Every president promises to take us in a new direction. People say that in order to know where you are going, you need to know where you have been, so in honor of the upcoming election, let us take a look at the presidents of our nation’s past. Before you click away to prevent the onset of the Post-APUSH-Stress-Disorder, don’t worry! I’m not actually going to write you a long paper summarizing the terms of all our presidents. Trust me, I’ll never forget the Compromise of 1820 for the REST OF MY LIFE, even if I wanted to. It’s completely lateralized and imprinted in my brain.
So. That said…here are 16 random facts about presidents in honor of the ‘16 election!
-
George Washington is the only president ever to get a unanimous vote. Kudos to the OG GW, because that is incredibly impressive. Plus, he did not have wooden teeth. I do not know who spread that rumor, but he didn’t. He only had one tooth of his own, but he definitely had dentures made of stuff other than wood.
-
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, that is , July 4th, 1826. The two of them also have a fascinating relationship, one that was greatly impacted after the Revolution of 1800. But in their later years, they actually wrote to each other and became friends.
-
James Madison was the smallest president. He stood at five foot four, and weighed about 100 pounds. Lincoln, on the other hand, was a very tall 6’4. He actually detest his height, and that’s why he rarely stood for his portraits.
-
Lincoln was not only honest, he was an amazing wrestler. A local bully once challenged him to a wrestling match somewhere
-
So you know
-
LBJ was not a shy guy: I’m sure you’ve seen the photos of him putting his nose up to other people’s faces, towering over them with his stature. But, did you also know that he would actually have people follow him into the bathroom while discussing things, so he could continue to discuss with them? LBJ is a fascinating character, and little is actually known about his character–he rarely wrote things down, and things he wrote down he jotted with crayons, and were not very insightful. His phone calls were often meant to be manipulative, so very little information can actually be gleaned from the content of those calls.
-
James K. Polk kept all of his campaign promises. How many presidents do you know have done that? He acquired California, settled the Oregon dispute, lowered tariffs, and created a sub treasury, and did not run for re-election, as promised. (Yes, I know. That was his campaign promise. I will not run for a second term.)
-
Presidential families. So it turns out there’s some sort of legacy thing going on in the election…just kidding! But there are a good number of relatives:
-
To name the obvious ones: George W. Bush is the son of George H.W. Bush, and John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams. (I’m sensing that if you want your child to take after you and become president, you ought to bestow upon him your name, but do something different with the middle name…)
-
Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. This one’s pretty obvious too but at least they have the same last name. That brings us to Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who have the last name, and definitely are related, but do you know what their relation was? They were fifth cousins! That means that they shared the same great-great-great-great-grandparents. (Nobody ever understands what the whole second cousins, twice removed deal is. Maybe we should have a feature on that.)
-
James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins.
-
William Howard Taft weighted 332 pounds, got stuck in the White House bathtub, and subsequently became chief justice of the Supreme Court after he retired and swore in other presidents. He also lost 150 pounds after his term in office, so…if you’re looking for good ways to lose weight…
-
Andrew Jackson had a lot of duels under his belt, and was a mass of scar tissue plus some bullets. Apparently, he rattled when he walked. In addition, he had a parrot that cursed so much it had to be removed from his funeral due to its flippant use of vulgarities.
-
Grover Cleveland was elected in two separate terms. 1884 and 1892
-
Teddy Roosevelt was actually the one that coined the term “White House.”
-
Presidential Superlatives:
Tallest: Abe Lincoln: 6’4’’
Shortest: James Madison 5’4’’
Shortest term: William Henry Harrison: 32 days
Longest term: FDR: elected four times; (Nobody can ever be elected more than twice ever again thanks to Amendment 22)
Youngest: This one’s a weird one. Youngest elected president was JFK, at age 43, but Theodore Roosevelt was only 42 when he became president due to the assassination of William McKinley.
Oldest: Ronald Reagan, at age 69.
Random non-presidential trivia: The president lives in the White House. Do you know where the Vice President lives? It’s not the Off-White House. (A: Naval Observatory)
Happy almost election week/day! Don’t forget to vote!