Charles J. Guiteau, American assassin of president James A. Garfield (died 1882)

Charles Julius Guiteau was an American man who assassinated James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, in 1881. A mentally ill failed lawyer, Guiteau delusionally believed that he had played a major role in Garfield's election victory, for which he should have been rewarded with a consulship. Guiteau felt frustrated and offended by the Garfield administration's rejections of his applications to serve in Vienna or Paris to such a degree that he decided to kill Garfield and shot him at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died 79 days later from infections related to the wounds. In January 1882, Guiteau was sentenced to death for the crime and was hanged five months later.

James Abram Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his death in September that year after being shot two months earlier. A preacher, lawyer, and Civil War general, Garfield served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives and is the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. Before his candidacy for the presidency, he had been elected to the U.S. Senate by the Ohio General Assembly—a position he declined when he became president-elect.

September 8 is the 251st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 114 days remain until the end of the year.