Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate U.S. president Richard Nixon, but he was stopped by police.

Samuel Joseph Byck was an American hijacker and attempted assassin. On February 22, 1974, he attempted to hijack a plane flying out of Baltimore/Washington International Airport, intending to crash into the White House in the hopes of killing President Richard Nixon. In fact, Byck killed a policeman and a pilot, but was shot and wounded by another policeman before committing suicide.

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport – also known as Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, and simply as BWI Airport – is an international airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, located 9 mi (14 km) south of downtown Baltimore and 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Washington, D.C.

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia. "The White House" is also used as a metonym to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.