Presidential Trivia

Every four years, the people of the United States vote to elect a president, the highest elective office in the land.  Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you are no doubt aware that 2012 is an election year.  On November 6 , we will elect the man who will lead us for the next four years.

We have had many great presidents, and some not so great ones.  There are many interesting facts (and myths) surrounding the office.  Some of these facts are well-known and some are not.  Following are some of the more interesting and strange facts about the various presidents.  I will be presenting this trivia in a question and answer format.  Read on and you might learn something.


How many presidents have we had?
Although Barack Obama is considered the 44th president, 43 men have held the position.  Grover Cleveland is the only president elected twice to non concurrent terms.  He served as president from 1885 - 1889 and again from 1893 - 1897.  He is therefore considered to be the 22nd and the 24th presidents.

Who was the only president elected by unanimous proclamation?
George Washington was unopposed and elected unanimously to his first term.

Did George Washington really have wooden teeth?
No.  Although he did lose most of his teeth to gum disease, his dentures were made of lead, ivory, or human or animal teeth, not wood.

Who was the first president to wear pants?
John Quincy Adams, the 6th president, was the first president to wear long pants to his inauguration.  Prior to him, all the presidents wore knee-length breeches.

Did any presidents own slaves?
Yes.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both owned slaves.  Jefferson had six children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings.  Jefferson emancipated (freed) the entire Hemmings family, and Washington's will freed the slaves he owned upon his death, but not the slaves owned by his wife.

Has any president ever killed a man?
Yes.  Several presidents have served in the armed forces during wartime and have most certainly killed enemy soldiers or Native Americans in battle.  Andrew Jackson, the 6th president from 1829 - 1837, killed Nashville attorney Charles Dickinson in a duel in 1806 after Dickinson insulted Jackson's wife.  Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th presidents, personally pulled the lever that sent two convicted murderers to their deaths by hanging when he was Sheriff of Erie County, New York, before he was president.  Presidents have also ordered the deaths of certain enemies of the country, and are therefore at least indirectly responsible.  President Harry S. Truman ordered the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, resulting in more than 100,000 deaths.  And more recently, President Barack Obama ordered and oversaw the operation that resulted in the death of terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

Have we ever had a "gay" president?
Possibly.  James Buchanan, the 15th president, from 1857 - 1861, never married.  During his political career in Washington, D.C., he lived with Alabama Senator Rufus B. King.  There were many rumors and even some letters suggesting that they were more than just friends.  Andrew Jackson called Rufus King "Aunt Fancy" or "Miss Nancy", and the two were sometimes referred to by other politicians as "Buchanan and wife".  Both men's private correspondences were burned by their relatives, and evidence of their homosexuality is at best inconclusive.

Who was the youngest president?  Who was the oldest?
Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man ever to assume the office.  He was 42 years old when he succeeded to the post upon the death of President William McKinley in 1901.  John F. Kennedy, at 43 years old, was the youngest man elected president.  When he was assassinated at age 46, Kennedy was also the youngest president to die.  Ronald Reagan was the oldest president.  He was 77 years old when he left office.

Which president lived the longest?
Gerald Ford was the longest lived president.  He was 93 years, 5 months old when he died in 2006.  Ronald Reagan was a close second.  He was 93 years, 4 months old when he died in 2004.

Which president served for the shortest period of time?
William Henry Harrison, the 9th president, died after only one month in office.  He was president from March 4, 1841 - April 4, 1841.  He delivered the longest inaugural address in history, at two hours, on a cold, rainy day.  He developed pneumonia two weeks later, and never recovered.  He was the first president to die in office.

Who served the longest term?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president, was elected to four terms, and served from 1933 - 1945.  He died three months after his fourth inauguration.  After his death, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was enacted.  It limits presidents to two terms of office.

Have presidents hidden physical infirmities or illnesses from the people?
Yes.  At the beginning of Grover Cleveland's second term, in 1893, he had secret surgery performed to remove a malignant tumor from his jaw.  The public did not find out about this operation until 1917, nine years after his death.  In 1919, during his second term, Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him debilitated for five months.  During this time, his wife made decisions for him.  Wilson's decision to veto the Volstead Act, which enforced prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment, was probably made by his wife.  As with Cleveland, the public did not find out about Wilson's stroke until after his death.  Few Americans at the time knew that Franklin Roosevelt was paralyzed during his entire tenure as president.  He suffered a bout of Polio in 1921 that left him unable to walk or use his legs.  John F. Kennedy was in poor health during his presidency.  He suffered from Addison's Disease, which is characterized by the body's inability to produce adrenaline, and he had to take steroids to combat the condition.  He also had Osteoporosis.  These ailments were kept from the public.

Who was the only unelected president?
Gerald Ford, the 38th president, from 1974 - 1977.  Ford was appointed vice president by President Richard Nixon in 1973 to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was forced to resign for tax evasion and accepting bribes.  In 1974, Ford ascended to the presidency when Nixon resigned over the Watergate affair, making Ford the only president never elected either president or vice president. 

What presidents were related to to other presidents?
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, was the son of John Adams, the second president.  Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, was grandson of William Henry Harrison, the 9th president.  Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, and Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president, were distant cousins.  Theodore Roosevelt was the uncle of Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor.  And George H. W. Bush, the 41st president, is the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd president.

How many presidents have been impeached?
Two.  Andrew Johnson, the 17th president, was impeached in 1868 after he tried to dismiss  Secretary of War Stanton without Senate approval.  William Clinton, the 42nd president, was impeached in 1998 for perjury related to a sexual harassment suit.  Both men were acquitted.

Have any presidents died on the same day?
Yes.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the 2nd and 3rd presidents respectively, both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  James Monroe, the 5th president, also died on the Fourth of July, in 1831.

What presidents held public office after their terms as president?
John Quincy Adams was a U. S. representative from Massachusetts for eighteen years after he left the presidency.  After leaving the White House, Andrew Johnson was a U. S. senator from Tennessee for eleven years.  And William Howard Taft was named Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1921, seven years after he served as president.

How many presidents got married while holding the office?
Three.  After John Tyler's wife died in 1842, while he was president, he remarried while still in office.  Grover Cleveland was a bachelor when he was first elected in 1884.  During the campaign, he was accused of fathering an illegitimate child.  He took responsibility and agreed to support the child, but refused to marry the child's mother.  He later married Frances Folsom, the daughter of his law partner.  She was also Cleveland's ward.  She was twenty-one years old at the time.  It was the only wedding ceremony to actually take place in the White House.  Their child, Esther Cleveland, was born during his second term, in 1893.  Esther was the only presidential child actually born in the White House.  Woodrow Wilson's first wife died from kidney disease during his presidency.  He remarried while still president.

Who was the only president to resign?
Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in August 1974 when the Watergate scandal made it impossible for him to effectively manage the office.


Sources:

The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2012 Edition, World Almanac Books, 2012

Don't Know Much About the American Presidents, by Kenneth C. Davis, Hyperion Books, 2012