Curse of Tippecanoe

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The term Curse of Tippecanoe (also known as the presidential curse, zero-year curse, or the twenty-year curse) is sometimes used to describe the pattern where, from 1840 to 1960, every United States President elected (or reelected) every twentieth year (which always ends in zero (i.e., '00, '20, '40, '60, '80)) has died in office, been assassinated, or have had an assasination attempt. The only president to die in office outside of this pattern was Zachary Taylor who was elected in 1848 and died of cholera in 1850, a year also ending in zero.

The curse, first noted in a Ripley's Believe It or Not book published in 1934, starts with William Henry Harrison, who was called "Old Tippecanoe" because of his victory in the 1811 battle.

[edit] Presidents in the line of the alleged curse

Elected	President	Term of Death	Cause of Death	Date of Death
1840	William Henry Harrison	First	Pneumonia	1841-04-04
1860*	Abraham Lincoln	Second	Assassinated by Gunshot	1865-04-15
1880	James Garfield	First	Assassinated by Gunshot	1881-09-19
1900	William McKinley	Second	Assassinated by Gunshot	1901-09-14
1920	Warren Harding	First	Stroke or Heart Attack	1923-08-02
1940*	Franklin Roosevelt	Fourth	Cerebral hemorrhage	1945-04-12
1960	John Kennedy	First	Assassinated by Gunshot	1963-11-22
1980*	Ronald Reagan	Did not die in office	Survived assassination attempt on 30 March 1981, died of Alzheimer's disease in 2004.	2004-06-05
2000*	George W. Bush	Has not died in office		Living

* This was not the final year they were elected. Lincoln's reelection year was 1864. Roosevelt was reelected one other time afterwards in 1944, also previously elected in 1932 and 1936. Reagan was reelected in 1984, and Bush was reelected in 2004.