Harrison, elected in 1840, died of pneumonia after serving 31 days in office.
Lincoln, elected in 1860, assassinated.
Garfield, elected in 1880, assassinated.
McKinley, elected to a second term in 1900, assassinated.
Harding, elected in 1920, died of a stroke in 1923.
Roosevelt, elected to a third term in 1940, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945.
Kennedy, elected in 1960, assassinated
Reagan, elected in 1980, survived an attempted assassination. (Is the curse finally broken? We'll find out sometime in the next decade).
When George Washington and Ben Franklin were in France raising money for the Revolution, Washington told the King of France that he would leave Franklin in charge of the negotiations because he had to return to Virginia. He is quoted as saying, "I wouldn't miss the hemp harvest at Mount Vernon for all the tea in China". Hemp (marijuana), which was used to make clothes and paper, was the number one cash crop of the colonies and remained so until the invention of the cotton gin.
Franklin Roosevelt was related to Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and even his own wife, Eleanor, a second cousin. Although the relationship with the Roosevelt's was an uncomfortable situation for many people, there was stranger twist to the First Couples marriage. For 30 plus years, from 1932 on, Eleanor Roosevelt had an affair with another woman, Associated Press reporter Lenora Hickok. Eleanor wrote well over 2,300 passionate love letters to Hicky which Hicky saved on the condition that they not be published until 10 years after Eleanor's death.
Weird Presidential Facts
President Garfield could write in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other... simultaneously!
Thomas Jefferson invented the coat hanger, the hideaway bed, the calendar clock and the dumbwaiter.
Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized the institution of slavery. This original draft was also written on hemp paper.
President James Buchanan was the only bachelor to occupy the Oval Office. His niece, Harriet Lane, played the role of First Lady.
President Washington was the wealthiest man in American at the time of his election as President, but he had to borrow money to attend his inauguration. His enormous wealth was attributed the vast property that he owned which produced almost no cash flow.
John Tyler, who was President from 1841 to 1845, joined the Confederacy twenty years later and became the only President named a sworn enemy of the United States.
President Andrew Jackson believed the world was flat and FDR was so superstitious, that he would never leave town on a Friday and never sit at a table with 13 people.
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