List of heads of state and government who died in office

This is a list of heads of state and government who died in office. In general, hereditary office holders (kings, queens, 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 and accident.

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, and the cause of death.

Prior to 1850

Name	Year	Country	Title	Cause of death
Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington	1743	Great Britain	Prime Minister
Henry Pelham	1754	Great Britain	Prime Minister
Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham	1782	Great Britain	Prime Minister	Illness – influenza
William Pitt the Younger	1806	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Illness
Spencer Perceval	1812	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
George Canning	1827	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Illness
José Tomás Ovalle	1831	Chile	Acting President	Illness – tuberculosis
Ioannis Kapodistrias	1831	Greece	Governor	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Casimir Pierre Périer	1832	France	Prime Minister	Illness – cholera
William Henry Harrison	1841	United States	President	Illness – enteric fever
Philippe Guerrier	1845	Haiti	President	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Jean-Baptiste Riché	1847	Haiti	President

1850–1899

Name	Year	Country	Title	Cause of death
Zachary Taylor	1850	United States	President	Illness – stomach disease
Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg	1852	Austria	Minister-President	Stroke
Josef Munzinger	1855	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Henri Druey	1855	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Stefano Franscini	1857	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Carl Edvard Rotwitt	1860	Denmark	Prime Minister
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour	1861	Italy	Prime Minister	Illness – malaria
Jonas Furrer	1861	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Illness – kidney disease
José Santos Guardiola	1862	Honduras	President	Assassination – shooting
Barbu Catargiu	1862	Romania	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Carlos Antonio López	1862	Paraguay	President
Abraham Lincoln	1865	United States	President	Assassination – shooting
Henry Temple, Viscount Palmerston	1865	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Illness
Marcos Paz	1868	Argentina	Interim President	Cholera
Victor Ruffy	1869	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Francisco Solano López	1870	Paraguay	President	Killed in action
Johan Rudolph Thorbecke	1872	Netherlands	Prime Minister	Illness
Benito Juárez	1872	Mexico	President	Heart attack
Adolfo Ballivián	1874	Bolivia	President	Cancer of the stomach
Barthélémy de Theux de Meylandt	1874	Belgium	Prime Minister
Gabriel García Moreno	1875	Ecuador	President	Assassination – shooting and stabbing
Juan Bautista Gill	1877	Paraguay	President	Assassination – shooting
Konstantinos Kanaris	1877	Greece	Prime Minister
Francisco Linares Alcántara	1878	Venezuela	President	Assassination – poisoning
Johann Jakob Scherer	1878	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Illness – appendicitis
Cándido Bareiro	1880	Paraguay	President	Stroke
James A. Garfield	1881	United States	President	Assassination – shooting and medical ineptitude
Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez	1882	Costa Rica	President	Illness – tuberculosis
Francisco Javier Zaldúa	1885	Colombia	President
Próspero Fernández Oreamuno	1885	Costa Rica	President
Agostino Depretis	1887	Italy	Prime Minister	Illness – gout
Wilhelm Hertenstein	1888	Switzerland	President of the Confederation	Illness
John A. Macdonald	1891	Canada	Prime Minister	Stroke
John Ballance	1893	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Intestinal disease after major surgical operation
Louis Ruchonnet	1893	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Heart attack
Remigio Morales Bermúdez	1894	Peru	President	Illness – appendicitis
Marie François Sadi Carnot	1894	France	President	Assassination – stabbing
John Sparrow David Thompson	1894	Canada	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Karl Schenk	1895	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council	Accident – struck by carriage
Joseph James Cheeseman	1896	Liberia	President
Florvil Hyppolite	1896	Haiti	President	Illness
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	1897	Spain	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Juan Idiarte Borda	1897	Uruguay	President	Assassination – shooting
José María Reina Barrios	1898	Guatemala	President	Assassination – shooting
Félix Faure	1899	France	President	Stroke
Ulises Heureaux	1899	Dominican Republic	President	Assassination

