98 Fun Facts About US Presidents

Who was the first President of the United States?

George Washington served from 1789 to 1797 and stepped down voluntarily after two terms, a precedent that held until Franklin Roosevelt ran a third time in 1940.

Which U.S. President led the country through the Civil War?

Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre five days after Lee's surrender, the first president to be assassinated; the Emancipation Proclamation came on January 1, 1863.

Who was the youngest person ever *elected* to the U.S. presidency?

Kennedy was 43 when he won in 1960 and was also the first Catholic president; the youngest person ever to hold the office was 42, but he got there by succeeding an assassinated president rather than by winning an election.

Who was the first U.S. President to serve two non-consecutive terms?

Cleveland served from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897, and he won the popular vote in all three of his presidential runs, including the 1888 election he lost.

Which US President is the only person to have also served as Chief Justice?

Taft always wanted the court more than the White House; he had turned down repeated Supreme Court appointments before becoming Chief Justice in 1921.

Who is the only U.S. President to have resigned from office?

Richard Nixon's resignation took effect at noon on August 9, 1974, and Gerald Ford pardoned him a month later.

Which U.S. President was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase?

Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. President, orchestrated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, doubling the size of the United States and significantly expanding its territory.

Who was the first U.S. President to live in the White House?

Adams moved into the still-unfinished mansion in November 1800, only months before losing his re-election bid to Thomas Jefferson.

Which U.S. President was known for his policy of "Trust Busting" and conservation efforts?

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, earned a reputation as a 'trust buster' for his efforts to break up monopolies and was a fervent advocate for environmental conservation, establishing numerous national parks and forests.

Which U.S. President served without being elected to either the presidency or vice presidency?

Ford was appointed vice president under the 25th Amendment after Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973, then moved up to the presidency in August 1974 when his predecessor left office.

The New Deal, a series of programs and reforms, was enacted under which U.S. President?

Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed the New Deal's first wave through in his first 100 days, a yardstick every president since has been measured against.

Which former U.S. President won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidency human rights work?

The prize recognized the Carter Center's decades of election monitoring and disease eradication, and the Nobel committee openly framed it as a rebuke to the looming Iraq war.

Who was the first U.S. President to be impeached by the House of Representatives?

Johnson was impeached in 1868 over his firing of the Secretary of War and survived removal in the Senate by a single vote.

Which U.S. President's portrait is featured on the twenty-dollar bill?

Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. President, appears on the front of the U.S. twenty-dollar bill. He served two terms from 1829 to 1837.

Who served the shortest term as U.S. President, lasting only 31 days?

William Henry Harrison holds the record for the shortest U.S. presidency, serving only 31 days in office before dying of pneumonia in April 1841.

Who is the only U.S. President born outside the contiguous 48 states?

Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961, barely two years after Hawaii became a state.

Which U.S. President was shot by disappointed office-seeker Charles Guiteau in 1881?

Garfield lingered for 11 weeks and died of infection from his doctors' unsterilized probing of the wound rather than the bullet itself.

Who was the first U.S. President born after the Declaration of Independence?

Born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1782, Van Buren grew up speaking Dutch at home and remains the only president whose first language was not English.

Which U.S. President oversaw the end of the Korean War with an armistice agreement?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former five-star general, fulfilled his campaign promise by securing an armistice agreement that ended the fighting in the Korean War in July 1953.

Which U.S. President signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964?

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, 1964. This comprehensive legislation aimed to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

On which day of the year is Presidents' Day observed in the United States?

The third Monday of February floats between the 15th and 21st, so Presidents' Day never actually lands on Washington's birthday, February 22.

Which group's advertising popularised the name 'Presidents' Day' by the mid-1980s?

Congress never renamed the holiday; the term stuck once furniture, appliance and mattress sales adopted it.

Which 1968 law moved the February presidential observance to a three-day weekend from 1971?

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act also moved Memorial Day and Columbus Day, and briefly Veterans Day, to Mondays.

In what year did Congress first make Washington's Birthday a federal holiday in the capital?

Congress made Washington's Birthday a holiday for federal workers in the District of Columbia in 1879, then extended it to all federal offices in 1885, the first federal holiday honoring an individual American.

An early draft of the 1968 holiday law would have renamed the February holiday for which two presidents jointly?

An early draft would have renamed the holiday Presidents' Day for Washington and Lincoln jointly; it failed in committee, leaving the federal name Washington's Birthday even though the third Monday falls between Lincoln's February 12 and Washington's February 22.

Which state does not observe the February presidential holiday at all?

Delaware is one of the few states with no February presidential holiday. Several states rename it instead: Colorado and Ohio call it Washington–Lincoln Day, and Alabama pairs Washington with Thomas Jefferson.

Which president was in office when the stock market crashed in October 1929?

Herbert Hoover had been president less than eight months when the market crashed on October 29, 1929; the Depression that followed cost him the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt.

Which decoration bearing the first president's image was revived on his 200th birthday in 1932?

The Purple Heart was re-established on February 22, 1932, Washington's 200th birthday, as a successor to the Badge of Military Merit he created in 1782, the first US decoration open to ordinary soldiers.

Who was the first president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives?

Donald Trump was impeached in December 2019 over the Ukraine phone call and again in January 2021 over the Capitol riot; the Senate acquitted him both times.

Which president took the United States into the Spanish–American War in 1898?

William McKinley asked Congress for war in April 1898 after the battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor; the brief war brought Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines under US control.

Which Virginia city, Washington's adopted hometown, claims the nation's largest birthday parade for him?

Alexandria, the port town nearest Mount Vernon, stages what it bills as the nation's largest George Washington Birthday parade; Laredo, Texas, has held a month-long celebration since 1898.

How many presidents' faces are carved into Mount Rushmore?

Four 60-foot heads stand for the nation's founding, growth, development and preservation: Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln.

Who was the sculptor in charge of carving Mount Rushmore from 1927 until his death in 1941?

Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941 and his son Lincoln Borglum finished the work; funding ran out on October 31, 1941, so only Washington's head has any detail below the chin.

Which president signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854?

Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854; it repealed the Missouri Compromise line and let settlers in the two territories vote on slavery, sparking 'Bleeding Kansas'.

The teddy bear is named after a president who refused to shoot a captured bear on a 1902 hunt in which state?

Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a tethered bear near Onward, Mississippi, in November 1902; a Clifford Berryman cartoon in The Washington Post publicised the moment, and Brooklyn shopkeeper Morris Michtom sold the first 'Teddy's bear'.

Who was Barack Obama's vice president for all eight years of his presidency?

Joe Biden served as Obama's vice president from January 2009 to January 2017 after 36 years as a senator from Delaware, and won the presidency himself in 2020.

What breed was Bo, the Obama family's dog?

Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog, arrived in April 2009 as a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy; the breed was chosen because Malia Obama's allergies needed a low-shedding dog.

Which Democratic nominee did Dwight Eisenhower defeat in both 1952 and 1956?

Adlai Stevenson, the former Illinois governor, lost to Eisenhower in 1952 and again in 1956, carrying only seven states the second time.

How tall is the obelisk on the National Mall built to honour the first president?

The Washington Monument stands 555 feet 5 inches; it was the world's tallest structure from its completion in 1884 until the Eiffel Tower overtook it in 1889.

Who was the last member of the Whig Party to serve as president?

Millard Fillmore, who succeeded Zachary Taylor in July 1850, was the last Whig president; the party collapsed over slavery in the mid-1850s and he ran in 1856 as the Know Nothing candidate.

What was the nickname of the volunteer cavalry regiment Theodore Roosevelt led in Cuba in 1898?

The Rough Riders, formally the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, charged up Kettle Hill near San Juan Heights on July 1, 1898, with Roosevelt as their colonel; the fame carried him to the New York governorship that fall.

Air Force One's call sign followed a 1953 mix-up in which the president's plane shared a flight number with what?

In 1953 President Eisenhower's plane, Air Force 8610, entered the same airspace as Eastern Air Lines Flight 8610, a commercial airliner; the unique call sign Air Force One was created to prevent a repeat.

Which president is the only one to hold a PhD?

Woodrow Wilson earned his PhD in history and political science from Johns Hopkins in 1886 and later served as president of Princeton University before entering politics.

Which president was born on the Fourth of July?

He was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, in 1872, and his father, a notary, swore him in by lamplight when Harding died.

Which state did Barack Obama represent in the US Senate before becoming president?

Barack Obama represented Illinois in the US Senate from January 2005 until November 2008, after eight years in the Illinois state senate, and launched his presidential run from Springfield in February 2007.

Which president, the first VP to succeed to the office, was mocked as 'His Accidency'?

John Tyler took over when William Henry Harrison died in 1841; all his cabinet but Daniel Webster resigned, the Whigs expelled him, and in 1861 he sat in the Provisional Confederate Congress.

Which one-term president died of cholera months after leaving office in 1849?

James K. Polk died of cholera in June 1849, three months after leaving office; his single term annexed Texas, settled the Oregon boundary at the 49th parallel and won the Mexican–American War.

Which general and president was 'Old Rough and Ready', dying only 16 months into his term?

Zachary Taylor earned 'Old Rough and Ready' in the Second Seminole War and beat Santa Anna's larger army at Buena Vista in 1847; he died in July 1850 after 16 months in office.

What was the 18th president's name at birth, before a West Point paperwork error changed it?

He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in 1822; Congressman Thomas Hamer's nomination to West Point listed him as Ulysses S. Grant, and he kept the new name.

Before entering politics, Ronald Reagan served twice as president of which organisation?

Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and again in 1959–60, then was elected governor of California in 1966.

Herbert Hoover made his fortune in which profession before entering public service?

Herbert Hoover trained as a mining engineer at Stanford, graduating in its first class in 1895, and grew rich managing mines in Australia and China before running famine relief for occupied Belgium in World War I.

Abraham Lincoln was which number president of the United States?

Lincoln was the 16th president, elected in 1860 after the 15th, James Buchanan, and followed on his death in 1865 by the 17th, Andrew Johnson.

How long is one term for a president of the United States?

Four years for the president, six for senators and two for the House mean all three cycles line up only every twelve years; the vice president shares the four-year cycle.

Under the Twenty-second Amendment, how many times can a person be elected president?

Twice has been the cap since 1951, after Franklin Roosevelt won four elections in a row; someone who serves under two years of another's term can still be elected twice more.

What is the minimum age to serve as president of the United States?

Article II sets the minimum age at 35 and also requires a natural-born citizen who has lived in the country for fourteen years; House members need only be 25 and senators 30.

On which date is a newly elected president sworn in?

Inauguration Day was March 4 until the Twentieth Amendment moved it to January 20, first used in 1937; when the 20th falls on a Sunday the public ceremony shifts to Monday the 21st.

What is the street address of the president's official residence in Washington, D.C.?

Every president since John Adams in 1800 has lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW; Washington, who picked the site, never got to move in.

What call sign is used for the military helicopter carrying the president?

Marine One is flown by Marine Corps squadron HMX-1; with the vice president aboard the call sign becomes Marine Two. Eisenhower made the first presidential helicopter flight in July 1957, from the White House lawn.

The face on the US $100 bill belongs to which Founding Father, who was never president?

Benjamin Franklin, printer, diplomat and signer of the Declaration, is the face of the $100 bill; Alexander Hamilton, on the $10, is the other non-president on a Federal Reserve note.

What title is traditionally given to the wife of the president of the United States?

Martha Washington was the first First Lady, though the phrase only caught on after a journalist called Lucy Hayes 'the First Lady of the Land' in 1877.

Who was president of the United States on September 11, 2001?

George W. Bush was reading to schoolchildren in Florida when he was told of the attacks; the 43rd president, he is the eldest son of the 41st.

Who served as vice president under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001?

Al Gore, previously a Tennessee senator, served both Clinton terms and went on to share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC for his climate work, the year An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar.

What was the name of George W. Bush's Scottish terrier?

Barney, a Scottish terrier who arrived in 2000, starred in the White House's 'Barney Cam' holiday videos; a second Scottie, Miss Beazley, joined him in 2005.

Which unusual animal, gifted from Africa and named Billy, lived in the Coolidge White House menagerie?

Billy the pygmy hippopotamus, sent from Liberia by Harvey Firestone in 1927, lived at the National Zoo and sired many US zoo hippos; the Coolidges also had lion cubs named Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau.

Andrew Jackson's grey parrot Poll was said to have been removed from his funeral for what reason?

Poll, an African grey parrot, was carried out of Jackson's 1845 funeral at the Hermitage for loud and persistent swearing, a vocabulary it had picked up from the general himself.

Supporters sent Andrew Jackson a 1,400-pound block of what, served at an 1837 public reception?

The 1,400-pound cheese, a gift from New York dairyman Thomas Meacham, was devoured by the public at the White House on February 22, 1837, and inspired The West Wing's 'Big Block of Cheese Day'.

Which animal swam aggressively at Jimmy Carter's fishing boat in 1979, in a press-dubbed "killer" attack?

The animal was a swamp rabbit, a large species that swims readily; it paddled toward Carter's boat on a pond near Plains, Georgia, in April 1979, and he splashed it away with his paddle.

What slowed the bullet that hit Theodore Roosevelt in the chest in Milwaukee in 1912?

He reasoned that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had missed his lung, and spoke for an hour.

What kind of animal was Pauline Wayne, who grazed the White House lawn for the Tafts from 1910 to 1913?

Pauline Wayne was a Holstein cow, the last cow kept at the White House; in 1911 she went missing for two days after a rail crew switched her car and was found in a Milwaukee stockyard.

Woodrow Wilson kept a flock of what on the White House lawn during World War I?

The sheep, which peaked at 48 and were led by a tobacco-chewing ram named Old Ike, kept the grass trimmed, and their wool was auctioned for the Red Cross in 1918.

Hooverball, invented for Herbert Hoover's fitness, is played by throwing what over an eight-foot net?

Hooverball uses a six-pound medicine ball thrown over an eight-foot net on a court like a tennis court; Hoover's physician Joel Boone devised it in 1929 and the president played most mornings.

Which president had electricity installed in the White House but was too afraid to touch the switches?

Benjamin Harrison had Edison General Electric wire the White House in 1891; he and his wife Caroline feared shocks, so staff switched the lights on and off for them.

Which university did Dwight Eisenhower lead as its president from 1948 to 1953?

Dwight Eisenhower was president of Columbia University from 1948 until 1953, taking leave in 1951 to command NATO forces in Europe before winning the 1952 election.

What was the name of the Clinton family's cat in the White House?

Socks, a black-and-white stray adopted by Chelsea Clinton in Arkansas, lived in the White House from 1993 to 2001 and was later cared for by Clinton's secretary Betty Currie.

What kind of shop did Harry Truman open in Kansas City after returning from World War I?

Truman & Jacobson, a haberdashery selling shirts, ties and hats, opened in Kansas City in 1919 with his army friend Eddie Jacobson; it failed in the 1921–22 recession and he was elected a Jackson County judge in 1922.

Barack Obama won Grammy Awards in 2006 and 2008 in which category?

Both of Obama's Grammys were for Best Spoken Word Album, for the audiobooks of Dreams from My Father (2006) and The Audacity of Hope (2008); he later won Emmys as a documentary narrator.

Which Caribbean island did US forces invade on Ronald Reagan's orders in October 1983?

Operation Urgent Fury landed on Grenada on October 25, 1983, days after a coup killed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop; Reagan cited the safety of American medical students on the island.

What did Alice Roosevelt call her pet garter snake, named after a leafy vegetable and a skinny aunt?

Emily Spinach was green like spinach and thin like Alice's aunt Emily; she carried it in her purse to parties. The Roosevelt children also kept a badger, a one-legged rooster and a hyena.

Which president is the only one who never married?

James Buchanan's fiancée Anne Coleman broke off their engagement and died in 1819; he never married, and his orphaned niece Harriet Lane served as White House hostess.

Whose Oval Office desk carried a sign reading 'The Buck Stops Here'?

