From the best presidents to the worst presidents, there are some truly weird and wonderful facts about the presidency. Since George Washington, each president has left his mark on the office.
Many of these marks have left an impact on the presidency that are so big that they can still be seen today. Other marks are just so crazy that you won’t believe that they are true!
15. Presidential Families
The concept of a political family is not a new one. As early as the foundation of the union, generations of the same wealthy families have sat in both houses. Since then, there have been even more political families, just think of the Kennedys…
However, if you look through the presidents of old, you’ll see a few names that appear more than once. Adams, Roosevelt, Harrison and Bush. And this is for good reason- they’re all related!
John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were fifth cousins. Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. George W. Bush was the son of George H. W. Bush.
On top of this, Zachary Taylor was the second cousin of James Madison.
As if this wasn’t confusing enough, FDR was related to 4 other presidents by blood and another 6 by marriage! This is the most of any president!
14. Extra-Terrestrial Encounters
Every election cycle, media pundits jokingly ask the candidates that if they win, will they share evidence of alien life? Most of the time, these candidates often jokingly reply with a “Yes”. However, they never do share this information.
According to some, this is because there actually is proof of alien life, that is often classified for reasons of “national security”. To many, these people are dismissed as “mad” or “crazy” but not all…
Following leaving the White House, both Presidents Carter and Reagan have publicly talked about seeing bright lights in the sky or “red and green floating orbs”. According to them, these were UFOs.
President Carter once famously said (before becoming president) that he doesn’t believe that people are crazy when they say they’ve seen a UFO or met aliens. Apparently, this is because he’s seen one himself!
13. Presidential Pets
In 1789, George Washington was officially inaugurated as the first President of the United States. With this, Washington accidentally started a trend that has continued to this day: Presidential pets.
The Washingtons had several pets, including a parrot, several types of dogs and several types of horses (and donkeys!) John Adams would follow Washington in this trend with his own dogs and horses.
Fast forward 43 presidents, and just about every president has had at least one pet during their time in office. The only presidents who didn’t have a presidential pet were Donald Trump and James K. Polk.
Due to this, past presidents have had some rather strange pets: alligators, lizards, macaws, snakes and even a black bear!
A funny story alleges that Andrew Jackson taught his pet parrot how to curse. When Jackson died, he stated that his parrot should be present at the funeral, his parrot was subsequently kicked out for cursing too much.
12. The First Lady
All but two presidents have not had a first lady during their term. The first one was James Buchannan, who did not have a girlfriend, nor any female relative to act as his First Lady.
The second was Grover Cleveland. He was elected as president in 1885, but was then unmarried. In 1886, he married 21 year old Frances Folsom (he was 49!) in a ceremony at the White House.
In 2016, a rumor went around that if Donald Trump were to become president, his wife, Slovenian-born Melania Trump would be the first foreign-born First Lady in US history.
However, this was not strictly true. Louisa Adams, the wife of John Quincy Adams, was foreign-born, having been born in London. However, Louisa’s parents were both born in the Thriteen Colonies.
11. Presidential Succession
Today, presidential succession is a pretty open-and-shut. The second-in-line to the presidency is the Vice-President, followed by the Speaker of the House, followed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and so on.
170 years ago, this wasn’t the case. As such, when President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, Washington was in disarray. Simply put, no one knew who was in charge.
Luckily, Lincoln was conscious enough to declare that his vice-President, Andrew Johnson should become president. Over the course of the next 100 years, three more presidents would be assassinated, with their Vice-Presidents become President.
However, in terms of the constitution, there was nothing concrete. As such, in 1967, President Johnson had the 25th Amendment ratified, which laid out the order of succession, as well as detailing out a designated survivor.
10. White House
The White House is perhaps the most famous building on Earth. It’s official role is as the President’s main residence and office, however, a more accurate description of the White House is as a miniature city.
Despite being the first president, George Washington never lived in the White House. This was because Washington had the White House built during his first term, and construction wasn’t finished until the end of his second.
As such, he never lived there. However, his successor, John Adams, would live in the White House. Every subsequent president since Adams has resided in the White House during their term.
Many of these subsequent presidents have left their own marks on the iconic building. President Hayes had the first telephone installed, President Carter installed a movie theater and President Harrison installed electric lights to name but a few!
9. Presidential Language
Many people don’t know this, but the United States does not have an official language. This is something that is laid out in American culture, the place where immigrants can come for a new life, regardless of where they came from.
Despite it not being written in law, every president performs their duty in English. However, 44 of the 45 presidents that have been elected to date, have spoken English as their first language.
The only president who hasn’t followed this trend to this day is Martin Van Buren. During his presidency, Van Buren did execute his duties as president in English, however, it wasn’t his native tongue.
Instead, Van Buren’s native tongue was Dutch. He was born in the Dutch-speaking neighborhood of Kinderhook in New York. Here, he would speak Dutch at home and with his neighbors, but at school, he’d speak English.
This latter thing is something he’d continue to do as President.
8. July 4th
To most Americans, July 4th is the one of the most sacred holidays on the American Calendar. After all, it marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence, from what they saw as British rule.
However, it is also significant in another way for four presidents. For three of them, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Monroe, it was the day they died. For Calvin Coolidge, it was the day they were born.
