We’re finishing up our theme week on 5 Other Things that Happened on the 4th of July on a bit of a morbid note. Three U.S. Presidents died on the 4th of July! Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe (our 2nd, 3rd, and 5th presidents, respectively) all died on the 4th of July. In a creepy coincidence, Jefferson and Adams died on the very same day, 5 hours apart. That day was also the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being adopted. Jefferson and Adams were both among those the Second Continental Congress had tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was its primary author.
Jefferson’s health had begun to deteriorate in July 1825, and by June 1826 he was bedridden. He died at the age of 83 on July 4, 1826, and his last words were “Is it the Fourth?” or “This is the Fourth”. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, John Adams was also ailing. He died of a heart attack later that same day. His last words acknowledged his old friend and one-time political rival, “Thomas Jefferson survives”. News traveled slowly back then, so he was unaware that Jefferson had died several hours before. At the age of 90, Adams was the longest-lived president until Ronald Reagan surpassed him in 2001. Exactly 5 years later, James Monroe died of Tuberculosis at the age of 73 at his daughter’s home in New York City.
Jefferson, Adams, and Monroe aren’t the only presidents who died on the same day. Millard Fillmore and Howard Taft both died on March 8. Harry Truman and Gerald Ford both died on December 26. There’s only one president who was born on the 4th of July: Calvin Coolidge, who was born July 4, 1872, in Vermont.