Now one quick qualifier, in order to not basically be a rip off of every 5th grade text book ever, I intentionally went out of my way to select facts not broadly known. So their will be no "FDR was the first disabled president" "Gerald Ford was never elected president or vice president" "Andrew Johnson was first to be impeached" ect. I assume you already know that crap.
Instead I tried to find something much less known about every president. Granted some of the stuff I found is totally irrelevant (looking at you W., Hoover, Reagan) and pointless (Grant, Obama, Ford). Some of it is pretty cool though. And admittedly some of it strains the bounds of "not sounding like a 5th grade textbook" (although i did try to minimize that) mostly because we do have a number of rather bland presidents. (seriously Millard Fillmore alone took an hour to find anything on).
So without further adieu, here we go: 44 facts about America's 44 presidents (those of you who already see a problem, please dont ruin it for the rest of my readers)
1. George Washington achieved the military rank of 3 star general during his career. This is supposed to be the rational as to why all army ranks above 2 star general are temporary, no one should outrank Washington. That said, that rule was not always in place, and on at least 9 occasions (5 of them in WWII, 3 in the Civil War) people have earned permanent promotions to ranks above a 3 star general. To correct this, Washington was promoted to 6 star General (the only one to ever exist) on July 4th 1976, despite being long dead. Just lest we think the North Korean's are the only people crazy enough to create a position for eternity for a dead guy.
2. John Adams set the tradition for the Chief Justice to swear in the president. Obviously having the Chief Justice swear in Washington the first time would have been difficult, seeing as how the president could not have nominated one yet, and the second time around picked a Justice he liked more than the Chief.
3. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to serve under the current election rules requiring the President and Vice President to run on a ticket. To that end he was also the first president to replace his vice president between terms, replacing Aaron Burr (hot off his murder of Alexander Hamilton) with George Clinton for his second term.
4. James Madison was the vice presidential kiss of death. He inherited Vice President George Clinton from Jefferson, only to have Clinton become the first Vice President to die in office 3 years into his term. Once Madison was relected the Vice Presidency pass to Elbridge Gerry who promptly died 18 months later. Although other presidents have served with multiple VP's no one has lost more than 1 to the grim reaper.
5. James Monroe won reelection with the lopsided electoral vote in history (sans Washington who was never contested) winning all but one electoral vote.....but only 80% of the popular vote
6. John Quincy Adams didnt win the popular vote. Or the electoral vote. But became president anyway when the vote was thrown to the House of Representatives. No wonder he was kicked out after just a term.
7. Andrew Jackson was the first Presidential candidate to win the Popular vote 3 times. He is still one of only 3 men (Cleveland and FDR) to do this. Of course as mentioned, his first win went to the House of representatives who picked John Q Adams instead.
8. Martian Van Buren was the first president to be a natural born american citizen (the others had been British).
9. William Henry Harrison ran americans first "image" campaign, to avoid committing to any stand on any issues. He actually portrayed himself as having humble long cabin roots, compared to his opponent, the aristocratic Van Buren. It should be pointed out in reality, the roles were reversed and Harrison was the Aristocratic
10. John Tyler was the only American President to be elected to serve in a foreign government....the Confederacy but died before he could take that office. Ironically Tyler was never elected president, only serving out Harrison's term.
11. James Polk had the shortest post presidency of any president, 3 months after leaving office he was dead.
12. Zachary Taylor invented the term "First Lady" although he applied it not to his wife but to the widow of James Madison, Dolly, at her funeral.
13. Millard Fillmore delayed both his oath of office for Vice President (by a day) and for President (half a day).
14. Franklin Pierce refused to swear his oath of office. Instead he chose to affirm it, the only president to do so.
15. James Buchanan was the first president to have his inauguration photographed.
16. Abraham Lincoln was elected with the lowest % of the popular vote in history at 39.7%. Thats the good thing about 4 way races, you only need 26% to win.
17. Andrew Johnson was the first president to survive his term and fail to name a Supreme Court Justice. To be fair thought this is because congress shrank the size of the court during his term to deny him the ability, only to expand it again when Grant took office. (By the way, how much do you want to bet the GOP will pull the same stunt should a conservative justice vacate his seat in the next 2 years?)
18. Ulysses S. Grant was the first president born outside the original 13 colonies (born in Ohio)
19. Rutherford B. Hayes was the first president to be sworn in early (by a day) and in private, due to the mess surrounding his election and desire not to have the event disrupted. Believe or not, Florida fucked up their voting and no one could tell who won the state, but Hayes was awarded the state by a majority Republican congressional commission.
