List of heads of state and government who died in office

Updated: 11/6/2025, 1:07:07 AM Wikipedia source

This is a list of heads of state and government who died in office. In general, hereditary office holders (kings, queens, emperors, emirs, and the like) and holders of offices where the normal term limit is life (popes, presidents for life, etc.) are excluded because, until recently, their death in office was the norm. Such deaths have most often been from natural causes, but there are also cases of assassination, execution, suicide, accident and even death in battle. The list is in chronological order. The name is listed first, followed by the year of death, the country, the name of the office the person held at the time of death, the location of the death (where known) and the cause of death.

Tables

· Prior to 1850

Name	Year	Country	Title	Place of death		Cause of death
Spencer Compton	1743	Great Britain	Prime Minister	Westminster	Kingdom of Great Britain	Illness
Henry Pelham	1754			Westminster		Illness – skin infection
Charles Watson-Wentworth	1782			Wimbledon		Illness – influenza
William Pitt the Younger	1806	United Kingdom		Putney	United Kingdom	Illness – peptic ulceration
Mateo de Toro Zambrano	1811	Chile	President of the Government Junta	Santiago	Chile
Spencer Perceval	1812	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Westminster	United Kingdom	Assassination – shooting
George Canning	1827	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Chiswick	United Kingdom	Illness – pneumonia
Pedro Blanco Soto	1829	Bolivia	Provisional President	La Plata	Bolivia	Assassination
Ioannis Kapodistrias	1831	Greece	Governor	Nafplion	Greece	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Manuel González Salmón	1832	Spain	Prime Minister	Madrid	Spain	Illness
Casimir Pierre Périer	1832	France	Prime Minister	Paris	France	Illness – cholera
Miguel Barragán	1836	Mexico	President	Mexico City	Mexico	Illness – typhus
José Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia	1840	Paraguay	Supreme Dictator	Asunción	Paraguay	Illness
William Henry Harrison	1841	United States	President	Washington, D.C.	United States	Illness – pneumonia or enteric fever
Agustín Gamarra	1841	Peru	President	Ingavi	Peru	Killed in action
Philippe Guerrier	1845	Haiti	President	Saint-Marc	Haiti	Illness
Mathabarsingh Thapa	1845	Nepal	Prime Minister	Kathmandu	Kingdom of Nepal	Assassination – shooting
Fateh Jung Shah	1846	Nepal	Prime Minister	Kathmandu	Kingdom of Nepal	Assassination
Jean-Baptiste Riché	1847	Haiti	President	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	Illness or poisoning

· 1850–1899

Name	Year	Country	Title	Place of death		Cause of death
Zachary Taylor	1850	United States	President	Washington, D.C.	United States	Illness – cholera or gastroenteritis
Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg	1852	Austria	Minister-President	Vienna	Austrian Empire	Stroke
Avram Petronijević	1852	Serbia	Representative of the Prince	Constantinople	Ottoman Empire
Josef Munzinger	1855	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland
Henri Druey	1855			Bern		Stroke
Stefano Franscini	1857			Bern
Mustafa Reşid Pasha	1858	Ottoman Empire	Grand Vizier	Constantinople	Ottoman Empire	Myocardial infarction
Carl Edvard Rotwitt	1860	Denmark	Prime Minister	Copenhagen	Denmark
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour	1861	Italy	Prime Minister	Turin	Kingdom of Italy	Illness – malaria
Jonas Furrer	1861	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bad Ragaz	Switzerland	Illness – kidney disease
José Santos Guardiola	1862	Honduras	President	Comayagua	Honduras	Assassination – shooting
Barbu Catargiu		Romanian United Principalities	Prime Minister	Bucharest	Romanian United Principalities	Assassination – shooting
Carlos Antonio López		Paraguay	President	Asunción	Paraguay	Illness – gout and other diseases
José Antonio Salcedo	1864	Dominican Republic	President	Maimón	Dominican Republic	Assassination – shooting
Rafael Carrera	1865	Guatemala	President	Guatemala City	Guatemala	Illness – dysentery
Abraham Lincoln		United States	President	Washington, D.C.	United States	Assassination – shooting
Henry Temple, Viscount Palmerston		United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Hertfordshire	United Kingdom	Illness – fever
Marcos Paz	1868	Argentina	Interim President	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Illness – cholera
Ramón María Narváez	1868	Spain	Prime Minister	Madrid	Spain	Illness – lung disease
Victor Ruffy	1869	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland
Francisco Solano López	1870	Paraguay	President	Cerro Corá	Paraguay	Killed in action
Juan Prim	1870	Spain	Prime Minister	Madrid	Spain	Assassination
Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha	1871	Ottoman Empire	Grand Vizier	Constantinople	Ottoman Empire	Illness – tuberculosis
Johan Rudolph Thorbecke	1872	Netherlands	Prime Minister	The Hague	Netherlands	Illness – cold
Benito Juárez		Mexico	President	Mexico City	Mexico	Myocardial infarction
José Balta		Peru	President	Lima	Peru	Assassination – shooting
Tomás Gutiérrez		Peru	President	Lima	Peru	Assassination – lynching
Milivoje Blaznavac	1873	Serbia	President of the Ministry	Belgrade	Serbia	Myocardial infarction
Adolfo Ballivián	1874	Bolivia	President	La Paz	Bolivia	Illness – stomach cancer
Barthélémy de Theux de Meylandt	1874	Belgium	Prime Minister	Heusden	Belgium
Gabriel García Moreno	1875	Ecuador	President	Quito	Ecuador	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Ahmed Esad Pasha	1875	Ottoman Empire	Grand Vizier	İzmir	Ottoman Empire	Assassination – poisoning
Juan Bautista Gill	1877	Paraguay	President	Villarrica	Paraguay	Assassination – shooting
Konstantinos Kanaris	1877	Greece	Prime Minister	Athens	Greece	Myocardial infarction and hemiplegia
Francisco Linares Alcántara	1878	Venezuela	President	La Guaira	Venezuela	Illness – bronchial disorder
Johann Jakob Scherer	1878	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland	Illness – appendicitis
Tēvita ʻUnga	1879	Tonga	Premier	Auckland	New Zealand	Illness – liver disease
Cándido Bareiro	1880	Paraguay	President	Asunción	Paraguay	Stroke
Fridolin Anderwert	1880	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland	Suicide – gunshot
James A. Garfield	1881	United States	President	Elberon	United States	Assassination – shooting and medical ineptitude
Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez	1882	Costa Rica	President	Alajuela	Costa Rica	Illness – tuberculosis
Próspero Fernández Oreamuno	1885	Costa Rica	President	Atenas	Costa Rica
Justo Rufino Barrios		Guatemala	President	Chalchuapa	El Salvador	Killed in battle
Ranodip Singh Kunwar		Nepal	Prime Minister	Kathmandu	Nepal	Assassination
Francisco Javier Zaldúa		Colombia	President	Bogotá	Colombia
Agostino Depretis	1887	Italy	Prime Minister	Stradella	Italy	Illness – gout
Wilhelm Hertenstein	1888	Switzerland	President of the Confederation	Bern	Switzerland	Illness and complications following surgery
John A. Macdonald	1891	Canada	Prime Minister	Ottawa	Canada	Stroke
John Ballance	1893	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Wellington	New Zealand	Intestinal disease and complications following surgery

· 1900–1949

Name	Year	Country	Title	Place of death		Cause of death
Federico Errázuriz Echaurren	1901	Chile	President	Valparaíso	Chile	Illness – cerebral thrombosis
William McKinley		United States	President	Buffalo	United States	Assassination – shooting
Halil Rifat Pasha		Ottoman Empire	Grand Vizier	Constantinople	Ottoman Empire
Ramon Riu i Cabanes		Andorra	Co-Prince	La Seu d'Urgell	Spain
Walter Hauser	1902	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland	Stroke
Dimitrije Cincar-Marković	1903	Serbia	President of the Ministry	Belgrade	Serbia	Assassination
Manuel Candamo	1904	Peru	President	Arequipa	Peru	Heart attack
Theodoros Diligiannis	1905	Greece	Prime Minister	Athens	Greece	Assassination – stabbing
Manuel Quintana	1906	Argentina	President	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Illness – pneumonia
Richard Seddon	1906	New Zealand	Prime Minister	At sea		Heart attack
Dimitar Petkov	1907	Bulgaria	Prime Minister	Sofia	Bulgaria	Assassination – shooting
Ali-Asghar Atabak		Iran	Prime Minister	Tehran	Iran	Assassination – shooting
Jules de Trooz		Belgium	Cabinet Chief	Brussels	Belgium
Afonso Pena	1909	Brazil	President	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Illness – pneumonia
José Domingo de Obaldía	1910	Panama	President	Panama City	Panama
Boutros Ghali		Egypt	Prime Minister	Cairo	Egypt	Assassination – shooting
Pedro Montt		Chile	President	Bremen	German Empire	Stroke
Elías Fernández Albano		Chile	Acting President	Santiago	Chile	Illness – cold
Ernst Brenner	1911	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Menton	France	Stroke
Pyotr Stolypin		Russian Empire	Prime Minister	Kiev	Russian Empire	Assassination – shooting
Ramón Cáceres		Dominican Republic	President	Santo Domingo	Dominican Republic	Assassination – shooting
Emilio Estrada Carmona		Ecuador	President	Guayaquil	Ecuador	Heart attack
Adolf Deucher	1912	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland	Illness
Cincinnatus Leconte		Haiti	President	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	Accident – explosion
José Canalejas		Spain	Prime Minister	Madrid	Spain	Assassination – shooting
Manuel Enrique Araujo	1913	El Salvador	President	San Salvador	El Salvador	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Tancrède Auguste		Haiti	President	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	Illness – anemia
Mahmud Shevket Pasha		Ottoman Empire	Grand Vizier	Istanbul	Ottoman Empire	Assassination – shooting
Carl von In der Maur		Liechtenstein	State Administrator	Vaduz	Liechtenstein	Stroke
Roque Sáenz Peña	1914	Argentina	President	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Illness
Vilbrun Guillaume Sam	1915	Haiti	President	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	Assassination – beating
Paul Eyschen	1915	Luxembourg	Prime Minister	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Illness – heart and kidney disease
Yuan Shikai	1916	China	President	Beijing	China	Illness – uraemia
Karl von Stürgkh	1916	Austria-Hungary	Minister-President of Cisleithania	Vienna	Austria-Hungary	Assassination – shooting
Sidónio Pais	1918	Portugal	President	Lisbon	Portugal	Assassination – shooting
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves	1919	Brazil	President-elect	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Illness – Spanish flu
Yakov Sverdlov		Russian SFSR	Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee	Moscow	Russian SFSR	Illness – Spanish flu or typhus
Manuel Franco		Paraguay	President	Asunción	Paraguay	Cardiac arrest
Louis Botha		South Africa	Prime Minister	Pretoria	South Africa	Illness – Spanish flu
Eduard Müller		Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland
Alexander Kolchak	1920	Russian State	Supreme Ruler	Irkutsk	Russian State	Execution – shooting
Venustiano Carranza		Mexico	President	Tlaxcalantongo	Mexico	Assassination – shooting
António Maria Baptista		Portugal	Prime Minister	Lisbon	Portugal	Stroke or apoplexy
Eduardo Dato	1921	Spain	Prime Minister	Madrid	Spain	Assassination – shooting
António Granjo		Portugal	Prime Minister	Lisbon	Portugal	Assassination – shooting
Hara Takashi		Japan	Prime Minister	Tokyo	Japan	Assassination – stabbing
Arthur Griffith	1922	Ireland	President of Dáil Éireann	Dublin	Ireland	Illness – cerebral haemorrhage
Michael Collins		Ireland	Chairman of the Provisional Government	Béal na Bláth	Ireland	Assassination – shooting
Gabriel Narutowicz		Poland	President	Warsaw	Poland	Assassination – shooting

