James Garfield Assassination
The National Gallery of Art stands on the spot where American President James Garfield was wounded by assassin Charles Guiteau on July 2 of 1881. At the time the spot was occupied by the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. Garfield didn't die directly from the wounds inflicted to him, but rather by infection due to the unsanitary methods of medical practioners as they tended his wounds. In the words of Garfield's assassin, "The doctors killed Garfield, I just shot him."

Guiteau was a mentally unstable man who believed that god had commanded him to kill the President. This resulted from Guiteau being rejected for a government job that he felt was owed to him due to his support of Garfield's presidential campaign. He is said to have even fretted over the appearance of the gun he was to use for the murder, realizing that it would likely wind up in a museum.