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Presidential Trivia
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PAGE CONTENTS:
Presidential Tidbits
Tecumseh's Curse
Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts
President William McKinley Assassinated
The Assassination of James A. Garfield
Why Roosevelt Is On the Dime
America's Worst President
Adams and Jefferson
Presidential Tidbits
What happens when a president gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end? Also notice it goes in
increments of 20 years And LOOK! this (last)year is were it lands!
1840: William Henry Harrison (Died in Office)
1860:
Abraham Lincoln (Assassinated)
1880: James A. Garfield (Assassinated)
1900: William McKinley (Assassinated)
1920:
Warren G. Harding (Died in Office)
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Died in Office)
1960: John F. Kennedy (Assassinated)
1980:
Ronald Reagan (Survived Assassination Attempt)
2000: And to think that we had 2 guys duking it out in the courts to be
the one elected in 2000
--------------------------------------------
You might be interested in this. Have a history teacher explain
this---- If they can.
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F Kennedy was elected to Congress
in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were
particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents
were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary
was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew
Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes
Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both
assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Lincoln was shot at the theater
named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by Ford
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a
warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their
trials.
And here's the kicker: A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot,
he was with Marilyn Monroe.
IN ORDER, WHICH PERSONS ARE IN LINE OF SUCCESSION TO
THE PRESIDENCY?
The Vice-President is next in line to succeed the President. If the VP cannot serve, the
next in the line of succession is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, followed by the President Pro Tempore of the
Senate, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury. After them, the next in line are the Secretary of Defense,
Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of Commerce.
Prior to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, the candidate who
ran second in a presidential race automatically become vice president. Thomas Jefferson became John Adams' vice president
in this way.
Who was the first president of the U.S.?
George
Washington was the first president under the U.S. constitution of 1789. However, the US was an independent nation for 13 years
before the Constitution was signed. When the Congress met in 1781, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation,
which were adopted in 1777 and ratified by the states in 1781. At that meeting Congress elected John Hanson its "President
of the U.S. in Congress assembled." For one year during this time John Hanson served as "President of the US in Congress assembled."
Technically, he was the first president of the United States. George Washington became the first president of the U.S. under
the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
Who was the first president of the United States?
While George Washington was the first president under the U.S. Constitution, there were people who ran the country before
it was ratified, and they were led by a president. In fact, the U.S. had a running government as early as mid-1774. When delegates
gathered in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress, they elected former King's Attorney of Virginia Peyton Randolph
as the moderator and president of their convocation. A legal prodigy, he studied at the Inner Temple in London, served as
his native colony's Attorney General, and tutored many of the most able men of the south at the College of William and Mary,
including a young Patrick Henry. His Williamsburg home was the gathering place for Virginia's legal and political gentry.
He had served as a delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and had been a commander under William Byrd in the colonial
militia. Additionally, he was a scholar of some renown, having begun a self-guided reading of the classics when he was a lad
of thirteen. Despite suffering from poor health, he served the Continental Congress as president twice, in 1774 from September
5 to October 21, and for a few days in 1775, from May 10 to May 23. Unfortunately, he didn't live to see independence. Yet
he is numbered among the nation's most revered founders to this day.
Richard Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states.
Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural
address without using the word "I." Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place,
using "I" only once in their inaugural addresses.
HOW MUCH DID THE CONGRESS SET THE PRESIDENT'S PAY AT?
When the first U.S. Congress set the president's pay at $25,000
per year, they also established the vice president's salary at $5,000.
WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT OF THE US?
Victoria
Woodhall, in 1872.
What did Victoria Woodhall have against a warm bed?
Victoria
Woodhall, the radical feminist who ran for the Presidency in 1872, feared that she would die if she went to bed in her old
age. She spent the last four years of her life sitting in a chair. (She died at the age of 89 in 1927.)
WHO WAS THE FIRST WIFE OF A US PRESIDENT TO BE REFERRED TO
AS THE FIRST LADY?
Mary Todd Lincoln
HOW MANY CHILDREN DID PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER HAVE? Fifteen.
John Tyler had more children that any other American president. He had eight sons and seven daughters and was married twice.
WHO WAS THE HEAVIEST PRESIDENT?
President Taft,
who weighed 352 pounds.
WHICH U.S. PRESIDENTS WERE INAUGURATED AT THE AGE OF 57?
Four of the first six U.S. Presidents were 57 when they were inaugurated. Washington, Jefferson, Madison and
Adams, were also the last U.S. Presidents to be inaugurated at that age.
WHO WAS THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO RIDE ON A RAILROAD TRAIN?
Andrew Jackson
WHO WAS THE ONLY PRESIDENT WHO SEWED HIS OWN CLOTHES?
Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States.
WHICH PRESIDENT'S FACE WAS BADLY SCARRED FROM SMALLPOX?
George
Washington.
Were
any U.S. Presidents not born in the United States?
You'd think the answer to this would be no, as a President
of the U.S. must be a citizen, but you'd be wrong. Eight were born in the original thirteen colonies, before there was a United
States. these virtual non-natives were George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John
Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and William Henry Harrison.
Which American president has the greatest number of cities
and towns in the United States named after him?
James Madison, whose name is used in 27 states. He's followed
in popularity by George Washington (26), James Monroe (22), Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson (20 each), and Abraham Lincoln
(16).
WHO WAS THE ONLY PRESIDENT BORN IN ILLINOIS, THE LAND OF INCOLN?
Ronald Reagan. He was born in Tampico, Illinois. Lincoln was born in Kentucky.
Who was the first black presidential candidate nominated
at a national political convention?
Frederick Douglass, in 1888. He received a single vote at the Republican
convention in Chicago that ultimately picked Benjamin Harrison as the party candidate. Douglass went on to become U.S. minister
to Haiti.
WHO WROTE THE WORDS TO THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ANTHEM,
“HAIL TO THE CHIEF"?
Sir Walter Scott. They're from his poem, "The Lady of the Lake". English tunesmith
James Sanderson set the words to music and the song was first performed in London in 1811.
WHICH U.S. STATE HAS BEEN THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE MOST PRESIDENTS?
Virginia has the honor, with eight: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor,
and Wilson. Ohio is second, with seven: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Harding.
Why did the president have to use the phone in the hall?
Not
until Herbert Hoover was U.S. president, in 1929, did the U.S. chief executive have a private telephone in his office. (The
telephone had been invented 53 years earlier.) The booth in a White House hallway had served as the president's private phone
before one was installed in the Oval office.
How presidential does the American public consider facial
hair?
The last American president to sport facial hair was William Howard Taft, who left office in 1913. He had
a mustache.
HOW WOULD THE PRESIDENT “PUSH THE BUTTON” FOR
A NUCLEAR ATTACK?
As depicted in some spy movies, the president would not press a button; he would make a phone
call. To begin a nuclear attack, the president telephones the commander in chief at the Strategic Air Command in Omaha, Nebraska;
several officers at SAC would verify the president's orders. Once verified, instructions would go to a bomber and missile
crews, who would enact a series of movements to arm the bombs.
How many U.S. Presidents have actually paid off the national
debt?
Just a single one, the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. A racist and a sexist who
believed the earth was flat, evidence shows that he was also quite a character and certainly a product of his day. He was
also the victim of an early assassination attempt - on January 30, 1835, a mentally disturbed man named Richard Lawrence fired
two different guns at Jackson from point-blank range. Both weapons failed to fire. The odds of this happening were put at
1:125,000. Jackson then chased after Lawrence and beat him with his cane. Had he been hit by either bullet, however, it wouldn't
be the first time. In 1806 Jackson had a duel with Charles Dickinson over some things that he said about Jackson's wife. Dickinson
got the first shot, and hit Jackson directly in the chest, about two inches from his heart. But Jackson didn't even fall down.
