William McKinley

About William McKinley

William McKinley, the 25th U.S. President (1897–1901), is ranked by MIT's Pantheon project as the 136th most historically important figure globally. His presidency was marked by the Spanish-American War, which resulted in the U.S. acquisition of territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, solidifying America's emergence as a world power. He also championed the annexation of Hawaii and was a strong proponent of the gold standard before his assassination in 1901.

Despite this significant historical placement, McKinley's modern internet attention seems relatively modest when compared to contemporaries or even later political figures. He registered 3.0 million annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This places him far behind more recent politicians like George W. Bush (#441 importance, 7.4M views) and Ronald Reagan (#307 importance, 5.6M views). In fact, McKinley's attention is only about one-eighth that of Joe Biden (#329 importance, 11.0M views), suggesting a substantial attention gap where his historical rank significantly outpaces his current online engagement.

Interestingly, while his overall interest is moderate, his 2025 attention is showing strong positive momentum, growing by +46.4% year-over-year. However, this interest appears to be cooling rapidly within the year, as the Q1-to-Q3 momentum change shows a decline of -67%, indicating that the spark of renewed interest may be fading.