April 4, 1841: President William Henry Harrison dies in office

On March 4, 1841, President-Elect William Henry Harrison arrived in Washington to take the oath of office. That March day was a cold one in the nation's capital. Harrison left his carriage and walked toward the rotunda. When he arrived, he was greeted by the political luminaries of the day, some of them had been his rivals for the very office he currently occupied. After a brief ceremony, Harrison was sworn in by Chief Justice Roger Taney. He then faced the gathering crowd and began to deliver his inaugural speech. With a total of 8,445 words, it would be the longest inauguration speech in American history. In his speech, he laid out his agenda, and emphasized his various exploits. The reason for the length of the speech was because Harrison might have been trying to prove his intelligence. During the 1840 campaign, he was accused of not being very bright, so Harrison might have taken that to heart when crafting his speech. He concluded his speech and beckoned farewell to the cheering crowd.
On March 26, Harrison came down with a cold, most likely from his prolonged exposure to the winter winds during his exhaustive speech. Over the following days, Harrison's illness grew into pneumonia. His doctors tried their best to treat him, but they were stymied by the cures of the day.They used laxatives, and bloodletting to purge his system of the illness, however, this only weakened Harrison further. On April 4, Harrison died, being the first president to died in office. Harrison would become the shortest serving President in American history.

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