Top 10 People Who Survived the Most Assassination Attempts

these men and women had a knack for attracting the attention of professional killers welcome to watchmojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 people who survived the most assassination attempts the only answer i can give you is that one has to fear something before we begin we publish new videos every day so be sure to subscribe for more great content for this list we're looking at people who are put in immediate danger more than once by those who would do them harm but repeatedly survived such attempts so although there were numerous plots to kill president barack obama for example the would-be killers never came close number 10. yasser arafat a freedom fighter to some and a terrorist to others arafat had powerful enemies his leadership of the palestinian liberation organization and the palestinian national authority put him in the crosshairs of many would-be assassins if you are speaking about plo we are a democratic movement and we are proud of our democracy in 1985 israeli fighter planes bombed his headquarters in tunis killing many but arafat survived having stepped out for a morning jog he later claimed that he never slept in the same place on two consecutive nights in order to avoid assassins who reportedly made a number of attempts on his life over the years after arafat's death many claimed he'd been poisoned by polonium but forensic teams provided conflicting reports although we may disagree with decisions that he has made on behalf of the palestinian people surely no one can say that he did not exert his maximum effort number nine joseph rose tito as a soldier communist revolutionary and resistance fighter against the nazis tito defied death numerous times later as prime minister and then president of yugoslavia he refused to submit to soviet control creating friction with one-time ally joseph stalin quote i will shake my little finger stalin declared and there will be no more tito he supposedly told a visitor that he would wave his little finger and tito would fall he backed that statement up by sending assassins after the yugoslavian leader prompting tito to write to stalin quote stop sending people to kill me we've already captured five of them tito threatened that he would send a killer to moscow if stalin's attempts didn't cease a few years after the exchange in 1953 stalin died 27 years before tito number 8 alexander ii of russia during his reign emperor alexander ii instituted many modernizing reforms including the emancipation of russian serfs which saw some 23 million people receive full citizenship rights but his rule faced increasing opposition from revolutionaries and polish nationalists who tried to shoot or blow him up at least six times these attempts began with revolutionary dmitry karakotsov who tried to gun him down outside the summer garden in st petersburg miraculously someone in the crowd bumped his elbow and the shot missed after surviving four more attempts alexander's luck finally ran out he was blown up in the street by members of the revolutionary socialist organization narod navolya number seven abraham lincoln before being fatally shot by john wilkes booth in 1865 the 16th u.s president and hero of the civil war survived at least five assassination plots the plans included anything from schemes in baltimore to knife him down another to send him yellow fever and smallpox infected clothing two attempts by shooters and a plot to blow up the white house on one occasion while out riding alone honest abe lost his hat when a gunshot spooked his horse the hat was later found with a bullet hole through it number six queen victoria there are some serious downsides to being royalty sure you get to lead a life of luxury but people often try to shoot you whenever you leave the palace queen victoria survived many assassination attempts an estimated eight in total most of which took place while she wrote about in horse-drawn carriages for pitchy's sake smile woman anyone would think create quarrels don't talk to me her would-be assassins included mad men a hunchback by the name of john william bean and a disgruntled poet just to name a few [Music] fortunately for the queen these shooters either had guns with powder but no bullets or terrible aim and her reign lasted for over 63 years number 5 pope john paul ii someone was watching out for this pope in 1981 he was shot four times and critically wounded in saint peter's square by a member of the turkish nationalist organization grey wolves some speculated that the kgb had ordered the attempt but even so the pope later forgave and befriended the gunman the next year he survived another attempt when a former priest tried to stab him with a bayonet but was stopped by security guards it seemed like everyone wanted their turn in 1995 islamic terrorists funded by osama bin laden plotted to dress a suicide bomber as a priest and blow up the pope however they foiled their own plan by starting a chemical fire alerting police number 4. adolf hitler both in the lead up to world war ii and during it killing hitler was a very real mission in fact many of hitler's would-be assassins were actually germans who believed he was leading the country to disaster [Music] though there were dozens of attempts made on his life the most famous was the 20 july plot in 1944 part of operation valkyrie one-eyed war veteran lieutenant colonel klaus jankroff von steufenberg tried to kill the nazi leader using a bomb hidden in a briefcase unfortunately the leg of the conference table shielded hitler from the blast and it only singed his trousers number three charles de gaulle de gaulle is remembered for his heroic defiance of the nazis as the french leader of the government in exile during world war ii a soldier who fought the germans in both world wars de gaulle was eventually elected president of france an office he held for a decade however he was targeted by the organizat a french terrorist group that opposed his decision to grant algeria independence from colonial rule in 1962 the oas raked his car with machine gun fire he survived and is said to have remarked quote they shoot like pigs all in all he reportedly survived some 31 attempts on his life number 2 zog the first of albania rising from prime minister to president to king zog the first allegedly survived a staggering 55 attempts on his life during his rule he tried to unite the country but in doing so severely suppressed civil liberties making plenty of enemies in the process he was once shot inside the albanian parliament and again on a separate occasion when leaving the opera prompting him to fire back and drive off his attackers despite these attempts and smoking 200 cigarettes a day zog somehow managed to die of an unspecified condition in a french hospital at age 65. his resilience must have run in the family his son lekka once saw off attackers surrounding his plane by brandishing a bazooka number one fidel castro the historical truth is that thousands and thousands of terrorist actions have been conducted against our country sabotages plans attempts against my life castro wins this one by a mile he survived not 10 plots to kill him not 100 but an estimated 638. in the 1960s the cia tried to kill the cuban revolutionary and leader by every means imaginable including poisoned cigars an exploding seashell and even a femme fatale castro's lover maria lorenz he said did you come to kill me and i i was stunned according to lorenz castro figured out the plot when she arrived back in havana and handed her his pistol saying quote you can't kill me nobody can kill me then they made love despite continued assassination attempts in the ensuing decades castro lived to the ripe old age of 90. do you agree with our picks check out these other great clips from watchmojo and subscribe for new videos every day you

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Keywords: top 10, list, top 5, failed assassination attempts, people who survived assassination attempts, people who survived multiple assassination attempts, people who survived the most assassination attempts, Fidel Castro, Adolf Hitler, Queen Victoria, Zog I of Albania, Charles de Gaulle, Abraham Lincoln, Pope John Paul II, Yasser Arafat, Josep Broz Tito, Alexander II of Russia, world leaders, Nazis, WWII, World War II, Joseph Stalin, John Wilkes Booth, Emperor Alexander, Russia

Id: H9JBZZBYoFI

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2017