- There have been 45 presidents
in the history of the United States,
and as of uploading this video, 39 of them have died.
Today, I'm talking about what killed every president
and the bizarre circumstances that surrounded many
of their deaths.
Four assassinations,
a top secret surgery aboard a fishing boat.
God bless America and pee woop.
George Washington was killed by his doctors.
That's what I think anyway.
In 1799, then retired President Washington
developed a sore throat.
His condition worsened over the next few days
despite the efforts of several physicians.
Of course in 1799, medical treatment was very poor
as doctors often believed the best way to treat ailments was
by balancing the humors,
meaning they would balance the amount
of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile
within the body.
- That makes no sense.
- Over the course of several days,
doctors drained Washington of 32 ounces
of his blood, gave him blisters in his throat,
forced him to vomit, and filled him with enemas.
No surprise, Washington passed after several days
of this medieval torture.
I do wonder if Washington would've lived longer had he
just hydrated well and maybe got a Z-Pak.
John Adams lived until 90-years-old,
the longest living president until Ronald Reagan.
When he died of heart failure,
likely related to arteriosclerosis,
a blockage of your arteries due to plaque buildup
usually occurring with old age or poor lifestyle habits.
Strangely enough, Adams died on July 4th, 1826,
exactly 50 years
to the day he signed a Declaration of Independence,
and just five hours after Thomas Jefferson,
who died the same exact day.
- Boo, Spooky.
- The cause of his death is not conclusive,
but it was likely due
to a variety of elements, such as diarrhea, kidney damage,
and an enlarged, possibly cancerous, prostate.
America's shortest president at just five foot four,
James Madison lived until the age of 85
when he died of congestive heart failure,
where the heart's ability to pump blood deteriorates,
causing fluid build up throughout the body.
While specific details are now well recorded,
James Monroe died in 1831 after a battle with tuberculosis,
a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs,
and while he may have been only America's fifth president,
at the time of his death, he joined Adams
and Jefferson to become the third president
to die on July 4th.
(party horn blows)
The fact of former presidents dying
on July 4th was not lost on the American people,
with the trend becoming a bit of a mid-1800s meme.
John Quincy Adams served one term
as president and then became the first to die in office,
though not in office as President.
You see, after losing the election of 1829,
John Quincy Adams continued his public service
by holding Congress for nine terms.
At the age of 78, during a contentious debate
over the Mexican American War
on the floor of the House of Representatives,
Adams collapsed, suffering significant stroke
where there's decreased circulation
to the brain leading to neurological damage.
He died at his home two days later,
but not before what must have been a spectacular emergency
on Capitol Hill.
Andrew Jackson suffered a long and slow decline in health
before dying at the age of 78.
The cause of his death, though, has been widely disputed,
some attributing it to the use of the medication, Calomel,
leading to heavy metal poisoning,
but JAMA states he probably died of kidney failure
with full body swelling known at the time as dropsy.
While it's not entirely certain
what killed Martin van Buren,
many sources including his obituary
in the "New York Times" cite issues originating
within his chest.
It's likely his decline began with a long infection leading
to cardiopulmonary failure.
Now things get interesting.
William Henry Harrison delivered
a two-hour inaugural address in freezing drizzle
without a coat or gloves, which many people believed
to be the cause of pneumonia
an infection of the lungs, which killed him only one month
into serving office.
In 1841,
germs had not been discovered. (germ laughs)
- Germs, Germs everywhere.
(television static)
- Rather, doctors believed the
most effective medical treatments were to,
just like with Washington, balance the humors.
Doctors blistered the president
and made him drink substances that forced him
to vomit and have diarrhea.
Of course, none of those methods actually worked go.
(coughs)
And so William Henry Harrison remains our president
with the shortest stint in office.
John Tyler took over for William Henry Harrison
and served the remainder of that term
as president.
Historians claim he was never very healthy to begin with
and died in 1862 of a stroke.
He remains the only president
in U.S. history not to be buried
with the stars and stripes as he was a darling
of the Confederacy and was buried with their flag instead.
James K Polk had grand visions
of his life after the presidency, leaving Washington
on the Southern tour of the U.S., eventually hoping to end
in Nashville where he had purchased a large home.
Unfortunately Polk died three months after leaving office,
the shortest post presidency stint
in American history from cholera,
a diarrheal disease caused by drinking contaminated water.
- Ew.
- Uh.
- Zachary Taylor served a year in office before dying
under what many would say are suspicious circumstances.
To this day, many claim he was poisoned
by pro-slavery Southerners.
The cause of his death was so controversial
that in 1991, his descendants actually agreed
to have his remains exhumed for testing,
which did not find a high enough volume
of arsenic inside his remains
to suggest a definitive poisoning.
A more common theory is he contracted cholera or dysentery
after celebrating the 4th of July in Washington, DC,
which at the time had primitive sewers, often resulting
in food and water contamination.
Millard Filmore's rumored
to have been the White House's first health-conscious
president, avoiding alcohol and tobacco.
He did die from a stroke at the age of 74.
Franklin Pierce died at the age
of 69 from cirrhosis of the liver, likely due to a lifetime
of heavy drinking.
