![William Henry Harrison daguerreotype edit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/William_Henry_Harrison_daguerreotype_edit.jpg)
The Curse of Tippecanoe (also known as Tecumseh's Curse, the 20-year Curse or the Zero Curse
) is an
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
about the deaths in office of
presidents of the United States
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
who were elected in years that end with the digit 0, which all are divisible by 20.
The presidents elected on such years from 1840 to 1960 died in office:
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
(1840),
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
(1860),
James A. Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
(1880),
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
(1900),
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
(1920),
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
(1940) and
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
(1960). These are seven of the eight total
presidents who have died in office. Since 1960, the three presidents who were elected on applicable years have not died in office.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(1980) and
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
(2000) survived their terms in office.
Joe Biden (2020) is the current president and the latest to be elected in a year fitting the pattern.
The phenomenon's name references Harrison's pre-presidential military expeditions, in which he defeated Native American tribes led by
Tecumseh
Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...
and
Tenskwatawa
Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...
at the
Battle of Tippecanoe
The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecums ...
. Rumor has it that he was cursed by Tenskwatawa. The purported curse has been criticized as a coincidental pattern, and a 2009 survey of professional historians found no interest in or insight into the curse.
History
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
(1800) and
James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
(1820) preceded the supposed curse and outlived their presidencies by 17 and 6 years, respectively. Neither of them was ever targeted by an assassin. However, there is a curious coincidence that both men died on the Fourth of July.
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
was elected president in 1840 and died in 1841, just a month after being sworn in. In
Tecumseh's War
Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's Confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. Although the war is often considered to have climaxed with William Henry Har ...
,
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
leader Tecumseh and his younger brother Tenskwatawa organized a
confederation of Indian tribes to resist the westward expansion of the United States. In the 1811
Battle of Tippecanoe
The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecums ...
, Harrison defeated Tenskwatawa and his troops, acting as the governor of the
Indiana Territory
The Indiana Territory, officially the Territory of Indiana, was created by a United States Congress, congressional act that President of the United States, President John Adams signed into law on May 7, 1800, to form an Historic regions of the U ...
. Harrison thus earned the moniker "Old Tippecanoe".
In 1931 and 1948, the trivia book series ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...
'' noted the pattern and termed it the "Curse of Tippecanoe".
[''Ripley's Believe It or Not, 2nd Series'' (Simon & Schuster, 1931); an updated reference is on page 140 of the Pocket Books paperback edition of 1948] ''
Strange as It Seems
''Strange as It Seems'' appeared as a syndicated cartoon feature published from 1928 to 1970, and became a familiar brand to millions around the globe for its comic strips, books, radio shows and film shorts. Created by John Hix, ''Strange as It S ...
'' by
John Hix
''Strange as It Seems'' appeared as a syndicated cartoon feature published from 1928 to 1970, and became a familiar brand to millions around the globe for its comic strips, books, radio shows and film shorts. Created by John Hix, ''Strange as It Se ...
ran a cartoon prior to the
election of 1940 titled "Curse over the White House!" and claimed that "In the last 100 years, Every U.S. President Elected at 20-Year Intervals Has Died In Office!"
[''Oakland Tribune'', November 5, 1940, p12] In February 1960, journalist
Ed Koterba
Edward Victor Koterba (17 May 1919 – 27 June 1961) was an American journalist known for his nationally syndicated columns "A Bit of Washington" and "Assignment Washington" as well as his investigative journalism for ''The Washington Post''.
Li ...
noted that "The next President of the United States will face an eerie curse that for more than a century has hung over every chief executive elected in a year ending with zero."
Both of their hints at the elected president's death came true, with
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
's death in 1945 and
Kennedy's assassination in 1963.
The first written account to refer to the source of the curse was an article by
Lloyd Shearer
Lloyd "Skip" Shearer (December 20, 1916 – May 27, 2001Wadler, Joyce." ''The New York Times''. May 27, 2001. Retrieved on August 5, 2014.) was an American celebrity gossip columnist. From 1958 to 1991, he wrote "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" ...
in 1980 in
''Parade'' magazine.
It is claimed that when Tecumseh was killed in a later battle, Tenskwatawa set a curse against Harrison.
[Randi Henderson and Tom Nugent, "The Zero Curse: More than just a coincidence?" (reprinted from the ''Baltimore Sun''), November 2, 1980, in ''Syracuse Herald-American'', p C-3]
Running for re-election in 1980, President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
was asked about the curse at a campaign stop in
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...
, on October 2 of that year while taking questions from the crowd. A high school student asked Carter if he was concerned about "predictions that every 20 years or election years ending in zero, the President dies in office." Carter replied, "I've seen those predictions.
