Introduction. Over the more than 250-year history of the institution of the presidency in the United States, 45 individuals have held this office. Of these, 39 have already passed away. Eight American presidents died while in office. Four died during their terms from natural causes, and four were assassinated. One president resigned from office. Studying the circumstances of American leaders' deaths is of not only historical but also medical interest, revealing the level of medical development of the corresponding era, as well as the political and social conditions in which these tragic events occurred. I. Presidents Assassinated While in Office. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, became the first American leader to fall at the hands of an assassin. The assassination occurred on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. A supporter of the defeated South, actor John Wilkes Booth, entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head with a single-shot large-caliber pistol. The shot was fired during the funniest scene of the comedy, intended to muffle its sound with an explosion of laughter. On the morning of April 15, 1865, Lincoln died without regaining consciousness. The irony of fate lies in the fact that on the very day of the assassination, the president signed the decree establishing the United States Secret Service—the first federal law enforcement agency in the country. According to American Libmonster, James A. Garfield, the 20th president, was mortally wounded on July 2, 1881, at a railway station in Washington, D.C. The shooter was a mentally unstable lawyer named Charles Guiteau, who had unsuccessfully sought a diplomatic post as ambassador to France. For the assassination, he chose a revolver with an ivory handle, believing such a pistol "would look better in a museum." The wound itself was not fatal—the bullet lodged far from vital organs. However, doctors of that era could not locate or extract it, and antiseptics were not yet in ... Читать далее