Presidential Firsts and Trivia

As the first President of the United States, George Washington established a great number of precedents. Most people find interest in someone, something or some place being first. No one much cares about the person to be the 121st to do something. What follows are some presidential firsts and trivia.


George Washington:

Everything Washington did as president was a first. He was well aware that his every move was setting a precedent and he tried to be careful so as not to hamstring his successors or to set the new nation on an undesirable course. He was also very sensitive to the immense power he possessed to influence public opinion, and was careful to use it rarely, only when he felt that it was necessary to accomplish some exceptional good. One of the epistolary techniques he used frequently and brilliantly was to include a paragraph saying essentially, “of course I do not mean to suggest…,” in the process saying exactly what he did mean!

Washington was the only U.S. President to die in the 18^th century. His Farewell Address used to be read aloud in the Senate every year on his birthday. He was the only President not to live in the White House. GW carried a portable sundial. Washington’s father Augustine was known as “Gus.” Washington was the only president to appoint more than one Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, naming three men to the post during his term of office. During his administration, Congress created the U.S. State Department, War Department, Treasury Department, and Supreme Court, all between July and September 17389. The first Congress met at Federal Hall, New York City, on March 4, 1789. The first census was undertaken in 1790, revealing a population of just fewer than 4 million.

John Adams:

John Adams and Revolutionary radical Samuel Adams were second cousins. Adams referred to Benjamin Franklin as “the Old Conjuror” of whom he said his life in Paris was “a scene of continual dissipation.” Adams called his Cabinet member Alexander Hamilton, “a Creole bastard.” At his inauguration Adams wore a pearl-colored suit and a sword and a huge hat. Abigail Adams was terrified by the cockroaches that infested the White House. While visiting William Shakespeare’s home in Stratford, England, Adams carved a sliver of wood from a chair as a souvenir. He felt the president should be addressed as “His Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties.” It didn’t catch on. Adams was flattered that many people believed he was the author of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

Thomas Jefferson:

In the treason trial of Vice President Aaron Burr, Jefferson became the first president to evoke executive privilege by rejecting Chief Justice John Marshall’s subpoena to appear for questioning. Although a skeptic about the Bible, Jefferson donated money to Bible societies. In 1803, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the House of Representatives for his vicious attacks on Jefferson, but the Senate did not convict him. Jefferson was the only Vice President to be elected President and serve two full terms. Jefferson glued an assortment of materials that captured his interests into the pages of a scrapbook – clippings from newspapers, speeches, original poems he wrote and even a pressed oak leaf as a remembrance of a friend. He was careless about his posture, whether sitting or standing. He sought to devise a mathematical formula for how many generations it takes to cross racial lines and explored the question of what makes someone white or black? Jefferson also explored the question of why we must choose a racial identity at all. Near the end of his life, fearing for his reputation and public legacy he begged his friend, James Madison,

“To myself you have been a pillar of support thro’ life, take care of me when I’m dead, and be assured that I shall leave with you my last affections”

James Madison:

Madison was the first U.S. President to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins. Madison, Wisconsin, named for the President, was founded the year he died. Madison’s inaugural ball was held in Long’s Hotel in Washington, D.C. Throughout his life Madison kept up his interest in reading Greek and Latin. He always carried with him the booklet: The Necessary Duty for Family Prayer, with Prayers for Their Use. During his presidency, his opponents used the slogan “Too Many Virginians,” a reference to the fact that he was the third of the four U.S. Presidents from Virginia. James Madison University, a large state institution in Harrisonburg, Virginia is named for President Madison. The Presidential Mansion was first painted white to hide the scorch marks from its burning by the British in the War of 1812.

James Monroe

Monroe gave pirate Jean Lafitte a pardon for his aid in the War of 1812. He was the first president to ride on a steamship. Monroe and his wife attended the Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation as Emperor of France. When Congress was counting the electoral votes in 1816, a New York Congressman protested that the Indiana electoral votes should not be counted, because at the time of the election the state had not been a member of the Union. Congress debated the issue, but came to the conclusion that Indiana’s three votes, which went to Monroe and Tompkins, should be counted. Monroe was the first U.S. Senator and the only person to serve in two Cabinet positions before being elected President. Although Monroe regarded his trips around the country in 1817 to be government business, he paid his own expenses and traveled with only two companions – his private secretary and the chief of the Army Corps of Engineers. He wished to be relatively inconspicuous as a “private citizen.”

