7. The victim of the first known attempt to assassinate a sitting President of the United States, Andrew Jackson was saved from the would-be-assassin’s bullets by the humid climate of America’s capital in 1835
Andrew Jackson (b. 1767) was an American soldier and politician who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Celebrated for his performance during the War of 1812, becoming a national hero after the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, Jackson was denied the presidency in 1824 due to the “corrupt bargain” before winning in a landslide four years later. The first sitting president to suffer physical assault, struck on May 6, 1833, by Robert B. Randolph after his dismissal from the Navy for embezzlement, Jackson also became the first to face an assassination attempt on January 30, 1835.
As Jackson departed the Capitol after attending the funeral of Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed painter, aimed at the president with a pistol. Misfiring, Lawrence drew a second pistol which equally did not shoot properly, prompting the elderly Jackson to attack Lawrence with his cane. It is believed the humid weather of Washington D.C. on that day interfered with the firing mechanisms. Claiming initially to be motivated by Jackson’s economic policies, blaming them for his financial condition, Lawrence later proclaimed himself Richard III of England and was institutionalized due to his poor mental health.