Salman Rushdie stabbed in New York: Other icons who met a similar fate

Author Salman Rushdie, famous for works like Midnight’s Children and Shame, was stabbed in New York during an event. Reports suggest that the 75-year-old Booker Prize winner was airlifted to a hospital post the attack. In the wake of this incident, which has sent shockwaves across the world, here is a look at some other celebrities who met a similar fate:

Sharon Tate

American actress Sharon Tate was in her Los Angeles home on August 8, 1969 when members of the cult, The Manson Family, entered her home and stabbed the 26-year-old and heavily pregnant Tate. Her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, was abroad shooting for a film during the incident.

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John Lennon

The Beatles‘ founding member, John Lennon, was shot outside his apartment building in New York by an individual called Mark David Chapman when the former was returning home from a studio session. The legendary rockstar passed away by the time he was taken to a hospital.

John F. Kennedy

Former US President John F. Kennedy was shot to death on November 22, 1963, while he was in a presidential limousine with his wife Jackie. The assassination, carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald, was a watershed moment in 20th-century US history. In his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Bob Dylan addressed the assassination and its aftermath in a suitably titled song, Murder Most Foul.

Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls

Although two separate incidents, the murders of hip-hop legends Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls need to be talked about together. The two were involved in an intense feud when Tupac, aged 25, was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The very next year, Biggie, 24, was gunned down in an almost identical manner outside a Los Angeles club.

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Malcolm X

Two years after the Kennedy assassination, Civil Rights leader Malcolm X found himself at the wrong end of a gun barrel during a speech he was giving at an event by the Organization of Afro-American Unity. A total of 21 gunshot wounds were found on his body during the autopsy.

Martin Luther King Jr. 

Another Civil Rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr., met a similar fate when he was shot down by James Earl Grey on the balcony of his motel room. King was taken to the hospital immediately, but he passed away after a chest surgery.