(1901) President William McKinley assassinatedVisiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, half a year into his second term, US President William McKinley is shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley will at first survive, and even seem to be improving after doctors operate, but will succumb to his wounds eight days later.On September 6, 1901, William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. He was shaking hands with the public when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot him twice in the abdomen. McKinley died eight days later on September 14 of gangrene caused by the gunshot wounds. He was the third American president to have been assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.