1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1901, President William McKinley was shaking hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, when a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz approached him and fired two shots into his chest. The president rose slightly on his toes before collapsing forward, saying, “be careful how you tell my wife.” Czolgosz was wrestled to the ground by the president’s bodyguards but McKinley, still conscious, told the guards not to hurt his assailant. Other presidential attendants rushed McKinley to the hospital where they found two bullet wounds. One bullet had superficially punctured his sternum and the other had dangerously entered his abdomen. He was rushed into surgery and seemed to be on the mend by Sept. 12, but he died two days later from gangrene that had gone undetected in the internal wound. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was immediately sworn in as president.
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