1899 — President William McKinley becomes the first president to ride in an automobile when he is taken for drive in a Stanley Steamer.

In other news:

• America’s first tuberculosis hospital opens in Denver.
• The first peace conference at The Hague establishes a Permanent Court of International Justice and Arbitration.
• Frederick W. Taylor, an engineer, develops a process of heat-treating steel that increases in strength and cutting ability by 300 percent.
• Although it has been used for centuries, aspirin is introduced as a “modern” medicine.
• The Gideons, Christian Commercial Men’s Association of America, is organized by three traveling salesmen in Wisconsin. The first Gideon Bible is placed in the Superior Hotel in Iron Mountain, Mont., in 1902.