The Jonestown massacre was the mass death of more than 900 people associated with Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. After ordering the assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and others at a nearby airstrip, Jim Jones activated a suicide plan and commanded his followers to drink cyanide-adulterated punch. Some people were injected or poisoned involuntarily, and Jones died from a gunshot wound that was possibly self-inflicted.
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