1. William Henry Harrison, the 9th President - March 1841 to April 1841 (Served 32 days)
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| William Henry Harrison the 9th President, 1841-1841 |
The Whig Party's campaign slogan for their two candidates had a catchy singsong cadence - "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!" The Tyler half was future Vice President John Tyler and the Tippecanoe half referred to William Henry Harrison's nickname, "Old Tippecanoe," earned after his 1811 military victory in Indiana at the Tippecanoe River.
The election was won with 234 of the 294 electoral votes.
President William Henry Harrison gave a two-hour Inaugural Address. He was exposed to freezing cold weather, wearing no jacket, hat or gloves. He died 32 days later of pneumonia on April 4, 1841, just 32 days after taking office.
That same day, Vice President John Tyler was sworn in as the 9th President of the United States.
Update: In 2014, a group of epidemiologists took another look at this case and said that the President's symptoms pointed to Typhoid which was likely contracted by tainted drinking water caused by a lack of a sewage system in Washington D.C.
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2. Zachary Taylor, the 12th President - March 4, 1849 to July 9, 1850 (Served 1 year, 127 days)
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| Zachary Taylor, the 12th President March 1849 to July 9, 1850 |
Zachary Taylor began his Presidency on March 4, 1849 with Millard Fillmore as his Vice President. One year later, he was attending 4th of July holiday celebrations in Washington DC. It was a very hot summer day and no matter how many glasses of ice water he drank, he could not cool down his body temperature.
Later when he returned to his quarters at the White House, for some reason, he began to eat large quantities of cherries and other fruits and washed it down with iced milk. No one knew why he chose that remedy, perhaps it was an old family remedy or maybe someone in his presence suggested it.
For five days, he suffered stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting. His doctors diagnosed him with cholera, a bacterial infection of the small intestine.
President Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850. Millard Fillmore was sworn in as President and served the rest of Taylor's term from July 9, 1850 to March 4, 1853. Fillmore did not have a Vice President during his term as President (see #3 below).
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3. Millard Fillmore, the 13th President - July 9, 1850 to March 4, 1853 (Served 2 years, 238 days)
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| Millard Fillmore, the 13th President, July 9, 1850 to March 4, 1853 |
Millard Fillmore, as Vice President, stepped into the Presidency after the death of President Zachary Taylor. As a member of the Whig Party, his term was frought with political tension between the slave-owning states and the free states. In 1850, he signed The Fugitive Slave Act into law which mandated fines and imprisonment for anyone who helped runaway slaves.
In 1852, President Fillmore campaigned for the nomination of his Whig party, but lost out to their favorite, General Winfield Scott. It is rare in today's process that a sitting President would not get the nomination, but that was not the case in the 1850s. General Winfield Scott won the Whig Party's nomination but he lost the national election.
Millard Fillmore was the last Whig Party President. Democrat Franklin Pierce won the 1852 election and became the 14th President on March 4, 1853.
"Trivia Alert" - President Franklin Pierce's Vice President was William King. He died of tuberculosis on April 18, 1853, about six weeks after taking office. The position remained vacant for the rest of Pierce's term.
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4. James A. Garfield, the 20th President - March 4, 1881 to September 19, 1881 (Served 199 days)
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| James A. Garfield, 20th President March 4, 1881 to September 19, 1881 |
Before it was mandatory for the Secret Service to travel with the President and their families, President Garfield and his two sons were sightseeing in Washington DC on July 2, 1881 before the President had to give a scheduled speech at his alma mater, Williams College.
President Garfield was not aware that he had a stalker who was on a mission to kill him. Charles Guiteau, following the commands of the voices in his head, heard God tell him to kill President Garfield. He later said he had planned this assassination for weeks. He bought a special gun, an ivory-handled pistol, because he thought it would look nice in a museum when it was all over.
On July 2, 1881, Guiteau trailed the President as per the schedule that was published in the newspaper, laying in wait to choose the right time. Guiteau paced the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Depot waiting for Garfield to show up and when he spotted him, he got in real close behind President Garfield and shot him twice. The second shot missed his spinal cord and lodged in his pancreas.
Garfield lingered for eleven weeks, contracted a lethal infection and was hemorrhaging internally. He kept getting worse, no doubt from all the tests and procedures his doctors kept performing to find the second bullet so they could remove it. They even summoned Alexander Graham Bell to use his new device, a metal detector, but he also couldn't find it either.
