98 Fun Facts About Lyndon B. Johnson

Who succeeded Johnson as president in January 1969?

Richard Nixon, the Republican who had lost to Kennedy in 1960, took the oath in January 1969; Johnson, the 36th president, flew home to Texas the same day.

Near which town, later home to the LBJ Ranch, was Johnson born?

Stonewall was the nearest town to a farmhouse that had no electricity; as a young congressman, Johnson went on to bring electric power to the Hill Country he grew up in.

In which South Texas town did the young Johnson teach Mexican-American children at a segregated school?

Cotulla made him principal as well as teacher of three grades; the poverty of his pupils stayed with him, and as president he recalled them when pressing Congress for voting rights.

What subject did Johnson teach at Sam Houston High School in Houston?

Public speaking and debate were his brief, and he won praise for both, but he stayed barely a year before a new Texas congressman took him to Washington as an aide.

What was the maiden name of Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson?

Taylor was the family name of the University of Texas graduate he met in 1934; her inheritance paid for his first campaign, and the radio station she bought made the couple rich.

What did Johnson do on his first date with Lady Bird?

Asked her to marry him, and would not let the matter drop: she refused to be rushed, but he kept pressing, and within about ten weeks they were married in San Antonio.

What were the names of the Johnsons' two daughters?

Lynda and Luci, in full Lynda Bird and Luci Baines, were named so that, with Lyndon Baines and Lady Bird, the whole family shared the initials LBJ; even the dog was Little Beagle Johnson.

Which Texas city anchored the House district that Johnson won in a 1937 special election?

Austin and the surrounding Hill Country sent the 28-year-old to Congress after he beat nine rivals by running as an all-out supporter of Franklin Roosevelt.

Which general awarded Johnson the Silver Star for a 1942 observation flight over New Guinea?

Douglas MacArthur gave it to him for a single flight as an observer; Johnson wore the ribbon in his lapel for the rest of his life.

By how many votes did Johnson win the 1948 Texas Senate primary runoff?

87 votes separated him from former governor Coke Stevenson once late returns from South Texas came in; both camps were accused of fraud, and the tally was fought over in court.

What nickname did the 1948 primary result permanently attach to Johnson?

Landslide Lyndon was his critics' sarcasm for a wafer-thin, fraud-tainted runoff win over former governor Coke Stevenson; the new senator found the jibe hard to shake for years.

What name was given to the rented Sikorsky helicopter LBJ campaigned in during 1948?

The Johnson City Windmill set him down as often as 20 times a day on rooftops, cattle pastures and ball fields, and crowds turned out just to see the newfangled machine.

When Democrats regained the Senate in 1955, the 46-year-old Johnson became the youngest ever holder of which post?

Majority leader at 46, he drove himself so hard that a severe heart attack felled him within months; he recovered at his Texas ranch and came back to run the Senate for five more years.

What was the "Johnson Treatment"?

His method of physically intimidating senators to win votes meant leaning in close and towering over his prey while he cajoled, flattered and bargained until the vote was his.

Which 1958 law, founding America's civilian space agency, did Johnson push through the Senate after Sputnik?

The National Aeronautics and Space Act grew out of hearings he opened within weeks of Sputnik; he then chaired the Senate's new space committee himself.

Which Alabama city's 1965 voting-rights marches prompted Johnson's 'We Shall Overcome' address to Congress?

Selma's marchers were beaten in scenes shown on national television, and days later Johnson went before Congress, took the movement's anthem as his own and demanded a voting-rights law.

Why did Kennedy choose Johnson as his running mate in 1960?

To attract Southern votes was the logic, and it held: with a Texan on the ticket Kennedy carried Texas and much of the South, even as labour leaders fumed at the choice.

What unusual double candidacy did Johnson pursue in 1960 after having Texas law changed?

Vice president and a third Senate term were both his on election night; he never served the Senate term, and William Blakley was appointed to fill the seat.

Which judge swore Johnson in aboard Air Force One after Kennedy's assassination?

Sarah T. Hughes was a Dallas federal judge and an old Johnson friend whom Kennedy had put on the bench in 1961; Johnson chose her himself, and as of 2025 she is the only woman to have sworn in a president.

What did Johnson do as his plane left Washington on the day his presidency ended in 1969?

Lit his first cigarette since 1955, the year of his heart attack; when a daughter snatched it away he took it back, saying he had raised his girls and been president and 'now it's my time'.