John Quincy Adams:

Matthew Brady created a daguerreotype of Adams, making him the first U.S. President to be photographed, although not until many years after his term of office (April 13, 1843). John Quincy composed an original poem to celebrate his father’s eighty-eighth birthday. JQA witnessed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia while he was secretary and interpreter to Francis Dana, ambassador to Russia. Adams correctly predicted that slavery would break up the Union. Each night before he went to sleep, Adams recited the childhood prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Adams wrote the long narrative poem “Dermot MacMorrogh or, The Conquest of Ireland concerning the Invasion of Ireland” by England’s King Henry II, as therapy for losing the presidential election to Andrew Jackson in 1828.

His usual night’s sleep was three or four hours. In the Adams mansion, the only way to exit John Quincy’s bedroom was to go through the guest room. Because he was such an early riser, he woke up many of his guests. The problem was solved when a corridor was built from his bedroom to the main hallway. JQA had one of the tiles in his library reversed in response to a statement made that the Adams were perfect.

Adams had the first pool table installed in the Presidential Mansion and sent the bill to Congress, who paid for the table, but required Adams to pay for the balls and cue sticks. President John Quincy Adams turned the first shovel of dirt near Little Falls to begin construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal on July 4, 1828. He was the first of 15 Presidents who were elected without receiving the majority of the popular vote. JQA was the first U.S. president to be involved in a railroad accident. He was a passenger on a Camden & Amboy train that derailed near Highstown, New Jersey on November 11, 1833; his coach was the one ahead of the first to derail. He was unhurt and continued his journey to Washington, D.C. Toilets, which were a novelty during his term as president, were nicknamed “Quincy” in his honor.

Andrew Jackson:

Jackson was the only president to serve in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He was the only president to have been a prisoner of war. Andy was the first president to ride in a railroad train. Jackson believed the world was flat. Old Hickory was the first Presidential candidate to personally campaign for the position and was the first president to be offered a baby to kiss. He declined and turned the task over to his Secretary of War, John Eaton, who did the honors. Both Andy and Rachel smoked corncob pipes. When he was shown a photograph taken of him when he was a very old man, the General observed,

“Looks like a monkey.”

Memorials to Andrew Jackson include a set of three identical equestrian statues located in different parts of the country. One is in Jackson Square in New Orleans. Another is in Nashville on the Grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol. The third is a bronze equestrian statue in Washington D.C. in Lafayette Park, near the White House. It was cast from a bronze cannon captured at Pensacola during his last campaign in 1818. Jackson still appears on the $20 bill, but he once also appeared of $5, $10, $50, and $10,000 bills as well as on a Confederate $1000 bill.

The story of Andrew and Rachel Jackson was effectively told in Irving Stone’s best-selling 1951 novel, The President’s Lady, which was made into a 1953 movie of the same name, starring Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward. Jackson was portrayed again by Heston in the 1958 film The Buccaneer, telling the role of the pirate Jean Lafitte, played by Yul Brynner with hair, in the Battle of New Orleans. It was a remake of a 1938 film starring Fredric March as Lafitte and Hugh Sothern as Jackson. Jackson once held an open house party at the White House, where a 1400 pound wheel of cheddar cheese was served as refreshment and consumed in two hours. The White House smelled of cheese for several weeks.

Martin Van Buren:

Van Buren was the first president born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, making him the first president born a citizen of the United States. He was the first professional politician to be elected president. Matty was the first president of the United States elected without the benefit of a university degree or a military commission. The only other president with this distinction was Grover Cleveland. In 1692 one of his earlier cousins George Jacobs was hung in Salem Massachusetts as a witch. His last words were,

“Because I am falsely accused. I never did it.”

