Longest presidency | Shortest presidency |
This is a list of presidents of the United States by time in office. The listed number of days is calculated as the difference between dates, which counts the number of calendar days except the last day. The length of a full four-year presidential term of office usually amounts to 1,461 days (three common years of 365 days plus one leap year of 366 days). If the last day is included, all numbers would be one day more, except Grover Cleveland would have two more days, as he served two non-consecutive terms. [lower-alpha 1]
Of the individuals elected president of the United States, four died of natural causes while in office (William Henry Harrison, [1] Zachary Taylor, [2] Warren G. Harding [3] and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, [4] James A. Garfield, [4] [5] William McKinley [6] and John F. Kennedy) and one resigned from office (Richard Nixon). [7]
William Henry Harrison spent the shortest time in office, while Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the longest. Roosevelt is the only American president to have served more than two terms. Following ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment in 1951, presidents—beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower—have been ineligible for election to a third term or, after serving more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president, to a second term. The amendment contained a grandfather clause that explicitly exempted the incumbent president, then Harry S. Truman, from the new term limitation.
Grover Cleveland is the only president to leave office and return for a second non-consecutive term. Consequently, while there have been 46 presidencies in the nation's history, only 45 people have been sworn into office as Cleveland is numbered as both the 22nd and 24th president.
Rank | President | Length in days | Order of presidency | Number of terms |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 4,422 [lower-alpha 2] | 32nd • March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945 [lower-alpha 3] | Three full terms; died 2 months and 23 days into fourth term |
2 tie | Thomas Jefferson | 2,922 | 3rd • March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809 | Two full terms |
James Madison | 2,922 | 4th • March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817 | Two full terms | |
James Monroe | 2,922 | 5th • March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825 | Two full terms | |
Andrew Jackson | 2,922 | 7th • March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837 | Two full terms | |
Ulysses S. Grant | 2,922 | 18th • March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877 | Two full terms [lower-alpha 4] | |
Grover Cleveland | 2,922 [lower-alpha 5] | 22nd • March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889 24th • March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897 | Two full terms (non-consecutive) [lower-alpha 6] | |
Woodrow Wilson | 2,922 | 28th • March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921 | Two full terms | |
Dwight D. Eisenhower | 2,922 | 34th • January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961 | Two full terms | |
Ronald Reagan | 2,922 | 40th • January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989 | Two full terms | |
Bill Clinton | 2,922 | 42nd • January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 | Two full terms | |
George W. Bush | 2,922 | 43rd • January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009 | Two full terms | |
Barack Obama | 2,922 | 44th • January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017 | Two full terms | |
14 | George Washington | 2,865 [lower-alpha 7] | 1st • April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797 | Two full terms |
15 | Harry S. Truman | 2,840 | 33rd • April 12, 1945 [lower-alpha 8] – January 20, 1953 | One partial term (3 years, 9 months, and 8 days), followed by one full term |
16 | Theodore Roosevelt | 2,728 | 26th • September 14, 1901 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1909 | One partial term (3 years, 5 months, and 18 days), followed by one full term [lower-alpha 9] |
17 | Calvin Coolidge | 2,041 | 30th • August 2, 1923 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1929 | One partial term (1 year, 7 months, and 2 days), followed by one full term |
18 | Richard Nixon | 2,027 | 37th • January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 [lower-alpha 10] | One full term; resigned 1 year, 6 months, and 20 days into second term |
19 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1,886 | 36th • November 22, 1963 [lower-alpha 8] – January 20, 1969 | One partial term (1 year, 1 month, and 29 days), followed by one full term |
20 | William McKinley | 1,654 [lower-alpha 1] | 25th • March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901 [lower-alpha 3] | One full term; assassinated: died 6 months and 10 days into second term, 8 days after being shot |
21 | Abraham Lincoln | 1,503 | 16th • March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865 [lower-alpha 3] | One full term; assassinated: died 1 month and 11 days into second term, 1 day after being shot |
22 tie | John Quincy Adams | 1,461 | 6th • March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] |
Martin Van Buren | 1,461 | 8th • March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] [lower-alpha 11] | |
James K. Polk | 1,461 | 11th • March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849 | One full term | |
Franklin Pierce | 1,461 | 14th • March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
James Buchanan | 1,461 | 15th • March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1861 | One full term | |
Rutherford B. Hayes | 1,461 | 19th • March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881 | One full term | |
Benjamin Harrison | 1,461 | 23rd • March 4, 1889 – March 4, 1893 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
William Howard Taft | 1,461 | 27th • March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
Herbert Hoover | 1,461 | 31st • March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
Jimmy Carter | 1,461 | 39th • January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
George H. W. Bush | 1,461 | 41st • January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
Donald Trump | 1,461 | 45th • January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] | |
34 | John Adams | 1,460 [lower-alpha 1] | 2nd • March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801 | One full term [lower-alpha 6] |
35 | John Tyler | 1,430 | 10th • April 4, 1841 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1845 | One partial term (3 years and 11 months) |
36 | Andrew Johnson | 1,419 | 17th • April 15, 1865 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1869 | One partial term (3 years, 10 months, and 17 days) |
37 | Joe Biden | 1,336 [lower-alpha 12] | 46th • January 20, 2021 – Incumbent | Currently serving |
38 | Chester A. Arthur | 1,262 | 21st • September 19, 1881 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1885 | One partial term (3 years, 5 months, and 13 days) |
39 | John F. Kennedy | 1,036 | 35th • January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963 [lower-alpha 3] | Assassinated: died 2 years, 10 months, and 2 days into term |
40 | Millard Fillmore | 969 | 13th • July 9, 1850 [lower-alpha 8] – March 4, 1853 | One partial term (2 years, 7 months, and 23 days) |
41 | Gerald Ford | 895 | 38th • August 9, 1974 [lower-alpha 8] – January 20, 1977 | One partial term (2 years, 5 months, and 11 days) [lower-alpha 13] |
42 | Warren G. Harding | 881 | 29th • March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923 [lower-alpha 3] | Died 2 years, 4 months, and 29 days into term |
43 | Zachary Taylor | 492 | 12th • March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850 [lower-alpha 3] | Died 1 year, 4 months, and 5 days into term |
44 | James A. Garfield | 199 | 20th • March 4 – September 19, 1881 [lower-alpha 3] | Assassinated: died 6 months and 15 days into term; 79 days after being shot |
45 | William Henry Harrison | 31 | 9th • March 4 – April 4, 1841 [lower-alpha 3] | Died 31 days into term |
Stephen Grover Cleveland was an American politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first Democrat to win the presidency after the Civil War and was one of two Democratic presidents, followed by Woodrow Wilson, in an era when Republicans dominated the presidency between 1869 and 1933. Cleveland won the popular vote in three presidential elections—1884, 1888, and 1892—and is the only U.S. president to serve non-consecutive presidential terms.