· 1950–1999

Name	Year	Country	Title	Place of death		Cause of death
Vasil Kolarov	1950	Bulgaria	Prime Minister	Sofia	Bulgaria	Illness
Víctor Manuel Román y Reyes		Nicaragua	President	Philadelphia	United States	Complications following stomach cancer surgery
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud		Venezuela	President	Caracas	Venezuela	Assassination – lynching
Enrico Mizzi		Malta	Prime Minister	Valletta	Malta
Karl Renner		Austria	President	Vienna	Austria	Stroke
Óscar Carmona	1951	Portugal	President	Lisbon	Portugal	Illness – bronchopneumonia
Haj Ali Razmara		Iran	Prime Minister	Tehran	Iran	Assassination – shooting
Liaquat Ali Khan		Pakistan	Prime Minister	Rawalpindi	Pakistan	Assassination – shooting
Sveinn Björnsson	1952	Iceland	President	Reykjavík	Iceland	Illness – heart disease
Khorloogiin Choibalsan		Mongolia	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Moscow	Soviet Union	Illness – kidney cancer
D. S. Senanayake		Ceylon	Prime Minister	Colombo	Ceylon	Stroke
Chaim Weizmann		Israel	President	Rehovot	Israel	Illness – respiratory inflammation
Adriaan Alberga		Surinam	Prime Minister	Paramaribo	Surinam
Joseph Stalin	1953	Soviet Union	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Moscow	Soviet Union	Illness – cerebral haemorrhage
Klement Gottwald		Czechoslovakia	President	Prague	Czechoslovakia	Illness – pneumonia
Gonchigiin Bumtsend		Mongolia	Chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural	Ulaanbaatar	Mongolia
Pierre Dupong		Luxembourg	Prime Minister	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Heart attack
Getúlio Vargas	1954	Brazil	President	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Suicide – gunshot
José Antonio Remón Cantera	1955	Panama	President	Panama City	Panama	Assassination – shooting
Hans Hedtoft		Denmark	Prime Minister	Stockholm	Sweden	Heart attack
Alexandros Papagos		Greece	Prime Minister	Athens	Greece	Illness – lung haemorrhage and heart failure
Bolesław Bierut	1956	Poland	General Secretary of the United Workers' Party	Moscow	Soviet Union	Heart attack
Anastasio Somoza García	1956	Nicaragua	President	Ancón	Panama	Complications from gunshot wound
Theodor Körner	1957	Austria	President	Vienna	Austria	Heart attack
Ramón Magsaysay		Philippines	President	Balamban	Philippines	Accident – plane crash
Carlos Castillo Armas		Guatemala	President	Guatemala City	Guatemala	Assassination – shooting
Antonín Zápotocký		Czechoslovakia	President	Prague	Czechoslovakia	Heart attack
Petru Groza	1958	Romania	President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly	Bucharest	Romania	Complications following stomach surgery
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom		South Africa	Prime Minister	Cape Town	South Africa	Illness – heart disease
Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly		Upper Volta	President of the Government Council	Paris	France	Illness
Markus Feldmann		Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Bern	Switzerland	Illness – heart failure
Georgi Damyanov		Bulgaria	Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly	Sofia	Bulgaria
Pierre Frieden	1959	Luxembourg	Prime Minister	Zürich	Switzerland
Barthélemy Boganda		Central African Republic	Prime Minister	Boda	Central African Republic	Accident – plane crash
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike		Ceylon	Prime Minister	Colombo	Ceylon	Assassination – shooting
Ernest George Jansen		South Africa	Governor-General	Pretoria	South Africa	Illness – pneumonia
H. C. Hansen	1960	Denmark	Prime Minister	Copenhagen	Denmark	Illness – cancer
Hazza' al-Majali		Jordan	Prime Minister	Amman	Jordan	Assassination – bombing
Wilhelm Pieck		German Democratic Republic	President	Berlin	German Democratic Republic	Heart attack
Abebe Aregai		Ethiopia	Prime Minister	Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	Assassination – shooting
William Morrison	1961	Australia	Governor-General	Canberra	Australia	Illness – pulmonary embolism
Rafael Trujillo		Dominican Republic	Generalissimo	Ciudad Trujillo	Dominican Republic	Assassination – shooting
Nicola Canali		Vatican City/Holy See	President of the Governorate & President of the Pontifical Commission	Vatican City/Holy See		Illness – pneumonia
Louis Rwagasore		Burundi	Prime Minister	Bujumbura	Burundi	Assassination – shooting
Saftar Jafarov		Azerbaijan SSR	Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet	Baku	Soviet Union	Illness – cardiovascular disease
Sylvanus Olympio	1963	Togo	President	Lomé	Togo	Assassination – shooting
Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole		Western Samoa	Head of State (O le Ao o le Malo)	Apia	Western Samoa	Illness
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi		Israel	President	Jerusalem	Israel	Illness – cancer
Ngo Dinh Diem		South Vietnam	President	Saigon	South Vietnam	Assassination – shooting

