Video: 'William Henry Harrison: America's briefest President'

(Tuesday, February 9, 1773) — William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was born today at Berkeley Plantation, the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County.

Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms 22 days after his 1841 inauguration and died just five days later, ending the shortest presidency in United States history.

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Video: 'Experts Revealed The Real Reason Why William Henry Harrison Died After Less Than A Month In Of'

But in 2014, Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases, examining his doctor’s notes and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to “enteric fever” (typhoid or paratyphoid fever).

Harrison was the first United States president to die in office. A brief constitutional crisis resulted as presidential succession was not fully defined in the United States Constitution.

Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.