No one knew who would be the next President almost up until inauguration day. Violence and intimidation were rampant at polling places. Some people were murdered just because they tried to vote. (For an "on the ground" account of what this looked like, see Dana Bash's new book America's Deadliest Election, reviewed here in this community.) One ( Read more... )

No doubt you all remember the 1880 election. It came four years after the closest election in presidential history when Rutherford Hayes was elected president after he was awarded the disputed electoral votes of three states just days before he was inaugurated. Many believe that a deal was made in which Hayes was declared president in return for a ( Read more... )

155 years ago today, on October 8, 1869, Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, died at his home in Concord, New Hampshire, at the age of 64. He died from cirrhosis of the liver, the result of what was almost certainly Pierce's alcoholism. Pierce is quoted, truthfully or otherwise, as saying, when he lost his party's bid for re- ( Read more... )

For a time it looked as if racial equality might be a reality for the former enslaved persons of the deep south, for a very brief time. After the Civil War, and following the election of Ulysses Grant to the Presidency, and the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the federal government and states from denying a citizen's ( Read more... )

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite obscure Presidents, Chester Alan Arthur. He was born on October 5th, probably 1829. (Arthur's tombstone says that he was born in 1830, but his leading biographer Thomas C. Reeves makes a much stronger case for Arthur being born in 1829, which would mean that he was born 195 years ago today).

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It was 202 years ago today, on October 4, 1822, that Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio. Hayes was elected in the closest and most controversial presidential election ever (yes, closer and more controversial than even Bush v. Gore). In his single term he presided over the end of ( Read more... )

Today is William Howard Taft's birthday. He was born on September 15, 1857. If he was alive today (as he was in Jason Heller's terrific novel Taft 2012, reviewed here) he would be 167 years old. William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the only person to ever serve both as President and as ( Read more... )

Alternate Presidents is a collection of 28 short stories edited by Mike Resnick, speculating on what history might have been like if the outcome of 28 presidential elections would have been different. This anthology was released on February 15, 1992. This book is a delight to read. Resnick, a Hugo Award winning science fiction writer, also ( Read more... )

On July 31, 1875 (149 years ago today) Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, died at his home in Elizabethton, Tennessee at the age of 66. He died as the result of a stroke.


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On July 23, 1885 (139 years ago today) Ulysses Grant, the 18th President of the United States, died at Mount McGregor, New York, at the age of 63. His love of cigars had caught up with him and throat cancer had claimed another victim.


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