FN M1900

The FN Browning M1900 is a single action, semi-automatic pistol designed c. 1896 by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) and produced in Belgium at the turn of the century. It was the first production handgun to use a slide.
History.
The design was presented to arms manufacturer FN Herstal in 1898, with production commencing the following year (then under the designation "Modele 1899"). In 1900, an improved design featuring primarily a shorter barrel and wider grips was introduced as the M1900. These designations were applied retroactively after FN began manufacture of other Browning pistol designs; initially the M1900 was marketed as simply the "Pistolet Browning" (Browning Pistol). Production ceased only 11 years later, with a total of about 700,000+ units having been produced.
United States President Theodore Roosevelt owned a mother of pearl-gripped M1900, which he regularly kept on his person and in his bedside drawer. It now resides in the NRA Firearms Museum.
Eugen Schauman, a Finnish nationalist activist, assassinated the Governor-General Nikolay Bobrikov (the highest Russian authority in the Grand Duchy of Finland) with a Browning pistol on June 16, 1904, in Helsinki. The act was followed by spontaneous anti-Russian celebrations in the streets of Helsinki and after the 1917 independence Schauman was considered to be a national hero of Finland.
An Jung-geun, a Korean-independence activist, assassinated the Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi with this type of gun on October 26, 1909 in Harbin railway station.
The North Korean Type 64 pistol is a copy of the M1900. Specimens examined by western authorities were marked with the date of 1964. A silenced variant was produced that featured a shortened slide to allow the threaded barrel to protrude far enough to attach the silencer.
Ammunition.
The weapon is chambered for the .32 ACP, also known as 7.65×17mm Browning SR, "SR" denotes semi-rimmed.
Synonyms.
This model is known by several names, including: