On October 27, 1858 (166 years ago today) Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born in a four-story brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, in New York City. His parents were Theodore "Thee" Roosevelt, Sr. and the former Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch. He went from being a very sickly child, to become President of the United States. TR, as he was known, was ( Read more... )

The election of 1892 may have something in common with the election of 2024 (at least until this past July), in that a former president ran against an incumbent president. In 1888 Benjamin Harrison defeated incumbent President Grover Cleveland by a margin of 233 to 168 in the electoral college, despite the fact that Cleveland received more votes. ( 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... )

On September 14, 1901 (123 years ago today) President William McKinley died, 8 days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. McKinley was 58 years old at the time of his death. He was the last President to have fought in the Civil War. McKinley won two elections (in 1896 and in 1900), each time defeating William ( 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... )

When Theodore Roosevelt ran for President in 1904 he pledged that he would not run for re-election. He had already completed William McKinley's second term in office following McKinley's assassination in September of 1901, so Roosevelt had already almost served a full term in office before winning re-election to a second, and serving more than two ( Read more... )

Benjamin Harrison has the distinction of being the only president whose predecessor and successor were the same man. (Will Joe Biden match this feat in November? Stay tuned!) When he left office, Harrison remained in Washington, DC before leaving to visit the World's Columbian Exposition (better known as the Chicago World's Fair) in June of 1893. ( Read more... )

Grover Cleveland is unique in that (so far) he is the only President to have served non-consecutive terms in office, and therefore he had two periods of what some would call retirement. Just like another President from New York, Cleveland left office after failing to win re-election, telling everyone that he would be back. Or at least that's what ( Read more... )

Rutherford Hayes became President after what was perhaps the most controversial Presidential elections in history. A number of electoral votes were in dispute in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in these states, but the results in those states were rendered uncertain because of allegations of ( Read more... )

On June 24, 1908 (116 years ago today) Steven Grover Cleveland, who was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States and the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 71. Cleveland ended a 16 year string of Republican Presidents by winning the presidential election of 1884 ( Read more... )