By Andy Young
Special to The Windham Eagle
Seventy-eight-year-old Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. will become
the oldest man in United States history to be inaugurated as president for the
first time when he is sworn in next week.
The previous record holder was Biden’s immediate predecessor,
who was 70 when he took office four years ago. The nation’s incoming chief
executive will be the first ever to come from Delaware, although he was
actually born in neighboring Pennsylvania.
He’ll also become just the second Roman Catholic
commander-in-chief; John F. Kennedy was the first.
But with Biden’s inauguration, November will move into a tie
for the designation of top president-producer. Hopefully the
soon-to-be-46th-POTUS will enjoy better health than any of the previous
November-born presidents did.
None of that quintet won a second term, and only Franklin
Pierce lived more than five years after his election. Zachary Taylor, James
Garfield (an assassination victim), and Warren Harding each died before completing
his term, and James Polk passed away barely three months after leaving office
in 1849.
In addition to the dozen presidents who began their lives in
October or November, five (Benjamin Harrison, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson,
Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama) were born in August.
January (Millard Fillmore, William McKinley, Franklin
Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon), February (George Washington, William Henry
Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan), March (James Madison, Andrew
Jackson, John Tyler, and Grover Cleveland), April (Thomas Jefferson, James
Monroe, James Buchanan, and Ulysses S. Grant), and July (John Quincy Adams,
Calvin Coolidge, Gerald Ford, and George W. Bush) have all produced four
different commanders-in-chief.
December spawned a trio of presidents (Martin Van Buren,
Andrew Johnson, and Woodrow Wilson); May (Harry Truman and JFK) and June
(George H.W. Bush and Mr. Biden’s immediate predecessor) can claim two each.
The only president born in September: William Howard Taft.
However, if it’s any consolation to other September natives, the nation’s 27th
chief executive reputedly weighed as much or more than three pint-sized James
Madisons.
Historically, months beginning with the letter J have been
perilous ones for American chief executives. Eighteen of the 38
no-longer-extant men who once resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington
never lived at the White House) permanently ceased breathing in July (John
Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, Taylor, Van Buren, Andrew Johnson, and Grant), June
(Madison, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Cleveland, and Reagan), or January (Tyler,
Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge, and LBJ).
Eerily, all four of the presidents who succumbed in April did
so without completing their terms in office: William Henry Harrison and FDR died
in office, Lincoln was assassinated, and Nixon resigned in disgrace.
Another quartet of former chief executives (Fillmore, Benjamin
Harrison, Taft, and Eisenhower) died in March. November (Arthur, JFK, and HW
Bush) and December (Washington, Truman, and Ford) have each seen three
presidential deaths. Two former presidents died in February (Wilson and J.Q.
Adams) and October (Pierce and Hoover), while assassination ended the lives of
two sitting chief executives in September (Garfield and McKinley). The only
president who met his end in August was Harding. To date no ex-president has
died in May, but as of January 20th there will be six current or former
commanders-in-chief who’ve not yet committed themselves regarding when and
where they will leave their earthly incarnations behind.
Here’s hoping, for everyone’s sake, that the 13th different president of my lifetime will be an honest, effective, and lucky one. <
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