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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
comeuppance:
A negative outcome which is justly deserved.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/comeuppance>
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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>
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