The Curse That Killed 7 U.S. Presidents

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Seven US presidents died while still in office, and their election years formed a strange pattern, one every 20 years from 1840 to 1960.

[00:00:10]William Henry Harrison, the pattern began with him. Before becoming president, Harrison fought Native American tribes on the frontier. His most famous enemy was Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief. In 1813, Tecumseh was killed in battle, then the legend appeared. Harrison and future presidents had been cursed. Harrison was elected in 1840. 1 month after taking office, he was dead. Officially, it was pneumonia, but the timing started the story. The first name in the chain had already fallen.

[00:00:47]Abraham Lincoln, 20 years later, the pattern returned. Lincoln was elected in 1860. He became the first Republican president. He led the country through the Civil War, and his name became tied to the end of slavery in the United States. But, the strange part came after the war. 5 days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln went to a theater. The play was called Our American Cousin.

[00:01:13]During the performance, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a supporter of the South. This time, it was not illness, it was assassination, and now the pattern was harder to ignore.

[00:01:26]James Garfield, he was elected in 1880.

[00:01:29]Again, exactly 20 years later, Garfield became the 20th president of the United States, but his term quickly turned into a fight for survival. In 1881, he was shot with a revolver, but the bullet was only the beginning. Garfield did not die immediately. He survived for almost 3 months. Doctors tried to remove the bullet. They failed. They also brought infection into the wound.

[00:01:57]Garfield may have survived the attack, but he did not survive the treatment.

[00:02:02]William McKinley, in 1900, he was reelected for a second term. That placed him inside the same 20-year cycle.

[00:02:11]McKinley had led America after victory in the war with Spain. Under him, the gold standard was introduced. Protective tariffs were also raised, but his presidency ended in a public place. In 1901, McKinley visited the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. There, an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz shot him.

[00:02:34]McKinley died from the wounds. His Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, took office after him. By this point, the chain had reached four presidents in a row.

[00:02:45]Warren Harding, he was elected in 1920.

[00:02:49]At first, his presidency did not look like part of a curse. Harding was popular with voters, but later, his administration became buried in scandals. The biggest one was the Teapot Dome scandal. Officials helped illegally transfer an oil reserve to the Mammoth Oil Company. Before Watergate, it was one of the biggest political scandals in American history. Harding tried to repair his reputation. In 1923, he went on a tour across the country.

[00:03:19]But during that trip in San Francisco, he suddenly died. The cause was reported as either a stroke or a heart attack, but no autopsy was performed. Even his death left behind an unanswered detail.

[00:03:34]Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was elected again in 1940, and he became the next name in the chain. Roosevelt was not a normal case. He was elected four times.

[00:03:45]1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944.

[00:03:52]No other US president has done that.

[00:03:55]Under him, America climbed out of the Great Depression. Then, the country entered World War II. For the last 24 years of his life, Roosevelt used a wheelchair. In 1945, he died in office.

[00:04:09]It happened 2 months after the Yalta Conference and shortly before victory over Germany. Roosevelt had led America through most of the war, but he did not live to see the end of it in Europe.

[00:04:22]John F. Kennedy. He was elected in 1960 and he became the most famous name in the legend. Kennedy was young, he was Catholic, and his presidency came during one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War, the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[00:04:41]For a moment, the world came close to nuclear war, but Kennedy's death did not come in battle. It came during a political trip.

[00:04:50]In 1963, he traveled to Dallas. The trip was connected to his coming 1964 campaign.

[00:04:58]During the visit, he was assassinated.

[00:05:01]After that, people started comparing him to Lincoln. Both were elected exactly 100 years apart. Both were assassinated.

[00:05:11]Both became symbols larger than their presidencies. And with Kennedy, the legend reached its peak because after him, the chain began to break. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. He survived an assassination attempt. George Bush was elected in 2000. He completed two terms. Tecumseh's curse was never proven as fact, but the pattern remained. From 1840 to 1960, presidents elected every 20 years kept dying in office. If you want more videos like this, subscribe and drop suggestions for the next one in the comments.