President’s Day is celebrated on the third Monday of every February; however, the day was originally celebrated for George Washington’s birthday on February 22. In 1971 it was moved to the third Monday of February for 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create another three-day weekend for workers. In honor of President’s Day on February 20, 2017, here are 20 fun facts about past US Presidents.
1. Lincoln Logs were named after Abraham Lincoln because he was born in a log cabin.
2. Thomas Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington D.C.
3. President George H.W. Bush once vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister.
4. James Garfield was the first president to ever talk on the phone. Who else would he have talked to but Alexander Graham Bell?
5. Martin Van Buren was the first to be born a U.S. citizen. The rest before him were born under British rule.
6. James Buchanan was the only unmarried President.
7. Thomas Jefferson had a plant named after him: Jeffersonia diphylla.
8. William Taft was the heaviest president ever at 325 pounds and often got stuck in the bath tub.
9. William Henry Harrison had the longest inauguration speech ever at 1 hour and 40 minutes, causing him to catch pneumonia and die in office a month later.
10. Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer in Georgia.
11. The faces on Mount Rushmore are as high as 5 stories and took 14 years to carve.
12. Warren Harding was the first to own a radio and make a speech on the air.
13. Grover Cleveland is the only president to be elected to two terms that were non-consecutive. He is both the 22nd and 24th president.
14. There have been 6 presidents with the first name “James”: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield and Carter.
15. Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
16. Dwight D. Eisenhower is the only one to have served in both World Wars.
17. Gerald Ford held his daughter’s prom in the White House.
18. George W. Bush has a collection of over 250 signed baseballs.
19. James Monroe, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson all died on July 4, and Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4.
20. Teddy Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech in Milwaukee, but that didn’t stop him; he still gave the speech with a bullet in his chest.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/presidents-day