On this day, Jan. 30, in 1899, newly elected Kentucky Gov. William J. Goebel was shot the day before he was to be sworn into office. He died four days later and remains the only state governor in the United States to die in office as a result of an assassination.

Goebel had been installed as governor after the state's legislature invalidated enough votes to throw the election his way. With the election results still in dispute, Goebel was walking to the capitol when he was gunned down from shots fired from the nearby State Building.

The dying Goebel's only official act was to dissolve the militia called up in the wake of a possible civil war.

The former governor's secretary of state and two others were convicted as accessories, but the gunman was never conclusively identified.

Scott McCabe