Talk:List of presidents of the United States who died in office

Length of final term
The chart shows the number of days in office, 1509 in the case of Lincoln, but not the 41 days or so of his second term. This is relevant because a surprising number of the Presidents to die in office changed VPs. At least 3, Lincoln, McKinley and Roosevelt (FDR). The follow-on concept is that the conversations of the soon-to-die Presidents and their VPs have been quite limited. For instance Truman was not told of the atomic bomb while VP, nor FDR's plans to use it; Andrew Johnson only had a couple of brief conversations with Lincoln while they were VP & P respectively. This is a major aspect of the sudden transition of power.

The opposite of this had to do with length of time that the newly elevated President has before the next Presidential election, as L.B. Johnson had less than a year, while the other Johnson had 3 years to become widely despised and impeached. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.105.72.67 (talk) 16:53, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

WOW! Excellent trivia. More is needed in government trivia. Schools are neglecting American Gov. & History in school. At least teach the branches of our gov. And what their responsibilities. Paul T. Watson 13:14, 18 January 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paultwatson (talk • contribs)

I apologize for my edit.
Didn't realize FDR died in office - big oops. However, the introduction recapitulated the same information about two presidents, leading to the recurrence of two sentences. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.21.106.137 (talk) 07:31, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

"Year Elected"
No president to my knowledge has been inaugurated in the year in which they were elected. Generally US presidents are elected on Nov. 4 and inaugurated in the next year. I may edit the table to reflect this, changing "year elected" to "year inaugurated." 173.21.106.137 (talk) 07:36, 4 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Officially, the day after the first Monday of November, in addition to being the date in every even-numbered year when the U.S. House of Representatives and one third of the U.S. Senate are elected, is the date in every fourth year for the appointment of the electors of the U.S. President and Vice President. It is not until the sixth Monday after the General Elections, when the electors gather within their home states to record and sign their votes, that the President and Vice President are officially elected.  Through most of U.S. history, the dates designated for the meetings of the electors have been in December, but they were in January in 1889 and from 1897 to 1933.


 * These are the actual dates when each U.S. President was officially elected:
 * George Washington -- February 4, 1789 & December 5, 1792
 * John Adams -- December 7, 1796
 * Thomas Jefferson -- February 17, 1801* & December 5, 1804
 * James Madison -- December 7, 1808 & December 2, 1812
 * James Monroe -- December 4, 1816 & December 6, 1820
 * John Quincy Adams -- February 9, 1825*
 * Andrew Jackson -- December 3, 1828 & December 5, 1832
 * Martin Van Buren -- December 7, 1836
 * William Henry Harrison -- December 2, 1840
 * James K. Polk -- December 4, 1844
 * Zachary Taylor -- December 6, 1848
 * Franklin Pierce -- December 1, 1852
 * James Buchanan -- December 3, 1856
 * Abraham Lincoln -- December 5, 1860 & December 7, 1864
 * Ulysses S. Grant -- December 2, 1868 & December 4, 1872
 * Rutherford B. Hayes (or Samuel B. Tilden) -- December 6, 1876
 * James A. Garfield -- December 1, 1880
 * Grover Cleveland -- December 3, 1884 & December 14, 1892
 * Benjamin Harrison -- January 14, 1889
 * William McKinley -- January 11, 1897 & January 14, 1901
 * Theodore Roosevelt -- January 9, 1905
 * William Howard Taft -- January 11, 1909
 * Woodrow Wilson -- January 13, 1913 & January 8, 1917
 * Warren G. Harding -- January 10, 1921
 * Calvin Coolidge -- January 12, 1925
 * Herbert Hoover -- January 2, 1929
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt -- January 4, 1933, December 14, 1936, December 16, 1940 & December 18, 1944
 * Harry S. Truman -- December 13, 1948
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower -- December 15, 1952 & December 17, 1956
 * John F. Kennedy -- December 19, 1960
 * Lyndon B. Johnson -- December 14, 1964
 * Richard M. Nixon -- December 16, 1968 & December 18, 1972
 * Jimmy Carter -- December 13, 1976
 * Ronald Reagan -- December 15, 1980 & December 17, 1984
 * George H. W. Bush -- December 19, 1988
 * Bill Clinton -- December 14, 1992 & December 16, 1996
 * George W. Bush -- December 18, 2000 & December 13, 2004
 * Barack Obama -- December 15, 2008 & December 17, 2012
 * Donald J. Trump -- December 19, 2016 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2000:F24B:E100:310A:8BE5:7C9E:2135 (talk) 07:58, 1 July 2017 (UTC)
 * * The U.S. House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson President in 1801 after the election by the electoral college on December 3, 1800 resulted in a tie for first place. The House also elected John Quincy Adams in 1825 after nobody received the votes of more than half of the appointed electors on December 1, 1824.


