared 1994 Nobel Peace Prize
- Ranasinghe Premadasa[?], President of Sri Lanka (1993)
- Olof Palme, (1986), Swedish prime minister
- Park Chunghee, President of South Korea (1979)
- Faisal of Saudi Arabia, (1975), king
- Ngo Dinh Diem, (1963), first president of South Vietnam
- Faisal I, (1958), King of Iraq
- Abdullah I , (1951), King of Jordan
- Alexander[?], King of Yugoslavia (1930)
- Gabriel Narutowicz[?], (1922), President of Poland
- George I of Greece, (1912), king
- Charles of Portugal, (1908), king
- Umberto I of Italy, (1900), king
- Pius VIII, Pope (1830)
- Gustav III, King of Sweden (1792)
- William I of Orange, (1584), stadtholder
- Nero, (68), Roman emperor
- Caligula, (41]), Roman emperor
- Gaius Julius Caesar, (44 BC), common form of reference to Julius Caesar
- Philip II of Macedon, (336 BC), king
- Mohammed Ahmad al-Rasheed[?], Saudi Arabian ambassador to the Ivory Coast, (2003)
- Pim Fortuyn, (2002), Dutch politician
- Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan (2001)
- Andrey Lukanov[?], former Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1996)
- Khalil Wazir[?], military leader of the PLO
- Reinhard Heydrich, (1942), a General in the Nazi German paramilitary corps and governor of occupied Czechoslovakia
- Franz Ferdinand of Austria, (1914), Archduke of Austria-Hungary
- Elisabeth, (1898), ("Sisi")
- Conrad of Montferrat, 1192, leader in the Third Crusade
- Germanicus, Roman military leader (20)
- Elvis Alvarez[?], (1994), world champion boxer, murdered
- Alejandro Gonzalez Malave, (1986), famous undercover policeman
- Jose Cheito Ruiz[?] world champion boxer from Puerto Rico, (1993)
- Ross McWhirter, co-author of the Guinness Book of Records & far right wing political activist
- Haing S. Ngor[?], actor and doctor
- Selena Quintanilla, (1994), murdered tejano singer
- Samantha Runyon, (2002), young victim of crime
- Peter Tosh, (1944-1987), Jamaican reggae singer
- Luis Vigoreaux, (1983), slain producer, show host
- Salvador Allende, (1973), Chilean president
- Pope John Paul I (1978)
- Bison Dele[?] NBA player (2002)
- Charles XII, (1718), Swedish military commander
- Pope Alexander VI, (1492-1503), Roman pope of the 15th century
- Warren Harding, President of the United States
- Dag Hammarskjöld, (1905-1961), United Nations Secretary General
- King Jean I of France
- Emperor Komei of Japan, (1771-1840), Emperor of Japan
- Agnès Sorel
- Stephen Knight[?]
See also: List of people who survived assassination attempts, List of murdered people, Assassin, List of assassins, Terrorist