June 5, 1968 – Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

On this day in history, Robert Kennedy, after having won the California primary for the U.S. presidential race, was shot three times by an assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The shots were fired shortly after midnight on June 5, and Kennedy was rushed to the hospital, where he fought for his life. He died the next morning, on June 6. He was 42 years old.

Sirhan later claimed that he felt betrayed by Kennedy’s support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War, which had begun exactly one year before the assassination.

At the time of his death, Kennedy was a senator for New York. He previously served as the 64th U.S. Attorney General from 1961 to 1964, for both his older brother, President John F. Kennedy, and for JFK’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson.

AP Photo of Robert Kennedy giving his final speech after winning the California Primary in June, 1968