Harry S. Truman's sign was made at the federal reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma, and sent to him in 1945 by his friend US Marshal Fred Canfil; its reverse reads 'I'm from Missouri'.

Which state has been the birthplace of more presidents than any other?

Eight presidents were born in Virginia, including four of the first five (Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe); Ohio is second with seven.

In 1972 Richard Nixon became the first sitting president to visit which country?

Nixon's February 1972 week in China ended more than two decades of estrangement since the 1949 revolution, though formal diplomatic relations only followed in 1979; Pat Nixon toured schools and factories with the press corps in tow.

What play was Abraham Lincoln watching at Ford's Theatre when he was shot?

Our American Cousin, Tom Taylor's comedy, was in its third act when John Wilkes Booth, who knew the play well, timed his shot to the laughter following the 'sockdologizing old man-trap' line.

The 1978 Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and which other country?

Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin signed the accords on September 17, 1978, after thirteen days of secret talks hosted by Jimmy Carter; the framework led directly to the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty.

Who shot and wounded Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton in March 1981?

John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots on March 30, 1981, hoping to impress the actress Jodie Foster; in 1982 a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

Which president was born William Jefferson Blythe III?

Bill Clinton's father, William Blythe Jr., died in a car accident three months before his birth in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946; he formally took his stepfather Roger Clinton's surname at 15.

William McKinley was shot in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in which city?

At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz fired twice as they shook hands in the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901; McKinley died of gangrene eight days later.

Who was the shortest president, standing about 5 feet 4 inches?

James Madison stood about 5 feet 4 inches and weighed around 100 pounds; Lincoln, a full foot taller at 6 feet 4 inches, was the tallest president.

Which president's 1823 message to Congress warned Europe against new colonies in the Americas?

James Monroe's December 1823 message, largely drafted by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, went unnamed for 27 years; the phrase 'Monroe Doctrine' only came into use in 1850.

George Washington's Mount Vernon estate sits on the banks of which river?

Mount Vernon overlooks the Potomac River about 15 miles south of Washington, D.C., in Fairfax County; its two-storey piazza faces the water and the Maryland shore beyond.

Which former president served nine terms in the House of Representatives after leaving office?

John Quincy Adams won a Massachusetts House seat in 1830 and served from 1831 until he collapsed from a cerebral haemorrhage on the House floor in 1848, dying in the Speaker's Room; Andrew Johnson later returned as a senator.

Which future president was Director of Central Intelligence in 1976-77?

Gerald Ford appointed George H. W. Bush after his stints as UN ambassador and envoy to China; he ran the CIA from January 1976 to January 1977, and its Langley headquarters was named for him in 1999.

The first White House Easter Egg Roll was held on the lawn in 1878 under which president?

Rutherford B. Hayes opened the South Lawn to egg-rollers in 1878 after Congress had banned the game on the Capitol grounds in 1876, when one rowdy roll wrecked the lawn.

FDR became the first sitting president to fly when he travelled to a 1943 conference where?

Roosevelt flew to the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 aboard the Dixie Clipper, a Pan Am-crewed Boeing 314 flying boat, to meet Churchill in Morocco; the trip made him the first sitting president to fly.

How much did the United States pay Russia for Alaska in 1867?

The $7.2 million paid in 1867 worked out at about 2 cents an acre, yet critics of Secretary of State William Seward mocked the deal as 'Seward's Folly' and 'Seward's Icebox'.

Who is the only woman to have administered the presidential oath of office?

Sarah T. Hughes, a Dallas federal judge, swore in Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One at Love Field on November 22, 1963; the plane was held on the ground until she arrived.

Which president signed the 1883 Pendleton Act, creating merit-based federal hiring?

Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Act in January 1883, a surprise from a product of New York's patronage machine who had himself been fired as Collector of the Port of New York in 1878.

In which city did Warren G. Harding die while on a western tour in 1923?

Harding died at San Francisco's Palace Hotel on August 2, 1923, probably of a heart attack, partway through a western 'Voyage of Understanding' tour; Senate hearings into Teapot Dome opened that October.