Which body did Johnson set up to investigate Kennedy's assassination?

The Warren Commission, chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was Johnson's answer to a spreading tangle of conspiracy theories; it concluded unanimously that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.

Which landmark law did Johnson sign on July 2, 1964, after urging Congress to pass it in Kennedy's memory?

The Civil Rights Act reached his desk only after the Senate broke a long Southern filibuster; he had told Congress that no eulogy could honour Kennedy better than its passage.

What did Johnson call his domestic programme of civil rights, health care and anti-poverty measures?

The Great Society was laid out in a May 1964 commencement speech at the University of Michigan; looking back, he called it 'the woman I really loved', whom he had left for the war in Vietnam.

In which speech did Johnson declare an "unconditional war on poverty in America"?

The 1964 State of the Union came just seven weeks after he took office; that August the Economic Opportunity Act followed, creating an agency to channel aid through local community groups.

Which 1965 legislation created Medicare and Medicaid?

The Social Security Amendments added health cover in three layers designed by Wilbur Mills to disarm Republican opposition: hospital insurance, voluntary doctors' insurance and Medicaid for the poor.

What was the 1964 campaign ad showing a girl picking petals before a nuclear explosion called?

The Daisy ad was broadcast as a paid spot only once, on September 7, 1964, yet the girl's countdown to a nuclear blast made it one of the most memorable political ads ever.

Whom did Johnson defeat in the 1964 presidential election?

Barry Goldwater's supporters wore the slogan 'In your heart, you know he's right'; Johnson's side answered with bumper stickers reading 'In your guts, you know he's nuts'.

In Johnson's 1964 landslide, his opponent won only his home state and five states in which region?

The Deep South broke with the Democrats over civil rights, a shift that outlasted the election; everywhere else Johnson swept the board, taking 61 percent of the national vote.

Johnson signed Medicare in 1965 beside which former president, who had first proposed national health insurance?

Harry Truman had asked Congress for national health insurance twenty years earlier and been beaten; Johnson flew to Independence, Missouri, to sign the bill in front of him.

With which Republican senator did Johnson ally to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Everett Dirksen, the Senate's Republican leader, delivered enough of his party's votes to shut off a Southern filibuster, the same service he had done Johnson on an earlier rights bill.

Which early education programme for disadvantaged children did Johnson establish?

Head Start began in 1965 as an eight-week summer school, meant to teach poor children in a few weeks what they needed to start school; it then grew into a full-year programme.

Which 1967 act did Johnson sign to fund non-commercial educational television and radio?

The Public Broadcasting Act set up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the body from which the PBS television network and National Public Radio grew.

Which 1965 law signed by Johnson ended immigration quotas based on country of origin?

The Immigration and Nationality Act was signed at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, where Johnson called it 'not a revolutionary bill'; it went on to reshape who came to America.

Whom did Johnson appoint to the Supreme Court in 1967, the first African American justice?

Thurgood Marshall had won Brown v. Board of Education before the very court he joined; Johnson opened the seat by making Ramsey Clark attorney general, which led Clark's father, a justice, to retire.

Which 1965 act did Lady Bird Johnson lead the push for?

The Highway Beautification Act, soon nicknamed 'Lady Bird's Bill', set controls on billboards and junkyards along the interstates; her husband pushed it through Congress for her.

Which August 1964 act of Congress gave Johnson blanket approval to use force in Vietnam?

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed with only two senators opposed after reports of attacks on US destroyers; an NSA study later concluded that the second attack never happened.

Which 1968 event convinced Johnson's 'Wise Men' that Vietnam escalation would not work?

The Tet Offensive failed on the battlefield, yet the scale of the surprise attacks shattered official optimism; elder statesmen who had backed the war months earlier now advised him to wind it down.

Which panel, headed by an Illinois governor, did Johnson create to study urban riots?

The Kerner Commission, named for chairman Otto Kerner, warned that America was 'moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal'; its costly remedies were largely ignored.

What is the title of Johnson's 1971 presidential memoir?

The Vantage Point left its famously earthy author out of his own story: drafted with a team of aides, the book struck reviewers as flat and tidied-up.

With which newsman did Johnson record an hour-long interview at his ranch ten days before he died?

Walter Cronkite was the anchor whose 1968 verdict that Vietnam was deadlocked had shaken Johnson, who reportedly said that losing Cronkite meant losing middle America; five years on they sat down to discuss his legacy.

