Did you know McKinley became the first president to ride in a car—a Stanley Steamer—in 1899 ? (He was initially reluctant, fearing the automobile would catch on fire, even though Freelan Stanley, inventor of the vehicle, assured it was safe. It wasn't the last time he would play passenger; during the 1901 assassination attempt, he was transported to the hospital via an electric ambulance.)

Did you know he is known as "Coffee Bill " a hero because during the Civil War, he bravely brought a wagon full of hot coffee and food right to the tired troops on the front lines at the Battle of Antietam ? (During the Civil War he served on the staff of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, who became the 19th president.)

Did you know McKinley apparently had an incredible photographic memory and he could remember faces and names of people he'd met, even if he'd only seen them once ? (One occasion, while waiting for ceremonies to begin at a monument dedication at the Antietam battlefield, McKinley called down to a veteran, saying, "Hello, comrade, I saw you in the crowd at Gettysburg last month when I spoke there, didn't I?" The veteran was shocked, but when McKinley was asked later about how he'd been able to recall that, he simply stated that it was something that came naturally.)

Did you know he owned a pet double yellow-headed Amazon parrot named "Washington Post" that could whistle Yankee Doodle ?

Did you know red carnations were McKinley's favorite flower (thinking them as a good luck charm) and oddly—and eerily—enough, he was wearing this scarlet bloom on the lapel of his jacket the day he was assassinated at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York and he just had given the bloom away to Myrtle Ledger, a 12-year-old girl in the crowd with her mother—only to be greeted by his assassin (Leon Czolgosz) who was waiting next in line ?