It should have been a grand day at the Pan-American Exhibition in
Buffalo, New York, in 1901. President William McKinley shook hands with
well-wishers who had lined up to meet their popular leader. But one man
stepped forward with a pistol hidden under a handkerchief wrapped around
his right hand. Two shots rang out, both striking McKinley in the
abdomen. As the nation puzzled over the shooter and the ease of his
crime, the president suffered for days before finally dying. Vice
President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as president, becoming the
youngest person ever to hold the job. The country and the world would
never be the same.