What was renamed in Johnson's honour in Houston in 1973?

The Manned Spacecraft Center, home of Mission Control, was renamed by the Senate within a month of his death, honouring the Texan who had championed the space programme from its start.

Which everyday service began in 1968 after Johnson's crime commission urged the FCC to create it?

The 9-1-1 emergency number was proposed by his commission on law enforcement in 1967; the FCC and AT&T settled on the digits, and the first call was placed in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1968.

Which Apollo mission's launch did the retired Johnson watch from the stands at Cape Kennedy?

Apollo 11 lifted off in July 1969 with Johnson seated beside Vice President Spiro Agnew; months earlier, in his last weeks in office, he had told the first crew to orbit the Moon that they had taken the world 'into a new era'.

Whom did Johnson choose as his 1964 running mate after grilling him in a gauntlet of interviews?

Hubert Humphrey was made to prove his loyalty first, because Johnson had found the vice presidency so frustrating himself; he then kept the choice from the press until the last moment, for the suspense.

To which country did Johnson send more than 20,000 troops during a 1965 civil war?

Dominican Republic rebels had risen to restore Juan Bosch, the elected president ousted in a coup; Johnson sent troops to prevent 'another Cuba', a move that was unpopular across Latin America.

Which Soviet premier met Johnson at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference?

Alexei Kosygin was in New York for the United Nations and wanted to meet there, Johnson preferred Washington, so they settled on a college president's house in Glassboro, New Jersey, roughly halfway between.

Whom did Johnson nominate to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1968, only to see him filibustered?

Abe Fortas, already an associate justice and a close Johnson adviser, saw the nomination stall in a Senate filibuster and withdrew; he later resigned from the court altogether over a fee from a financier.

As a young aide, Johnson was elected speaker of which group of Washington staffers?

The Little Congress made him its speaker in 1933, at 24; he used the staffers' club to get to know congressmen, reporters and lobbyists, an early taste of the deal-making that later ran the Senate.

What did Lyndon Johnson pretend had failed as he drove unsuspecting guests in his amphibious car into a ranch lake?

The brakes, he would shout, as his German-built Amphicar rolled downhill into the water and then simply floated. His was Lagoon Blue, one of four colours offered.

Which breed were Him and Her, the White House dogs Lyndon Johnson was photographed lifting by their ears?

Beagles made headlines when the ear-lifting photo caused a controversy. A later pet, the mongrel Yuki, was famous for howling duets with the president for guests.

Which book, found in Kennedy's bedroom on Air Force One, did Lyndon Johnson swear the presidential oath on?

A Catholic missal lay on a side table in the plane's bedroom and was mistaken for a Bible. Johnson himself was not Catholic.

Which sugar-free citrus soda, launched during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, was the president known to greatly enjoy?

Fresca reached American shelves in 1966, late in his term, and takes its name from the word for fresh in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

What family tradition did Lyndon Johnson follow when naming both of his daughters and even a pet dog?

Giving them his initials made the whole household LBJ, since his wife was already known as Lady Bird Johnson. The family ranch carried the same three letters.

What did Lyndon Johnson yank up his shirt to show photographers in 1965, creating a famous presidential image?

His surgery scar came from a gallbladder operation at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and the picture of him pointing at the incision became famous.

To which day of the week did a 1968 law signed by Lyndon Johnson move Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day?

Monday was chosen to give federal workers more three-day weekends, a favourite goal of the travel industry. The same act made Columbus Day a federal holiday.

Which two coins lost all their silver under the Coinage Act that Lyndon Johnson signed in 1965?

Dimes and quarters switched to copper-nickel faces over a pure copper core because government silver stocks were threatening to run out.

Who stood beside Lyndon Johnson in a bloodstained pink suit as he took the presidential oath aboard Air Force One?

Jackie Kennedy was turned slightly away from the camera, at the photographer's suggestion, so that the blood stains on her suit would not show in the picture.

What nickname did the LBJ Ranch earn because Lyndon Johnson spent about a quarter of his presidency working there?

The Texas White House was fitted with the communications a president needed to govern from the ranch, and it now sits inside a national historical park.

Which rugged region of central Texas was Lyndon Johnson's boyhood home and the setting of the LBJ Ranch?

The Hill Country, the southeast part of the Edwards Plateau, now holds a national historical park that protects his birthplace, boyhood home and ranch.

