Transition events

Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated while in office:

Ø Abraham Lincoln in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth

Ø James Garfield in 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau (Guiteau shot him but Garfield arguably died due to subsequent incorrect medical care)

Ø William McKinley in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz

Ø John F. Kennedy in 1963, generally thought to be by Lee Harvey Oswald [1] although many theories suggest other or additional gunmen

Four others died in office of natural causes:

Ø William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841

Ø Zachary Taylor, died of "acute indigestion" in 1850. Taylor's body was exhumed in 1991 to test if he had died of arsenic poisoning. It was determined he did not.

Ø Warren G. Harding, died of heart attack in 1923

Ø Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1945

Every U.S. President from William Henry Harrison to John F. Kennedy who was elected or re-elected in a year divisible by 20 died in office, many by assassination. Ronald Reagan (elected in 1980) survived an attempt on his life and George W. Bush (elected in 2000) has so far suffered no similar misfortune.

Ø 1840: William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841

Ø 1860: Abraham Lincoln, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865

Ø 1880: James Garfield, assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau in 1881

Ø 1900: William McKinley, assassinated by Leon Czolgosz in 1901

Ø Theodore Roosevelt, who was McKinley's Vice President and succeeded him in 1901, was shot by John Shrank in an assassination attempt in 1912

Ø 1920: Warren G. Harding, died of a heart attack in 1923

Ø 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945

Ø 1960: John F. Kennedy, assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963

Ø 1980: Ronald Reagan, shot by John Hinckley in an assassination attempt in 1981

One President resigned from office:

Ø Richard Nixon in 1974

Two Presidents have been impeached, though neither was subsequently convicted:

Ø Andrew Johnson in 1868

Ø Bill Clinton in 1999

Four Presidents have been elected without a plurality of popular votes:

Ø John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in the 1824 election

Ø Rutherford B. Hayes - trailed Samuel J. Tilden by 264,292 votes in the 1876 election

Ø Benjamin Harrison - trailed Grover Cleveland 95,713 votes in the 1888 election

Ø George W. Bush - trailed Al Gore by 543,895 votes in the 2000 election

Eleven Presidents have been elected fourteen times without a majority of popular votes (but with a plurality of popular votes):

Ø James K. Polk - 49.3% of the popular vote in the 1844 election

Ø Zachary Taylor - 47.3% of the popular vote in the 1848 election

Ø James Buchanan - 45.3% of the popular vote in the 1856 election

Ø Abraham Lincoln - 39.9% of the popular vote in the 1860 election

Ø James A. Garfield - 48.3% of the popular vote in the 1880 election

Ø Grover Cleveland - 48.8% of the popular vote in the 1884 election

Ø Grover Cleveland - 46.0% of the popular vote in the 1892 election

Ø Woodrow Wilson - 41.8% of the popular vote in the 1912 election

Ø Woodrow Wilson - 49.3% of the popular vote in the 1916 election

Ø Harry S. Truman - 49.7% of the popular vote in the 1948 election

Ø John F. Kennedy - 49.7% of the popular vote in the 1960 election

Ø Richard Nixon - 43.2% of the popular vote in the 1968 election

Ø Bill Clinton - 42.9% of the popular vote in the 1992 election

Ø Bill Clinton - 49.2% of the popular vote in the 1996 election

Two Presidents have been elected without a majority of electoral votes, and were chosen by the House of Representatives:

Ø Thomas Jefferson - finished with same number of electoral votes as Aaron Burr in the 1800 election

Ø John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 15 electoral votes in the 1824 election

Eight Presidents took office without being elected to the Presidency, having been elected as Vice Presidents and then promoted from that position:

Four of them did not run to succeed themselves, and were never elected president.

Ø John Tyler - Assumed the Presidency on the death of William Henry Harrison, did not run in the 1844 election

Ø Millard Fillmore - Succeeded Zachary Taylor, did not run in the 1852 election

Ø Fillmore did run for President in the 1856 election as a Know Nothing Party candidate and received 873,053 votes (21.6%), finishing third

Ø Andrew Johnson - Succeeded Abraham Lincoln, did not run in the 1868 election

Ø Chester A. Arthur - Succeeded James Garfield, did not run in the 1884 election

The other four later ran for president, and were elected to succeed themselves as president:

Ø Theodore Roosevelt - Succeeded William McKinley, elected to succeed himself as president in the 1904 election

Ø Calvin Coolidge - Succeeded Warren G. Harding, elected to succeed himself as president in the 1924 election

Ø Harry S. Truman - Succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to succeed himself as president in the 1948 election, but did not run again in the 1952 election, despite being eligible for a third term.

Ø Lyndon B. Johnson - Succeeded John F. Kennedy, elected to succeed himself as president in the 1964 election, but did not run again in the 1968 election

One President, Gerald Ford, was never elected but was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon (with approval from Congress) upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, succeeded to the Presidency after Nixon's resignation, and was defeated in the 1976 election by Jimmy Carter. He remains the only President neither elected as President nor as Vice President.

Other facts

All presidents have been white males and nominally Christian (mostly Protestant). Most presidents have been of substantially British descent, but there have been a few who came from a different background:

Ø Predominantly Dutch: Martin Van Buren

Ø Although Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt had Dutch names, neither was predominantly Dutch; each had only one Dutch grandfather. Theodore's other three grandparents were all British; Franklin's other three grandparents were of Puritan stock.

Ø Predominantly German: Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower

Ø Predominantly Irish: William McKinley, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton

Ø Kennedy was also America's only Roman Catholic president.

Franklin D Roosevelt is the only President to have had a serious physical disability.

Historical rankings of U.S. Presidents by academic historians usually regard three Presidents — in chronological order, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt — to be the three most successful presidents by a wide margin.

The Secret Service and some agencies in the government use acronyms as jargon. Since the Truman Administration the President of the United States has been called POTUS, pronounced /poʊtʊs/. The wife of the President, traditionally referred to as the First Lady is called FLOTUS, pronounced /floʊtʊs/. The Vice President of the United States is often abbreviated to VPOTUS, pronounced /vipoʊtʊs/.

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