Sunday 29th January 1843
Born on this day, William McKinley, the 25th American president and the first to ride in an automobile. McKinley served as President from 1897 to 1901, a time when the American automotive industry was in its infancy. During his presidency, McKinley (who died from an assassin’s bullet in September 1901) took a drive in a Stanley, a steam-engine-powered auto built in the late 1890s by the Stanley brothers.