The first attempt to do bodily harm…
May 1833 CE
The first attempt to do bodily harm to a U.S. President occurs in Alexandria, Virginia.
President Jackson has sailed on USS Cygnet to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he is to lay the cornerstone on a monument near the grave of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother.
Robert B. Randolph, who Jackson had ordered dismissed from the Navy for embezzlement, appears during a stopover near Alexandria, Virginia, on May 6, 1833, and strikes Jackson.
He then flees the scene with several members of Jackson's party chasing him, including the well known writer Washington Irving.
Jackson decides not to press charges.