An anarchist shoots President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and he dies eight days later. The killing leads the Secret Service to take on full-time protection of presidents.
Contested history
Consensus: Leon Czolgosz, a self-described anarchist, shot McKinley on 6 September 1901 and was tried, convicted and executed within weeks.
Czolgosz acted aloneEstablished
He was seized at the scene with the revolver, confessed, and investigators found no co-conspirators.
An organized anarchist conspiracy directed the shootingUnsupported
Emma Goldman and other anarchists were arrested but released because no evidence of a plot turned up.
Poor medical care, not the wound itself, killed McKinleyDebated
Surgeons never found the bullet and gangrene spread along its track; historians still argue over whether better care would have saved him.