The Curse of Tippecanoe

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Disclaimer: All information in this following post is strictly theoretical. My sole purpose in the writing of this post is to bring into the light a disturbing pattern in the occurence of death (whether by natural causes or asassination) among the 43 Presidents of the United States, and not to say anything about any asassination attemps on our current President, because although i disagree with many things on his political agenda, i do not wish to see him dead. This post is solely to discuss the Curse of Tippecanoe, not to form a conspiracy. Thank you, and enjoy!

Now, you're probably wondering what the bloody h*** the Curse of Tippecanoe is. Well, it is supposedly a death curse laid on the 9th President, William Henry Harrison, and his line of sucessors, that takes affect every 20 years. You've probably never heard of Henry Harrison, and here's why: He dies about a month after his inauguration from an acute case of puenomia. Now, back to my theory. William H. Harrison was most famous for his pre-presidential military victory over the Shawnee Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Rumor has it that, at the end, Harrison was kneeling over a dying Shawnee shaman when he stated as his last words that if he became President, he would die, as well as the President in office for every 20 years after his death. After that, the shaman died. Harrison dismissed the shaman's promise as pre-mortem madness and continued his political agenda. However, after he triumphed in the polls to become the 9th President of the US, he forgot to wear a coat and hat at his inauguration ceremony, and consequently developed puenomia, resulting in his death. Now before you dismiss my theory as pure spectulation, check out the pattern of presidents and their inauguration dates...

President - Inauguration year - death
*event occured in later term
**served previous terms; Ing. year shown was their last

9. W.H. Harrison - Ing. 1841 - Died in office


12. A. Lincoln - Ing. 1861 - Asassinated*


20 - J.A. Garfield - 1881 - Asassinated


25. W. McKinley - 1901** - Unknown


29. W. G. Harding - 1921 - Died in office


32. F.D. Roosevelt - 1941** - Asassinated


35. J. F. Kennedy - 1961 - Obvious


40. R. Reagan - 1981 - Lived to complete his presidency; the only flaw in the curse


As you can see, ever since the death of Harrison, the presidents that died in office all have one thing in common: They were inaugurated on a date that is 20 or a multiple of 20 after Harrison's inauguration. The only break in the curse was Reagan, who died recently, but not in office.

However, this raises another question about the Curse... What about Bush? As you know, his Inauguration date was in 2001, in January. This date is 20 years after Reagan, who was considered a flaw in the curse. However, Reagan didn't have to deal with 9/11, and he doesn't have the whole Muslim race out for his blood. No, it is Bush that has to deal with this, and he's the one who has a buttload of enemies. And it is a proven fact that the more enemies you have, the better chance you have of kicking the bucket before it is supposed to spill. RHI that Bush has also recently been suffering health problems after his stressful election in 2004.
And while i hate to say it, i and the whole nation must embrace the inevitable; that sometime in the near future, before the next election, President George W. Bush will snuff it. The odds are in favor of the curse reawakening and destroying the 43rd President, being of course hell-bent on destroying another life, having narrowly missed the last. And that, my friends , is my documentary on the Curse of Tippecanoe. Thank you all, and good-night.

Archmage

Knowing the World's luck though, he'll be shot in the head and so survive unharmed......

F. D. R. died of cerebral hemorrhage and McKinley was asassinated, not "unknown"...

You would need to work out the following to lend credence to you theory, although it is interesting:

How many died in office who were inaugurated in the years in between?

What is the increased statistical probability of death in office due the assaination factor (ie you are not likely to be assasinated while not in office)?

Compare the study to a control group of say others in a similar type of office or perhaps to the presidents before the curse.

There was only one: Zachary Taylor, who took office in 1849 and died in 1850.



Of the 8 presidents before the curse, not a single one of them died in office.

1. George Washington (1789-1797)
2. John Adams (1797-1801)
3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
4. James Madison (1809-1817)
5. James Monroe (1817-1825)
6. John Q. Adams (1825-1829)
7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

Of the 8 presidents supposedly affected by the curse, 7 of them died in office.

9. William H. Harrison (1841)
16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
20. James Garfield (1881)
25. William McKinley (1897-1901)
29. Warren Harding (1921-1923)
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
35. John F, Kennedy (1961-1963)
40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

Of the other 25 presidents (excluding George W. Bush), only one died in office.

10. John Tyler (1841-1845)
11. James K. Polk (1845-1849)
12. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
13. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
14. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
15. James Buchanan (1857-1861)
17. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
22/24. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897)
23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
27. William H. Taft (1909-1913)
28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
31. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
33. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
34. Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
36. Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969)
37. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
38. Gerald Ford (1974-1997)
39. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
41. George Bush (1989-1993)
42. Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

In summary, we have had

• 7 "cursed" presidents who died in office (1.56)
• 1 "cursed" president who did not die in office (6.44)
• 1 "uncursed" president who died in office (6.44)
• 32 "uncursed" presidents who did not die in office (26.56)

The numbers in parentheses are the expected numbers if the probability of dying in office were the same regardless of the curse.

The chi-squared test statistic is 29.254, with 1 df. The p-value for the independence test is 6.35e-8, which is less than any reasonable significance level. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis that death in office is independent of the curse.

I had to do a report on William Henry Harrison once, and the book about him I was reading never mentioned a shaman.

Anyone got a theory why Reagan's the odd one out?

Reagan did get shot, but he survived.

I think that there was some otherworldy influence placed on Harrison on the part of the Indians. However, my friend was the one who showed me the pattern, and i'm not sure how much of his story as to how it happened was real and how much was exaggeration. But i believe the curse is real, even if i don't know what exactly caused it. i still believe it wascast because of or during the battle of Tippecanoe.

I don't believe in curses. It is just a series of coincidences: perhaps unlikely but still within statistical probability. It is theoretically possible to toss a coin 50 times and get all heads or all tails but would be very rare.

McKinley was assassinated. Indeed, EVERY one
of those listed took a bullet.

Maybe the curse ran out of steam after 7 times... (*just an idea*)

But I don't think it was a curse. It was just a coincidence.