Back in 1876, then US Congressman James Garfield came up with a "new" proof
of the Pythagorean Theorem, based on the area of a trapezoid.  Four years
later, he would be elected President, and a few months after assuming
office he was assassinated.  There is no evidence that his proof of the
Pythagorean Theorem had anything to do with the assassination.

In commemoration of the fact that we had a US President, once, who created
an original mathematical proof, and in tacit recognition that we probably
never will again, I made a QuickTime movie demonstrating the proof.
Because it's QuickTime, and because it's about 6 meg's, I've just posted a
link:

http://www.mnwest.edu/website/dmatthews/explorations/garfieldfull01.mov

The astute observer will note that it's not a very remarkable proof,
basically just half of the ancient "square in a square" proof.

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