1900–1949

Name	Year	Country	Title	Cause of death
William McKinley	1901	United States	President	Assassination – shooting
Federico Errázuriz Echaurren	1901	Chile	President	Illness – cerebral thrombosis
Ramon Riu i Cabanes	1901	Andorra	Co-Prince
Walter Hauser	1902	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Manuel Candamo	1904	Peru	President	Heart attack
Theodoros Deligiannis	1905	Greece	Prime Minister	Assassination – stabbing
Manuel Quintana	1906	Argentina	President	Illness
Richard Seddon	1906	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Dimitar Petkov	1907	Bulgaria	Prime Minister	Assassination
Ali-Asghar Atabak	1907	Iran	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Jules de Trooz	1907	Belgium	Cabinet Chief
Afonso Pena	1909	Brazil	President
Pedro Montt	1910	Chile	President	Stroke
Elías Fernández Albano	1910	Chile	Acting President	Heart attack
Boutros Ghali	1910	Egypt	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Ernst Brenner	1911	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Pyotr Stolypin	1911	Russia	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Ramón Cáceres	1911	Dominican Republic	President	Assassination – shooting
Emilio Estrada Carmona	1911	Ecuador	President	Heart attack
José Canalejas	1912	Spain	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Cincinnatus Leconte	1912	Haiti	President	Accident – explosion
Adolf Deucher	1912	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Manuel Enrique Araujo	1913	El Salvador	President	Assassination – stabbing
Tancrède Auguste	1913	Haiti	President	Illness
Roque Sáenz Peña	1914	Argentina	President	Illness
Paul Eyschen	1915	Luxembourg	Prime Minister
Yuan Shikai	1916	China	President	Illness – uraemia
Sidónio Pais	1918	Portugal	President	Assassination – shooting
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves	1919	Brazil	President-elect	Illness – Spanish flu epidemic
Manuel Franco	1919	Paraguay	President	Heart attack
Eduard Müller	1919	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Yakov Sverdlov	1919	RSFSR	Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee	Illness – Spanish flu epidemic
Venustiano Carranza	1920	Mexico	President	Assassination – shooting
Hara Takashi	1921	Japan	Prime Minister	Assassination – stabbing
Giacomo De Martino	1921	Libya	Governor of Cyrenaica
Arthur Griffith	1922	Ireland	President of the Dáil	Illness – cerebral haemorrhage
Michael Collins	1922	Ireland	Chairman of the Provisional Government	Assassination – shooting
Gabriel Narutowicz	1922	Poland	President	Assassination – shooting
Warren G. Harding	1923	United States	President	Heart attack
Vladimir Lenin	1924	Soviet Union	Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars	Stroke
Friedrich Ebert	1925	Germany	President	Illness – septic shock
William Ferguson Massey	1925	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Illness – cancer
Sun Yat-sen	1925	China	Generalissimo of the National Government	Illness – gall bladder cancer
Jón Magnússon	1926	Iceland	Prime Minister
Count Katō Takaaki	1926	Japan	Prime Minister	Illness – pneumonia
Jānis Čakste	1927	Latvia	President
Peder Kolstad	1932	Norway	Prime Minister	Illness
Inukai Tsuyoshi	1932	Japan	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Paul Doumer	1932	France	President	Assassination – shooting
Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro	1933	Peru	President	Assassination – shooting
