Barack Obama is our 44th president, but there
actually have only been 43 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two
nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th
president.
Eight Presidents were born British
subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams,
Jackson, and W. Harrison.
Nine Presidents never attended
college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln,
A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman. The college that has the most presidents
as alumni (six in total) is Harvard: J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F.
Roosevelt, Kennedy, G. W. Bush (business school), and Barack Obama (law school). Yale is a close
second, with five presidents as alumni: Taft, Ford (law school), G.H.W.
Bush, Clinton (law school), and G. W. Bush.
Presidents
who would be considered "Washington outsiders" (i.e., the 18
presidents who never served in Congress) are: Washington, J. Adams,
Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson,
Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and G.
W. Bush.
The most common religious affiliation
among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.
The ancestry of 43 presidents is limited to the
following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch,
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German.
Barack
Obama is the first African American to be elected president of the
United States.
When he takes office,
Barack Obama, who was born in
Hawaii, will be the only president who was not born in the continental
United States.
The oldest elected president was Reagan (age
69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the
youngest man to become president—he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley,
who had been assassinated. THE OLDEST LIVING former president
was Gerald Ford, who was born on July 14,
1913, and died on Dec.27, 2006, at age 93. The second oldest was Ronald Reagan, who also lived to be 93
years.
The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at
5'4", Madison was the shortest.
There have been seven left-handed
presidents: James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford,
Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Barack Obama is also a
southpaw.
Fourteen Presidents served as vice
presidents: J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson,
Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L. Johnson, Ford, and George
H.W. Bush.
Vice Presidents were originally the
presidential candidates receiving the second-largest number of electoral
votes. The Twelfth Amendment, passed in
1804, changed the system so that the electoral college voted separately for
president and vice president. The presidential candidate, however, gradually
gained power over the nominating convention to choose his own running
mate.
For two years the nation was run by a president
and a vice president who were not elected by the people. After Vice
President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon appointed Gerald
Ford as vice president. Nixon resigned the following year, which left Ford
as president, and Ford's appointed vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, as
second in line.
Four Presidents won the popular vote but
lost the presidency: Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost the
election to John Quincy Adams (1824); Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote
but lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes (1876); Grover Cleveland won
the popular vote but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison (1888); Al Gore
won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush (2000).
The term "First Lady" was
first used in 1877 in reference to Lucy Ware Webb Hayes. Most First Ladies,
including Jackie Kennedy, are said to have hated the label.
James Buchanan was the only president never to marry.
Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives—two of
whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the
only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler—father
of fifteen—had the most.
Presidents Lincoln,
Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.
Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T.
Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, and Reagan.
Eight
Presidents died in office: W. Harrison (after having served
only one month), Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt,
and Kennedy.
Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all
died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born
on that day.
Kennedy and Taft are the only presidents buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Lincoln, Jefferson, F. Roosevelt, Washington, Kennedy, and
Eisenhower are portrayed on U.S.
coins.
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson,
Grant, McKinley, Cleveland, Madison, and Wilson are portrayed on U.S. paper currency.