Alcohol abuse damages the liver directly
as ethanol is a toxin, which leads
to inflammation and massive swelling within the gut.
James Buchanan is considered
by many to be the worst president
in the history of the United States.
As he did nothing to preserve the Union
before handing a country divided by slavery
to Abraham Lincoln.
- You are useless.
- Information on his death is far and few between,
with most reports claiming he died
at the age of 77 from pneumonia.
Abraham Lincoln, gun.
Next.
Just kidding.
Though the death of Abraham Lincoln is probably the
most well known on this list,
it's not without its intrigue.
Just five days after the Union victory of the Civil War,
famous actor and Confederate sympathizer,
John Wilkes Booth snuck into Lincoln's box
at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC
and fired a 44 caliber single shot derringer pistol directly
into the back of Lincoln's head from just inches away.
Lincoln immediately fell into a coma
and died across the street seven hours later.
This we know, but here are the juicy details
that are often looked over.
Heavily detailed notes on Lincoln's final hours,
and his following autopsy were taken
by the President's personal physician,
Dr. Robert Stone, which is how we know
that Dr. Stone did nothing to help the situation
by using his finger to probe the wound
and search for the bullet,
putting unnecessary pressure inside the President's brain
at his most vulnerable time.
Look, he was gonna die no matter what they did,
but a dirty, gloveless finger
inside the brain probably didn't help.
Andrew Johnson became the first president
to go on and serve in the Senate after his presidency
and died of a stroke at the age of 66.
Ulysses S. Grant was an avid cigar smoker,
which was a likely cause
of his throat cancer that killed him at the age of 63.
It was this death that largely sparked Americans fear
of the disease, which we still see today.
Rutherford B Hayes died at the age
of 70 of complications after a heart attack.
Assassination number two, only 18 months
into his presidency, James A. Garfield was shot
on a train platform in Baltimore, Maryland
by Charles Julius Guiteau, a lawyer and author
who was deeply disillusioned,
believing he was instrumental to Garfield's election
and therefore furious when he was not rewarded
with his own political appointment.
Guiteau was executed after being found guilty
of murdering Garfield,
but not before he argued that he didn't kill Garfield,
rather Garfield's doctors were to blame.
While Guiteau, was no doubt responsible
for pulling the trigger, (gun fires)
firing a bullet into Garfield's back,
the thing is, he might be right.
- What?
- Reports indicated the bullet created 3.5 inch wound
in Garfield's abdomen, with the bullet finally resting
in a benign location between his groin and navel.
It took three months for the infection to kill Garfield,
but not before countless doctors used their fingers
and tools to open the wound
to 20 inches in width in an endless search for this bullet.
It wasn't just the doctors either,
as famed telephone inventor,
Alexander Graham Bell used the world's first metal detector
to provide a general location of this bullet.
Countless physicians have debated the exact cause
of Garfield's death and we'll never be able to say for sure,
but had doctors simply sewed Garfield up,
and allowed him to rest, he may not have died
from this gunshot wound after all.
Chester A. Arthur died two years
after leaving office
from a significant cerebral hemorrhage thought
to have been caused by his hypertension,
or high blood pressure.
Grover Cleveland died of a heart attack
at the age of 71, but that's far
from the most interesting event in his medical history.
In the summer of 1893,
at the beginning of a second term in office,
he felt a lump in the roof of his mouth.
His doctor diagnosed it as cancer,
and recommended having it removed immediately.
Cleveland feared news
of him having cancer would shake the stock market
and disrupt a nation,
so he opted for a secret surgery
aboard a yacht during a four day fishing trip.
- This is a secret.
- Six surgeons numb the president up
with ether, successfully removed the tumor, five teeth,
and a large part of his upper left jawbone
in just 90 minutes, swaying back and forth in the waves
of the Atlantic Ocean.
Because the surgery was inside the president's mouth
and his signature mustache remained intact,
Cleveland hid the surgery from the public.
Despite whirling rumors, smear campaigns,
and discrediting journalists,
the operation remained unconfirmed for 24 years
before one of the doctors broke their silence
and finally told the truth.
Benjamin Harrison was the grandson
of President William Henry Harrison, and just like grandpa,
he died of pneumonia at the age of 68.
Assassination number three,
six months into his second term in 1901,
William McKinley was shot twice
in the abdomen by Leon Frank-
(screeching)
- [Videographer] Yeah, that's the hardest name.
(laughs)
- It's C-Z-O-L-G-O-S-Z.
(laughs)
- [Videographer] Czolgosz.
- By Leon Frank Czolgosz, making the third U.S. president
to be assassinated in 36 years.
Czolgosz lost his job during that economic panic
of 1893 and became a believer
in anarchism, or a terrorist movement sweeping across Europe
that seek to assassinate world leaders.
Czolgosz approached McKinley
in a crowded building at a festival in Buffalo,
shook his hand, and fired two shots from a 32 revolver.
One bullet bounced off a button and didn't harm McKinley,
but the other penetrated his abdomen.
McKinley was rushed to a nearby hospital
where surgeons sewed up the entry and exit wounds
from the bullet in the president's stomach
though the bullet was never found.
