"With two exceptions, since 1840, U.S. Presidents who have been elected in years ending in zero have been killed or have died of natural causes while in office. And one exception literally came within an inch of death.

It’s hard to know what to make of such a sequence, but folks have certainly tried over the years. Such a string of presidential mortality is deemed too improbable to have occurred naturally, giving rise to rumors about a fatal Indian curse among those unwilling to recognize that chaos sometimes takes the form of coincidence. Randomness is disquieting; Indian curses are, in comparison, the lesser of the evils because they at least support the illusion that there is order in our universe. In this odd way, belief in predestined fatalities is comforting.


1840 … William Henry Harrison
1860 … Abraham Lincoln
1880 … James A. Garfield
1900 … William McKinley
1920 … Warren G. Harding
1940 … Franklin D. Roosevelt
1960 … John F. Kennedy

William Henry Harrison, who was elected in 1840, died of pneumonia at the age of 68, exactly one month after his inauguration.

Abraham Lincoln, first elected in 1860, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth just after embarking on his second term in office in 1865.

James A. Garfield won the 1880 election. He was shot in the back in a Washington railroad station waiting room in July 1881 and died of his wounds in September 1881.

William McKinley was re-elected in 1900. In September 1901, after giving a speech at an exposition in Buffalo, he was shot while shaking hands

with wellwishers. McKinley died of his wounds a little more than a week later.

Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920, expired of a stroke or heart attack in 1923. It was long rumored his wife had poisoned him.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, re-elected in 1940 for a third term, suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died just after having started an unprecedented fourth term in 1945.

John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.

Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 but managed to cheat the Grim Reaper by a matter of an inch, the distance by which would-be assassin John Hinckley’s bullet missed his heart in 1981.

Maybe Reagan also broke the “every 20 years” curse. Or maybe it’s just sleeping."

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-curse-of-tecumseh/

"The curse, first widely noted in a Ripley's Believe It or Not! book published in 1931,[1][non-primary source needed] began with the death of William Henry Harrison, who died in 1841 after having been elected in 1840. For the next 120 years until 1960, presidents elected during years ending in a zero (occurring every twenty years) died while serving in office, from Harrison to John F. Kennedy (elected 1960, died 1963).

The name "Curse of Tippecanoe" derives from the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. As governor of the Indiana Territory, William Harrison used questionable tactics in the negotiation of the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne with Native Americans, in which they ceded large tracts of land to the U.S. government.[2] The treaty further angered the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, and brought government soldiers and Native Americans to the brink of war in a period known as Tecumseh's War. Tecumseh and his brother organized a group of Indian tribes designed to resist the westward expansion of the United States. In 1811, Tecumseh's forces, led by his brother, attacked Harrison's army in the Battle of Tippecanoe, earning Harrison fame and the nickname "Old Tippecanoe".[2] Harrison strengthened his reputation even more by defeating the British at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812.[2] In an account of the aftermath of the battle, Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, supposedly set a curse against Harrison and future presidents elected during years with the same end number as Harrison. This is the basis of the curse legend.[3]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2018 07:29PM by Amyjo.

Interesting how, when it comes to Lincoln, the "curse" applies to his FIRST term being a "0" year, even though he was assassinated in his SECOND term.

But when it comes to McKinley, the curse applies to his SECOND term, 'cause his first time wasn't a "0" year.

Maybe there's no "curse" at all? :)

You would be astonished at how many presidents have died of natural or unnatural causes after being elected in years that, if multiplied by zero, are zero.

Well we know who's running for office in 2020 definitively.

The odds are stacked in Tecumseh's favor ...

to get a jump start.

(jkz)