20. James Garfield is the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to win the Presidency. He was also appointed to the Senate in the same election, so had his choice of positions. He probably would have lived longer if he had picked the Senate.
21. Chester A. Arthur was the first president in history to retake his oath of office, NOT because he botched it but because the person who swore him in upon Garfield's death was a state judge and may not have had the power to swear in a national official. However Arthur was sworn the first time by a state official of New York, just as George Washington had been
22. Grover Cleveland was the first incumbent (and to date only) incumbent president to win the Popular vote, and lose his office.(1888 election)
23. Benjamin Harrison was the first president to spend 1 BILLION dollars in a yearly budget.
25. William McKinley was the final president since Grant to have been a Civil War vet and the lowest ranking officer from the civil war to be president.
26. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to travel outside the country, when he went to Panama in 1906.
27. William Howard Taft is the only person to mess up the Presidential Oath twice. Once when taking it, and one when administering it to as Chief Justice to President Herbert Hoover. For the record, didnt think it important enough to redo either time.
28. Woodrow Wilson was the first President since John Adams to give a speech akin to what we would today call the State of the Union. Every president between Jefferson and Taft just had a Paige deliver a written note to congress, well assuming they gave one at all.
29. Warren G. Harding was the first president women could vote for, won by the largest share of the popular vote in 100 years.
30. Calvin Coolidge in an ironic twist was the first president who's inaugural address was broadcast over the radio and set a record (at the time) for press conferences with 520. Not bad for a guy named "Silent Cal"
31. Herbert Hoover was american's longest living ex-president. Which sounds great, except that Hoover was also considered one of Americans worst presidents and had to hear about it for 31 years.
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person in American history to be the vice presidential nominee for a losing ticket to later come back and win the presidency. History dont look so good for Paul Ryan
33. Harry S. Truman was the first person ever enrolled in Medicare, and was issued his card by his successor LBJ.
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to preside over the current 50 state make up of the united states. Yea thats right, at the time Ike won a war started by an attack on Hawaii it wasnt even a state.
35. John F. Kennedy, first veteran to be elected president who did not serve in the army. (Navy vet)
36. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president sworn into office on a plane....and by a woman no less, and one who was not a member of the Supreme Court.
37. Richard Nixon was the first president required to pick a Vice President before a reelection, as before the 25th amendment was passed the Vice Presidency was left vacant when the VP died or otherwise left office before term. However the new amendment required a VP at all times.
38. Gerald Ford is the last president to date to serve without a Vice President (albeit for only about 14 weeks until Walter Mondale was confirmed)
39. Jimmy Carter was the first president to be newly elected from the South since Zachary Taylor and the Mexican American war 140 years prior. Although both Andrew and Lyndon Johnson were southerners they both took office upon the death of their predecessors, and Andrew was never actually elected at all.
40. Ronald Reagan was the only President born in Illinois. That's right, Illinois two most favorite sons are transplants, Obama from hawaii (duh) and Lincoln from Kentucky.
41. George H.W. Bush was the first incumbent vice president since Martian Van Buren to actually become president, and Van Buren was the first incumbent VP to be president under the current "ticket" rules. So yea, that whole idea the VP is next in line is a load of Malarky.....speaking of Malarky, who wants to break this to Biden?
42. Bill Clinton is the only president to be elected twice and never win a majority of the popular vote.......THANKS ROSS PEROT!
43. George W. Bush is the first father of twins elected president.
44. Barack Obama currently ties the record for presidential swearing in's with 4 (matching FDR) he botched the oath in his first inauguration and decided to do it again. His second term started on a Sunday, meaning by tradition he was sworn in privately on Sunday, then again at a public inaguration on Monday.
Now some of my more attentive readers may have notice I missed a number, #24. Well thats because Grover Cleveland served non consecutive terms, so unlike other multiple term presidents he had two different presidencies and therefore 2 different numbers.
BUT I did promise 44 facts about america's 44 presidents. So here is fact #44 about Americans unknown president.
David Rice Atchison has claim to be president for a day (March 4th 1849) which may or may not be valid (see full explanation in previous blog), but since that's widely known it doesnt count as his fact.
However assuming Mr. Atchison is counted as a president, he would be the only American President to both serve in a foreign military, and militarily oppose the United States when he joined the Confederate Army in the civil war. As a free bonus fact, if counted, Mr. Atchison would be our youngest president ever. Teddy Roosevelt is "officially" the youngest president at 42 years and 11 months old. Atchison was only 41 years and 6 months old during his "term"
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