William McKinley, the 25th American president, was born in 1843 and served in the Civil War as a young man, ending the war with the rank of major. At the end of the war in 1865, he began studying for a career in law, and soon opened his own office in his home state of Ohio. Gradually he became interested in politics, and was first elected to Congress in 1877 for the Republican Party. A skilled politician, he later he became governor of Ohio, and in 1896 he managed to gain the support of influential Republican party leaders, who nominated him as their candidate for president. Several important historical events took place while McKinley was in office, such as the Spanish-American War and the annexation of the Philippines. However, McKinley is usually remembered today because he was one of only four U.S. presidents to be assassinated. While visiting the city of Buffalo in 1901, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish-American anarchist. After the shooting, surgeons operated on the president and took out one bullet, but were unable to find the other.