When Barack Obama began his historic march to the White House, the question was not if someone would try to assassinate him, but rather when. Yip, for politicians it's almost part of the job description — power, world travel and an untimely death.

And while a predilection for evil goes a long way in insuring longevity (see Hitler, Stalin and Mugabe for proof), the desire to bring about positive social change almost inevitably results in someone plotting your demise. Oddly, Nobel peace prizes have proved to be something of an added liability.

The past century has been shaped (generally for worse) by the assassinations of prominent political figures — we take a look at some of the biggies in chronological order.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his assassination is generally regarded as the catalyst that sparked World War I.

An attempted was made on Ferdinand's life by the separatist group The Black Hand, whilst he was visiting Sarajevo with his wife Sophie. The grenade that was thrown at their car bounced off the bonnet and denoted far behind them. The couple insisted on visiting those injured in the blast at the hospital. On the way there, the car took a wrong turn into a side road, where coincidentally Princip (a member of the group of assassins) spotted them. He walked up to the car and shot both Ferdinand and Sophie fatally.

A month later, citing the assassination as the cause, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, dragging the continent into World War I.

Mohandas (aka Mahatma) Gandhi

One of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, Gandhi was a major spiritual and political leader in India. The pioneer of Satyagraha — resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, founded on non-violence — Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for human rights and the independence of India from Britain.

Gandhi was shot and killed while taking his nightly public walk through the grounds of Birla Bhavan in New Delhi. Godse, a radical who had links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting on a payment to Pakistan. Although there is some dissention, Gandhi's final words are largely believed to have been "He Ram" (Oh God). Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were executed on 15 November 1949.

John F. Kennedy

One of the more popular American presidents, famous for his iconic speeches, JFK was the commander-in-chief during the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. His assassination, which shocked the nation, has been surrounded by controversy.

He was shot three times from a high-powered rifle whilst travelling with his wife through Dallas in an open-top limousine. Former marine Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of the murder, but before he could be tried, he was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner angered by the president's death. Conspiracy theories regarding JFK's death are nevertheless rife — among those suspected are the FBI, CIA, Cuba and the USSR.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was a radical figure who is regarded as pivotal in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s. For many years the public face of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X angered the movement's leader Elijah Muhammed, when he decided to leave the group in 1964 to become a Sunni Muslim.

On the day of his death, Malcom X had just finished giving a speech when Hayer rushed through the crowd and shot him with a sawn-off shotgun. Two other men joined in the shooting and Malcolm X was shot a total of 16 times. All three men were members of Nation of Islam. Hayer (now Mujahid Halim) was paroled in 1993; Butler (now Muhammed Abdul) became the head of the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in 1998; and Johnson (now Khalil Islam) was released from prison in 1987.

On the next page: a man with a dream, a communist called Chris and the first female leader of a Muslim nation...

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