44 Presidential Facts for President's Day

[indianasmith]

Just a little something to celebrate a special American holiday!

1.  George Washington made one trip outside the North American seaboard in his life . . . to Barbados.  He caught smallpox there.
2.  John Adams acted as a defense attorney for the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre.  Got'em off, too.
3.  Thomas Jefferson once sent Merriweather Lewis to Kentucky to retrieve a complete Mammoth skeleton from Big Bone Lick. (no jokes, please)
4.  James Madison was 5'4" and weighed under 100 pounds.  His wife called him "the Great Little Madison."
5.  James Monroe once broke up a swordfight between the British and French ambassadors at a White House State Dinner.
6.  John Quincy Adams enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac, and installed the first billiards table in the White House.
7.  Andrew Jackson was the only President to have killed a man in a duel.  He also carried a pistol ball in his shoulder from a duel he DIDN'T win.
8.  Martin van Buren was a widower who enjoyed playing the harp.
9.  William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address on record . . . and had the shortest Presidency (28 days).
10. John Tyler fathered more children than any other President . . . and married his second wife while in office!
11. James K. Polk refused to delegate any of his duties to secretaries and worked 14 hour days . . . he died about two months after leaving office, of exhaustion.
12.  Zachary Taylor had never voted in a Presidential election prior to running for office.
13.  Millard Fillmore was the only actual Whig politician to serve as President - but the Whigs refused to nominate him for a term of his own because they had only won before with war hero candidates!
14.  Franklin Pierce and his wife saw their only son decapitated in a train wreck on the way to Washington for Pierce to be inaugurated.  She blamed him; he became a drunk.
15.  James Buchanan was the only bachelor President; persistent rumors say he may have been gay, but according to his family, he took a vow of celibacy when his fiance committed suicide.
16.  Abraham Lincoln was the only President to have a Patent on file with the U.S. Patent office.
17.  Andrew Johnson never attended school; his wife taught him to read when he was in his 20's.
18.  Ulysses Grant, who commanded the largest army in the bloodiest war America ever fought, hated the sight of blood.  His meat was to be cooked till "black on the outside and grey on the inside."
19.  Rutherford Hayes was a teetotaler who banned serving alcohol at White House functions; his wife was nicknamed "Lemonade Lucy" for this.
20.  James Garfield was shot in the back by an assassin, but that wasn't what killed him.  He died of gangrene from his doctors probing the wound with unwashed hands.
21.  Chester A. Arthur was a corrupt spoilsman who gained the Vice Presidency due to political compromise; as President he championed civil service reforms and got high marks for his honesty.
22.  Grover Cleveland personally hung two men while Sheriff of Erie County, NY.  He also had the youngest First Lady of any President; his wife Frances was  22 when he married her (at age 47) while in office.
23.  Benjamin Harrison wanted to be a doctor, not a politician.  He changed his mind when the medical cadaver he was supposed to dissect turned out to be his grandfather's corpse!
24.  Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, forever screwing up the way we count our Presidents.
25.  William McKinley wore a carnation on his lapel every day; he would give the flower to any man who visited his office who had a daughter at home, "to take to your little girl."
26.  Theodore Roosevelt was the first President to ride in a submarine, go up in an airplane, leave the U.S. while in office, run for a third term, win the Nobel Prize, win the Medal of Honor, go 3 rounds with the heavyweight champion of the world, explore an uncharted branch of the Amazon, and have a pet mountain lion while in the White House.  I LOVE THIS GUY!
27.  William Howard Taft got stuck in the White House bathtub.  Way to show that overachiever, Roosevelt, a thing or two!
28.  Woodrow Wilson was the only PhD to be elected President.  He was still a racist and a jerk.
29.  Warren G. Harding was nominated at the 1920 GOP Convention because he "looked Presidential."  There were second thoughts.
30.  Calvin Coolidge slept more and did less than any U.S. President.  He was a man of few words, whose life's motto was "Nothing I never said ever hurt me."
31.  Herbert Hoover is still remembered as a hero in Belgium, for organizing food relief there after World War I.  He outlived his Presidency by 31 years, dying in 1964.
32.  Franklin D. Roosevelt was third cousins to Theodore Roosevelt and third cousin, once removed, to his wife Eleanor (whose maiden name was also Roosevelt).
33.  Harry S Truman once famously threatened to break the nose of a critic who gave his daughter, Margaret, a nasty review after her music recital.
34.  Dwight Eisenhower was the last President born in the 19th century.
35.  John F. Kennedy swam several miles with a badly injured back, towing a wounded shipmate by holding the man's life vest in his teeth, after the PT-109 sunk.
36.  Lyndon Johnson quit his post in Congress to join the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, nearly getting shot down by a Japanese flying ace before FDR ordered all 50 Congressmen and Senators who had left Washingto to fight in the war to return to their jobs.
37.  Richard Nixon was an honorary member of the NAACP and a close friend to Martin Luther King while serving in the Congress.
38.  Gerald Ford once got locked out of the White House while walking the dog, and had to sit on the steps in his bathrobe until the White  House butler arrived and let hm back in.
39.  Jimmy Carter was chased by a "killer rabbit" while out jogging one day.  At least, that's what he told the Secret Service.
40.  Ronald Reagan was forbidden to serve in combat during WW2 because of his bad eyesight.  He actually failed to recognize his own children on occasion.
41. George H.W. Bush was the youngest Navy pilot to win the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II - at age 19.
42.  Bill Clinton was actually born William Jefferson Blythe.
43.  George W. Bush was close friends with Lt. Governor Bob Bullock while he was Governor of Texas - even though Bullock was a lifelong Democrat who campaigned for Bush's opponent, Anne Richards.
44.  Brack Obama was the first President to name a former member of the Communist Party as a policy advisor.

Like em or love em, America's Presidency has produced some truly remarkable men.  All of them are unique and worth studying, and the politics is one sport that never has an off season.  As one author put it, "the Founding Fathers invented a glorious game."

[Raffine]

During his 1912 campaign as the Bull Moose candidate Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin. Roosevelt decided the wound wasn't serious since he wasn't coughing up blood and went on to deliver a 90 minute speech with blood seeping from his chest.

Indy is right - You gotta love this guy.

[ulthar]

Indy is right - You gotta love this guy.

Indeed.

I'm currently reading a biography called "Colonel Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris.  Fascinating dude.

Questions, though:

In that book, Morris claims the Eleanor that was the Roosevelt cousin was NOT the Eleanor that Franklin married.  Is there some confusion on this?

Also, I thought I read that Teddy and Franklin were fifth cousins, not third, but I could be remembering wrong.

Still...this guy is one EVERYONE should study in depth.  How I yearn for such a leader (of either party) today...

[Allhallowsday]

A former member of the Communist party!!   A former member of the Communist party!!! 

...39.  Jimmy Carter was chased by a "killer rabbit" while out jogging one day.  At least, that's what he told the Secret Service.

Poor li'l ol RON REAGAN. 

[indianasmith]

There were two Eleanor Roosevelts - one was the wife of one of TR's sons, the other his niece who married FDR.  Who was, incidentally, a FIFTH cousin. Thanks for the correction.  I did all those from memory, and yes, my own historical and political biases did show through in a few places (in case someone didn't notice).  Harry Truman, Grover Cleveland, and Andrew Jackson are my favorite Democrats.  Harding, Harrison, and Coolidge are my LEAST favorite Republicans.

[Mofo Rising]

Did you put this list together, indianasmith? If so, bravo!

I remember listening to the audiobook version of the first volume of Dumas Malone's exhaustive biography of Thomas Jefferson, and hearing at one point Jefferson's direct involvement towards a new law involving bestiality. That's the sort of historical tidbit which makes me ridiculously happy.

That book is the same reason I know Thomas Jefferson's horse was named Caractacus, which was correctly brought up on the show 30 Rock.

[BTM]

And on this note, I'd like to recommend Cracked's The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time
http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_the-5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html

[indianasmith]

The list is purely out of my own memory; Presidential history is a hobby of mine from way back.

As for the Cracked list:  A few factual errors, but I can't argue with any of their picks, except possibly Adams.  Had they not put TR at the top I would have had to nuke them.

[ghouck]

Just think of the retarded crap that would be added to the list if Sarah Palin became President.

[indianasmith]

First President to shoot a moose from a helicopter?

I'd vote for that!

[Trevor]

President Truman's threatening to beat up a critic went something like "I have never met you but if I do, you'll need a new nose, plenty of beefsteak and a supporter below." 

[ghouck]

First President to shoot a moose from a helicopter?

I'd vote for that!

Lol, except that WAAAAY illegal in AK. You can't use a heli for hunting in any way, as in you can't fly in or out in a heli.

[BTM]

The list is purely out of my own memory; Presidential history is a hobby of mine from way back.

As for the Cracked list:  A few factual errors, but I can't argue with any of their picks, except possibly Adams.  Had they not put TR at the top I would have had to nuke them.

Factual errors?  anything major?

Also, I'd like to say that this pic is totally awesome!

[RCMerchant]

They've been having a good President series on PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIANCE the last couple of weeks. So far they've had Reagan and Carter.

I've never forgiven Ford-a Michigander! for pardoning Tricky Dick. And it pre-empted Jack Palance in DRACULA!!!! 

Jimmy Carter saw a ufo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrJeBCi47ME
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 Obama comments on aliens from space...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmJnFZy-PtU
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as does Harry Truman....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFILFYFxtg
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Of course Regean's couple of speechs on aliens....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK-XATA-5gs
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Clinton on alien life....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3F3CXspsuo
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[RCMerchant]

O! and this of course....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0BdMDhtYfg
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