William McKinley was born in 1901.
William McKinley . 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 . With the aid of his close adviser Mark Hanna , he secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 , amid a deep economic depression . However , his legacy was quickly cut short when he was shot on September 6 , 1901 by Leon Czolgosz , a second-generation Polish-American with anarchist leanings ; McKinley died eight days later , and was succeeded by his Vice President Theodore Roosevelt .