Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

Rare card · No. 33573

On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. outside of the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., as Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the hotel. Hinckley believed the attack would impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had developed an erotomanic obsession after viewing her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. Reagan was seriously wounded by a revolver bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding. He underwent emergency exploratory surgery at George Washington University Hospital, and was released on April 11. No formal invocation of sections 3 or 4 of the U.S. Constitution's Twenty-fifth Amendment (concerning the vice president assuming the president's powers and duties) took place, though Secretary of State Alexander Haig stated that he was "in control here...

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