Theatre of Pompey (Rome): Up to 60 senators were involved in Julius Caesar’s assassination plot in 44 BC. He was stabbed 23 times in a senate room just off the porticoes of the Theatre of Pompey. The site is now buried several meters beneath the Teatro Argentina, the white building at the back of this photograph.
Dealey Plaza (Dallas, Texas): Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy from the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository — now the Sixth Floor Museum dedicated to the assassination and legacy of JFK. A white “X” marks the spot where the bullets entered the president in November 1963.Ford’s Theatre (Washington, D.C.): John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where Abraham Lincoln was attending a performance of ‘Our American Cousin’ and shot him in the back of the head. The theater is now a museum and education center, as well as a playhouse.Birla House (New Delhi): Mahatma Gandhi had left Birla House to lead a daily prayer meeting when he was shot in the chest at close range. The government bought the property and renamed it Gandhi Smriti, a memorial and museum dedicated to the life and teachings of Gandhi.The Dakota (New York City): John Lennon was shot four times inside the driveway of The Dakota as he was returning from his studio on December 8, 1980. Yoko Ono funded a memorial area inside Central Park called Strawberry Fields with ‘Imagine’ written in mosaic.Lorraine Motel (Memphis, Tennessee): On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. He was in Memphis to lead a protest in support of striking city workers. The site is now the National Civil Rights Museum.Yusupov Palace (St. Petersburg, Russia): Offing Rasputin was no easy feat. First, poisoned cakes failed to fell him, then two bullets. Eventually, he suffered a fatal shot and endured a beating before his body was dumped in the icy waters of the Moika River.Sarajevo, Bosnia: Gavrilo Princip shot Franz Ferdinand as the Archduke of Austria’s motorcade was driving down the street. Princip stood on the sidewalk of what’s now the Museum of Sarajevo 1878-1918. The assassination triggered a sequence of events that escalated to World War I.Audubon Ballroom (New York City): Malcolm X was shot during a weekly meeting at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. The original facade of the building has been preserved and the second floor is now the Shabazz Center, an education center and memorial to Malcolm X.Canterbury Cathedral (Kent, UK): Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was attacked by four knights in the cathedral in 1170. A large broken sword point is on display at the Altar of the Sword’s Point in the Martyrdom, a memorial to Becket.Leon Trotsky Museum (Mexico City): Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was killed with an ice pick in the Mexico City villa he shared with his wife. The house has been preserved as it was during the bespectacled communist’s residency — his desk diary is still open at the day of his death.
