On September 6, 1901, a Michigan-born man with a foreign sounding name, Leon Czolgosz (“shol-gosh”), an adherent to the anarchist cause, shot and killed President William McKinley:
McKinley was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at 4:07 p.m. on September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
The newly-developed X-ray machine was displayed at the fair, but no one thought to use it on McKinley to search for the bullet, which might have saved his life. Also, ironically, the operating room at the exposition’s emergency hospital did not have any electric lighting, even though the exteriors of many of the buildings at the extravagant exposition were covered with thousands of light bulbs. Doctors used a pan to reflect sunlight onto the operating table as they treated McKinley’s wounds.
McKinley’s doctors believed he would recover, and the President convalesced for more than a week at the home of the exposition’s director. But McKinley eventually went into shock. He died from his wounds at 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo. He was buried in Canton, Ohio. Czolgosz was later found guilty of murder and electrocuted.
McKinley’s vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, was hiking in the Adirondacks where he was sworn in as president when McKinley died.
Mission accomplished…stay the course…smoke em out…mission accomplished..etc.