Rerun: Presidential Fun Facts

(These entries were originally posted at my old site.)

Reagan, Eisenhower, and Harding in the extended.

Ronald Reagan, President 1981-1989.

On March 31, 1981 President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. Reagan managed to keep his sense of humor even as he was rushed into the emergency room. Arriving at the hospital, he told the doctors waiting for him, "Please tell me you're Republicans."
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Dwight Eisenhower, President 1953-1961.

Inauguration Day for President Eisenhower was very busy and very long...despite the late night, he rose the next morning bright and early. He took the White House elevator from the family quarters to the ground floor, eager to start his day.

One problem.

"Would you show me where my office is?" he asked a nearby Secret Service agent. "I want to get an early start."
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Warren Harding, President 1921-1923.

President Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on August 23, 1923 under circumstances that began as mysterious and were then varnished by rumor in the aftermath of scandals and salacious revelations that surfaced following the president's demise.

The ailing president arrived in San Francisco and was taken to the Palace Hotel where he died either of anxiety, stroke, heart attack, food poisoning, or from deliberate poisoning by First Lady Florence, fed up with her husband's philandering.

The legend continues that Mrs. Harding's psychic had, on the eve of his nomination, predicted the president would die in office. The fact that Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy of the president contributed to suspicion of her guilt; the official cause of President Harding's death is listed as a heart attack.

Posted by Jennifer at July 2, 2004 09:00 AM

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