Ion G. Duca	1933	Romania	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Engelbert Dollfuss	1934	Austria	Chancellor	Assassination – shooting
Paul von Hindenburg	1934	Germany	President	Illness – lung cancer
Juan Vicente Gómez	1935	Venezuela	President
Józef Piłsudski	1935	Poland	Chief of State	Illness – liver cancer
Konstantinos Demertzis	1936	Greece	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Gyula Gömbös	1936	Hungary	Prime Minister	Illness – testicular cancer
Kemal Atatürk	1938	Turkey	President	Illness – liver cirrhosis
Joseph Lyons	1939	Australia	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Patriarch Miron	1939	Romania	Prime Minister	Illness – pneumonia
Aurelio Mosquera	1939	Ecuador	President
Armand Călinescu	1939	Romania	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Justí Guitart i Vilardebó	1940	Andorra	Co-Prince
Giuseppe Motta	1940	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Lord Tweedsmuir	1940	Canada	Governor-General	Head injury following stroke
Michael Joseph Savage	1940	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Illness – colon cancer
Kyösti Kallio	1940	Finland	President
Italo Balbo	1940	Libya	Governor-General	Killed in action
Jacinto Peynado	1940	Dominican Republic	President
José Félix Estigarribia	1940	Paraguay	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Hassan Sabry Pasha	1940	Egypt	Prime Minister
Pedro Aguirre Cerda	1941	Chile	President	Illness – tuberculosis
Ioannis Metaxas	1941	Greece	Prime Minister	Illness – toxaemia
Alexandros Koryzis	1941	Greece	Prime Minister	Suicide
Count Pál Teleki	1941	Hungary	Prime Minister	Suicide
Thorvald Stauning	1942	Denmark	Prime Minister
Lin Sen	1943	Republic of China	Chairman of the National Government	Stroke
Władysław Sikorski	1943	Poland	Prime Minister	Accident – plane crashed into sea
Manuel L. Quezon	1944	Philippines	President	Illness – tuberculosis
Wang Jingwei	1944	Republic of China	Chairman of the National Government (at Nanjing)
Ahmad Mahir Pasha	1945	Egypt	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
John Curtin	1945	Australia	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Franklin D. Roosevelt	1945	United States	President	Illness – cerebral haemorrhage
Benito Mussolini	1945	Italy	Duce	Execution by firing squad
Adolf Hitler	1945	Germany	Führer	Suicide
Joseph Goebbels	1945	Germany	Chancellor	Suicide
Per Albin Hansson	1946	Sweden	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Juan Antonio Ríos	1946	Chile	President	Illness – cancer
Gualberto Villarroel	1946	Bolivia	President	Assassination – shooting
Nguyen Van Thinh	1946	Cochinchina	President of the Provisional Government	Suicide
Aung San	1947	Burma	Premier	Assassination
Tomás Berreta	1947	Uruguay	President	Illness – prostate cancer
Manuel Roxas	1948	Philippines	President	Heart attack
Muhammad Ali Jinnah	1948	Pakistan	Governor-General	Illness – tuberculosis
Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha	1948	Egypt	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Georgi Dimitrov	1949	Bulgaria	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Illness
Themistoklis Sophoulis	1949	Greece	Prime Minister
Domingo Díaz Arosemena	1949	Panama	President	Heart attack
Husni al-Za'im	1949	Syria	President	Execution by firing squad
Muhsin al-Barazi	1949	Syria	Prime Minister	Execution by firing squad

