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Article: What Jinx?
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 28, 1989
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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As an experimental physicist at the University of Maryland, I
deal with statistics on a daily basis. I would therefore like to
comment on your report that Ronald Reagan broke the "20-year jinx"
under which every president since William Harrison elected in a year
ending in zero has died in office {news graphic, Jan. 21}.
If we look at the lives of all the presidents, we see this
pattern arbitrarily excludes Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe (and
now Reagan), who were elected in years ending with zero but did not
die in office. Also excluded is Zachary Taylor, who died in office
but was elected in 1848. The pattern is also stretched to include
Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ...