William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States. In 1901 he was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. One bullet ricocheted off a button on the president's vest; a second pierced his abdomen. McKinley died eight days later. His murder was part of a global wave of assassinations by anarchists.
The assassination led to an expansion of the Secret Service's role in presidential protection; the service had previously focused on counterfeit money. McKinley's vice-president, Theodore Roosevelt, succeeded him and began a historic presidency.
A cynic is a person searching for an honest man, with a stolen lantern.