The term O.K. allegedly comes from Van Buren, who grew up in Kinderhook, New York and was known popularly as Old Kinderhook, or O.K. There were many apple orchards in Van Buren’s home county. Back in the 1700s, apples from the area were packed in crates marked “Old Kinderhook.” Apparently people started referring to them as “O.K.” apples. Gradually the term was taken to mean a description of the apples “good quality” rather than their location or origin. After he went into politics, people began asking “Is it OK?” referring to Van Buren.

Van Buren was the only incumbent President to run for re-election without a vice-presidential running-mate. He made three unsuccessful tries for re-election. He makes no mention of his wife in his autobiography, because a gentleman of his day would not “shame” a lady by public references. Van Buren took his entire presidential salary for his four years in office, $100,000, as a lump sum at the end of his term. He was the only president of Dutch ancestry. He and his wife spoke Dutch in their home. In 1853, Van Buren toured the continent of Europe, making him the first ex-U.S. President to travel abroad. He spent two years in Europe, before returning to his home to finally retire.

William Henry Harrison:

Harrison was one of seven presidents born in Virginia. He was the only president to have been born in the same county as his Vice President, Charles City County. He was the first presidential candidate to receive over one million popular votes and was the first president to die in office, having the shortest term of office of all U.S. presidents. At 68, Harrison was the oldest president to be inaugurated until Ronald Reagan. He was the only president to have a grandson become president, Benjamin Harrison. Harrison couldn’t shake hands at the inauguration because they were so sore from handshaking during the campaign.

John Tyler:

Tyler was the first vice-president elevated to the presidency upon the death of the president. He was the second president to have been born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Tyler was the first president whose wife died while he was in office and then the first President to marry while in office. The tradition of playing “Hail to the Chief” whenever a president appears at state functions was started by Tyler’s second wife, Julia. Tyler was the first president to have a veto overridden. He made the most cabinet changes of any single-term president. Five years after leaving office he was so cash poor that he was unable to pay a bill for a paltry $1.25 until he sold his corn crop. Tyler was born during George Washington’s term in office. And the youngest of his children lived to see the Truman administration. Tyler was a great-great-great uncle of Harry Truman.

James Knox Polk:

Polk was the only president who had also been the Speaker of the House of Representatives and was the only President to win the office without carrying either his birth state (North Carolina) or his resident state (Tennessee). He was the first president to have his inauguration reported by telegraph and the first president to voluntarily retire after one term. During his term, gaslights were installed in the White House. Polk was a workaholic, working long hours and spent only 37 days away from his duties during his four years as president. He was one of three presidents who had no children. The first White House Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by Sarah Polk. The first two U.S. postage stamps were issued in 1847, one of five cents featuring the image of Benjamin Franklin and one of ten cents featuring George Washington’s picture. The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, was founded by Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft in 1845. Polk was the first president in office to have his photograph taken.

Zachary Taylor:

Taylor was the first president elected from a state west of the Mississippi (Louisiana). He refused all postage due correspondence. Because of this he didn’t receive notification of his nomination for president until several days after the fact, when he read about it in a newspaper. November 7, 1848 was the first time a presidential election was held on the same day in every state. As a military man, Taylor had no permanent address, moving from location to location. As a result he never was able to register to vote. He didn’t even vote in his own election. It wasn’t until he was 62, and the White House was his permanent address that he cast his first ballot. He was the first president not previously elected to any other office. Visitors to the White House would take souvenir horse hairs from Whitey. Taylor chewed tobacco and was known for his perfect aim when spitting to a spittoon. However, he did not use alcohol. He was the second president to die in office. Abraham Lincoln gave the eulogy at his funeral.

Millard Fillmore:

Abigail Fillmore arranged for the installation of the first cooking stove in the White House, but the cook didn’t know how to use it. The president went to the U.S. Patent Office, read the instructions for the stove, and returned to the White House where he taught the cook how to use it. The Fillmore’s arranged for the first White House library. The newly built shelves were stocked with the Bible, Shakespeare, a ten-volume set of American biographies, reference works on anatomy, law, astronomy and histories of the world. The library was where the family and close friends would gather. The home of the Mormons was organized as Utah Territory in 1850, and Fillmore appointed the Mormon leader Brigham Young as territorial governor. Under Young, federal authority remained non-existent, and Mormons ignored the decisions of federal judges.

