Giuliani in London
Apparently, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was in London when the bombs when off, and was just a few yards away from the first explosion when it happened. That means he was closer to the bomb site this time than he was to the World Trade Center when it was attacked.
Maybe we should stay away from this guy. Was he in Madrid last March (2004)?
This is getting to be sort of like the life of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln. He declined an invitation to the theater the night his father was shot, but hurried when he heard the news and was with his father when he died. Sixteen years later, he was Secretary of War in the James Garfield administration, and was in the train station in Washington when President Garfield’s was shot. Lincoln was the first person to reach Garfield’s side, and was the one to call for a doctor. Twenty years after that, he was in the receiving line to see President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo when McKinley was shot.
July 12th, 2005 at 9:28 am
Garfield wasn’t shot at Union Station (which wasn’t built until more than 20 years later), but at the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station, located on the Mall at what is now the site of the National Gallery of Art (the southwest corner of 6th Street and Constitution Avenue (then called B Street), N.W.).
July 12th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Seamus: Thanks for the correction!
This account from the Smithsonian confirms that the location was indeed the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station, and the Union Station website confirms that Union Station openied in 1907, 26 years after Garfield.
Sorry folks, my memory (of what I read) must have been playing tricks on me.
My search to verify all this turned up this fascinating — and horrifyingly sad — account of the medical treatment Garfield received after he was shot. Summary: They fouled up so badly they probably killed him. In fact, the bullet was found on autopsy in such a location that he probably would have survived if they’d just bandaged up the entry wound and attempted no further treatment.