Happy Birthday To Our 13th President Millard Fillmore

You know your Presidency has an element of insignificance when you can't even get an honorable mention on Wikipedia's front page on your birthday. On this day the Unitarian and former Congressman from Summerhill, New York was born in 1800. He was 50 years and 184 days old on the day he succeeded Zachary Taylor, our 12th President, when he died in office on July 9th, 1850. His short term of office would be 2 years and 236 days.

The were few significant events during his short tenure in the White House: the admission of California as the 31st state in the union on Sept. 9th, 1850; the enactment of the fugitive slave law on Sept. 11, 1850; the departure of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in November of 1852 to open commercial ports; and finally his appointment of Associate Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis on Sept. 22, 1851 to the United States Supreme Court.

In the election of 1848 he would be elected to the Vice Presidency on the ticket with ol' Rough and Ready, Gen. Zachary Taylor. The twice married Fillmore was a member of the Whig party who had the dubious distinction of a sitting President unable to win the nomination of his own party when he decided to run for another term in the 1852 election losing out to ol' Fuss n' Feathers, Gen. Winfield Scott. Fillmore would suffer through an excruciating 53 ballots during the three day Whig convention in Maryland Institute Hall in Baltimore, Maryland July 17th through July 20th, 1852. He would start out with 133 votes on the first ballot and ending up with 112 on the final and deciding 53rd ballot. Though his Presidency would earn little to no respect he did manage to get two counties named after him in Minnesota and Nebraska and get his likeness on a 13 cent green stamp when a series was issued in 1938 honoring all the Presidents.

In Joseph Kane's Facts About the Presidents we learn some interesting comparative data about the 13th President:

• He was the second President born in New York
• He was the second President whose father was alive when he was inaugurated
• He was the second President to remarry
• He was the fourth President to marry a widow
• He was the first President to have a step mother

When he left office on March 4th, 1853 he became the Chancellor of the University of Buffalo. He would live 21 years and 4 days after the end of his term of office. He died on March 8th, 1874 in Buffalo, NY at the age of 74 years and 60 days. He was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY. His second wife, Caroline Fillmore would survive him by 7 years, 156 days.