Russian Tsar Nicholas II was assassinated in 1918.

The tsar, his wife, and their five children were shot to death in a basement by Bolsheviks, a revolutionary socialist group, who had been holding them hostage for months.

It was a brutal and poorly performed execution, in part because the children had diamonds sewn into their clothes to keep them hidden. But the gems acted like bullet-proof vests, prolonging the execution.

The assassination of the Romanovs meant the end of the royal line for Russia. The country went from being ruled by imperial tsars to being a communist state, led by Joseph Stalin.