- ♫ Why can't we be friends
♫Why can't we be friends♫
These people have obviously never heard that song.
For as long as there have been powerful people in the world,
there have been many more
that have wanted to take them down.
And there could be a lot of reasons for that.
Maybe the powerful person is a monster,
or maybe the one trying to take him down is.
Either way, out of all of the assassinations
that have ever occurred throughout time,
there have been some that were particularly notable
for how they went down.
Either because of the craziness of how it went down,
or because of the unbelievable consequences that followed
that impacted history forever.
So I say we jump right into it.
Here are the 10 most unbelievable assassinations
of all time.
Number one, is the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
I'm bringing you guys this one first,
because this death led to a major, major chain reaction.
On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria
and thus the heir to the Austrian throne,
was visiting the territory of Sarajevo
with his wife, Sophie.
The pair of them were intercepted by a member
of the Black Hand.
When the car that they were traveling in
turned into an alleyway.
Side note, if you're a royal,
don't travel down a dark alleyway.
Miraculously, each of them only took one bullet.
But that was all the assassin, 19 year old Gavrilo Princip
needed to take both of their lives.
But like I was saying, the real significance of this event
was that those murders created a chain reaction
that ultimately led to World War I.
See, this is why you should never do anything bad
to anybody 'cause you never know what kind of chain reaction
it could cause.
Like for example, you leave a comment on this video
and, I don't know, I don't like it
and then I find out who you are
and I pay you a visit.
But hey, who knows.
On to number two.
Number two is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
This is easily one of the most famous assassinations
in American history and possibly the world.
On April 14th, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.,
around 10:13pm, John Wilkes Booth,
a rather famous actor at the time,
shot the president at point blank range
in the back of the head.
Lincoln was simply sitting in his state box watching a play.
Immediately after the shooting,
Booth fought with Major Rathbone.
The President's guest in the box stabbed him once
and then lept from the balcony breaking his leg in the fall.
This guy thought he was Spiderman.
Ah, but to top off his theatrical assassination,
Booth stood proudly and exclaimed those famous words:
Sic semper tyrannis
Which means, "thus always to tyrants."
That was, of course, right before half running
and half hobbling off.
Astonishingly, he actually managed to avoid capture
for 12 days with a broken leg.
That was before he was shot dead by Sergeant Boston Corbett.
I feel like this assassination in particular
was just done in the heat of the moment.
'Cause he didn't really think about his escape plan.
'Cause jumping off a balcony and breaking your leg
isn't really, you know, an efficient way of escape.
Number three is the assassination of Julius Caesar.
This is perhaps one of, if not the most,
infamous assassination in history.
Back in the first century BC, Roman military man,
and political figure Julius Caesar had just been declared
dictator after a civil war in the Roman Republic.
However, on March 15th, 44 BC,
Caesar arrived at the senate only to be surrounded
by 60 senators.
All of which were part of the assassination.
Yeah, somebody wasn't liked.
Almost every single one of them took part
in the assassination.
And stabbed him over 23 times.
Seems like a little bit of overkill, but okay.
That's when he uttered those famous final words.
Which people still use today.
Et tu Brute?
The words meaning, "And you, Brutus?"
Referring, of course, to his friend Brutus
who also ultimately took part in his death.
After his death, the Roman Republic was no more.
And from the ashes rose the Roman Empire.
Well, you definitely know you're not liked
when 60 separate people shank you to death.
Number four is the assassination of John Lennon.
In addition to being an artist,
writer, record producer, and activist John Winston Lennon
is a legendary figure who was one of the founding members
of the Beatles.
You know, the Beatles, that famous band from the U.K.?
Wow, I've gotta work on my British accent.
A sensation the world over, Lennon did his best
to spread a message of peace.
However, on the evening of December 8th, 1980,
just before 11pm, the singer and his wife, Yoko Ono,
had just arrived at their New York apartment.
When Mark David Chapman approached them,
fatally shooting Lennon.
However the truly shocking part about this,
is that this occurred only six hours after the former Beatle
gave Chapman an autograph.
And the worst part about it is that he did it
just so he could be known as the man who killed Lennon.
Immediately after shooting Lennon,
Chapman put his gun down, sat on the pavement
and read Catcher in the Rye until the police arrived
and arrested him with no incident.
The job is done, I'll just read this book now.
That is just, that's creepy.
That's nightmare stuff.
Number five is Operation Anthropoid.
Reinhard Heydrich was a Nazi leader
that was selected by Hitler himself.
He became a prime target of a joint assassination plot
between British intelligence and Czech rebels.
Which, if successful, would be a major hit to Hitler.
Major hit to Hitler.
Two soldiers named Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik
were tasked with killing Heydrich in Prague
on May 27th, 1942.
Oh but the way that it went down.
As the target's car pulled up to a corner,
Gabcik tried to open fire with a machine gun.
Only to have it jam at that very moment.
Panicked, Kubis then threw a grenade
blowing up half the car and injuring himself
and the target.
However, this bad luck was amplified
by the fact that Heydrich survived the initial attack.
However, finally, days later Heydrich's injuries
resulted in an infection that ended up taking his life.
Okay, wow man, if you are going to plan an assassination,
make sure your equipment's gonna work.
I'm not saying assassinate anyone.
I'm just saying, you know, if you're gonna do a job,
do it right.
And don't panick, nope, make your gun jam.
And don't throw grenades, don't blow yourself up.
Just don't even assassinate anyone.
That's the easiest thing.
Number six is the assassination of Martin Luther King.
An American activist, humanitarian, and Baptist minister,
Martin Luther King, Jr was the leader
of the Civil Rights Movement.
Who stood against racial discrimination using nonviolent,
civil disobedience.
However, somehow he actually survived every attack.
That was, sadly, until April 4th, 1968
when a man police believed to be James Earl Ray,
shot King in the face with a rifle
while the activist stood on the balcony of his motel room.
The shot was made from across the street
at a fair distance.
And King was hit in the jaw.
The bullet striking his spinal cord
before embedding it in his shoulder.
Riots then broke out in over 60 U.S. cities
following the shooting.
Prompting President Johnson to declare a day of mourning.
If you're a racist, you're a dick.
That's all, nothing more to say.
Just a little PSA for you guys.
Moving on.
Number seven is the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis.
Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis had made himself
a thorn in the side of the right wing government
in the early 1960's.
Protesting the war in Vietnam,
and various other government sanctioned actions.
His activism had become such a menace
to the Greek government,
that they wanted him permanently removed.
So the government actually hired two assassins to kill him.
How they pulled this off, though, is really just
the mind twister here.
They pulled up in a simple three-wheeled scooter of sorts,
and attacked Lambrakis during an anti-war speech
in full view of the public and several police officers.
And clubbed him to death with bats.
Suffering severe brain injuries,
Lambrakis died in hospital shortly afterwards.
You know, I could make a police brutality joke,
but I feel like they've had enough of a hard time
over the last year.
So we're just gonna leave that one alone.
Number eight is the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Though it was a shorter term than most presidents,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy witnessed a lot
during his presidency.
Including the civil rights movement,
the Cuban missile crisis, and the space race.
On November 22nd, 1963, just before 12:30pm,
President Kennedy was traveling with his motorcade
through the streets of Dallas,
when he was shot via rifle three times.
He died shortly after in the hospital.
While Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for his murder.
However, what makes this assassination truly unbelievable,
is that while there were literally hundreds of witnesses
to the assassination,
it remains one of the biggest mysteries in U.S. history.
if you Google it, you will find an incredible number
of conspiracy theories that claimed that the shooter
was not Oswald
due to the magic bullet theory
and that the government itself may have been involved
in the president's death.
Among several other theories that exist.
But I warn you.
When you look up government conspiracies,
that is a rabbit hole you do not want to go down.
'Cause you will become one of those people
that doesn't leave their house
and wears a tinfoil hat.
They're comin' to get ya.
Number nine is Operation Ogre.
Okay, you'd think Michael Bay planned this next one.
In 1973, four Basque commando separatists
decided to take out Spanish Prime Minister,
Luis Carrero Blanco in a mission dubbed Operation Ogre.
Posing as simple art students
and renting a basement apartment,
the commandos dug a tunnel under the street
Blanco traveled down to get to mass.
Then they packed the tunnel with over 80 kilograms
of explosives that they'd stolen previously
from a government warehouse.
On December 20th, 1973 as Blanco's car pulled up,
the crew detonated the bombs.
The vehicle was hurled over 20 meters into the air.
Actually going over a five story building.
However, in a truly extraordinary turn of events,
every single occupant in that car was killed
except Blanco.
Though he later did succumb to his injuries,
in what would ultimately become possibly
the biggest overkill ever.
If you use that many explosives
and you still don't get the job done on like the first try,
you should probably just retire
'cause you're a crappy assassin.
And number 10 is the axe-wielding bear.
This assassination is both hard to comprehend,
and just plain weird.
Jorg Jenatsch was an infamous Swiss murderer and trader.
Overall, just a really bad guy.
On January 24th, 1639, Jenatsch was at a carnival
surrounded by a number of his friends.
All of which wore masks and costumes.
Because that's what you do at a carnival, right?
Nothing weird about it.
I'm getting there.
Well, as it turned out they weren't exactly all friends.
Because a group approached him led by a man
in a full body bear costume.
Suddenly the bear, who I could only assume
would do little bear tricks.
Little cute, little bear tricks, suddenly pulled out an axe
and chopped the man to death in plain sight.
They did this in plain sight with many witnesses
and fleed immediately afterwards
with a handful of co-conspirators.
To this day, it still isn't known
why the bear went all cuckoo,
but it was probably the first and only bear man
to have assassinated someone with an axe.
Hey kids, I'm a friendly bear.
Watch me do this.
Ya, ya, ya, ya.
And that's the trick.
Well, that ending was weird.
I hope you guys enjoyed this
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I'm going to send the friendly bear after you.
(chuckles)
I'm not gonna do that.
I don't even know who the bear man is.
But you never know.