Suicide/Firearm

Suicide by Firearm

Antoine Wiertz: The Suicide, 1854

History

Téwodros II's (Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 to 1868) suicide at Meqdela. Date 19th century

Tewodros II also known as Theodore II, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 to 1868. Due to encroachment of Muslim powers on his empire, he wrote the Christian monarch, Queen Victoria asking for British assistance in the region. After a series of mishaps that resulted in the hostilization of the British and general loss of his power in the region. The British attempted to capture him and in Easter Monday, April 13, 1868, he committed suicide as the British troops stormed the citadel of Magdala, his last reduct, that had been shelled, killing most of his supporters. Ironically he used a pistol that Queen Victoria had sent him as a gift.

Suicides by firearm in the United States, by gender and age, 1999–2005. Data from the NCHS, CDC

Two Japanese Imperial Marines who committed suicide by shooting themselves rather than surrender to U.S. Marines, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands in the Pacific., 1945