A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day
Event Date: Tuesday 19th May 2026 | Time: 7pm – 8pm
Hidden Histories
About this event
Julius Caesar, Good King Wenceslaus, Thomas Becket, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, JFK, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Kim Jong-nam. Their names are remembered as victims of assassination, figures whose deaths changed history.
Then there are those who survived—Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Hitler, Stalin, Queen Victoria. How might the world have been different if their killers had succeeded?
Join author John Withington for a gripping live online talk based on his book Assassins’ Deeds: A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. He uncovers history’s first recorded assassination, tells the story of the only British prime minister ever assassinated, and explores extraordinary methods from poisoned umbrellas to booby-trapped toys and killers disguised as bears.
Assassination has shaped human history for over four thousand years. Often driven by dynastic ambition, perpetrators were sometimes spouses, parents, children, or siblings. Security measures frequently failed, while victims could be surprisingly careless—like Abraham Lincoln, killed after sending his bodyguard away.
Withington examines the many motives behind assassinations—religion, politics, fear, revenge, money—and asks the ultimate question: do assassinations achieve their goals, or do they unleash unpredictable consequences that change history in ways no one could foresee?
Enter our poll to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Johns book on the night!
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Meet the speaker - John Withington
John is an award-winning television journalist, who has written eleven books, mainly on the history of disasters, including A Disastrous History of the World (Piatkus, 2008), London’s Disasters (The History Press, 2010) and Storm (Reaktion, 2016).