 * HankW512 (talk) 06:53, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Recent edit concerning Lincoln smiling
This article is a summary article, a list of the US Presidents who have died in office and points the way to the more-detailed individual articles about each President's death. Not every detail about these events, including Lincoln's expression immediately after being shot, should be included. These details would be more appropriate in the individual articles about the assassinations or deaths. Shearonink (talk) 21:13, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Longest Period Without a President Dying in Office
Throughout the history of the U.S. Presidency, the longest period without a President dying in office has always been the period beginning on the 30th of April 1789, the first day of the first presidency. That is expected to remain the case only until the 26th of October 2015. After 26 Oct, the period beginning on the 22nd of November 1963 will be the longest without a President dying in office.

I was surprised to learn that 22 Nov 1963 was the first time in U.S. history that the total number of Presidents who died in office exceeded the total number of Vice Presidents who died in office. I suppose the reason I found that surprising is that we almost never hear about a Vice President dying in office, mainly because it hasn't happened in over a century, since October 1912. The other reason is that we learn so much less about the Vice Presidents than we do about the Presidents; I'm guessing maybe 10% as much. I suppose a lot of people know that James Madison was the only President who had two Vice Presidents die in office during his presidency, George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, but how many know of the other five who died in office, William King, who never even made it to Washington and died about a month into Franklin Pierce's presidency, Henry Wilson, who died during Ulysses S. Grant's second term, Thomas A. Hendricks, who died during Grover Cleveland's first term, Garret A. Hobart, who died during William McKinley's first term, and James S. Sherman, who died six days before Election Day 1912.

I know I'm deviating from my stated topic, but while I'm on the subject of vice presidential facts, I just have to bring up what I recently noticed in the data regarding former Vice President John Nance Garner IV, who served during FDR's first two terms. He was celebrating his 95th birthday the day JFK was shot. He was born during Andrew Johnson's presidency and died during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, 15 days before his 99th birthday.

HankW512 (talk) 08:31, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Garfield's Cause of Death
I agree with those who believe that James A. Garfield's cause of death was not nearly as much due to the bullet that remained inside him as it was due to all the "dirty" fingers that were poking around inside him looking for it.

HankW512 (talk) 09:14, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

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Move discussion in progress
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Semi-protected edit request on 2 October 2020
Because this page is already protected minutes earlier, please add (Use American English) tag in the article in order to avoid IPs/users changing spelling from US to UK spelling. I think can helped me. Thanks. 180.241.205.155 (talk) 06:01, 2 October 2020 (UTC)


 * ❌. Articles with obvious MOS:TIES probably don't need the template.  Anyone changing spelling disruptively isn't going to care, and anyone doing it cluelessly isn't going to see the template. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon &bull; videos) 13:17, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Number of presidents
The article states there are 45 persons who served in office. When you source edit it says to NOT change it. Joe Biden is the 46th and current president, so it should be changed. Super yoshi013021 (talk) 14:48, 22 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president. So Biden, while the 46th president, is the 45th person to serve as president. No change is needed.Drdpw (talk) 15:19, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

@Drdpw, thanks for the info. Super yoshi013021 (talk) 19:48, 23 July 2022 (UTC)

P.S. @Drdpw, we may need to change it if Biden is no longer president to 46 then. Super yoshi013021 (talk) 19:51, 23 July 2022 (UTC)