Is there a curse on presidents elected in years

[quinnox]

ending with zero?

1860 Lincoln elected - assassinated after winning a second term

1880 Garfield elected - shot and mortally wounded in 1881 by an embittered attorney who had wanted a consular post

1900 McKinley re-elected - assassinated in 1901 by a deranged anarchist

1920 Harding elected - died in office in 1923 of a heart attack

1960 Kennedy elected - assassinated in 1963

1980 Reagan elected - survived assassination attempt

Perhaps Reagan broke the 'curse'?

There is a back story which I won't go into that involves an indian chief and a curse he supposedly put on President William Harrison who also died in office of pneumonia (the first president to die in office)

[JohnKleeb]

1. could well be

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Maybe the curse

is on America.

[La_Serpiente]

3. Reagan almost fell to the curse

when he was shot in 1984.

[Wwagsthedog]

4. Was he really shot?

In 1981

[morningglory]

5. Well, he governed with Alzheimer's disease, so he was kinda "out". n/t

[Kamika]

6. Doesnt look like one

would be interesting with a list of presidents tha died in other years..

Its far too irregular though

[Yupster]

8. It just gets more mysteriousier

Only one US president has died in office who wasn't elected in a year that ended with a zero.

He was Zachary Taylor, the old Indian fighter who was not elected in a zero year, but he died in 1850, a zero year.

Taylor was also Jefferson Davis' father-in-law. One son was a Confederate Major-general, and another was one of General Lee's most trusted staff members.

[mot78]

7. I can understand why Techumseh would put a curse on Harrison

but I don't understand why that curse would affect any President elected with "0" on the end of the year.

[Yupster]

9. Yeah, kind of sounds

like a pretty complicated curse.

[Clark Can WIN]

10. 2000 brought the curse to us.

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. Maybe the fact that Junior was never really elected

Is what saved his ass?? If he actually is elected in 2004, the curse wouldn't apply. Maybe that's why Gore didn't fight it. Good move for him, bad move for the country :-(

BTW, you missed 1940... True that FDR had already served two terms as president, but he was re-elected in 1940, and died in office in 1944 :-(

[chookie]

12. 2000: Gore elected

-- survived character assassination attempt, but election was nullified by a corrupt Supreme Court, and so President Gore was prevented from serving in the office, to see a dimwtted chimpanzee installed in the Oval Office.

If that's not more proof for the Curse, then I am Maria of Rumania.

[elperromagico]

13. I'm familiar with this pattern

There is the feeling that Reagan "broke" the pattern.
I honestly hope there isn't a pattern; as much as I disagree with Bush, I don't wish death on him.

There is another pattern which worries me a bit: No incumbent president seeking reelection in a year ending in 4 has been defeated.

1804: Thomas Jefferson, reelected
1864: Abraham Lincoln, reelected
1904: Theodore Roosevelt, elected (after succeeding McKinley in 1901)
1924: Calvin Coolidge, elected (after succeeding Harding in 1923)
1944: Franklin Roosevelt, reelected
1964: Lyndon Johnson, elected (after succeeding Kennedy in 1963)
1984: Ronald Reagan, reelected

Let's hope Bush breaks this particular pattern.

[DivinBreuvage]

14. Perhaps the reason Reagan dodged the curse

(if there is a curse) is because the powers that be didn't want him to become a martyred messiah. He's already been practically canonized by plenty of foks as it is, as proven by the recent conservative hysterics over the CBS show.

Then too, this isn't the first time I've read of paranormal phenomena (curses, famous hauntings, what have you) petering out in the latter half of this century. I remember reading that a couple of famous centuries-old British ghosts haven't put in an appearance for some time now, though I can't recall the specifics.

Also, what happened to Lincoln's ghost in the White House? It would seem he moved out sometime during or shortly after WWII, which would be appropriate since the America that came out of that war was not the same post-Civil War America that had gone into it.

A good thing for the current occupants too, as I don't doubt the old railsplitter would probably feel like knotting a couple of heads every once in a while.

Françoise

[elperromagico]

15. Lincoln's ghost

is currently haunting anyone who refers to the 21st century GOP as "the Party of Lincoln."

I doubt "Honest Abe" would be pleased at having his name permanently associated with the creeps who currently hold power in the Republican Party.

[Fescue4u]

16. there a 20% chance of any president being elected in a year ending in 0

Since no presidents are elected in odd years.

And most all of the presidents elected in zero years were quite awhile ago.

And presidential protection and leaps in medical advances are products of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Reagan survived only due to medical advances, I suspect Bush has survived only due to very effective presidential protection.

So that leaves all the other presidents quite vulnerable to assassins and disease.

Then we cherry pick the zero year presidents...really not a coincidence at all.

[elperromagico]

17. A few good points

I've read that Reagan's wound was, in fact, more serious than Garfield's or McKinley's--- modern medicine saved him, whereas the technology of 1881 and 1901 had helped to kill Garfield and McKinley.