Facts about U.S. Presidents
The only president to be unanimously elected was George Washington (1732-1799). He also refused to accept his presidential salary, which was $25,000 a year
Andrew Johnson is the only tailor ever to be president. As president, he would typically stop by a tailor shop to say hello. He would wear only the suits that he made himself
George Washington never lived in the White House. The capital was actually located in Philadelphia and other cities when Washington was president. He is also the only president who didn’t represent a political party
James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) is the first president to ever talk on the phone. When he spoke to Alexander Graham Bell, who was at the other end 13 miles away, he said: “Please speak a little more slowly.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C
President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) is the only president to be elected to two nonconsecutive terms. He was the 22nd and 24th president
Martin Van Buren was the first to be a United States citizen. All previous presidents were born British subjects
Six presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter
President Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the only president to serve in both WWI and WWII
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) was the first president to visit all 50 states and the first to visit China. He is the only president to resign
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (1924-) was the first president to be born in a hospital
James Buchanan is the only bachelor president.
John Tyler (1790-1862) had more children than any other president. He had eight by his first wife and seven by his second. He was 70 when his last child, Pearl, was born.
James Madison (1751-1836) was the shortest president of the United States, standing at only 5’4”.
George Washington made the shortest inauguration speech on record—133 words and less than two minutes long
William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) holds the record for the longest inauguration speech in history at 8,578 words long and one hour and 40 minutes.
The youngest president was Teddy Roosevelt who became president at age 42 when McKinley (1843-1901) was assassinated. JFK was the youngest president elected at the age of 43
Three presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), and James Monroe (1831). Calvin Coolidge is the only president to have been born on the Fourth (1872)
George Herbert Walker Bush is the only President with four names
Herbert Hoover was an orphan whose first job was picking bugs off potato plants, for which he was paid a dollar per hundred bugs. He also was a mine worker
Gerald Ford worked as a model during college. He also worked as a forest ranger
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to ever be photographed at his inauguration.
Teddy Roosevelt’s last request before dying was “Please put out the light.” Thomas Jefferson’s last words were “This is the Fourth?” John Adam’s dying words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” unaware that Jefferson had passed away a few hours earlier
George Washington didn’t have enough money to get to his own inauguration so he had to borrow $600 from his neighbor
Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman did not attend college. Harry Truman is the only twentieth-century president without a college degree
The capital of Liberia is called Monrovia after President James Monroe
No president has ever been an only child
The first president to be born outside the original 13 States was Lincoln
Jimmy Carter was a wealthy peanut farmer in Plains, Georgia. A farming accident left one of his fingers permanently bent
Abraham Lincoln is the only president to receive a patent (# 6469).
Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president at 6′ 4.”
The presidential faces on Mount Rushmore are as high as a five-story building, about 60′ from chin to top of the head.
JFK was the first Roman Catholic to be president, the first Boy Scout to become president, and the first president to be born in the twentieth century
Gerald Ford was the first person to be both vice president and president without being elected by the people.
Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached. He was acquitted by one vote in the Senate. It would be another 131 years before another president, Bill Clinton, would be impeached