· 2000–present

Name	Year	Country	Title	Place of death		Cause of death
Hafez al-Assad	2000	Syria	President	Damascus	Syria	Heart attack
Rosie Douglas		Dominica	Prime Minister	Portsmouth	Dominica	Heart attack
Ionatana Ionatana		Tuvalu	Prime Minister	Funafuti	Tuvalu	Heart attack
Laurent-Désiré Kabila	2001	Democratic Republic of the Congo	President	Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of Congo	Assassination – shooting
Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal	2002	Somaliland	President	Pretoria	South Africa	Complications following surgery
Charles Antrobus	2002	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Governor-General	Toronto	Canada	Illness
Bernard Dowiyogo	2003	Nauru	President	Washington, D.C.	United States	Complications following heart surgery
Zoran Đinđić	2003	Serbia and Montenegro	Prime Minister	Belgrade	Serbia and Montenegro	Assassination – shooting
Pierre Charles	2004	Dominica	Prime Minister	Roseau	Dominica	Heart attack
Boris Trajkovski		Macedonia	President	Berkovići	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Accident – plane crash
Ezzedine Salim		Iraq	President of the Governing Council	Baghdad	Iraq	Assassination – car bomb
Thomas Klestil		Austria	President	Vienna	Austria	Heart attack or illness – heart failure
Yasser Arafat		Palestine	President	Paris	France	Disputed
Zurab Zhvania	2005	Georgia	Prime Minister	Tbilisi	Georgia	Accident – poisoning
Gnassingbé Eyadéma	2005	Togo	President	Near Tunis	Tunisia	Heart attack
Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum	2006	United Arab Emirates	Prime Minister	Gold Coast	Australia	Heart attack
Ibrahim Rugova		Kosovo	President	Pristina	Kosovo	Illness – lung cancer
Saparmurat Niyazov		Turkmenistan	President	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	Illness – heart failure
Pascal Yoadimnadji	2007	Chad	Prime Minister	Paris	France	Illness – brain haemorrhage
Andranik Margaryan		Armenia	Prime Minister	Yerevan	Armenia	Heart attack
Malietoa Tanumafili II		Samoa	Head of State (O le Ao o le Malo)	Apia	Samoa	Illness – pneumonia
John Compton		Saint Lucia	Prime Minister	Castries	Saint Lucia	Stroke
Soe Win		Burma	Prime Minister	Beijing	China	Illness – leukemia
Levy Mwanawasa	2008	Zambia	President	Paris	France	Stroke
Lansana Conté	2008	Guinea	President	Conakry	Guinea	Illness
João Bernardo Vieira	2009	Guinea-Bissau	President	Bissau	Guinea-Bissau	Assassination – shooting
Omar Bongo	2009	Gabon	President	Barcelona	Spain	Heart attack
Lech Kaczyński	2010	Poland	President	Near Smolensk	Russia	Accident – plane crash
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua		Nigeria	President	Abuja	Nigeria	Illness – pericarditis
David Thompson		Barbados	Prime Minister	Saint Philip	Barbados	Illness – pancreatic cancer
Sergey Bagapsh	2011	Abkhazia	President	Moscow	Russia	Illness – heart failure
Muammar Gaddafi		Libya	Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution	Sirte	Libya	Assassination – shooting
Kim Jong Il		North Korea	General Secretary of the Workers' Party	Pyongyang	North Korea	Heart attack
Malam Bacai Sanhá	2012	Guinea-Bissau	President	Paris	France	Illness
Bingu wa Mutharika		Malawi	President	Lilongwe	Malawi	Heart attack
John Atta Mills		Ghana	President	Accra	Ghana	Illness – intracerebral hemorrhage
Meles Zenawi		Ethiopia	Prime Minister	Brussels	Belgium	Illness
Hugo Chávez	2013	Venezuela	President	Caracas	Venezuela	Respiratory failure
Zillur Rahman	2013	Bangladesh	President	Singapore		Illness – lung infection
Michael Sata	2014	Zambia	President	London	United Kingdom	Illness
Mohamed Abdelaziz	2016	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	Secretary General of the Polisario FrontPresident	Tindouf	Algeria	Illness – lung cancer
Islam Karimov	2016	Uzbekistan	President	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	Illness – multiple organ failure
Michael Ogio	2017	Papua New Guinea	Governor-General	Port Moresby	Papua New Guinea	Illness – multiple organ failure
Baldwin Lonsdale	2017	Vanuatu	President	Port Vila	Vanuatu	Heart attack
Alexander Zakharchenko	2018	Donetsk People's Republic	Head of the Republic and Prime Minister	Donetsk	Donetsk People's Republic/ Ukraine	Assassination – bombing
Gennadi Gagulia		Abkhazia	Prime Minister	Miusera	Abkhazia/ Georgia	Accident – car crash
Trần Đại Quang		Vietnam	President	Hanoi	Vietnam	Illness – viral disease
Beji Caid Essebsi	2019	Tunisia	President	Tunis	Tunisia	Illness
ʻAkilisi Pōhiva	2019	Tonga	Prime Minister	Auckland	New Zealand	Illness – pneumonia