William McKinley

William McKinley, born January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio, and died September 14, 1901, served as the twenty-fifth President of the United States from 1897 until his death in 1901. His administration led the country through the Spanish-American War of 1898, which ended with the United States acquiring the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain and establishing Cuba as an independent protectorate, marking the country's emergence as an overseas colonial power. On September 6, 1901, he was shot by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and died of his wounds eight days later, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt.