FAMOUS ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTEMPTS My name is Chiru Irina Georgiana and the subject of my certificate is "Famous assassinations and

attempts". I have chosen this topic because the history of humanity has been strongly affected by assassinations with enormous changes in politics, culture and society. This kind of changes will always remind the reason because of which they appeared. During the centuries, the assassinations of famous people or the attempts to assassinate them left a bitter taste. Taking the life of a human being is the capital sin and those who commit it are, most frequently, the expression of certain psychopathic disorders. Assassination is also one of the oldest tools of power struggles and it dates back to the earliest governments and tribal structures of the world. It is a fact that by the fall of the Roman Republic assassination has become a commonly accepted tool in improving one's own position - the killing of Gaius Julius Caesar is a notable example. The Roman dictator was betrayed and killed by his close friends, Marcus Brutus and Cassius, on 15 March 44 B.C., "the Ides of March". As the Middle Ages came, the moral and ethical dimension of what was before a simple political tool began to take shape. Assassination also became part of the religious arena as well. For example, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who is now a saint, was killed by the knights of king Henry II. As the world moved to the present day and the stakes in political clashes of will continued to grow to a global scale, the number of assassinations multiplied. The first presidential assassination in American history was the murder of Abraham Lincoln. The "Honest Abe" or the "Great Emancipator", as he is called, was killed in a theatre by a Confederate racist who blamed him for abolishing the institution of slavery. Three other U.S. presidents have been killed by assassinations: James Garfield, William Truman, John Fitzgerald Kennedy(whose murder is a mystery till today), and several others, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan) survived significant assassination attempts. Even the World War I was triggered by an assassination, the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinant. But apart from the ideological and political reasons, assassinations may be also prompted by the desire to acquire fame or the wish to form some kind of "relationship" with a public figure. A good example is the case of the assassin of John Ono Lenon, member of The Beatles. His assassin considers him a celebrity. The list of assassinations or assassination attempts on famous people continues with a lot of names like Martin Luther King(the civil right leader), Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, the Prime minister of Great Britain known as "The Iron Lady". In conclusion, these crimes amazed and terrified us by their cruelty, they confused us and they left behind unanswered questions and grief. What strikes the most is that the mind of a human being can be capable of such things. As George Bernard Shaw said, "assassination is the extreme form of censorship" and there is no way to predict or prevent an assassination if the assassin is committed to the act.