Instead, he raised his gun and killed Dickinson and walked away. The bullet had lodged too close to his heart to be removed,
so he carried it there for the rest of his life. The only president to serve in both the Revolutionary War and the War of
1812, he was also the only one to have been held as a prisoner of war, during the Revolutionary War when he was only 13 years
old. The first president to be born in a log cabin (before Abraham Lincoln), Jackson evidently picked some colorful speech
along the way as, at his funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing. One probably didn't have
to look very far to figure out where he picked up the language.
HOW MANY U.S. PRESIDENTS HAVE WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?
Two--Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919).
Have brothers ever opposed each other for the nomination
for President of the United States?
While one could hardly call it active opposition, there were two brothers
who each received votes for the office at the Republican nominating convention in Boston in 1884. Senator John Sherman, whose
name later appeared on a famous anti- trust act, received 30 ballots and his brother, Northern Civil War General William T.
Sherman, garnered two votes. The winner, though, was James G. Blaine. But he lost the election to Grover Cleveland and hasn't
been heard from since. General Sherman, by the way, was an experienced campaigner. In the 1860s he blazed quite a trail
in Georgia from Atlanta to the sea, kissing no babies but burning many barns and bridges along the way.
Source: POLITICAL
PARTIES ed. by Gene Brown
WHICH U.S. PRESIDENT HAD ELECTRICITY WIRED INTO THE WHITE
HOUSE?
President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), the 23rd president, had the White House wired for electricity,
but because he was afraid of getting shocked, he would not touch the switches.
WHAT CRIME WAS THE U.S. SECRET SERVICE ESTABLISHED TO COMBAT
WHEN IT WAS CREATED IN 1865?
Counterfeiting. It was not until 1901, after the assassinations of Presidents Abraham
Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley, that the secret service was given the job of protecting American presidents.
The Presidential Election of 1876 was won by Samuel J. Tilden, a Southern
Democrat sympathetic to Southern States who were imposed with puppet governments after the Civil War. The Republicans, in
charge of the post Civil War reconstruction and biased against the Southern States were not willing to allow a Southern Democrat
into the office of President and thus ordered Federal military troops to change the results of the election in favor of Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes by using voter fraud, bribery, forgery and perjury. On November 8 of that year, Tilden had won the election
with 4.3 million votes over the 4 million votes for Hayes and 193 electoral votes over Haye's 173 electoral votes. After having
many Democratic votes thrown out for various made up reasons, the final result of the election was left in the hands of J.
Madison Wells, the election board chairman for the State of Louisiana. Realizing what was going on, Wells demanded bribes
for his votes from both political parties. After giving the election to Hayes, Wells received a large compensation package
from the Republican party. With Wells final support for Hayes, the Democrats cried foul and threw the election results into
the hands of a special Congressional commission stacked with Republicans who then favored Republican Hayes. The Democrats,
still upset, protested in Congress but agreed to stop contesting Hayes election to the Presidency in exchange for Federal
troops being removed from the Southern States.
Three U.S. presidents have been the sons of clergymen: Chester Arthur,
Grover Cleveland, and Woodrow Wilson.
Who wrote the words to the American presidential anthem, "Hail to the Chief?"
Sir Walter Scott - they're from his poem, "The Lady of the Lake."English tunesmith
James Sanderson set the words to music and the song was first performed in London in 1811.
US Presidents who never held any other elective office: U. S. Grant, William
H. Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Tecumseh's Curse
After the historical battle of Tippecanoe in 1811,
legend has it that the Shawnee Indian Chief, Tecumseh, sent General William Henry Harrison, via released prisoners, a message
or prophecy that history has labeled, "Tecumseh's Curse"
"Harrison will not win this year to be the Great Chief. But
he may win next year. If he does...He will not finish his term. He will die in his office... And after him, every Great Chief
chosen every 20 years thereafter will die. And when each one dies, let everyone remember the death of our people."
