RFK Shot at Ambassador Hotel: Second Kennedy Falls
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan shot Robert F. Kennedy in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at 12:15 AM on June 5, 1968, moments after Kennedy declared victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy had just told supporters "On to Chicago, and let's win there." Three bullets hit Kennedy, one fatally entering behind his right ear. Five bystanders were also wounded. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital 26 hours later at age 42. Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian immigrant, said he acted because of Kennedy's support for Israel. Kennedy's assassination, coming just two months after Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder, deepened the national sense that American democracy was unraveling. Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination at the chaotic Chicago convention but lost to Richard Nixon.
June 5, 1968
58 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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