President James A. Garfield died on September 19, 1881 after 199 days in office.
Update: His assassin, Charles Guiteau, was charged with murder on October 14, 1881. He played up his mental issues by publicly reciting his letters, singing his poems, going off on rants and diatribes, and frequently waving, engaging, and smiling at spectators and reporters.
All of it was to build on his insanity plea because he was told they wouldn't execute someone with mental problems. But the defense didn't work. He was found guilty on January 25, 1882 and he was hanged on June 30, 1882. An autopsy showed he was likely schizophrenic and also suggested that syphillis was the cause of his mental instability. Parts of his brain are on display at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.
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5. Warren G. Harding, the 29th President - March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923 (Served 2 years, 151 days)
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| Warren G. Harding, 29th President March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923 |
President Harding had suffered from poor health for years. Besides an ongoing complaint of exhaustion, he also had an enlarged heart. In August 1923, he had been campaigning for re-election on a cross-country tour that included the Alaska Territory, a first for a US President. He contracted food poisoning and stopped in San Francisco. He took the Presidential Suite at the San Francisco Palace Hotel and resolved to spend a few days to get medical attention and rest up before continuing to travel.
On August 2, 1923, he died quietly by slumping over in his bed. Doctors believe he had a massive heart attack. His death shocked the country, and within an hour, his Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn into office.
From August 2, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge did not have a Vice President. When he ran in the 1924 elections, Charles G. Dawes became his running mate and they won four more years in office.
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6. John F. Kennedy, the 36th President - January 20, 1961 to November 22, 1963 (Served 2 years, 306 days)
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| John F. Kennedy, the 35th President January 20, 1961 to November 22, 1963 |
President Kennedy was on a nationwide tour to make known his positions on education and world peace so he could pave the way for his re-election campaign in 1964.
For this trip, he wanted to ride in an open-air convertible which was a nightmare assignment for the Secret Service. As the motorcade rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas, a sniper perched in a nearby building patiently waited until he had a straight shot at the President in his scope. He shot the President and several other dignitaries in the motorcade. Kennedy died a short time later at Parkland Hospital. Police were quick to arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for murder.
When Oswald was being transported to the county jail, Jack Ruby, a local restaurant owner with ties to the underworld, shot and killed Oswald.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was quickly sworn in as the 36th President. He finished Kennedy's term and ran in 1964 elections and won, with Hubert Humphrey serving as his Vice President.
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7. Gerald Ford, the 38th President - August 9, 1974 to January 20, 1977 (Served 2 years, 164 days)
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| Gerald Ford, the 38th President, August 9, 1974 to January 20, 1977 |
Richard M. Nixon's Presidency was like none other before him, or since. His Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was charged with extortion, bribery and income tax violations which caused Agnew to resign on October 10, 1973. Agnew was ultimately disbarred, fined $10,000 and sentenced to three years probation.
At the same time, President Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal and facing impeachment. From the summer of 1973 onward, it was only a matter of time before all was made public. If Nixon was impeached or otherwise left the job, because there was no Vice President in place, Congress faced a dilemma to fill the Presidency, one that could have set precedents far into the future.
In October 1973, Nixon was required by the 25th Amendment to nominate a replacement Vice President who then had to be approved by Congress.
The 25th Amendment addresses the line of succession, exactly who is in charge if something happens to the President (illness, injury, or temporarily incapacitated). This Amendment clears up what happens when the President or Vice President voluntarily leaves office or becomes disabled.
However, it also allows Congress to remove a President who is incapacitated by a serious injury or illness including mental illness. (File this under "Good to Know").
By November 1973, Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated by President Richard M. Nixon. Gerald Ford had been carefully chosen, he was well-liked and popular, and very few had any worry about his approval by Congress.
On December 6, 1973, Gerald Ford was sworn in as Vice President. Things changed often over the next eight months until finally Nixon made a decision.
On August 9, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigned from the Presidency amid the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford, as his Vice President, automatically became the President. Because Ford didn't have a Vice President, he invoked the 25th Amendment again and nominated Nelson Rockefeller. He was approved and sworn in on December 19, 1974.
President Gerald Ford served until January 20, 1977. He ran in the 1976 election but lost to Jimmy Carter.
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