Fun factoid

Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, had never voted when he was elected to the highest office of the land. As a military man, he moved around and never established residency and had never registered to vote. He did not vote for himself because he did not vote for anyone.

He served from March 4, 1849 until his death on July 9, 1850. On July 4, 1850, Taylor reportedly consumed raw fruit (probably cherries) and iced milk after attending holiday celebrations and a fund-raising event at the Washington Monument, which was then under construction. Over the course of several days, he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment. His doctor, according to biographer John S. D. Eisenhower, "diagnosed the illness as cholera morbus, a flexible mid–nineteenth-century term for intestinal ailments as diverse as diarrhea and dysentery but not related to Asiatic cholera," the latter being a widespread epidemic at the time of Taylor's death. Rumors spread that he had been poisoned, but tests done on the remains in 1991 indicated no evidence of poison and instead confirmed that he had died of acute gastroenteritis. These results have been questioned by those who prefer a mystery to a solution.

At any rate, he was succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore who went on to make such a name for himself for obscurity that he is, alas, no longer obscure. Perhaps Fillmore's biggest claim to fame is to have been the last president affiliated with neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party, having been a Whig like his predecessor.