On March 2, 1853, President Fillmore signed a bill creating the Territory of Washington out of the Territory of Oregon. The new territory’s boundaries were: north, 49 degrees North Latitude; south, approximately due east from the mouth of the Columbia River; east, the Rocky Mountains; west, the Pacific Ocean. The eastern part of the territory eventually became part of the states of Idaho and Montana. When England’s Oxford University offered Fillmore an honorary degree, he replied that he had done nothing to deserve the honor and would not accept the degree. Because he could not read Latin he added,

“No man should, in my judgment, accept a degree that he cannot read.”

Franklin Pierce:

Pierce was a personable candidate and showed remarkable ability to remember names and faces. He took genuine pleasure in meeting people, and to promise them favors, finding it difficult to say “no” to admirers who brought him votes. Pierce gave his 3,319-word inaugural address from memory, without the use of any notes. The Pierce’s were the first to have a Christmas tree in the White House. They installed the first central-heating system in the Executive Mansion. He was the first president to be born in the 19^th century.

Pierce was arrested while in office for running over an old woman with his horse, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence in 1853. Some believe the incident never happened, because there does not seem to be any newspaper stories reporting it. Pierce was the only president who never had any turnover in his Cabinet. Pierce hired Albert Baker as an apprentice in his law firm. He took a personal interest in Baker’s younger sister, Mary. A sickly child who could not attend school because of her chronic bad health. Later, Mary Morse Baker Eddy became famous as the founder of a new religion, called Christian Science. Pierce is the great-great granduncle of President George W. Bush.

James Buchanan:

Buchanan has the distinction of being considered one of the two or three worst presidents of the United States, and ranked dead last by many polls of historians, politicians and scholars. Nevertheless, he never loss an election to any position for which he was nominated. By the time he was thirty, Buchanan had amassed a fortune of $300,000. He was the first and so far only president born in Pennsylvania. He was the only president never to marry. He is credited with the neatest handwriting of all the Presidents. Buchanan wrote his own speeches, often redrafting them five or six times before he was satisfied. He was the first President to send a transatlantic telegram. When England’s Prince of Wales came to visit the White House in 1860, so many guests cane with him that Buchanan had to sleep in the hall. In 1852, Buchanan had twenty-two nieces and nephews and thirteen grand nephews and grand nieces. Seven were orphans in his full care, with several others being half-orphans, whom he helped to support.

Abraham Lincoln:

Lincoln was the first president to be born outside of the original thirteen colonies and was the first president to die by assassination. Lincoln also was the first president to wear a beard, growing it about the time he left Illinois for Washington in early 1861. He grew it because 11 year old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York wrote him a letter advising him to grow a beard. She wrote:

“I have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you; you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.”

Lincoln responded to Grace in a letter of October 19, 1860:

“As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?”

A poll of historians named Lincoln the nation’s greatest president, with George Washington, the second. Lincoln was the first president to be photographed at his inauguration (his second). John Wilkes Booth and other members of the assassination plot can be seen in the picture. At his second inaugural, Lincoln shook so many hands, “the perspiration … rolling down his face as he grasped the hands of the passing throng, as though he had been splitting rails of yore,’ that he got blisters on his hand. Both Abraham and Mary Lincoln were greatly interested in psychic phenomena. They held séances in the White House. Lincoln was very fond of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the establishment of Thanksgiving Day to be the last Thursday of November.

Andrew Johnson:

Johnson was one of two U.S. presidents who was an indentured servant (Millard Fillmore was the other). Johnson worked as an apprentice tailor and later opened a small tailor shop in Tennessee where he and his wife worked. He made his own clothes and those of his cabinet members. The Johnson family was so poor; he had to borrow money to move his wife and family to the capital after he became president. Johnson was the first president to watch an inter-city baseball game and the first to invite the entire team to the White House. He was the guest of honor at the opening of the new National Base Ball Club of Washington’s new ballpark. Johnson occupied ever major non-judicial elected office in the American political system. Johnson held the first Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn. It had originally been held at the Capital building. Johnson established the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leading to the organization of the Grange. During his administration, the transatlantic telegraph cable was completed.

Ulysses S. Grant:

While at West Point, Grant set a high jump record that lasted for twenty-five years. Although he had been in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, Grant could not tolerate the sight of animal blood; a rare steak would make him sick. He was the first president to have both his parents alive at the time of his inauguration, although neither attended the event. Once during his presidency, he was arrested for driving his horse too fast and was fined twenty dollars and had to walk back to the White House. At one time Grant owned a slave named William Jones, whom he had acquired from his father-in-law. Rather than sell the man, Grant gave him his freedom in March, 1859.

Grant appointed Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who had been one of his aides during the Civil War, to the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. During his second term, the President’s salary was increased from $25,000 a year to $50,000. Grant’s image appears of the fifty dollar bill. The General had a cucumber soaked in vinegar for breakfast each morning. His favorite brand of bourbon whiskey was “Old Crow.”

Grant was a first cousin three times removed of Judy Garland. In 1883, He was elected the eighth president of the National Rifle Association. Grant was a very accomplished painter and paid a great deal attention to detail. He always used watercolors and although self-effacing he was proud of his ability to paint and the satisfaction he felt in producing something “artistic.” While stationed in California, Grant tried selling ice to San Francisco, but the venture failed when the ice imported from Alaska melted in warm weather.

Rutherford B. Hayes:

When Hayes arrived in San Francisco on September 8, 1880, he became the first U.S. President to visit the West Coast while in office. The first telephone in the White House was installed during Hayes’s administration. Alexander Graham Bell set up the phone, but it wasn’t of much use, since at the time there were hardly any other phones in Washington, D.C. The President told Bell:

“That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”

Hayes was also the first president to have a typewriter in the White House. While he was in the White House, indoor plumbing was installed. During the Civil War, future President of the United States William McKinley served as Hayes’ quartermaster. Evenings at the White House for the family were usually spent around the sitting-room piano singing gospel hymns, often joined by the vice president and cabinet members, including avowed atheist Carl Schurz. Hayes has the distinction of being the least searched-for president on the internet.

James A. Garfield:

James A. Garfield was the first ambidextrous president. He was able to write Greek with one hand while simultaneously writing Latin with the other. He was the first presidential candidate to campaign in two languages, English and German. Garfield was the first president to review an inaugural parade in front of the White House. He had the second shortest tenure in presidential history. Garfield had the first elevator installed in the White House to be used by his mother. Garfield served on the first board of trustees of Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University). He was featured on series 1882 $5 National Currency notes, and the series 1886 $20 Gold Certificate.

Chester A. Arthur:

In the year 1881, three different men, Hayes, Garfield and Arthur were Presidents of the United States. Arthur was the first president to take the oath of office in his own home and was the first of two presidents from Vermont, the other being Calvin Coolidge. Arthur’s favorite food was mutton chops. He pronounced his middle name “al-AN.” The international prime meridian of Greenwich was established, initiated by the U.S. Government and held in Washington from October 1 to November 1, 1884.

On March 4, 1884, the U.S. government, in response to an appeal from Cardinal John McCloskey of New York City, urged the Italian government to exempt from the sale of the property of the Catholic Church, the American College in Rome, which was established mainly by contributions from the United States. As a result of U.S. interposition, the college was saved from sale and virtual confiscation. Near the end of his term of office, President Arthur pressed a button that started the machinery a New Orleans exhibition and dedicated the Washington Monument. On the day widower Chester A. Arthur left office, four young women - unaware of his pronouncement that he would never wed again – proposed to him.

Grover Cleveland:

Cleveland was the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and only one of three, the other two being Andrew Jackson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to achieve a popular plurality of votes in three consecutive elections (despite his loss in 1888 to Harrison, Cleveland still had a popular plurality of votes). He was the first chief executive to appear in a movie. In 1895, Alexander Black convinced Cleveland to appear in his photoplay, “A Capital Courtship.” The film proved to be a big hit on the Lyceum Circuit. Cleveland personally answered the white house telephone.

