William McKinley (1843–1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his death. McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals. McKinley's administration ended with his assassination in September 1901, but his presidency began a period of over a third of a century dominated by the Republican Party. McKinley served in the Civil War and rose from private to brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity. His highly controversial 1890 McKinley Tariff, together with a Democratic redistricting effort aimed at gerrymandering him out of office led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
786:
Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid
1752:
In adopting the Gregorian calendar under the terms of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the British Empire skipped eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September 14). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(New_Style)_Act_1750
1927:
In a freak automobile accident, dancer Isadora Duncan was strangled to death in Nice, France, by her scarf after it got caught on the wheel of a car in which she was a passenger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan
1954:
In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40-kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village, exposing some 45,000 soldiers and 10,000 civilians to nuclear fallout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totskoye_range_nuclear_tests
1982:
President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel was assassinated when a bomb exploded in the Beirut headquarters of the Phalange. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachir_Gemayel
2003:
Kumba Ialá, the President of Guinea-Bissau, was deposed in a bloodless coup. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumba_Ial%C3%A1
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
comeuppance: A negative outcome which is justly deserved. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/comeuppance
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason. --Sydney J. Harris https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_J._Harris