..I'm not afraid. If I knew it was going to happen, I would go ahead and be President and do the best I could till the last day I could."
Since the
assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
in 1963, no president has died in office. Ronald Reagan was
shot and wounded severely two months after his 1981 inauguration. Days after Reagan survived the shooting, columnist
Jack Anderson wrote "Reagan and the Eerie Zero Factor" in ''
The Daily Intelligencer'' and asserted that the 40th president either had disproved the superstition or
had nine lives. As the oldest man to be elected president at that time, Reagan also survived surgery in 1985. First Lady
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was born in N ...
was reported to have hired psychics and astrologers to try to protect her husband from the effects of the curse.
As his son
Ron Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
revealed, he began showing symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
as early as three years into his first term. Reagan left office in 1989 and ultimately died from
natural causes
In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...
in 2004. He was 93 years old and had survived his presidency by 15 years.
The president elected in 2000,
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, also survived two terms in office. In
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, a live grenade was thrown at him but failed to explode.
Bush left office in 2009 and has survived his presidency by 13 years and counting.
The only one of the eight
presidents who died in office who was not elected on a year covered by the curse was
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
, elected in 1848. Like Reagan and Bush, many presidents outside the curse have faced
assassination attempts or medical problems.
Applicable presidents
Criticism
The failure of the curse after 1960 has been called by multiple sources a disproof of a supernatural explanation for the curse. An analyst cited in a 2000 article by fact-checker ''
Snopes
''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a Fact checking, fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been see ...
'' developed a more complex
astrological
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...
explanation to account for Reagan's survival.
According to Timothy Redmond of the ''
Skeptical Inquirer
''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''.
Mission statement and goals
Daniel Loxton, writing in ...
'', the supposed curse demonstrates a number of logical fallacies, including
confusing correlation with causation,
cherrypicking, and
moving the goalposts
Moving the goalposts (or shifting the goalposts) is a metaphor, derived from goal-based sports, that means to change the rule or criterion (goal) of a process or competition while it is still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one ...
. In layman's terms, out of many unlikely eerie patterns, at least one of those hypothetical patterns is likely to come true.
''
Snopes
''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a Fact checking, fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been see ...
'' rates the curse on its fact-checking scale as a "legend", a rating given to over-general or unprovable claims, and denies a supernatural explanation for the curse.
In 2009, Steve Friess of ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' sought to interview notable presidential historians and security experts such as
Michael Beschloss
Michael Richard Beschloss (born November 30, 1955) is an American historian specializing in the United States presidency. He is the author of nine books on the presidency.
Early life
Beschloss was born in Chicago, grew up in Flossmoor, Illinois, ...
,
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ...
, and
Richard A. Clarke on the alleged curse, but none of them returned his calls.
Michael S. Sherry
Michael S. Sherry (born 1945) is an American historian, and professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University.
Life
He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis ''summa cum laude'', and from Yale University with an MA and Ph.D. in ...
, American history professor at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, replied, "I doubt I have anything profound to say about this particular factoid, odd though it is."
See also
*
Acting President of the United States
*
List of presidents of the United States who died in office
Since the office was established in 1789, 45 persons have served as president of the United States. Of these, eight have died in office: four were assassinated, and four died of natural causes. In each of these instances, the vice president h ...
* Similar curses and regularities:
**
Bald–hairy
Bald–hairy (russian: лысый — волосатый) is a common joke in Russian political discourse, referring to the empirical rule of the state leaders' succession defined as a change of a bald or balding leader to a hairy one and vice ...
, a regularity observed in the sequence of Russian rulers since 1825.
**
Kennedy curse
The Kennedy curse is a series of premature deaths, accidents, assassinations, and other calamities involving members of the American Kennedy family. The alleged curse has primarily struck the children and descendants of businessman Joseph P. Kenn ...
**
Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences urban legend
**
Redskins Rule The Redskins Rule is a spurious relationship in which the results of National Football League (NFL) games correlated strongly with the results of subsequent United States presidential elections. Briefly stated, there was a strong correlation betw ...
**
Second-term curse
The second-term curse is the perceived tendency of second terms of U.S. presidents to be less successful than their first terms.
According to the curse, the second terms of U.S. presidents have usually been plagued by a major scandal, policy ine ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
The Mortal Presidency: Film and DocumentaryShapell Manuscript Foundation
Breaking Tecumseh's CurseThe Curse of Tippecanoe on C-SPANTecumseh's Curse on indianapublicmedia.org
Curses
Presidential elections in the United States
United States presidential history
Presidency of William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison
Warren G. Harding
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Assassination of James A. Garfield
Assassination of William McKinley
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Tecumseh
United States presidents and death
Urban legends