Chart of presidents of the United States

Here is a chart that I hope easily gives all relevant presidential info at a glance.

Presidents with the lighter blue background on their dates are the ones who did not serve full terms.

Presidents with the darker blue background on their dates are ones who succeeded to office as vice president.

Blue represents Democrats, red Republicans, green Democratic-Republicans, orange Whigs, and yellow Federalists. George Washington had no party.

Learn more about historical documents.

NOTES:

¹ Pierce and Fillmore did not win re-nomination from their parties to run for another term.

TOTALS:

• The Presidential oath of office has been taken 55 times.
• 15 Presidents have been re-elected to two or more terms.
• Four Presidents were assassinated.
• Four died in office of illness, so eight died in office in total.

Acting Presidents of the United States

The twenty-fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States creates the office of "Acting President," someone who exercises all the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the President of the United States when the incumbent is temporarily incapacitated or otherwise unable to serve. This person is usually the vice president, second-in-line to the presidency.

The 25th has only been evoked three times, to briefly transfer presidential power to two vice presidents, for less than a day each.

In all of the above situations the incumbent presidents were undergoing surgery during their absence from office.

CONCLUSIONS:

The only President who assumed office without first being elected President or vice president was Gerald Ford. He was appointed vice president by Congress in 1973, after Nixon's first vice president resigned.

The shortest term in office was William Henry Harrison, who served for only a month. Only he and James Garfield served as President for less than a year.

Andrew Johnson was the vice president who served the longest time as President without specifically being elected to the office. Lincoln was assassinated a mere month into his second term, so Johnson got to serve almost all of Lincoln's four-year mandate.

We are currently living in the longest stretch of successive presidents without anything weird (death, assassination, resignation) happening. Assuming Obama fulfills his term in office, there will have been six successive presidents who have not ended their terms prematurely. The previous record period of presidential stability was the first nine successive presidencies, from Washington through Van Buren. Not a single one of the first nine presidents were killed, died in office, resigned, or were impeached. On average, at least one out of every three presidents dies in office.

The most unstable period was 1933 to 1977. Of the seven presidents of that 40-year period, Eisenhower was the only truly "normal" president; that is to say the only one didn't die in office, resign, or succeed to the presidency as a vice president.

Living former presidents

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