Fourth of July and the Founding Fathers
Constitution Center reveals that three US presidents who were Founding Fathers passed away on the Fourth of July. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and John Adams, the nation’s second leader, died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson passed away at age 83 in his Monticello, Va. home, and Adams, 90, was pronounced dead in Quincy, MA. On July 4, 1831, James Monroe, the fifth President, born in Monroe, VA., died at his son-in-law’s New York home at the age of 73.
Historians have considered the deaths of these men on Independence Day to be coincidence, Divine intervention, and sheer will to live until July 4th. There is no way to know for sure.