American Presidents - Tecumseh's curse.

[Deleted]

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/...a/tecumseh.htm

Anyone else heard of this? It's quite creepy to think that the presidents who were elected in years ending in '0' all died whilst in office, all within 20 years of each other too;

1860- Abe Lincoln - Assassinated
1880 - Garfield - Assassinated
1900 - McKinley - Assassinated
1920 - Harding - Stroke
1940 - Roosevelt - Haemorrage
1960 - JF. Kennedy - Assassinated
Note: the curse is said to be broken after Regan in 1980, although he was almost assassinated.

On a side note, why are there so many presidential assassinations in the USA? 4 successful, and 6 attempted assassinations is crazy, when you think that the USA has only been around for 300 or so years.

As far as I know, there has only been 1 British Prime Minister ever assassinated, and that was 200 years ago.

[Kalyyn]

I have never noticed that before...
Though, the curse seems to have failed, otherwise Clinton or Bush would have died in 2000.

[Aeka]

Old, old news. This was a fairly common topic in the years between 1960-1989. Reagan was the oldest person ever elected, so, naturally, a lot of people thought the "curse" would continue, especially when he got shot. But the Gipper fooled them all, and survived. Once the "curse" was "broken," the topic went to the ash-heap of trivia. President Geroge W. Bush, would, of course also survive after being elected in 2000.

The "curse" actually starts in 1840, with the death in 1841 of William Henry Harrison the oldest elected president until Reagan. (Myth has it he got sick for standing out in the cold and rain while delivering the longest inaugural address in American history; however, he didn't get ill until 3 weeks later.) Harrison died after only 30 days in office.

As to why so many Presidents have been assassintated? Two conjoined answers: Freedom and guns. The first 3 presidents who were assassinated were virtually accessible by the entire public. Anyone with a gun and a grudge could walk up and shoot them. Lincoln, at a time of war, had only one bodyguard. Garfield was at a public railroad station when he was shot, and McKinley was unguarded in a receiving line greeting the public when he was shot by an anarchist. The accessibility of American presidents has been far greater than that of British Prime Ministers in many ways. Plus, there's never been an articial class barrier about approaching "one's betters" as has existed in Britain for much of its history. And then there's guns. Guns were not and still remain, an uncommon part of British life. In America, they were an essential tool for hunting and protection from the moment settlers came onto her shores.

JFK was assassinated, but he was the only President who was so unfortunate since 1901. There have been other notable attempts, FDR right after his election was missed, though the mayor of Chicago died (the shooting was in Miami). President Ford had two attempts. Reagan was shot in 1981. What these all have in common is that they're by kooks, which is the common theme of certainly the assassinations of Garfield and McKinley. The mix of freedom, accessiblity to the President and the easy availability of guns means that people of questionable mental stability could get a gun and get close to the President. And that's your answer.

[jaxus]

McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, who, according to at least one author, had a bit of a crush on Emma Goldman. He also had a history of mental illness. In an era before TV, one could say Goldman was a sort of celebrity.

Sounds kinda similar to what happened to Reagan, eh?

As far as other leaders being assassinated, heck, the king of Italy was assassinated about a month before McKinley was.