In which Texas city did Lyndon Johnson attend the teachers college that is now Texas State University?

San Marcos is where he worked his way through school, debated and edited the campus newspaper. He came back as president in 1965 to sign the Higher Education Act.

Which New Deal agency did Lyndon Johnson run in Texas from 1935, his last job before winning a seat in Congress?

National Youth Administration projects under his direction had 18,000 young Texans building roads, parks and schools within six months. He resigned after two years to run for Congress.

Congressman Richard Kleberg, who hired Lyndon Johnson as his secretary in 1931, was heir to which Texas cattle empire?

King Ranch heir Kleberg had little interest in the day-to-day duties of a congressman and delegated them to his young secretary, who ran the office.

Which long-serving House Speaker from Texas was a mentor and close ally to Lyndon Johnson throughout his rise?

Sam Rayburn had himself been a protégé of John Nance Garner, and the favors House Democrats owed him were central to Johnson's plan for the 1960 nomination.

Which Georgia senator, leader of the Southern Caucus, mentored Lyndon Johnson but later split with him on civil rights?

Richard Russell had been a prime mentor to the younger man, and the oldest of the three Senate office buildings in Washington now carries his name.

Which former Texas governor narrowly lost the disputed 1948 Senate primary runoff to Lyndon Johnson?

Coke Stevenson challenged the count over 202 disputed votes from a single precinct in Jim Wells County, but the state party committee upheld the result.

In which branch of the armed forces did Congressman Lyndon Johnson serve as an officer during World War II?

The Navy already had him in its reserve when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and two days later he applied for active duty, among the first in Congress to volunteer.

Which health crisis nearly killed Senator Lyndon Johnson in July 1955, when he was only 46 years old?

A heart attack felled a relentless workaholic who often put in 20-hour days, and it was severe enough to be described as near-fatal.

Which 1956 document opposing racial integration did Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas decline to sign?

The Southern Manifesto drew 19 senators' signatures, and only three from the former Confederate states held back: Johnson and Tennessee's Al Gore Sr. and Estes Kefauver.

What did Congressman Lyndon Johnson deliver cheaply to farmers in his rural Texas district through a New Deal program?

Electricity reached his district's farmers through the new Rural Electrification Administration, and he also won approval to finish the hydroelectric Mansfield Dam on the Colorado River.

Who sat beside Lyndon Johnson outside his boyhood one-room school as he signed a major 1965 education act?

His first teacher, Katie Deadrich, joined him at a picnic table on the lawn of the Junction School, which he had entered as a four-year-old.

Which 1968 civil rights law did Lyndon Johnson sign a week after Martin Luther King's death?

The Fair Housing Act had been stalled until the unrest that followed the assassination, and it barred bias in the sale, rental and financing of homes.

At which Dallas airport was Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963?

Love Field saw the first presidential oath ever taken on an aircraft, and the plane left for Washington nine minutes after the ceremony ended.

What was the code name of the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that Lyndon Johnson ordered in early 1965?

Operation Rolling Thunder followed a Viet Cong attack on Pleiku Air Base that killed eight Americans, and the bombing went on for more than three years.

Which former Ford Motor president was Lyndon Johnson's defense secretary until he left to run the World Bank?

Robert McNamara had grown increasingly skeptical of sending troops to South Vietnam by the time he resigned in 1968. He then led the bank until 1981.

Which antiwar senator's strong second place in the 1968 New Hampshire primary exposed Lyndon Johnson's weakness?

Eugene McCarthy had been given little chance when he entered, yet soon after his showing Robert Kennedy joined the race and Johnson dropped out of it.

Which segregationist Southern governor challenged President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 Democratic primaries?

George Wallace of Alabama lost that contest, then ran a third-party campaign in 1968 in the hope of throwing the election into the House of Representatives.

Which European city did Vice President Lyndon Johnson visit in August 1961 to calm residents after it was sealed off?

Berlin had just been divided by the newly built Wall, and on a two-day visit to the western half he sought to calm residents outraged by it.

Which country did Lyndon Johnson become the first sitting US president to visit, on a five-city tour in October 1966?

Australia greeted him with large crowds and with anti-war demonstrators who disrupted his motorcade. He went back a year later for Prime Minister Harold Holt's memorial service.

Which first director of the Peace Corps did Lyndon Johnson pick to run his new anti-poverty office in 1964?

