Friday, October 5, 2007

Presidents who I know nothing about: William H Harrison

You could tell me that there was a president named Harrison & I'd say "Umm are you sure?". Actually, he was the President following Martin Van Buren. I guess I'm just not up to date on that whole era. Here are a few facts about William H Harrison that I learned from wikipedia.

  • He was the first president to die in office.
  • He was also the oldest president to ever take office at age 68. This record stood for 140 years until Ronald Reagan.
  • Died 31 days into office, the shortest term ever.
  • Died deeply in debt, Congress voted to give his wife 11 months of his salary.
  • Harrison also delivered the longest inaugural address in American history coming in at 8,445 words. In the cold. Without a coat. He then caught pneumonia & doctors tried to cure him with snake bites. He died a month later.
Looks like William Harrison was quite the record setter, who knew?

1 comment:

LEstes65 said...

Note to self: do not cure brochitis with snake bites.