The United States president has never been a medical doctor. The bulk of them were lawyers (including the incumbent president Barack H. Obama (2009-2017). However, there is a sort-of exception to this fact (but not really). William Henry Harrison (March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841), the grandfather of another president: Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), went to the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine.
However, William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) never completed those studies because he wanted a military career instead. Therefore, Harrison 09, to distinguish him from grandson Harrison 23, was never actually a doctor despite having studied. Ironically, the closest thing that the United States has to a doctor in the presidency died of pneumonia 30 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes after his inaugural speech on March 4, 1841. The historical consensus is that William Henry Harrison, the first president to die in office, got pneumonia while giving the longest inaugural speech during a snowstorm of all things.
This speech with a length of 8,445 words lasted somewhere between one hour & forty-five minutes to two hours when delivered. Shortly after it was given, William Henry Harrison became ill and would die on the 32nd day of his presidency at the age of 68 from an illness he contracted during the snowstorm inauguration. Vice-president John Tyler became the tenth president following William’s death.
It cannot be helped but to wonder if President Harrison would have gotten pneumonia if he had completed medical school. Perhaps, if he had become a doctor he would have realized that a near septuagenarian should probably not give the longest inaugural speech in American history during a snowstorm, and would have served a full term instead of the shortest tenure of any president in American history. Those that lived under Tylernomics might have appreciated it.
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