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Portrait of James A. Garfield
Unknown; part of Brady-Handy Photograph Collection., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Victim

James A. Garfield

Born
19 November 1831
Died
19 September 1881, aged about 50
Record
Wikidata Q34597 · Wikipedia

Victim in The Assassination of James Garfield

Twentieth president of the United States; shot on July 2, 1881, and died at Elberon, New Jersey, eleven weeks later.

1881–1882 · Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station, Washington, D.C. · Executed

A disappointed office-seeker shoots President Garfield in a Washington railway station in 1881. The doctors' probing may have done the rest. Read the case.

Dated events

  1. Garfield narrowly defeats Winfield Scott Hancock in the presidential election.

  2. Guiteau arrives in Washington, the day after Garfield's inauguration, to seek a consulship.

  3. Guiteau shoots Garfield twice in the waiting room of the Baltimore and Potomac station and is arrested at once.

  4. Garfield dies at Elberon; Chester Arthur takes the oath in New York early the next morning.

  5. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, passed partly in Garfield's memory, becomes law.