The first assassination attempt against a President…

The first assassination attempt against a President of the United States occurs in the Capitol on January 30, 1835.

President Andrew Jackson is crossing the Capitol Rotunda after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis when Richard Lawrence approaches Jackson.

Lawrence aims two single shot pistols at Jackson, which both misfire.

Jackson then attacks Lawrence with his cane, prompting his aides to restrain him.

Others present, including the celebrated congressman David Crockett, who will soon end his life in Texas defending the Alamo, restrain and disarm Lawrence, who is clearly deranged.

Richard Lawrence gives the doctors several reasons for the shooting.

He had recently lost his job painting houses and somehow blames Jackson.

He claims that with the President dead, "money would be more plenty"—a reference to Jackson’s struggle with the Bank of the United States—and that he "could not rise until the President fell."

Finally, he informs his interrogators that he is actually a deposed English King—Richard III, specifically, dead since 1485—and that Jackson is merely his clerk.

He is deemed insane, institutionalized, and never punished for his assassination attempt.