John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Died on the Exact Same Day

It’s unlikely enough that two of America’s Founding Fathers would die on the very same day, but this story gets even stranger. First, these two political rivals died within hours of each other. Even weirder? The date of their passing was July 4, 1826 — 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson weren’t the same age when they died, though — Adams was 90 and Jefferson was 83. There are multiple theories on why this happened, and sheer coincidence is certainly one. To add another eerie layer, founding father James Monroe also died on the Fourth of July, five years later.