1950–1999

Name	Year	Country	Title	Cause of death
Vasil Kolarov	1950	Bulgaria	Prime Minister
Enrico Mizzi	1950	Malta	Prime Minister
Víctor Manuel Román y Reyes	1950	Nicaragua	President	Heart attack
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud	1950	Venezuela	President	Assassination
Karl Renner	1950	Austria	President	Stroke
Óscar Carmona	1951	Portugal	President
Prince Rangsit Prayurasakdi	1951	Thailand	Regent	Heart attack
Haj Ali Razmara	1951	Iran	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Liaquat Ali Khan	1951	Pakistan	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
D. S. Senanayake	1952	Ceylon	Prime Minister	Accident – fell off horse
Khorloogiin Choibalsan	1952	Mongolia	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Illness – kidney cancer
Sveinn Björnsson	1952	Iceland	President	Illness
Chaim Weizmann	1952	Israel	President	Illness
Adrian Alberga	1952	Suriname	Prime Minister
Pierre Dupong	1953	Luxembourg	Prime Minister
Joseph Stalin	1953	Soviet Union	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Illness – cerebral haemorrhage
Klement Gottwald	1953	Czechoslovakia	President	Heart attack
Gonchigiin Bumtsend	1953	Mongolia	Chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural (head of state)
Getúlio Vargas	1954	Brazil	President	Suicide
José Antonio Remón Cantera	1955	Panama	President	Assassination – shooting
Hans Hedtoft	1955	Denmark	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Alexandros Papagos	1955	Greece	Prime Minister	Illness – lung haemorrhage
Anastasio Somoza García	1956	Nicaragua	President	Assassination – shooting
Bolesław Bierut	1956	Poland	General Secretary of the United Workers' Party (de facto leader)
Theodor Körner	1957	Austria	President	Stroke
Antonín Zápotocký	1957	Czechoslovakia	President
Carlos Castillo Armas	1957	Guatemala	President	Assassination – shooting
Ramón Magsaysay	1957	Philippines	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly	1958	Upper Volta	President of the Government Council
Barthélemy Boganda	1958	Central African Republic	Prime Minister	Accident – plane exploded and crashed on ground
Petru Groza	1958	Romania	President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly (head of state)	Illness – stomach complications
Markus Feldmann	1958	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Georgi Damyanov	1958	Bulgaria	Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly (head of state)
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom	1958	South Africa	Prime Minister	Illness – cancer
Ernest George Jansen	1959	South Africa	Governor-General
Pierre Frieden	1959	Luxembourg	Prime Minister
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike	1959	Ceylon	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Hans Christian Hansen	1960	Denmark	Prime Minister	Illness – cancer
Wilhelm Pieck	1960	East Germany	President	Stroke
Hazza' al-Majali	1960	Jordan	Prime Minister	Assassination – bombing
Abebe Aregai	1960	Ethiopia	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Prince Louis Rwagasore	1961	Rwanda	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Cardinal Nicola Canali	1961	Vatican City	President of the Governorate & President of the Pontifical Commission	Illness – pneumonia
William Morrison, Viscount Dunrossil	1961	Australia	Governor-General	Illness – pulmonary embolism
Rafael Trujillo	1961	Dominican Republic	de facto leader	Assassination – shooting
Sylvanus Olympio	1963	Togo	President	Assassination – shooting
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi	1963	Israel	President
John F. Kennedy	1963	United States	President	Assassination – shooting
Sarit Thanarat	1963	Thailand	Prime Minister	Illness – liver failure
Ngo Dinh Diem	1963	South Vietnam	President	Assassination – shooting
Dimitar Ganev	1964	Bulgaria	Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly (head of state)
Jigme Palden Dorji	1964	Bhutan	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Otto Grotewohl	1964	East Germany	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Illness – brain haemorrhage
Sir Milton Margai	1964	Sierra Leone	Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru	1964	India	Prime Minister	Stroke
Aleksander Zawadzki	1964	Poland	Chairman of the Council of State (head of state)	Illness – cancer
Luis Giannattasio	1965	Uruguay	President
Hassan Ali Mansur	1965	Iran	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Pierre Ngendandumwe	1965	Burundi	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej	1965	Romania	President of the State Council (head of state)	Illness – lung cancer
Adolf Schärf	1965	Austria	President
Abdul Salam Arif	1966	Iraq	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Chris Soumokil	1966	South Maluku (unrecognised state)	President	Execution by firing squad
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa	1966	Nigeria	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Lal Bahadur Shastri	1966	India	Prime Minister	Assassination - Poison
Hendrik Verwoerd	1966	South Africa	Prime Minister	Assassination – stabbing
René Schick	1966	Nicaragua	President	Heart attack
Óscar Diego Gestido	1967	Uruguay	President	Heart attack
Georges Vanier	1967	Canada	Governor General	Illness
Léon M'ba	1967	Gabon	President	Illness – cancer
Sir Donald Burns Sangster	1967	Jamaica	Prime Minister	Illness – subarachnoid haemorrhage
Harold Holt	1967	Australia	Prime Minister	Drowning
Peter Mohr Dam	1968	Faroe Islands	Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol	1969	Israel	Prime Minister	Illness
Ho Chi Minh	1969	North Vietnam	Chairman of the Workers' Party (supreme leader) and President	Heart attack
Abdirashid Ali Shermarke	1969	Somalia	President	Assassination – shooting
René Barrientos	1969	Bolivia	President	Accident – helicopter crashed on ground
Zakir Husain	1969	India	President
Sir David Rose	1969	Guyana	Governor-General	Accident
Bjarni Benediktsson	1970	Iceland	Prime Minister	Accident – fire
Saïd Mohamed Cheikh	1970	Comoros	President of the Government Council	Heart attack
Yusof bin Ishak	1970	Singapore	President	Heart attack
Gamal Abdel Nasser	1970	Egypt	President and Prime Minister	Heart attack
François Duvalier	1971	Haiti	President
Wasfi al-Tal	1971	Jordan	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
William Tubman	1971	Liberia	President
Jamsrangiin Sambuu	1972	Mongolia	Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Great Khural (head of state)	Illness – cancer
Sir Leonard Williams	1972	Mauritius	Governor-General
Salvador Allende	1973	Chile	President	Suicide
Luis Carrero Blanco	1973	Spain	Prime Minister	Assassination – bombing
Richard Sharples	1973	Bermuda	Governor	Assassination – shooting
Walter Ulbricht	1973	East Germany	Chairman of the State Council (head of state)	Stroke
Erskine Hamilton Childers	1974	Ireland	President	Heart attack
Franz Jonas	1974	Austria	President
Norman Eric Kirk	1974	New Zealand	Prime Minister	Illness – pulmonary embolism
Juan Perón	1974	Argentina	President	Heart attack
Georges Pompidou	1974	France	President (also Co-Prince of Andorra)	Illness – macroglobulinemia
Chiang Kai-shek	1975	Republic of China	President	Heart attack
Long Boret	1975	Khmer Republic	Prime Minister	Execution by firing squad
Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu'u II	1975	Western Samoa	Prime Minister
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman	1975	Bangladesh	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Richard Ratsimandrava	1975	Madagascar	President	Assassination – shooting
François Tombalbaye	1975	Chad	President and Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Francisco Franco	1975	Spain	Head of State (dictator)	Illness – heart failure
Abdul Razak Hussein	1976	Malaysia	Prime Minister	Illness
Murtala Mohammed	1976	Nigeria	Head of the Federal Military Government (head of state)	Assassination – shooting
Joël Rakotomalala	1976	Madagascar	Prime Minister	Accident – helicopter crashed on ground
El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed	1976	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (unrecognised state)	President	Died in combat
Sir Arleigh Winston Scott	1976	Barbados	Governor-General
Zhou Enlai	1976	China	Premier	Illness – cancer
Mao Zedong	1976	China	Chairman of the Central Committee (de facto leader)	Heart attack
Zhu De	1976	China	Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (head of state)
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	1977	India	President	Heart attack