Sargent Shriver, who was married to John F. Kennedy's sister Eunice, ran the Office of Economic Opportunity until 1968 and then became ambassador to France.

Which longtime Washington official did Lyndon Johnson exempt from mandatory retirement at 70 in 1964?

J. Edgar Hoover had led the bureau since 1924, and the waiver let him stay on as FBI director for an indefinite period. He remained in the job until his death.

To which city did Lyndon Johnson send the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions during five days of rioting in 1967?

Detroit had already seen Governor George Romney call in the Michigan National Guard, and the unrest left 43 people dead and more than 400 buildings destroyed.

Which open-government law did Lyndon Johnson sign on July 4, 1966, despite White House opposition to it?

The Freedom of Information Act gave the public a right to see government records, although Johnson believed some unclassified information should stay confidential.

Which constitutional change ratified under President Lyndon Johnson lets a president fill a vacant vice presidency?

The 25th Amendment was adopted in February 1967 and also sets out how a disabled president's powers can pass temporarily to the vice president.

Which voting barrier in federal elections did an amendment ban two months after Lyndon Johnson took office?

Poll taxes had been adopted across the states of the old Confederacy, and Johnson hailed the amendment that ended them as a triumph of liberty over restriction.

Robert C. Weaver became the first Black cabinet member when Lyndon Johnson chose him to lead which new department?

Housing and Urban Development had first been attempted under Kennedy, who all but promised Weaver the post. Weaver finally led the department from 1966 to 1968.

Which country seized the American spy ship Pueblo and its crew in January 1968, late in Lyndon Johnson's presidency?

North Korea held and mistreated the crew for eleven months in what became a major Cold War incident. One sailor was killed during the capture.

Which 1968 firearms law signed by Lyndon Johnson was first prompted by the mail-order rifle used to kill Kennedy?

The Gun Control Act took five years to pass, and the effort was only renewed after the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

Which other president, like Lyndon Johnson, was born in Texas, although he grew up in Kansas?

Dwight Eisenhower was born in Denison in 1890 and raised in Abilene, Kansas. George W. Bush, later governor of Texas, was born in Connecticut.

Which Pulitzer-winning biographer began the multi-volume The Years of Lyndon Johnson with The Path to Power in 1982?

Robert Caro first made his name with The Power Broker, a biography of the New York planner Robert Moses, before turning to a study of how Johnson won and used power.

Which actor won a Tony Award in 2014 for playing Lyndon Johnson in the Broadway play All the Way?

Bryan Cranston repeated the role in a television film of the play that premiered on HBO in 2016, and the stage production also won the Tony for best play.

What kind of Texas business did Lady Bird Johnson buy with $17,500 of her inheritance in 1943?

A radio station called KTBC was her purchase, and she expanded the business by buying a television station in 1952 despite her husband's objections.

Which roadside plants did Lady Bird Johnson champion, co-founding a national research center for them in 1982?

Wildflowers and other native plants are protected by the center she founded with the actress Helen Hayes, which now carries the former first lady's name.

Who gave the future First Lady Claudia Johnson the lifelong nickname Lady Bird when she was an infant?

Her nursemaid, Alice Tittle, said the baby was as pretty as a ladybird. Opinions differ on whether she meant a bird or the beetle Americans call a ladybug.

In which Texas city did Lyndon Johnson marry Lady Bird at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in November 1934?

San Antonio hosted a hurried wedding: she had not wanted to rush into marriage, but he was persistent and refused to wait.

Which phrase names the strain between Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War spending and his ambitious social programs?

Guns and butter is the economist's shorthand for the trade-off between defense and civilian goods. The cost of the war strained the economy and hampered his domestic plans.

Which term did the press attach in 1965 to public doubt about Lyndon Johnson's statements on the Vietnam War?

Credibility gap was first tied to Vietnam by the New York Herald Tribune in March 1965, to describe his handling of the escalation of American involvement in the war.

Which future Virginia governor married Lyndon Johnson's elder daughter after serving as a White House social aide?

Chuck Robb, a Marine officer, went on to command a company in combat in Vietnam, and later represented Virginia in the US Senate as well.

Which unlikely guest did Vice President Lyndon Johnson invite to America after a roadside meeting in Karachi in 1961?

A camel driver named Bashir Ahmad accepted the invitation amid heavy press attention and travelled to the United States as the vice president's guest.