In St. Petersburg, Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives the first of many assassination attempts

Dimitri Karakosov, the son of an impoverished aristocrat and a political radical, shot at Tsar Alexander II as he left the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg.  Nearby workmen foiled his attempt and the shots fired missed their mark. After several later close calls over the next decades, Alexander died at the hands of Nihilist dynamite bombers in March 1881.  (By John Osborne)