They chose not just anyone:kings, dignitaries, presidents. Some used pistols, others constructed bombs or organized ambushes. If they had succeeded, history books would have looked COMPLETELY different today. And not always because of who died ... but also because of who killed!
As always, all TOP10 items are based on the articles we publish. This time we decided to look at the bombers who tried to change the course of history. They chose quite a number of personalities as their goal:kings, dignitaries, and presidents. They have one thing in common. Neither has succeeded. More texts on the backstage of power and politics can be found HERE.
Who tried to swing history by swing… but ran out of luck?
7. Ignacy Mościcki
Before Mościcki became a noble leader, he had a truly remarkable youth. At twenty-four, he decided to… construct a bomb. And not just any, because intended to kill the same governor-general of Warsaw, Josif Hurko . He was one of the most senior Russian officials in the Vistula Region.
Even before Ignacy Mościcki came to London (where the above photo comes from) to work in a group of Polish socialists with, among others, Józef Piłsudski, he planned to become ... a suicide bomber (source:public domain).
Mościcki looked for a recipe for the bomb abroad, in France and England. Finally, having found the right recipe, he moved with his young wife to Riga and embarked on a dangerous plan. However, Tsarist Ochrana was on his heels - every day closer to breaking the whole plot. In this situation, Mościcki, instead of simply abandoning his preparations and fleeing abroad, decided to become ... a suicide bomber. He wrote the same about his intentions:
We decided to invade the interior of the council in officer uniforms on the gala day, where the highest members of our henchmen were gathering, and greet them with a volley of bombs, dying with them! (read more about it).
6. Stepmother of Bolesław the Brave (?)
The unsuccessful attempt on Bolesław I the Brave, which took place in August 1002, still holds many secrets. Soon after the meeting of the Polish ruler with the ruler of Germany, Henry II, the cavalcade in which Bolesław was traveling was blocked by a group of men armed to the teeth. Without a word, they rushed to attack. The slaughter has begun .
If Oda had been successful, today hardly anyone would have remembered about Bolesław the Brave. And certainly no monuments would be erected for him (photo Aung, source:public domain).
Many soldiers accompanying Piast were killed. He hurriedly assessed the chances and started to run away . He saved his skin by a fortunate twist of fate. He was escorted by the well-known Merseburg - and therefore the place of the attack - Bavarian, Henryk from Schweinfurt. At the moment of danger, he immediately showed the way to another gate, which was breached without further ado. The prince was safe.
The perpetrators of the attempt on his life have never been discovered. The prevailing view among historians is that the attack was ordered by King Henry. Such an explanation, however, raises doubts. An old Roman adage says: the profit is guilty . Meanwhile, it is not difficult to indicate who would gain the most from the premature death of Bolesław. Oda and her sons dreamed of his death above all. If Chrobry had died, the entire history of the Piast family had died, and thus the history of Poland would have looked different (read more on this topic).
5. Home Army
Hans Frank was hanged on the gallows on October 16, 1946. However, he was close to saying goodbye to this world in January 1944. At that time, Frank traveled by train to Lviv to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the completion of the process of creating the General Government. He was accompanied by a number of Nazi dignitaries, including his aide, Helmuth Pfaffenroth.
Main Railway Station in Kraków during the occupation. Here Hans Frank was to start the last journey in his life…. (photo from the album:Krakow during the occupation 1939-1945, Historical Museum of the City of Krakow, 2010).
The Polish underground decided to take advantage of this moment. The governor-general has been at the top of the list of potential targets for a long time. Around January 20, 1944, Colonel Józef Spychalski "February" recommended Lieutenant Ryszard Nuszkiewicz "Slow" preparing a plan to disembark the train that Frank will take. The general guidelines also spoke of setting up a fire ambush.
Everything was ready on the day of Frank's trip to Lviv. The engineer patrol set up an explosive device and waited only for the depot to arrive. He was spotted around 11:15 PM. Two minutes later the night silence was broken by a powerful explosion, which unfortunately happened literally a fraction of a second too late (read more about it).
4. Wehrmacht officers
Many opponents lay in wait for Adolf Hitler's life. However, the authors of the loudest (and the closest) attack on him were ... a group of Wehrmacht officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg. The bomb that was supposed to kill the Führer was planted in the council room in the Wolf's Lair headquarters by the leader of the conspirators himself . There was even an explosion ... but Hitler managed to survive.
The trial of the participants in the attack of July 20, 1944. One thing is certain, few Germans sympathized with them (source:Bundesarchiv; lic. CC BY-SA 3.0).
The most shocking in this story is the support that the rank and file of Germans gave not to the conspirators, but ... to the leader of the Third Reich. First of all, German citizens could not believe what had happened. As Ian Kershaw, author of the book “Führer. Fight to the last drop of blood ”, was dominated by a feeling of deep shock and consternation at the news of a failed homicide attempt. People indignantly complained at a small clique of criminal officers who dared to raise their hand over the head of state.
Many documents prove that the regime only strengthened its position after the attack, and the society openly expressed its support for the leader. Of course, the sources created by the apparatus of power contain many distortions, but the scale of the phenomenon leaves no doubt. The German people still loved Hitler anyway (read more about it).
3. Russian bomber without an alarm clock
Alexander II, who ruled in Russia in 1855-1881, had been predicted by a Gypsy woman who had met in Paris that he had assassinated him. Six times he would come out of them unscathed, and the seventh attempt would be his last. Subsequent attempts to kill the Tsar, in fact, failed for many different reasons: and the shooter missed, and the assassins blew up the wrong train ...
Alexander II avoided death in an attack six times (source:public domain).
Coup 6, which took place on August 17, 1880, in particular ended in a spectacular failure. Three young people:Mikhailov, Zelabov, and a certain Kibalych, a dynamite specialist, decided to blow up the Stone Bridge used by the tsar on his way to the Winter Palace. They dumped a load of dynamite in watertight gutta-percha cushions at the bottom of the river, leading the cables to a wooden pier. Now it was enough to wait for the beloved ruler.
On the agreed day in the morning, the Tsar's carriage pulled into the crossing ... and, as if nothing had happened, calmly rolled on! There was no explosion . How do later found out one of the participants in the attack did not have a watch and simply overslept . When he arrived, there was no one there (read more about that).
2. Each of the bombers trying to kill the bulletproof Mussolini
The Italian dictator used to say that he had an "iron head" . And it would not be surprising, if it were not for the popular to this day history, according to which Duce was bulletproof, or even immortal, which was to be foretold on her deathbed ... a Catholic nun.
Benito Mussolini during one of his numerous speeches. His face radiates calm. He knows that he is safe, because the bullets do not hurt him (source:public domain).
An old Catholic predicted that that Italy would not be able to find any weapons capable of killing Benito Mussolini . Sounds like a fairy tale? And yet the Italian dictator did indeed have a series of unsuccessful attacks. On one occasion he even complained about their unbearable uniformity:
Excessively monotonous attempts were made in 1925-1926 to take my life - a few bombs, a series of revolver shots, among the bombers, women and men, locals and from Great Britain, and a few attacks whose origins have not been established. Nothing fancy (read more about it).
1. Italian anarchist Giuseppe Zangara
How would history have turned if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had never assumed the office of President of the United States? It was close to doing just that. The American politician narrowly escaped death during the holidays he went on after the victorious campaign in 1933. Brutally cut short his visit to Miami - and a political career - because the Italian anarchist Giuseppe Zangara tried.
How would the fate of the world go if Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1933? (photo:FDR Presidential Library &Museum, CC BY 2.0 license)
Zangara had learned about Rooveselt's visit by accident a few days earlier. Without thinking, bought a revolver from the local pawnshop and on Wednesday afternoon he tried to get as close as possible to the convertible from which the elect was speaking. As he was of small stature - he measured only about 155 cm - no one paid any attention to him and the bomber calmly positioned himself a few meters from his target.
As Roosevelt got out of the car to greet the crowd, Zangara swiftly reached for his gun and fired five shots . However, not one of them even scratched the head of state! The President-elect owed his life to the consciousness of the mind of Thomas Armor and Lillian Cross, who won the anarchist's hand at the last minute, thereby saving Roosevelt from certain death (read more on this topic).