The president and the first lady would shake hands with as many as 8,000 callers at a New Year’s Day reception. Crowds entered through the doors and the East Room windows. On October 28, 1886, President Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty. Cleveland’s portrait was on the U.S. $1000 bill from 1928 to 1946. His image also appeared on a $1000 bill of 1907 and the first issues of the $20 Federal Reserve notes from 1914. As part of the $1 coin act of 2005, because he had two separate terms, Cleveland will be featured on two separate coins.

Benjamin Harrison:

Harrison is the only President to be preceded and succeeded by the same president. He was one of six presidents born in Ohio. More (six) states enter the Union during Harrison’s term than during that of any other president. His youthful nickname, “the pious moonlight dude” is a reference to the many evenings he spent courting his first wife. Electric lights were installed in the White House for the first time during Harrison’s administration. After he experienced an electrical shock, his family often refused to touch the light switches, frequently going to bed leaving all the lights of the White House on. He was the first president to attend a baseball game. He watched the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Washington Senators 7 to 4 on June 6, 1892. Caroline Harrison began the tradition of a White House Christmas tree. Harrison once made 140 completely different speeches in 30 days. In April 1891, he became the first President to travel across the U.S. entirely by train. During Harrison’s administration the Oklahoma Territory was opened for settlement and the International Copyright Act was passed.

William McKinley:

McKinley Preferred to be addressed as “major,” even when president. He claimed that he knew he earned that title but wasn’t so sure by any others. He often removed the scarlet carnation he usually wore in his lapel to give it to visitors or guests to the White House. Only seconds before he was shot, he gave his carnation to a young girl in the crowd. After his death, Ohio chose the carnation as the state flower. McKinley’s portrait appeared on the U.S. $500 bill from 1928 to 1946. Mt. McKinley in Alaska is named for him. He was the first President to campaign by telephone and the first President to receive over 7 million votes. He was also the first president to ride in an automobile. He refused to be photographed unless he was impeccably groomed. During his administration, the U.S. first acquired overseas possessions.

Ida McKinley couldn’t stand the sight of the color yellow. She banned all yellow things from the White House and even had all yellow flowers on the grounds uprooted. Whenever she suffered one of her epileptic seizures in public, her husband would place a napkin or a handkerchief over her face, until it passed. He ignored protocol at official dinners by seating Ida next to him in case she required his attention.

Theodore Roosevelt:

TR became the first president to be under constant Secret Service protection. He wore a ring containing a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair to his inauguration. TR was the first President to refer to the executive mansion as the White House. Booker T. Washington was the first African-American invited to dine at the White House as TR’s guest, greatly upsetting Southern newspapers and it received little support from the Northern papers. After the furor over the occasion, Roosevelt offered few additional affronts to the racial status quo. His Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar S. Straus, was the first Jewish member of a Presidential Cabinet. Teddy was the first president to ride in an automobile. It was a purple-lined Columbia Electric Victoria. He rode through Hartford, Connecticut on August 22, 1902, with 20 carriages following the presidential car. Roosevelt was the first President to submerge in a submarine and the first to ride in an airplane – flying for a few moments in a Wright biplane on October 11, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Teddy’s favorite expression was “bully” meaning great. He had a photographic memory. He could read a page in the time others took to read a sentence. He was the first President to leave the United States while in office when he traveled to Panama in 1906. TR was the only president to have been a widower and to remarry before becoming president. As Governor of New York he refused to stay Martha Places’ execution, making her the first woman executed by electric chair in New York. During his presidency, Roosevelt tried unsuccessfully to advance the cause of simplified spelling. He sent an order, which was obeyed, to the Public Printer to use the system in all public documents. The public was not enthusiastic about the reform and he was forced to rescind the order. When he abandoned the effort, he said:

“I could not by fighting have kept the new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. Do you know that the one word as to which I thought the new spelling was wrong – thru – was more responsible than anything else for our discomfiture?”

TR wanted strict federal divorce laws so that states could not weaken the bonds of family and he considered birth control immoral, stating that “willful sterility” was “more debasing that ordinary vice.”