Harrison's presidency never really had a chance
to begin. He delivered a very long inaugural address on a cold, windy day. Then he was caught in a rainstorm. He caught a
cold which turned for the worst and led to his death. He 'served' as president from March 4 - April 4, 1841. His death would
be seen as the first in a long series of what became known as Tecumseh's Curse: Presidents elected in a year ending in a zero
would die in office.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was
elected as the first person to run under the Republican party. The United States quickly moved into a Civil War which would
last from 1861-1865. On April 9th, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant thereby ending the rift that
was tearing apart the nation. Only five days later on April 14, 1865 Lincoln was assassinated by Southern sympathizer John
Wilkes Booth.
In 1880, James Garfield was elected to the presidency. He took office on March 4, 1881. On July 2, 1881, Charles
J. Guiteau shot the President which eventually led to his death on September 19, 1881. The mentally unbalanced Guiteau was
upset because he had been denied a diplomatic post by the Garfield administration. He was eventually hung for his crime in
1882.
In 1900, William McKinley was elected to his second term as president. Once again, he defeated his opponent,
William Jennings Bryan as he had in 1896. On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz. McKinley died on September
14th. Czolgosz called himself an anarchist and admitted to killing the president because, "...he was the enemy of the people...."
He was electrocuted in October, 1901.
In 1920, Warren G. Harding was elected president as a stern response to the Wilson presidency. He is not considered
to be among the better presidents to have served. Scandals such as the Teapot Dome and others marred his presidency. On August
2, 1923, Harding was visiting San Francisco on a cross-country Voyage of Understanding to meet people across the nation. He
suffered from a stroke and died at the Palace Hotel.
In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his third term as president. He would be elected again in 1944. His
presidency began in the depths of the Great Depression and ended shortly after the fall of Hitler in World War II. He died
on April 12, 1945, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Since he was elected during one of his terms in a year that ended with a zero,
he is considered part of Tecumseh's curse.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the youngest elected president. This charismatic leader suffered some highs
and lows during his short term of office including the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the creation of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban
Missile Crisis. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was riding in a motorcade through Dallas and was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald
was found to be guilty as a lone gunman by the Warren Commission. However, many people still question whether more individuals
were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan became the oldest man to be elected president. This actor-turned-politician also suffered
highs and lows during his two terms in office. He is seen as being an important figure in the breakdown of the former Soviet
Union. However, his presidency was tarnished by the Iran-Contra Scandal. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley attempted to assassinate
Reagan in Washington, D.C. Reagan was shot but was able to survive with quick medical attention. President Reagan is the first
to foil Tecumseh's curse and some consider it to be broken.
Unknown author and/or copyright.
Used without permission, but with the best of intentions.
Presidential Assassinations and Assassination
Attempts
by Martin Kelley
Assassinations and the American Presidency
In the history of the presidency, four presidents have
actually died from assassination. Another six were the subject of assassination attempts. Following is a description of each
assassination and attempt.
Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln
was shot in the head while watching a play on April 14, 1865. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth escaped and was later shot and
killed. Conspirators who helped plan Lincoln's assassinaiton were found guilty and hung. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.
James Garfield - Charles
J. Guiteau, a mentally disturbed office seeker, shot Garfield on July 2, 1881. The president did not die until September 19th
of blood poisoning.
This was related more to the manner in which the physicians
attended to the president than to the wounds themselves. Guiteau was convicted of murder and hanged on June 30, 1882.
William McKinley - McKinley
was shot two times by anarchist Leon Czolgosz while the president was visiting the Pan-American Exhibit in New York City on
September 6, 1901. He died on September 14, 1901. Czolgosz stated that he shot McKinley because he was an enemy of working
people. He was convicted of the murder and electrocuted on October 29, 1901.
John F. Kennedy - On
November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was mortally wounded while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. His apparent assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby before standing trial. The Warren Commission was called to investigate Kennedy's
death and found that Oswald had acted alone to kill Kennedy. Many argued, however, that there was more than one gunman, a
theory upheld by a 1979 House Committee investigation. The FBI and a 1982 study disagreed. Speculation continues to this day.
Assassination Attempts
Andrew Jackson - On January
1, 1835, Andrew Jackson was attending a funeral for Congressman Warren Davis. Richard Lawrence, attempted to shoot him with
two different derringers, each of which misfired. He was tried for the attempted assassination but was found not guilty by
reason of insanity. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.
Theodore Roosevelt -
An assassination attempt was actually not made on Roosevelt's life while he was in the office of president. Instead, it occurred
after he had left office and decided to run for another term against William Howard Taft. While campaigning on October 14,
1912, he was shot in the chest by John Schrank, a mentally disturbed New York saloonkeeper. Much of the force of the slug was absorbed by the President's eyeglasses case and by the 50
page speech he was carrying double-folded in his breast pocket. Nevertheless, the bullet lodged itself just short of his lung,
and, dripping in blood, Roosevelt pulled himself up to the podium. He asked the crowd to please "...be very quiet and excuse
me from making a long speech. I'll do the best I can, but there's a bullet in my body. . . I have a message to deliver, and
I will deliver it as long as there is life in my body." He spoke for 90 minutes, but was unable to refer to his text due to
the gaping hole which the bullet had torn through it. The bullet was never removed but allowed to
heal over.
Franklin Roosevelt -
After giving a speech in Miami on February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara shot six shots into the crowd. None hit Roosevelt though
the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak was shot in the stomach. He blamed wealthy capitalists for his plights and those of other
working people. He was convicted of attempted murder and then after Cermak's death due to the shooting he was retried for
murder. He was executed by electric chair in March, 1933.
Harry Truman - On November
1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationals attempted to kill President Truman to bring attention to the case for Puerto Rican independence.
The President and his family were staying at the Blair House across from the White House and the two attempted assassins,
Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, tried to shoot their way into the house. Torresola killed one and wounded another policeman
while Collazo wounded one policeman. Torresola died in the gunfight. Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death which Truman
commuted to life in prison. Carter freed Collazo from prison in 1979.
Gerald Ford - Ford escaped
two assassination attempts, both by women. First on September 5, 1975, Lynnette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson,
pointed a gun at him but did not fire. She was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president and sentenced to life
in prison. The second attempt on Ford's life occurred on September 22, 1975 when Sara Jane Moore fired one shot that was deflected
by a bystander. Moore was trying to prove herself to some radical friends with the assassination of the president. She was
convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison.
Ronald Reagan - On March
30, 1981, Reagan was shot in the lung by John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley hoped that by assassinating the president, he would earn
enough notoriety to impress Jodie Foster. He also shot Press Secretary James Brady along with an officer and a security agent.
He was arrested but found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to life in a mental institution.
One fascinating sidenote to presidential assassinations
and deaths in office is Tecumseh's Curse, whereby presidents starting with William Henry Harrison who were elected
in a year ending with a zero were assassinated or died while in office. The curse ended with Ronald Reagan. Read Tecumseh's Curse to learn more
about the background and history of the curse.
Unknown author and/or copyright.
Used without permission, but with the best of intentions.
President William McKinley Assassinated
by Jennifer Rosenberg
On September 6, 1901, U.S. President William McKinley spent the morning
visiting Niagara Falls with his wife before returning to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in the afternoon
to spend a few minutes greeting the public.
By about 3:30 p.m., President McKinley stood inside the Temple of Music
building at the Exposition, ready to begin shaking the hands of the public as they streamed into the building. Many had been
waiting for hours outside in the heat for their chance to meet the President. Unbeknownst to the President and the many guards
who stood nearby, among those waiting outside was 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz who was planning to kill President McKinley.
At 4 p.m. the doors to the building were opened and the mass of people
waiting outside were forced into a single line as they entered the Temple of Music building. The line of people thus came
up to the president in an organized fashion, with just enough time to whisper a "Nice to meet you, Mr. President," shake President
McKinley's hand, and then be forced to continue along the line and out the door again.
President McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was a popular
president who had just started his second term in office and the people seemed clearly glad to get a chance to meet him. However,
at 4:07 p.m. Leon Czolgosz had made it into the building and it was his turn to greet the President.
In Czolgosz's right hand, he held a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson revolver,
which he had covered by wrapping a handkerchief around the gun and his hand. Although Czolgosz's swaddled hand was noticed
before he reached the President, many thought it looked like it covered an injury and not that it was hiding a gun. Also,
since the day had been hot, many of the visitors to see the President had been carrying handkerchiefs in their hands so that
they could wipe the sweat off their faces.
When Czolgosz reached the President, President McKinley reached out to
shake his left hand (thinking Czolgosz's right hand was injured) while Czolgosz brought up his right hand to President McKinley's
chest and then fired two shots.
One of the bullets didn't enter the president - some say it bounced off
of a button or off the president's sternum and then got tucked into his clothing. The other bullet, however, entered the president's
abdomen, tearing through his stomach, pancreas, and kidney. Shocked at being shot, President McKinley began to sag as blood
stained his white shirt. He then told those around him, "Be careful how you tell my wife."
Those in line behind Czolgosz and guards in the room all jumped on Czolgosz
and started to punch him. Seeing that the mob on Czolgosz might easily and quickly kill him, President McKinley whispered
either, "Don't let them hurt him" or "Go easy on him, boys."
President McKinley was then whisked away in an electric ambulance to
the hospital at the Exposition. Unfortunately, the hospital was not properly equipped for such a surgery and the very experienced
doctor usually on premises was away doing a surgery in another town. Although several doctors were found, the most experienced
doctor that could be found was Dr. Matthew Mann, a gynecologist. The surgery began at 5:20 p.m.
During the operation, the doctors searched for the remains of the bullet
that had entered the President's abdomen, but were unable to locate it. Worried that continued searching would tax the President's
body too much, the doctors decided to discontinue looking for it and to sew up what they could. The surgery was completed
a little before 7 p.m.
For several days, President McKinley seemed to be getting better. After
the shock of the shooting, the nation was excited to hear some good news. However, what the doctors did not realize was that
without drainage, an infection had built up inside the President. By September 13 it was obvious the President was dying.
At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President William McKinley died of gangrene. That afternoon, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
was sworn in as President of the United States.
After being pummeled right after the shooting, Leon Czolgosz had been
arrested and taken to police headquarters before nearly being lynched by the angry crowds that surrounded the Temple of Music.
Czolgosz readily admitted that he was the one who had shot the President. In his written confession, Czolgosz stated, "I killed
President McKinley because I done my duty. I didn't believe one man should have so much service and another man should have
none."
Czolgosz was brought to trial on September 23, 1901. He was quickly found
guilty and sentenced to death. On October 29, 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted.
©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
The Assassination of James A.
Garfield
On the morning of July 2, 1881, the president
was setting out on a trip to New England. He was passing through the waiting room of the Baltimore and Potomac railroad depot
at nine o'lock in the morning with Mr. James G. Blaine, his close friend. Charles Guiteau, a lawyer whose application to be
the U. S. ambassador to France was denied, fired two shots at President Garfield. One bullet grazed the President's arm but
the other one had entered his back, fractured a rib and lodged itself somewhere inside Garfield's body. Guiteau, a religious
fanatic stated that he shot Garfield in order to unite the Republican Party and save the Republic. Guiteau readily gave
himself up after the shooting; he reportedly had arranged to have a hansom cab wait for him outside to take him to jail because
he was afraid that an angry mob would form and lynch him. The Washington police arrested him.
Garfield, who never lost consciousness, was taken
to the White House. Under the highest medical skill of the day, Garfield lingered between life and death for more than ten
weeks. There were two methods of treatment at the time for bullet wounds. First, if the bullet had penetrated an organ, it
would mean certain death without surgery to remove it. Second if the bullet hadn't penetrated an organ, it would be better
to delay surgery until the condition of the patient stabilized. The first doctor to see the President, Dr. Willard Bliss,
stuck his finger into the wound (unsterilized) trying to probe and find the bullet. He never found it but the passageway that
he dug through the President later confused physicians as to the bullet's path. They concluded that the bullet had penetrated
the liver and surgery would be of no help. They were wrong.
In an effort to find the bullet, Alexander
Graham Bell devised a crude metal detector. On July 26, Bell and his assistant, Tainter and Simon Newcomb (who originally
had the idea of the metal detector) made their first attempt to locate the bullet in Garfield's body. There were also five
White House doctors and several aides present for the experiment.
Garfield expressed fear of being electrocuted
and Bell reassured him. The results of the experiment were inconclusive as there was a hum no matter where the wand was placed
on the president's body. Bell was unaware that the White House was one of the few that had a coil spring mattress that had
just been invented. Very few people had even heard of them. If Bell had moved Garfield off the bed, their apparatus would
have detected where the bullet was and likely, knowing this, the surgeons could have saved James A. Garfield's life.
In the end, the doctors had taken a three-inch
wound and turned it into a twenty-inch gouge that was massively infected. On September 15, 1881, symptoms of blood poisoning
appeared. Garfield lingered until September 19, 1881 when, after a few hours of unconsciousness, he died.
Copyright 2000 by StanKlos.comTM.
All rights reserved
Why Roosevelt Is On the Dime
In 1921, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken
with a bout of polio that left him partially paralyzed, there were no organizations to lend support. Although Roosevelt had
the money for the very best treatments for himself, he realized that there were thousands of others who did not. Also, at
the time, there was no known cure for polio. In 1938, President Roosevelt helped establish the National Foundation for Infantile
Paralysis (which later became known as the March of Dimes). This foundation was created to help care for polio patients and
to help fund research to find a cure. Funding from the March of Dimes helped Jonas Salk discover a vaccine for polio.
Soon after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
death in 1945, the public started sending letters to the U.S. Treasury Department requesting that Roosevelt's portrait be
placed on a coin. The dime seemed the most appropriate coin because of Roosevelt's ties to the March of Dimes. The new dime
was released to the public on Roosevelt's birthday, January 30, 1946.
by Jennifer Rosenberg
©2007 About, Inc., A part of The New York
Times Company. All rights reserved.
America's
Worst President
By Denis Mueller
Warren
G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, is generally considered, by many historians, as this nation's
worst president. However, it is the MMM's opinion that George W. Bush, if he continues his bumbling ineptitude, will
overtake Harding and wear the mantle of that rather dubious sobriquet.
There have been many bad
president's throughout the course of the republic, but none quite as bad as Warren Harding. His term rates as the most corrupt
in American history and his achievements are few and far between. Born in Marian, Ohio in 1865, Harding became the owner of
the Marian Star in 1884. Tall, handsome and very likable, Harding fit right in as one of the boys. In fact, fitting in as
one of the boys is his only achievement. He was elected to the Senate in 1914; however, his term was largely uneventful.
At the 1920 convention, the Republican Party smelled victory.
The country was tired of war and reform and sought to return to what they called normalcy. So the party sought out a candidate
that would offend no one and finally settled with Harding, who was then proclaimed as the best of "second-raters."
Harding did have many faults, one of which was that he a
notorious womanizer. His own father once told him, "It's a good thing you wasn't born a gal...you'd be in a family way all
the time." So when the campaign began, one of his mistresses was sent to Europe on a long paid vacation and later received
hush money to stay quite. The press loved Harding and viewed him as one of their own. They covered up his shortcomings and
continuously gave him good publicity.
Harding was swept into office by a landslide and soon began
to assemble what ranks as the worst cabinet in American hi- story. He staffed the positions with his card-playing buddies
who turned out to be a wild assortment of corrupt officials. Take for example his choice for Secretary of the Interior, Albert
Fall.
