A NOD TO NUMEROLOGY

Apart from Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, on the 5th November 1605 there are a few times when the marking of the event coincides with presidential elections in the United States on the first Tuesday in November (excluding the 1^st November being All Saints Day).  Whether that is an ominous circumstance or a fortuitous omen is yet to be seen.

 

So far as the United States is concerned, the first coincidence occurred on Tuesday 5^th November 1776, the year of the birth of the country and the Declaration of Independence. Tuesday the 5^th November occurs once every 28 years, save for a period between 1872 and 1912 when it took 40 years to come round. The next Tuesday 5^th November in an election year will be 2052, followed by 2080, then another period of 40 years to 2120, if the United States is still in existence.

 

Following on from 1776, the first actual presidential election in the United States occurring on the 5^th November was in 1816 with the election of James Monroe who was in the Democratic-Republican Party. The Democratic-Republican Party, was the first opposition political party in the United States. Organized in 1792 as the Republican Party, its members held power nationally between 1801 and 1825. It was the direct antecedent of the present Democratic Party. Monroe was the fifth President and was responsible for the Monroe Doctrine, a warning to European Nations against intervening in the Western Hemisphere. Stay out of the American continent.

 

The next election of Tuesday the 5^th November was in 1844. James Knox Polk a Democrat and the 11^th President. He was actually born on the 2^nd November 1795 and so was just 49 when elected. During his term of office the United States fought the Mexican War (1846-48) acquiring the territories along the Pacific coast and southwest.

 

On Tuesday 5^th November 1872, Ulysses S. Grant won a second term as the 18^th President. He served with distinction in the Mexican-American War and eventually led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War accepting General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. He was born Hiram  Ulysses Grant on 27^th of April 1822.  His father, Jesse Grant wrote to Representative Thomas L Hamer requesting that he nominate Ulysses to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Hamer nominated 17-year-old Ulysses to West Point in spring 1839. Grant was accepted on July 1. Unfamiliar with Grant, however, Hamer submitted an incorrect name. As a result, Grant was enlisted at West Point under the name "U. S. Grant". As the initials "U. S." also stood for "Uncle Sam", he became known amongst army colleagues as "Sam".

 

Of his achievements in office, on March 18, 1869, Grant signed into law equal rights for black people, to serve on juries and hold office, in Washington D.C., and in 1870 he signed the Naturalization Act that gave foreign black people citizenship.

 

The next election of Tuesday  5^th November was in 1912  when Woodrow Wilson, Democrat, was elected as the 28^th President. He was the leading advocate for the League of Nations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. He served two terms as president. 

 

The next Tuesday 5^th November election was in 1940 with the 32^nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election to a third term in office. Also a democrat. He was responsible for the New Deal which brought the country out of the great depression, along with the National Recovery Administration. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labour Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His influence and leadership during the Second World war is to be noted.

 

There then comes the turbulent year of 1968 with the election of the 37^th President Richard Milhous Nixon of the Republican Party on Tuesday 5th November. Along with Henry Kissinger he opened diplomatic relations with China and concluded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union. On the 26^th May 1972.  In that year of 1972, on the 17^th of June, five men were caught breaking into the Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. This led to the exposure of various nefarious activities within Mr Nixon’s administration and his eventual resignation from Office on the 9^th August 1974.

 

The last election to be held on a Tuesday 5^th November was in 1996, with the second election of the 42^nd President, Bill Clinton of the Democratic Party. He was born William Jefferson Clinton on the 19^th August 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. Clinton made various moves towards a national health care plan and some control over the possession of firearms, signing into law the Bray Bill in 1993 which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States. The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases.  He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers. A time line of his presidency can be found at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Bill_Clinton_presidency.

 

A very fictional portrayal of his presidential campaign, Primary Colors was written by Joe Klein, political commentator and author, and made into a movie staring John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Adrian Lester and Kathy Bates and many others.  Well worth a view.

 

The next election to be held on Tuesday  5^th November is in this year of elections 2024. This is the eighth time the coincidence has occurred. The first coincidence was during the birth of the nation.  Apart from the aberration of Richard Nixon in 1968 every other election has been won by the democratic party. If the omens are correct, it would appear to be a 7 to 1 chance that Mr Biden will be re-elected. Also if the problems arising from Mr Nixon’s election, such as the skulduggery of his subordinates, is in any way comparable to Mr Trumps criminal activities yet to be discovered (and I would be willing to wager there are some) then the electorate would be well advised to vote for someone other than Mr Trump. Just about anybody would be better.

 

So do we believe in fortuitous omens on the left, or ominous predictions from the right? Does some form of numerology apply in these circumstances? It would be nice to think that the omens are strongly in favour of Mr Biden, given the history of Tuesday the 5^th November in the United States.  As to Guy Fawkes, the 5^th  November 1605 was a Saturday.