page_title: September 1901
section_title: September 6, 1901 (Friday)
hierarchical_section_title: September 1901 / September 6, 1901 (Friday)
caption_attribution_description: One of the last photographs of the late President McKinley. Taken as he was ascending the steps of the Temple of Music, September 6, 1901.
context_page_description: The following events occurred in September 1901:
context_section_description: U.S. President William McKinley was shot and fatally wounded at 4:12 in the afternoon by Leon Czolgosz, and American anarchist who had been standing in line at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley would die from complications of his abdominal injury eight days later.  Earlier in the day, he and Mrs. McKinley rode the inclined train to Niagara Falls (where he had an aide mark the midway point on the International Bridge so that he wouldn't inadvertently cross from the United States into Canada), and he told of his plans to spend the following week in Cleveland with his friend, Senator Mark Hanna.  At 3:30 the train brought him back to the Exposition fairgrounds, and he and his party rode by carriage to the Temple of Music for the scheduled public reception where 20,000 people were waiting in line to shake his hand.  His Secret Service guard, Officer Ireland, stood opposite from McKinley instead of by his side.  As recounted later, the last people whom McKinley met were a woman and a little girl, "a tall, powerful negro" named Jim Parker, and a young man whose right hand was bound up tight in a handkerchief, Czolgosz.  As McKinley extended his hand, Czolgosz fired two shots from a gun concealed beneath the bandage.  James Benjamin Parker knocked Czolgosz down before a third shot could be fired and was initially applauded for saving the President's life. The President was transported to the first-aid station at the Exposition grounds 23 minutes after being shot, and at 5:30, the best available surgeon, obstetrician Dr. Matthew D. Mann of the University of Buffalo, began operating in poor lighting, but the bullet (which had passed through the walls of the President's stomach) could not be located.  Dr. Mann patched the hole in McKinley's stomach, but stitched up the President without draining the wound.  After the President awoke from surgery, he was transported to the home of John Milburn, the President of the Pan-American Exposition.
  McKinley's personal secretary, George B. Cortelyou, had urged McKinley to cancel the event at the Temple of Music and had even removed it twice from the announced agenda, restoring it each time at the insistence of the President.
  Vice President Roosevelt was at the home of former Vermont Governor Nelson W. Fisk on Isle La Motte, where a luncheon was being held for the Vermont Fish and Game League.  Fisk received a phone call and brought the Vice President inside to hear the news from Buffalo.
  Early news bulletins reported that President McKinley had died at the scene, including one telegraphed at 4:30 p.m. local time that said, "The president died shortly after the shooting.  Particulars later."    and another that reported that "He died at 4:05 o'clock at the service hospital building."  
  Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II ordered the Muslim terrorists to release American missionary Ellen Stone, who had been kidnapped on August 21, but there was no compliance.
caption: McKinley entering Temple of Music
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