Tecumseh's curse
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The term Tecumseh's curse or zero-year curse is sometimes used to describe a chain of events that began with the death of United States President William Henry Harrison from pneumonia. Commonly attributed to Indian chief Tecumseh (and sometimes to his brother Tenskwatawa, aka "The Prophet", who was defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe by Harrison), the curse is said to have proclaimed the death of all presidents elected every 20 years. Legend has it that the curse was pronounced by the Prophet while sitting for a painting. This version has been the most widely accepted, but several scholars have questioned its validity. [1] The coincidental twenty-year pattern was noted in a Ripley's Believe It or Not book published in 1934.
Victims of the purported curse
Indeed, all American presidents elected in a year divisible by 20 between 1840 and 1960 died in office:
- 1840 - William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841
- 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865
- 1880 - James Garfield, assassinated in 1881
- 1900 - William McKinley, assassinated in 1901
- 1920 - Warren G. Harding, died of heart attack in 1923
- 1940 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1945
- 1960 - John F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963
Zachary Taylor, the only other President to die in office, was elected in 1848 and died in 1850 of indigestion.
It is worth noting that Franklin Roosevelt was in his fourth term of office, and Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley were in their second terms, at the times of their deaths.
The curse ends?
The first president to survive the "curse" by not dying during his presidency was Ronald Reagan. He was elected in 1980 and narrowly survived an assassination attempt early during his first presidential term (March 30, 1981), a bullet missing his heart by less than one inch.
George W. Bush, elected in 2000, is still alive; his second term of presidency ends on January 20, 2009. However, during his first term, there was an apparent threat against his Air Force One. On the Septetmber 11, 2001, the code name and threat for the presidents aircraft "Angel is next" has been received. Later during that day the president had to personally visit several missile bases around the country to overrule any possible activation of the nuclear arsenal as the secret launch codes had been mysteriously circulated.