America's Lost Presidents

Are you aware that technically, the United States has had not 43 presidents but 45? If you’ve never heard of Thomas W. Ferry and David Rice Atchison, it’s little wonder; neither man did much while serving as the nation’s chief executive. But each was, literally, “president for a day.”

Ferry, a senator from Michigan, was president pro-tem of the U.S. Senate on 4 March 1877. That was the day President Ulysses S. Grant’s term in office officially expired. But it was a Sunday. Grant’s successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, refused to be sworn in on God’s holy day. Ferry filled in until Monday.

A similar and wholly bizarre scenario had played out 28 years earlier. “Sunday president” David Rice Atchison of Missouri was too exhausted to even pretend to be president. The Senate had been in session late Saturday night, compelling Atchison, the president pro-tem, to sleep through Sunday. When Zachary Taylor took office on Monday, Atchison realized he’d not only had nothing to do but nothing to remember on his day as America’s leader.

FOOTNOTE IN HISTORY: Before running for president in 1848, Zachary Taylor -- a career military officer -- had never voted.