(b. January 29, 1843; d. September 14, 1901) Twenty-fifth president of the United States (1897–1901).

William McKinley served fourteen years in the House of Representatives and two terms as Governor of Ohio before being elected twenty-fifth president of the United States in 1896. In 1901 he was shot by an anarchist and died from his wounds eight days later.

During his term in office McKinley oversaw the transformation of the United States into both a world and an imperial power. He took office in March 1897 a firm believer in peaceful American overseas expansion. The two-year-old Cuban revolution against Spain, however, complicated his hope of achieving this. Since the outbreak of fighting in 1895, congressional and public opinion in support of the revolution had pressed his predecessor Grover Cleveland to take decisive action; and upon becoming president McKinley too felt this pressure. He initially asked the Spanish government to moderate its often brutal tactics for...