Tafari Benti	1977	Ethiopia	Chairman of the Provisional Military Administrative Council (head of state)	Execution by firing squad
Ibrahim al-Hamdi	1977	North Yemen	President	Assassination – shooting
Džemal Bijedić	1977	Yugoslavia	President of the Federal Executive Council (head of government)	Accident – plane crashed into mountain
Makarios III	1977	Cyprus	President	Heart attack
Marien Ngouabi	1977	Republic of Congo	President	Assassination
Mohammed Daoud Khan	1978	Afghanistan	President	Assassination – shooting
Ahmad al-Ghashmi	1978	North Yemen	President	Assassination – bombing
Houari Boumediene	1978	Algeria	President	Illness – macroglobulinemia
Francisco Mendes	1978	Guinea Bissau	Prime Minister	Accident – car crashed on road
John Wrathall	1978	Rhodesia	President	Heart attack
Salim Rubai Ali	1978	South Yemen	President	Execution
Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw	1978	Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla	Premier	Illness – prostate cancer
Nicolaas Johannes Diederichs	1978	South Africa	State President	Heart attack
Jomo Kenyatta	1978	Kenya	President	Heart attack
Botha Sigcau	1978	Transkei (unrecognised state)	President	Heart attack
Sir Milo Butler	1979	The Bahamas	Governor-General
Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot	1979	Holy See	Cardinal Secretary of State	Illness – bronchopneumonia
Agostinho Neto	1979	Angola	President	Illness - cancer and hepatitis
Mashiur Rahman	1979	Bangladesh	Chief Minister
Nur Muhammad Taraki	1979	Afghanistan	President	Assassination
Hafizullah Amin	1979	Afghanistan	Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council (head of state) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Assassination
Park Chung-hee	1979	South Korea	President	Assassination – shooting
Maphevu Dlamini	1979	Swaziland	Prime Minister
Paul Southwell	1979	Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla	Premier	Heart attack
Sir Seretse Khama	1980	Botswana	President	Illness – pancreatic cancer
Tôn Đức Thắng	1980	Vietnam	President	Illness – respiratory failure
Josip Broz Tito	1980	Yugoslavia	President	Illness – peripheral artery disease
James Alexander George Smith McCartney	1980	Turks and Caicos Islands	Chief Minister	Accident – plane crashed
Masayoshi Ōhira	1980	Japan	Prime Minister	Heart attack
William R. Tolbert, Jr.	1980	Liberia	President	Execution
Abdelhamid Sharaf	1980	Jordan	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Francisco de Sá Carneiro	1980	Portugal	Prime Minister	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Benjamin Henry Sheares	1981	Singapore	President	Illness – lung cancer
Mehmet Shehu	1981	Albania	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Suicide (disputed)
Jaime Roldós Aguilera	1981	Ecuador	President	Accident – plane crashed into mountain
Omar Torrijos	1981	Panama	de facto leader	Accident – plane crashed into mountain
Ziaur Rahman	1981	Bangladesh	President	Assassination – shooting
Eric Williams	1981	Trinidad and Tobago	Prime Minister
Anwar Sadat	1981	Egypt	President and Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Mohammad-Ali Rajai	1981	Iran	President	Assassination – bombing
Mohammad-Javad Bahonar	1981	Iran	Prime Minister	Assassination – bombing
Antonio Guzmán Fernández	1982	Dominican Republic	President	Suicide
Leonid Brezhnev	1982	Soviet Union	General Secretary of the Communist Party (de facto leader), and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state)	Heart attack
Willi Ritschard	1983	Switzerland	Member of the Federal Council
Sir Deighton Lisle Ward	1984	Barbados	Governor-General
Yuri Andropov	1984	Soviet Union	General Secretary of the Communist Party (de facto leader), and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state)	Illness – kidney failure
Edward Sokoine	1984	Tanzania	Prime Minister	Accident – car crashed on road
Chan Sy	1984	People's Republic of Kampuchea	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Heart attack
Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin	1984	Egypt	Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi	1984	India	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Ahmed Sékou Touré	1984	Guinea	President	Heart attack
Tom Adams	1985	Barbados	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Enver Hoxha	1985	Albania	First Secretary of the Party of Labour (de facto leader)	Illness
