Presidential Trivia for Election Time, part 1

The first in a series of blog articles on presidential trivia (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). Next week: Lincoln through Wilson.

The oldest known portrait of George Washington ((left) is at Washington and Lee University; it was executed by Charles Willson Peale in 1772.

Before the recent deaths of Ronald Reagan (2004) and Gerald Ford (2006), John Adams’s lifespan was greater than that of any other president. Adams was ninety years and eight months old at his death. Both Reagan and Ford died at the age of ninety-three.

Before Lucille Ball, Thomas Jefferson was this nation’s most famous redhead.

James Madison was president when the British torched the White House in 1814; one story has it that British Admiral George Cockburn stole one of Madison’s hats before leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in flames.

James Monroe was with George Washington at the Battle of Trenton.

John Quincy Adams served in Congress for eighteen years after his presidency.

Before Andrew Jackson (right) was seventeen years old, he:

• had joined the militia
• was captured and mistreated by British troops
• served time as a prisoner of war
• received a large inheritance which he spent on gambling and drinking.

The first American-born president was Martin Van Buren; the previous seven presidents had been British subjects at birth.

William Henry Harrison was in office for one month—March 4 to April 4, 1841. His inaugural speech of one hour and forty-five minutes, which he delivered in the cold and rain, cost him his life. Harrison contracted pneumonia, and upon his death, the presidency went to. . .

John Tyler. Tyler was the first vice president to ascend to the chief executive office.

The “K” in James K. Polk’s name stood for “Knox.”  Polk (left) was the youngest man to become president and, like so many men, the responsibilities of the office wore on him. He served one term in office and he died within three months of his successor’s inauguration.

Zachary Taylor never voted before running for the presidency.

Millard Fillmore was in the White House when the first bathtub was installed. Fillmore was presented to Queen Victoria in 1855 and she believed him to be the most handsome man she had ever seen.

Franklin Pierce attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he was a classmate of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

James Buchanan was the only president who never married.

Sources:
Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O’Brien
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts by Isaac Asimov
American Presidents by David C. Whitney
Portraits of the Presidents by Frederick Voss

 

George Washington/Charles Wilson Peale, 1772/Oil on canvas/Washington-Custis-Lee Collection, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia

James Madison/Chester Harding, undated/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Andrew Jackson/Trevor Thomas Fowler,1840/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

James Knox Polk/E. B. & E. C. Kellogg Lithography Company, c. 1846-1847/Hand-colored lithograph on paper/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution