Ten fun facts about William McKinley

Fact 1
William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843 and died on September 14, 1901.

Fact 2
He served from March 4, 1897, till his assassination by Leon Czolgosz in September 1901, 6 months in his second term. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.

Fact 3
McKinley led the country to success in the Spanish–American War, elevated protective tariffs to endorse American industry, and preserved the nation on the gold standard in a refusal of inflationary proposals.

Fact 4
Though McKinley’s management was cut short with his assassination, his presidency marked the commencement of a period of supremacy by the Republican Party that continued for more than a third of a century.

Fact 5
He was the last President to have been part of the American Civil War, starting as a private in the Union Army and finishing as a brevet major.

Fact 6
His 1890 McKinley Tariff was very scandalous, which jointly with a Democratic redistricting directed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his downfall in the Democratic landslide of 1890.

Fact 7
Quick economic development marked McKinley’s presidency and he promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to guard manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and in 1900, he safeguarded the passage of the Gold Standard Act.

Fact 8
McKinley beat Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election, in a campaign fixated on imperialism, success, and free silver.

Fact 9
Historians look at McKinley’s 1896 victory as a readjusting election, in which the political impasse of the post Civil War era was succeeded by the Republican controlled Fourth Party System that started with the Progressive Era.

Fact 10
He is usually placed near the middle in the rankings of American presidents.

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