William Howard Taft:

Taft was the first President to own a car. He converted the White House stables into a four-car garage. Taft was the first president almost killed in an automobile accident. In March 1910 Taft’s car was struck by a trolley in New York City and carried along for a half-block down Eighth Avenue. No one was seriously hurt, but the President was shaken. To this time, Taft was the last president with facial hair. Taft’s funeral was the first of a president to be broadcasted on radio. The Oval Office was built in the center of the West Wing of the White House in 1909 for President Taft. Helen Taft was the first First Lady to donate her inaugural gown to the Smithsonian Institution. Chief Justice Taft has been the only former president to swear-in a new president.

Woodrow Wilson:

While a student at Johns Hopkins, Wilson carved his initials (WW’86) into the underside of a massive oak table in the History Department, which can still be made out today. He remains the only United States President to have earned a Ph.D. Wilson House, an undergraduate dormitory at Johns Hopkins University, is named in his honor. Wilson’s portrait appeared on the $100,000 bill from 1928 to 1946. It was used only for transactions between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. Wilson was the president of the American Political Science Association from 1910 to 1911. He held the first regularly scheduled press conference from the White House on March 15, 1913.

After George Washington, Wilson became only the second U.S. president to personally address Congress. He became the first U.S. president to make a radio broadcast when he spoke from a ship to WWI troops aboard other vessels and it was picked up by some people in America. The President detonated the final explosives to clear the Panama Canal, sending the signal all the way from New York. Wilson was the first President to cross the Atlantic Ocean while in office. Though Sigmund Freud never met Wilson, he wrote a psychological study of the president in which he asserted that Wilson unconsciously identified himself with Jesus Christ.

Warren Harding:

Harding was the first newspaper publisher and the first sitting U.S. Senator to be elected president. The next would be John F. Kennedy. W.G. was the first president to ride to his inauguration in an automobile. Harding was the first president to hire a speechwriter. He was the first president to own a radio and the first president to speak over the radio airwaves when he broadcast a speech at the Francis Scott Key Memorial, on June 14, 1922. Harding was the first president to visit Canada and Alaska while in office and was the only U.S. president to be elected on his birthday, November 2. He was the first U.S. President to file an income tax return.

Calvin Coolidge:

Coolidge’s family used sign language when they did not wish to be overheard. He was the first Vice-President who was invited to sit in on Cabinet meetings. Calvin had an electric horse installed in the White House, which he rode most every day, often in his underwear or dressed as a cowboy, whooping and hollering. He often played practical jokes on his staff by ringing a buzzer to summon them and then hide or leave the Oval Office. During the Boston Police strike, when he was Governor of Massachusetts, he was punched in the eye by enraged Mayor Andrew J. Peters of Boston over the handling of the emergency. The mayor was restrained by state troopers, and Coolidge, who did not strike back, sported a black left eye.

Coolidge refused to use the telephone while he was in the White House and eventually had the instrument removed to save money. In 1923 President Coolidge touched a button and lighted the first national Christmas tree on the White House lawn. The “community” Christmas tree, was the first to be decorated with electric lights – a strand of 2,500 red, white, and green bulbs. The balsam came from Vermont and stood 48 feet high. Coolidge, who was the last president to write his own speeches, was the first president to have his speeches broadcast on the radio. The first presidential speech on the radio originated from New York City and was carried on 5 radio stations, with an estimate audience of 5 million listeners. Coolidge loved to have his head rubbed with Vaseline while he ate breakfast in bed.

Herbert Hoover:

Hoover was the first U.S. President to be born west of the Mississippi River. He was the first millionaire to hold the office and never accepted his presidential salary, returning it to the government. Hoover received 84 honorary degrees, 78 medals and awards, in the U.S. and abroad, and the keys to dozens of cities. While President Hoover believed Prohibition to be a noble undertaking and he never broke the law by taking a drink during his term. However, he often stopped at the Belgian Embassy to have a martini. Perhaps he was breaking the spirit of the law but not the letter. Foreign embassies are considered foreign territories and not under the jurisdiction of the American government and not subject to its laws. Around that time, he gave his definition of the cocktail hour:

“[It is] the pause between the errors and trials of the day and the hopes of the night.”