Doctors were optimistic for a healthy recovery
in the following days, but a week or so later,
they discovered his wounds had become gangrenous,
where parts of the body begin to die
and cause deeper infection.
It was the death of William McKinley
that ignited a national discussion
about protecting the President,
with Congress ultimately charging the Secret Service
with that exact duty in 1906.
Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep in 1919
when a blood clot entered his lung.
Future Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall,
famously said, "Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping,
for if he had been awake, there would've been a fight."
William Howard Taft was our nation's heaviest president.
at one point reaching 340 pounds and died at the age of 72
after lingering in a coma caused
by complications with high blood pressure,
heart disease, and inflammation of the bladder.
(drum roll) Time for my favorite one.
While in office, Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke
in 1919 that paralyzed his left side and nearly blinded him.
Out of fear that the news would shake the country,
Wilson and his inner circle kept the President's health
a complete secret, hiding him away
where he could only be seen by his personal physician
and his wife, Edith Wilson, the star of this story.
While it's never been conclusively proven,
it is believed that instead of serving
as the intermediary between her husband, the President
and the cabinet actually running the country,
Edith took it upon herself
to make countless executive decisions,
effectively serving as America's first female president.
Where's that movie?
Woodrow Wilson survived the remainder
of his term and died three years later
of further complications from his stroke.
Warren G. Harding died in office at the age of 57
from what is believed to have been a myocardial infarction
or a heart attack.
His cause of death is not entirely conclusive
because his wife refused an autopsy.
Calvin Coolidge died alone in his bedroom
from coronary thrombosis or a clot
in the coronary artery blocking blood flow to the heart.
Herbert Hoover lived 31 years
after leaving the White House amidst the Great Depression.
In 1962, Hoover was diagnosed with colon cancer
and had a tumor removed from his large intestine.
Two years later,
his intestines ruptured causing massive bleeding,
leading to a coma and his eventual death in 1964.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt holds the record
for most presidential terms,
having won four elections in a row
from 1932 until his death in office.
In 1944, a team of physicians performed the full assessment
of FDR and found he was suffering
from numerous heart issues,
high blood pressure, and bronchitis, likely all
of these caused by a lifetime
of smoking and heavy amounts of tobacco.
Despite his declining health,
he ran for a fourth presidential term,
privately saying he would resign
once World War II was over.
The stress eventually overwhelmed Roosevelt
in April of 1945,
resulting in a brain bleed while posing for a portrait.
He collapsed and died shortly thereafter.
Harry Truman was hospitalized for 22 days
at the age of 88 because of heart failure, heart arrhythmia,
and kidney failure.
He became comatose due to sepsis,
the body's life threatening response to an infection
and died the night after Christmas in 1972.
At one point, Dwight D. Eisenhower smoked four packs
of cigarettes a day, which contributed to years
of heart issues.
He suffered several heart attacks
and even survived numerous cardiac arrests.
No surprise he died of heart failure in 1969.
He did beat Hitler though.
John F. Kennedy may have had the
most complex medical history out
of any U.S. President.
He is known to have had,
or was speculated to have the following conditions
and diseases: Scarlet Fever, measles, whooping cough,
chickenpox, severe spastic colitis
or IBS, Cushing Syndrome, urinary tract infections,
Prostatitis, Addison's disease, malaria,
adrenal insufficiency,
and chronic back pain, amongst others.
Despite his countless health problems,
his back issues were the one that played a role
in his infamous assassination in Dallas in 1968,
specifically the back brace that he wore
because of failed back surgeries.
Hidden underneath his suit,
it actually prevented Kennedy from ducking
after being hit with the first bullet.
Who fired the bullet?
Well, that's a video for a different channel.
Lyndon B. Johnson was a hero of the Democratic party
for passing groundbreaking Civil Rights legislation
in the 1960s, and he was also the hero
of the party party for going hard with food, alcohol,
and cigarettes.
In a famous interview with Walter Cronkite,
LBJ said smoking calmed him down
and it was better for his heart to smoke
and be relaxed that not smoke and be nervous.
An interesting hypothesis that probably contributed
to the heart attack that killed him
at his Texas ranch in 1973.
Richard Nixon was 81 years old when a blood clot
in his left atrium became dislodged
and traveled to his brain, causing a stroke.
He quickly fell into a coma and died four days later.
Gerald Ford died in 2006
with a death certificate
that cites arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease
and diffuse arteriosclerosis, or a thickening
of arterial walls causing poor circulation leading
to organ damage.
Ronald Reagan spent the final 10 or so years
of his life in a losing battle
with Alzheimer's disease, where brain cells
and connections die slowly causing loss
of memory and other issues.
He eventually died in 2004 from pneumonia.
And finally, our most recent, George H.W. Bush,
who in 2012, was diagnosed with vascular parkinsonism,
or a type of deterioration of brain tissue
from blocked small blood vessels affecting motor function,
necessitating the use
of a mobility scooter and limiting his speech.
The condition slowly worsened into his nineties
and he died on November 30th, 2018.
I actually immigrated to the U.S.
at the age of six.
Here's that entire story in draw my life animated format.
Click here to enjoy and as always stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat music)