William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He presided over victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.
The 1892 United States presidential election was the 27th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1892. In the fourth rematch in American history, the Democratic nominee, former president Grover Cleveland, defeated the Republican incumbent, President Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland's victory made him the first and, to date, the only person in American history to be elected to a non-consecutive second presidential term. It was also the first of two occasions that incumbents were defeated in consecutive elections—the second being Gerald Ford's loss to Jimmy Carter in 1976, followed by Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980. To date, it is the only election in which both major party nominees had served as president.
The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the number of times a person can be elected to the office of President of the United States to two terms, and sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors. Congress approved the Twenty-second Amendment on March 21, 1947, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification. That process was completed on February 27, 1951, when the requisite 36 of the 48 states had ratified the amendment, and its provisions came into force on that date.
Charles Warren Fairbanks was an American politician who served as the 26th vice president of the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1905 to 1909. A member of the Republican Party, Fairbanks was previously a senator from Indiana from 1897 to 1905.
Marcus Alonzo Hanna was an American businessman and Republican politician who served as a United States Senator from Ohio as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee. A friend and political ally of President William McKinley, Hanna used his wealth and business skills to successfully manage McKinley's presidential campaigns in 1896 and in 1900.
Matthew Stanley Quay was an American politician of the Republican Party who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1887 until 1899 and from 1901 until his death in 1904. Quay's control of the Pennsylvania Republican political machine made him one of the most powerful and influential politicians in the country, and he ruled Pennsylvania politics for almost twenty years. As chair of the Republican National Committee and thus party campaign manager, he helped elect Benjamin Harrison as president in 1888 despite Harrison not winning the popular vote. He was also instrumental in the 1900 election of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president.
The 1892 Republican National Convention was held at the Industrial Exposition Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 7 to June 10, 1892. The party nominated President Benjamin Harrison for re-election on the first ballot and Whitelaw Reid of New York for vice president.
Joseph Benson Foraker was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the 37th governor of Ohio from 1886 to 1890 and as a United States senator from Ohio from 1897 until 1909.
The Curse of Tippecanoe is an urban legend about the deaths in office of presidents of the United States who were elected in years divisible by 20. According to the legend, Tenskwatawa, leader of Native American tribes defeated in 1811 at the Battle of Tippecanoe by a military expedition led by William Henry Harrison, had cursed the "Great White Fathers".
The presidency of William McKinley began on March 4, 1897, when William McKinley was inaugurated and ended September 14, 1901, upon his assassination. A longtime Republican, McKinley is best known for conducting the successful Spanish–American War (1898), freeing Cuba from Spain; taking ownership of the Republic of Hawaii; and purchasing the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. It includes the 1897 Dingley Tariff which raised rates to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and the Gold Standard Act of 1900 that rejected free silver inflationary proposals. Rapid economic growth and a decline in labor conflict marked the presidency and he was easily reelected. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt following his death.
The first inauguration of Grover Cleveland as the 22nd president of the United States took place on Wednesday, March 4, 1885, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 25th inauguration and marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Grover Cleveland as president and the only term of Thomas A. Hendricks as vice president. Hendricks died 266 days into this term, and the office remained vacant since there was no constitutional provision which allow an intra-term vice-presidential office filling; it would be regulated by the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.
The 1892 United States elections was held on November 8, electing member to the 53rd United States Congress, taking place during the Third Party System. Democrats retained the House and won control of the presidency and the Senate. Following the election, Democrats controlled the presidency and a majority in both chambers of Congress for the first time since the 1858 elections.
Grover Cleveland was president of the United States first from March 4, 1885, to March 4, 1889, and then from March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1897. The first Democrat elected after the Civil War, Cleveland is the only US president to leave office after one term and later return for a second term. His presidencies were the nation's 22nd and 24th. Cleveland defeated James G. Blaine of Maine in 1884, lost to Benjamin Harrison of Indiana in 1888, and then defeated President Harrison in 1892. He was succeeded by Republican William McKinley, who won in 1896.