Eight Presidents Died While Serving in the White House

Since the beginning of the United States, a total of eight Presidents have died while serving in the White House.

Of these eight Presidents, four were assassinated, while the other four died of natural causes.

President William Henry Harrison was the first US President to die while in the White House. Harrison contracted pneumonia at his Presidential inauguration (he wasn't properly dressed for the cold, wet day) and died just 31 days into his term in 1841.

President Zachary Taylor ate contaminated food at a Fourth of July celebration and died of Gastroenteritis in 1850.

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.

President James Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau in 1881.

President William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz in 1901.

President Warren G. Harding suffered a heart attack while on a tour of the western states in 1923, and remains the only US President to die of a heart-related ailment while in the White House.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was beset by a great deal of health issues in his third and fourth terms in the White House, died of a stroke while posing for a portrait in 1945.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.

There were multiple occasions as well when the sitting US President had a major health crisis.

President Ronald Reagan nearly lost his life in an assassination attempt. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a major stroke. President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. President George H.W. Bush suffered an atrial fibrillation.

The healthiest Presidents? You'd probably have to say President James Monroe and President Barack Obama, who both served two terms without having any documented health issues.

Source: President Health Crises

Filed under: General Knowledge