Forbes Burnham	1985	Guyana	President	Illness – throat infection
Haruo Remeliik	1985	Palau	President	Assassination – shooting
Konstantin Chernenko	1985	Soviet Union	General Secretary of the Communist Party (de facto leader), and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state)	Illness – heart failure, emphysema, and liver cirrhosis
Tancredo Neves	1985	Brazil	President-elect	Illness – diverticulitis
Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam	1985	Mauritius	Governor-General
Olof Palme	1986	Sweden	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Lê Duẩn	1986	Vietnam	General Secretary of the Communist Party (de facto leader)	Illness
Samora Machel	1986	Mozambique	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Sir Edward Youde	1986	British Hong Kong	Governor	Heart attack
Errol Barrow	1987	Barbados	Prime Minister
Rashid Karami	1987	Lebanon	Prime Minister	Assassination – bombing
Seyni Kountché	1987	Niger	President of the Supreme Military Council	Illness – brain tumour
Cedric Phatudi	1987	KaNgwane (unrecognised state)	Chief Minister
Thomas Sankara	1987	Burkina Faso	President	Assassination – shooting
Chiang Ching-kuo	1988	Republic of China	President
Patrick Mphephu	1988	Venda (unrecognised state)	President
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq	1988	Pakistan	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Lazarus Salii	1988	Palau	President	Suicide
Phạm Hùng	1988	Vietnam	Prime Minister
Herbert Blaize	1989	Grenada	Prime Minister	Illness – prostate cancer
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini	1989	Iran	Supreme Leader	Heart attack
Ahmed Abdallah	1989	Comoros	President	Assassination – shooting
René Moawad	1989	Lebanon	President	Assassination – bombing
Sir Ignatius Kilage	1989	Papua New Guinea	Governor-General
Samuel Doe	1990	Liberia	President	Execution
Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum	1990	United Arab Emirates	Prime Minister
Nasirdin Isanov	1991	Tajikistan	Prime Minister	Accident – car crashed on road
Artur Mkrtchyan	1992	Nagorno-Karabakh (unrecognised state)	Chairman of Parliament (head of state)	Assassination – shooting
Mohamed Boudiaf	1992	Algeria	Chairman of the High Council of State	Assassination – shooting
Kaysone Phomvihane	1992	Laos	President
Sir Robert Rex	1992	Niue	Premier
József Antall	1993	Hungary	Prime Minister	Illness – cancer
Ranasinghe Premadasa	1993	Sri Lanka	President	Assassination – bombing
Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau	1993	Fiji	President
Félix Houphouët-Boigny	1993	Côte d'Ivoire	President	Illness – prostate cancer
Melchior Ndadaye	1993	Burundi	President	Assassination – shooting
Turgut Özal	1993	Turkey	President	Suspected poisoning
Zhiuli Shartava	1993	Abkhazia (unrecognised state)	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Juvénal Habyarimana	1994	Rwanda	President	Assassination – plane shot down by two missiles[1]
Cyprien Ntaryamira	1994	Burundi	President
Agathe Uwilingiyimana	1994	Rwanda	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Kim Il-sung	1994	North Korea	General Secretary of the Workers' Party (supreme leader) and President	Heart attack[2]
Yitzhak Rabin	1995	Israel	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Dame Nita Barrow	1995	Barbados	Governor-General
Hamilton Lavity Stoutt	1995	British Virgin Islands	Chief Minister
Amata Kabua	1996	Marshall Islands	President	Illness
Dzhokhar Dudayev	1996	Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (unrecognised state)	President	Assassination – shooting
Cheddi Jagan	1997	Guyana	President	Heart attack
Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai	1997	Afghanistan	Prime Minister	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Sani Abacha	1998	Nigeria	Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council	Heart attack
Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim	1998	Comoros	President
Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara	1999	Niger	President	Assassination – shooting
Jumabek Ibraimov	1999	Kyrgyzstan	Prime Minister	Illness – stomach cancer
Franjo Tuđman	1999	Croatia	President	Illness – cancer
Vazgen Sargsyan	1999	Armenia	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting

2000–present

Name	Year	Country	Title	Cause of death
Hafez al-Assad	2000	Syria	President	Illness
Rosie Douglas	2000	Dominica	Prime Minister
Ionatana Ionatana	2000	Tuvalu	Prime Minister
Laurent-Désiré Kabila	2001	Democratic Republic of Congo	President	Assassination – shooting
Sir Charles Antrobus	2002	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Governor-General
Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal	2002	Somaliland (unrecognised state)	President
Bernard Dowiyogo	2003	Nauru	President	Illness – complications from diabetes
Zoran Đinđić	2003	Serbia	Prime Minister	Assassination – shooting
Yasser Arafat	2004	Palestine	President	Disputed
Pierre Charles	2004	Dominica	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Ezzedine Salim	2004	Iraq	President of the Governing Council	Assassination – bombing
Thomas Klestil	2004	Austria	President	Heart attack
Boris Trajkovski	2004	Macedonia	President	Accident – plane crashed into mountain
Gnassingbé Eyadéma	2005	Togo	President	Heart attack
Zurab Zhvania	2005	Georgia	Prime Minister	Accident – poisoning
Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum	2006	United Arab Emirates	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Ibrahim Rugova	2006	Kosovo	President	Illness – lung cancer
Pascal Yoadimnadji	2007	Chad	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Andranik Markaryan	2007	Armenia	Prime Minister	Heart attack
Sir John Compton	2007	Saint Lucia	Prime Minister	Stroke
Soe Win	2007	Burma	Prime Minister	Illness – leukaemia
Levy Mwanawasa	2008	Zambia	President	Stroke
Lansana Conté	2008	Guinea	President	Illness
Omar Bongo	2009	Gabon	President	Heart attack
João Bernardo Vieira	2009	Guinea-Bissau	President	Assassination – shooting
Lech Kaczyński	2010	Poland	President	Accident – plane crashed on ground
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua	2010	Nigeria	President	Illness – pericarditis
David Thompson	2010	Barbados	Prime Minister	Illness – pancreatic cancer
Sergey Bagapsh	2011	Abkhazia(unrecognised state)	President	Illness – complications from surgery
Muammar Gaddafi	2011	Libya	Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution	Assassination – shooting
Kim Jong-il	2011	North Korea	General Secretary of the Workers' Party (supreme leader)	Heart attack[3]
Malam Bacai Sanhá	2012	Guinea-Bissau	President	Illness
Bingu wa Mutharika	2012	Malawi	President	Heart attack
John Atta Mills	2012	Ghana	President	Stroke
Meles Zenawi	2012	Ethiopia	Prime Minister	Illness
Hugo Chávez	2013	Venezuela	President	Illness – unspecified form of cancer
Zillur Rahman	2013	Bangladesh	President	Illness – lung problems
Michael Sata	2014	Zambia	President	Illness
Mohamed Abdelaziz	2016	Western Sahara (unrecognised state)	President	Lung cancer
Islam Karimov	2016	Uzbekistan	President	Stroke
Sir Michael Ogio	2017	Papua New Guinea	Governor-General
Baldwin Lonsdale	2017	Vanuatu	President	Heart attack
Alexander Zakharchenko	2018	Donetsk People's Republic (unrecognised state)	Head of the Republic and Prime Minister	Assassination – bombing
Gennadi Gagulia	2018	Abkhazia (unrecognised state)	Prime Minister	Accident – car crashed on road
Trần Đại Quang	2018	Vietnam	President	Illness – viral infection
Beji Caid Essebsi	2019	Tunisia	President	Serious illness
ʻAkilisi Pōhiva	2019	Tonga	Prime Minister	Illness – pneumonia
Pierre Nkurunziza	2020	Burundi	President	Illness – cardiac arrest
Amadou Gon Coulibaly	2020	Ivory Coast	Prime Minister
Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa	2020	Bahrain	Prime Minister	Illness
Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini	2020	Eswatini	Prime Minister	Illness – COVID-19

See also

• List of presidents of the United States who died in office
• List of Russian governors who died in office

References