The curse has many names: Curse of Tippecanoe, The Presidential Curse, Tecumseh’s Curse, Zero-Year Curse and the Twenty-Year Presidential Jinx. No matter the name, the curse claimed the lives of seven United States Presidents since its origin.
It all started with William Henry Harrison. He’s probably in the running for being one of the most unknown presidents. Harrison served as our ninth U.S. President for a total of 32 days. Prior to his election, Harrison swindled large amounts of land from the Native Americans which led to a period known as Tecumseh’s War. This eventually resulted in a Native American curse set against Harrison and all future Presidents elected during years ending in zero. Since a president serves for four years, it would kill a president every 20 years.
Harrison did what most people do when a curse is cast upon him: he ignored it. In 1840, he won the Presidential Election and, in March of 1841, Harrison gave his Inaugural Address. Sadly, he caught a cold after being in office for less than a month. As luck would have it, that cold developed into pneumonia which caused his death on April 4, 1841, fulfilling the curse set upon him.
The death of President Harrison was excused as an untimely tragedy, not the result of a curse. So, when Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860, no one thought about the Native American’s curse. People were more concerned with South Carolina’s succession and the impending Civil War. We all know how the story goes: the South succeeds, the nation goes to war with itself, the Union wins, five days after the South surrenders and Lincoln is assassinated on April 14, 1865. Lincoln’s election may have broken a nation, but it did not break the curse.
In 1880, James Garfield became the nation’s 20th President. His beard was long, but his presidency was short as he became the second president that was victim of assassination. On July 2, 1881, he was shot twice in a train station.
In 1900, William McKinley won the election to become the 25th President of the United States. He won the fight against Spain in the Spanish-American War but lost the fight against an anarchist who shot him twice. McKinley died a few days later on September 6, 1901.
In 1920, Warren G. Harding became the 29th President. During his Presidency, the United States suffered from a post-war depression following WWI and Harding’s scandals filled the news. He did not live to see the prosperity that the Roaring Twenties would bring because he died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923.
In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt was elected into his third term. Roosevelt was certainly a fighter, as he led the nation through the Great Depression and almost all of WWII. Tragically, as WWII drew to a close, so did Roosevelt’s life. On April 12, 1945, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy earned the title of 35th President of the United States. His reign was known as the Camelot Years and served his country through the tough times of the Cold War and Civil Rights Movement. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan gained the option of adding 40th President of the United States to his acting resume. Sixty-nine days after taking office, however, Reagan was shot. Unlike the seven Presidents before him though, Reagan lived.
It is said that Reagan was able to break the curse by making a deal with the Devil himself. After all, who else would you go to about breaking a magic curse? Reagan proposed a deal that if he sold his soul, he would not only survive the curse but also have one of the greatest U.S. Presidencies. The Devil agreed, but on the condition that he would not be able to remember it. Reagan did end up ranking favorably in public and critical opinion, with one time hitting 81% in 1986. Many attribute his presidency as the end of the Cold War. Unfortunately, Reagan later died from a long battle with Alzheimer’s, thus fulfilling the deal.
Some say that the curse was broken by Reagan since neither he nor George W. Bush died in office, but I would still be skeptical for the victor of the 2020 Presidential election.
