U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated in September 1901 after being shot twice while greeting members of the public at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
McKinley, who was six months into his second term, was attending a public reception at the Temple of Music on September 6.
He was shaking hands with visitors when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, approached him in the reception line and fired two shots. One bullet grazed the president, while the other entered his abdomen.
Czolgosz had arrived at the exposition earlier that day and positioned himself among the crowd waiting to meet the president.
He had concealed the revolver in his pocket and covered his hand with a handkerchief. Security personnel had been deployed around McKinley, but the president had repeatedly resisted tighter protection because he enjoyed interacting directly with the public.
His secretary, George B. Cortelyou, had warned against the public reception because of security concerns, but McKinley insisted that it go ahead.
William McKinley. PHOTO/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
After the shooting, McKinley was taken for medical treatment and initially appeared to be recovering. However, his condition deteriorated about a week later as his wounds became gangrenous. He died at 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901.
He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Czolgosz was arrested and later convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.
McKinley became the third U.S. president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.
The assassination also led to changes in presidential security, with Congress later formally assigning the U.S. Secret Service responsibility for protecting the president.
