On this day in 1901, President William McKinley was shot by socialist-anarchist Leon Czolgosz during a public reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, setting in motion a chain of events that would change the course of America.
Czolgosz, influenced by radical anarchist writings and figures such as Emma Goldman, viewed political leaders as oppressors. On Sept. 6, he approached McKinley and concealed a revolver in a handkerchief, firing two shots at close range, hitting the president in the abdomen. The president initially survived the attack, but he succumbed to his wounds after eight painful days, dying on Sept. 14.
Following McKinley’s death, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency.
Czolgosz was apprehended immediately, confessed to the crime without showing remorse, and declared he acted in service of the anarchist cause. He was quickly tried, convicted, and executed by electric chair on Oct. 29, 1901, at Auburn Prison in New York.
The assassination shocked the nation and heightened fears of anarchist violence. It prompted tighter security measures for public officials and influenced the development of anti-anarchist legislation and stricter immigration controls.
McKinley became the third US president to be assassinated, joining the ranks of Abraham Lincoln, who was shot by pro-Confederate radical John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and James A. Garfield, shot by Charles J. Guiteau, who died on September 19, 1881, after lingering for 80 days following the attack. All three were Republicans targeted by radicals of varying ideologies. Only one Democrat president has been assassinate — John F. Kennedy in 1963.
McKinley was the last president to have served in the Union Army during the Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man and end it as a brevet major. He inherited a depressed economy, advocated for the gold standard, and raised tariffs to protect American manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition. He was also commander-in-chief during the Spanish-American War.
Mount McKinley bears his name as a lasting tribute to his legacy.
In 2015, the Obama Administration killed that name and officially named it Denali, the moniker used by some Alaska Native tribes historically. As one of his first acts upon returning to the presidency in 2025, President Donald Trump restored the name Mount McKinley in federal usage as a tribute to the president, and honoring his achievements and tragic and painful end to his life.
Trump, too, was the target of leftist would-be assassins, surviving two attempts on his life in 2024.
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Interesting article- especially in the sharp similarities to our present politics. And thanks, Suzanne, for all you do!
No one from Alaska cares about McKinley and we don’t call Denali Mt McKinley. You immediately know someone is an outsider if they say Mt McKinley. Trump can change whatever he wants on paper, true Alaskans won’t be swayed.