The Pope Survives: John Paul II Endures Assassination Attempt
Mehmet Ali Ağca fired four shots into Pope John Paul II, sending the pontiff rushing to emergency surgery at Rome's Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic. The Pope's survival shattered the assassin's plan to decapitate the Catholic Church and instead galvanized a global outpouring of support that strengthened the Vatican's political standing during the Cold War.
May 13, 1981
45 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Rome
Wikipedia
Pope
Wikipedia
Mehmet Ali Ağca
Wikipedia
Pope John Paul II
Wikipedia
surgery
Wikipedia
1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Wikipedia
St. Peter's Square
Wikipedia
Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic
Wikipedia
attempts to assassinate
Wikipedia
Mehmet Ali Ağca
Wikipedia
Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II
Wikipedia
Pope John Paul II
Wikipedia
St. Peter's Square
Wikipedia
Gemelli University Hospital
Wikipedia
Surgery
Wikipedia
Santuario de Fátima
Wikipedia
Portugal
Wikipedia
Juan María Fernández y Krohn
Wikipedia
Vatican City
Wikipedia
Rome
Wikipedia
Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire de Fátima
Wikipedia
Apparitions mariales de Fátima
Wikipedia
Village
Wikipedia
Francisco Marto
Wikipedia
Jacinta Marto
Wikipedia
Sister Lúcia
Wikipedia
Camillo Cibin
Wikipedia
Fátima, Portugal
Wikipedia
Marian apparition
Wikipedia
Pastorinhos de Fátima
Wikipedia
Our Lady of Fátima
Wikipedia
Cova da Iria
Wikipedia
What Else Happened on May 13
The Turkish galleys outnumbered the Latin ships nearly two to one off Pallene's coast. Didn't matter. Humbert II of Vienne led twenty-eight vessels against fift…
She was thirty and dying when the visions started. Julian of Norwich, an anchorite locked voluntarily in a stone cell attached to St. Julian's Church, received …
She was thirty years old and dying when Jesus showed up sixteen times in her bedroom. Julian of Norwich spent May 8th, 1373 watching her own body fail—then watc…
Pope Alexander VI formally excommunicated the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola after the preacher’s relentless denunciations of papal corruption threatened t…
The man who'd just finished mapping coastlines for Spain switched jerseys. Vespucci sailed west again in 1501, but this time King Manuel I of Portugal cut his c…
They'd already married in secret in Paris—weeks earlier, pregnant and terrified. Mary Tudor had been France's queen for three months before her elderly husband …
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.