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The White House has been the scene of a number of attacks over the years from radical extremists to lovestruck loners and people with mental issues. Here are some of the more famous assaults: • Nov. 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists shot and killed White House police officer Leslie Coffelt at the nearby Blair House. Coffelt, a former D.C. police officer, fired back and killed one gunman. The other shooter was captured.
• Feb. 17, 1974, U.S. Army Pvt. Robert K. Preston stole a military helicopter from Fort Meade, and hovered over the White House for about six minutes before landing on the South Lawn, near the West Wing. Preston was upset because he was kicked out of Army helicopter training, and staged the incident to show his skill as a pilot.
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• Feb. 22, 1974, Samuel Byck shot and killed two people at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in an attempt to hijack and fly a commercial airliner into the White House to kill President Nixon. He was killed on the runway.
• Dec. 25, 1974, Marshall Fields strapped flares to his body and crashed his Chevrolet Impala through the White House’s northwest gate. He surrendered after a four-hour standoff.
• Sept. 12, 1994, Frank Eugene Corder, 38, of Aberdeen, Md., killed himself by flying a stolen Cessna into the White House, two stories below President Clinton’s bedroom. The family said he was distraught after a recent breakup with his third wife.
• Oct. 29, 1994, Francisco Martin Duran, 26, pulled a SKS semiautomatic rifle from his trench coat and fired 29 rounds at the White House before being restrained.
