Case file · Folklore / legend
The Curse of Tippecanoe
In 1931 Ripley's Believe It or Not! pointed out that every US president elected in a year ending in zero since William Henry Harrison in 1840 had died in office; the pattern was later called the curse of Tecumseh or Tippecanoe, after Harrison's 1811 battle.
1931 CE · 40.51, -86.84 · status: legend
The account
Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy all died in office. Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, was shot in 1981 but survived.
The sceptical view
The first written link between the curse and Tenskwatawa dates from a 1980 Parade article; Snopes calls it an undocumented folktale and the pattern a coincidence.