On this day, Sept. 14, 1901
President William McKinley died after an assassination attempt a week earlier, and was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.
McKinley was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on Sept. 6, 1901, while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y.
McKinley, 58, initially appeared to be recovering from his wounds, but took a turn for the worse six days later. Czolgosz was later found guilty of murder and was executed by electric chair at New York’s Auburn Prison on Oct. 29, 1901.
McKinley was the third of four American presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James Garfield in 1881 and preceding John F. Kennedy in 1963. After McKinley’s murder Congress officially charged the United States Secret Service with the physical protection of American presidents.
