Eight presidents have died in office. Through illness or violence, there have been many more very near misses
Eight times in history, an American president has died in office – history altered by a heartbeat. The accidental presidents who succeeded them, neither the voters’ nor their party’s choice, each changed history, for better or worse.
Their stories illuminate how America confronted some of its darkest moments. These include a president being kicked out of his own party and annexing Texas in response, a senator trying to shoot a colleague on the Senate floor, violent brawls in Congress, a vice-president accused of conspiring to murder the president, not to mention the 19 times when a president was almost killed by assassination, accident or illness. The fact that only eight presidents have died in office is nothing short of a miracle.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2G35Dtp
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