Fall was an anti-conservationist rancher whose main objective
as Secretary was to steal as much money as he could. One of his first acts was to convince Harding to transfer control of
the naval oil reserves to the Department of the Interior. Fall then demanded, and received, kickbacks from companies who sought
government contracts. This became known as the "Teapot Dome scandal." Harding defended his friend refusing to recognize the
obvious. Another of his appointees, head of Veteran affairs Charles Forbes, is an example of Harding's poor judgment. Harding
first met Forbes on a Hawaiian vacation. He liked him and then offered Forbes a job. Forbes, an army deserter, said that he
had won a Medal of Honor during the WWI so Harding made him the head of Veteran Affairs. Forbes, for his part, steered hospital
contracts to those who gave him money. On a trip to Europe, Harding advised him to resign and stay there. Forbes eventually
served time in jail for his part in the scandal.
Harding's head of the FBI, William Burns, used the office
to investigate foes of the Harding administration and Attorney General William Doherity was indicted for his part in the Teapot
Dome scandal. All in all you could say that Harding was a poor judge of character. He died in office and was succeeded by
Calvin Coolidge. Warren Harding once said he was overwhelmed by the job, and he was.
Sources: American History, Michael Haydock
Adams and Jefferson
By Denis Mueller
During the early years of the United States, there were no
political parties. Nothing like the two party system that we now have existed and choosing electors from the Electoral College
varied from state to state. Voters did not chose tickets; they voted for the best two men, then they became President and
vice-president. The President did not view himself as the head of any political party but as a bipartisan leader acting in
the public interest.
In 1796, there were no primaries, no conventions and while factions had grown, there were, at
this time, no political parties. The chief quality, or qualification if you will, was one's revolutionary status. While many
in the country had served the cause, the top names of the revolution were Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams. Franklin
had died and Washington completed two terms in office before deciding not to seek another term. So the choice became John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
While they
were rivals, Jefferson and Adams were also friends. Adams felt that together they could sustain the legacy of the new republic.
He intended to make Jefferson a full partner in his administration but Jefferson saw the dangers awaiting the new president
and quietly wished for an Adams victory. He got his wish when Adams prevailed in the election by the close margin of three
electoral votes. Now Jefferson was faced with a dilemma regarding his allegiances. Should he support Adams or reinforce his
position as leader of the opposition.
Criticism in politics was personal during this time. There was no such thing
as a loyal opposition in the new republic. So disagreements over policy between groups would cause each other to claim their
opponents were betraying the revolution. The consensus that held the country together began to fragment. Men who had been
friends all their lives now were at odds and a wall of separation developed between former allies. While Jefferson retreated
to his home in Virginia, Adams ignored his cabinet and turned to his wife who became his unofficial staff.
Wild political
swings were happening across the country but Adams was determined to stay above the fray. As criticism drew worse, Adams supported
the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were designed to stifle opposition and aimed at the Jefferson faction of the nation
who were denounced as "traitors to their country." Adams saw himself as above politics and his argumentative nature often
saw him at odds with his own faction, the Federalists.
Jefferson, for his own part, now enlisted the support of
James Callender. Callender was a notorious sensationalist who had broken the story about Alexander Hamilton's adulterous affair
with Maria Reynolds. Callender called Adams, "a hoary-headed incendiary." He charged Adams with wanting war with France and
in making himself president for life. Neither was true. Jefferson himself had leaked information to the French government
and when confronted with proof that he had paid Callender to discredit Adams. The vice-president expressed shock that anyone
could accuse him of such an act.
But Adams continued with his jailing of the opposition. In his last year, 14 members
of the press were charged and imprisoned. The country was being ripped apart and whether it could survive became a legitimate
question. In the election of 1800, Adams was defeated and, despite the schemes of the notorious Aaron Burr, Jefferson was
elected as the third president of the United states. The federalist party self destructed. Adams viewed the emergence of political
parties as a type of moral degeneracy.
Adams presided over a peaceful transition of power but did not attend the inauguration
and did not speak to Jefferson for twelve years. But his willingness to transfer power, despite his mistaken Sedition laws,
makes Adams an important link in the development of our democracy.
Sources: Revolutionary Generation. Joseph Ellis
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