Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day, July 4, 1826. This day also happened to be the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document Thomas Jefferson authored.
After George Washington retired from the Presidency, John Adams became President and Thomas Jefferson became Vice-President. The two men had disagreed politically throughout the Washington Administration, and were only both elected because in those days, whomever came in second in the Presidential vote became Vice-President. During the Adams Administration, the two differed on almost every issue, and Jefferson defeated Adams and took the Presidency in 1800. To make a long story short, although they had worked together in the cause for independence, Adams and Jefferson became truly bitter enemies when political parties began to form around each of them.
Luckily, Adams and Jefferson reconciled in their retirement and they became the absolute best of friends as they lived out their final years. Both men were conscious of living to see the fiftieth Fourth of July, and both, despite knowing they were on their death beds, made genuine efforts to hang on to dear life until the day had come.
John Adams’s final words were (supposedly), “Thomas Jefferson survives.” But he was wrong. Jefferson had died just hours earlier at Monticello.
Five years to the day after Adams and Jefferson died — on July 4, 1831 — the fifth President, James Monroe, passed away. So three presidents have died on the same date: July 4th.