Interestingly, two former presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on the same day, in the exact same year- July 4th 1826. The pair died in their homes only a few hours apart, not enough time to hear of the other’s passing.
46 years to the day, later, future president Calvin Coolidge would be born in Vermont. Five years after Adams and Jefferson’s passing, the fifth president, James Monroe would also die on July 4 too!
7. Presidential “Gates”
Today, the concept of a “gate” is quite popular in American politics. Perhaps the most famous of these “gates” has been Watergate, which was the first of these “gates”. This also incidentally caused President Nixon to resign.
Since then there have been roughly 70 “gates” involving the president. Every president since Nixon has had at least one, with almost all of them being unsubstantiated rumors.
A few were simply a case of mistaken identity or the media attempting to connect dots that didn’t exist. However a few were deliberately designed to cast considerable doubt on a certain president, such as “Obamagate“.
However, a few have proven to be true, and probably remember them, albeit by a different name! Perhaps the most memorable one after Watergate was Lewinskygate, which rocked the media both at home and abroad.
6. Collectors
The concept of collecting certain items, be it stamps, coins or whatever, has been with us for as long as time itself. As such, it stands to reason that many former presidents have been avid collectors.
In total three presidents were avid coin collectors, and one was an avid stamp collector whilst in office.
Due to his polio, FDR began collect both coins and stamps in order to keep busy. During his time in office, FDR helped to design a series of commemorative coins and stamps during his presidency.
As with many rich landowners of his era, Thomas Jefferson also had a fairly impressive coin collection, which he started in his youth. By the time of his death, he had a large collection of contemporary and ancient European coins.
John Quincy Adams also had a rather large coin collection, which he also started in his youth. His love for coins led to him passing many bills that helped the mint make more coins, with more intricate designs!
5. Presidential Inventors
Generally speaking, you wouldn’t assume that the person who holds the highest office in the United States, would also hold patents or be creditted as an inventor. However, two presidents have defied that belief!
The first of these presidents was Thomas Jefferson. Prior to his time in the White House, Jefferson spent his time on his plantation, where he would invent several things. Among these was the coat hangar, swivel chair and dumbwaiter.
The only other president who was an inventor was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is among the poorest presidents. As a child, he worked odd jobs, and invented things to sell to people.
A few of these things were actually quite impressive, and Lincoln filed patents for them before entering politics. In fact, this makes him the only president ever, to have had a patent!
4. The Most Dangerous Job?
When you think of the world’s most dangerous jobs, you probably think of jobs like fighter pilot, or firefighter or, police officer. Generally speaking, you probably don’t think of the President of the United States.
Regardless, the job of being president is still incredibly dangerous. As of the time of writing there have been 45 presidents. Of these 45 presidents, four have been assassinated in office, giving it a fatality rate of 8.8%.
On top of this, almost every president since Andrew Jackson has had at least one attempt on their life. Between 1800 and 2010, there were a total of 30 failed assassination attempts of a sitting president (and four successful!)
The most recent attempt (as of the time of writing) was in 2016. Only months after then-President-elect Trump had been elected, a British teenager attempted to shoot him with a police officer’s sidearm!
3. Presidential Movies
The president has arguably one of the most stressful jobs in the world. For just about every president, this means less sleeping, less relaxing, and more governing over a nation that usually doesn’t like them.
Due to this, almost every president only watches a handful of movies (for relaxation purposes) in their entire term. For Reagan, an actor before entering politics, he watched about 40 films in his first term.
Many in the White House considered the amount of films Reagan watched to be astronomical. Many White House staffers, considered Reagan to be the biggest movie buff of any president.
Reagan’s predecessor, Jimmy Carter, was even more of a movie buff! In his four years as president, carter watched well over 400 movies. This worked out about about one movie every three days!
2. Numbers Mean Nothing
In January 2021, Joe Biden will be sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States. However, he won’t actually be the 46th person to hold the title of President of the United States, he’ll actually be the 45th.
This is because one president, Grover Cleveland, actually served his two terms non-consecutively. President Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.
Cleveland was first elected in 1884, defeating Republican James Blaine. He took office in 1885, and had a relatively uneventful presidency. The few eventful parts, were when he vetoed then-contentious legislation.
In 1888, Cleveland ran for re-election, loosing to William Henry Harrison. He chose to run again in 1892, where he was elected once again. This means that every subsequent president is one less than their actual number!
1. The Illegitimate President?
Richard Nixon became was elected president in 1968, with him officially taking office in 1969. Nixon’s vice-president was Spiro T. Agnew, who’s nature helped appeal to both Republicans and moderates alike.
However, in 1973, Agnew was at the center of a scandal, drudged up from his days as the 3rd Executive of Baltimore County. The scandal embarrassed the White House, and Agnew resigned as Vice-President in October 1973.
President Nixon attempted to govern without a vice-president, but naturally found his workload growing too large to delegate effectively. As such, he elected Gerald R. Ford to be his Vice-President.
In 1974, following his re-election in 1972, the Watergate Scandal broke, and Nixon was forced to resign before he was impeached. This left Gerald R. Ford to become president, who was never elected by the American public.
Which are your favorite facts about the presidency? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Mobilus in Mobili via Flickr.