Hoover was the president who approved “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. An asteroid discovered in 1920 by Johann Palisma of the University of Vienna in Austria was named Hooveria in honor of the president. In 1922 as Secretary of the Commerce, Hoover participated in the first successful long-distance television demonstration held in New York City. He was the first president to have a telephone on his desk. Hoover required the White House servants to be “invisible” when he and the First Lady appeared. The servants would jump into the nearest closet to avoid being seen. The Hoovers spoke Mandarin when they did not wish to be overheard. A lifelong baseball fan, Hoover advocated changing the rules to give batters four strikes instead of three, claiming that good pitching was boring to watch. Hoover anonymously donated $25,000 a year to aid victims of the depression and raised $500,000 toward the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Welfare.

Franklin D. Roosevelt:

: Roosevelt’s mother kept him in dresses and long curls until he was five and in kilts and Little Lord Fauntleroy suits for several years thereafter. He was the first president whose mother was eligible to vote for him. FDR holds the record for most times he met with the press, 998 times. Roosevelt was the first president to fly in an airplane (1943). He was the first to have a presidential airplane, the first to travel through the Panama Canal and the first to visit a foreign country during wartime (June 10, 1943).

FDR was the first president to have air conditioning installed in the White House. Roosevelt was the first president to be seen on television, when he spoke on April 30, 1939 at the New York World’s Fair Federal Building on the Exposition Grounds. Roosevelt was the first defeated vice-presidential candidate to become President. On November 26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed the bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday. On January 15, 1942, FDR asked the baseball commissioner to keep the games going during the war as a source of entertainment to go with their expected longer work hours in the war effort.

Harry S. Truman:

Truman was the first president to take office during wartime and the first to travel under water in a modern submarine, staying in a submerged sub for most of an hour at Key West, Florida. He was the first President to give a speech on television and the first one to have his inauguration televised. He also was the first president to have a television in the White House. After Mrs. Truman accepted an invitation from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which had a history of discrimination against blacks, to a tea in her honor, African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell called her, “The last lady of the United States.” Truman banned him from the White House invitation list for the remainder of his presidency. Mrs. Truman responded to Powell in an open letter to the New York Times in which she declared her opposition to racial prejudice but refused to cut ties with the DAR. Bess never found a laundry she liked in Washington, so she sent the family’s clothes back to Independence to be washed.

Truman was the first president to be paid an annual salary of $100,000. On June 14, 1952, HST laid the keel of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first atomic powered submarine, at Groton, Connecticut. In recognition of Truman’s contribution to medical insurance, in 1965 President Lyndon Johnson presented the first two Medicare cards to Mr. and Mrs. Truman. Harry responded:

“Mr. President, I am glad to have lived this long and to witness today the signing of the Medicare bill which puts this Nation right where it needs to be….”

The recorded message visitors hear when visiting the replica of the Oval Office at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum is Truman’s voice. He first recorded it on November 14, 1963 and re-recorded it on April 7, 1965. The National Park Service found 77 hats, including 2 sombreros and a pith helmet, 144 shirts, 31 suits, 4 tuxedos, 9 bathing suits, 84 belts, 403 neckties, 87 bowties, 32 pairs of gloves, and 84 scarves in the Truman home. The Harry S. Truman Building, which houses the U.S. Department of State, is the third largest federal building in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Dwight David Eisenhower:

Eisenhower was the only president to serve in both world wars. Ike was the first president to appear on color television and was considered the “Television President.” He is the only President to win an Emmy Award for his use of television in press conferences and speeches. Ike hired actor Robert Montgomery to help him appear his best in his TV appearances. Ike was the only president who was a licensed pilot and the first to fly in a helicopter. He received a pilot’s license while serving in the Philippines in the late 1930s and soloed on May 19, 1937 in a Stearman PT-1, the main aircraft of the Philippine Air Corps at that time.

Eisenhower initiated the use of Air Force One. Ike was the first president to submerge in an atomic-powered submarine. He was superstitious, carrying three coins with him for good luck. One was a silver dollar, another was a five-guinea gold peace and the third a French franc. Eisenhower was the first president born in Texas. Mrs. Eisenhower was the last First Lady born in the 19^th century. On January 21, 1954, she christened the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, launched at Groton, Connecticut. Ike was selected Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1959.

John F. Kennedy:

Kennedy was the first president born in the 20^th century and was the youngest man to be elected president, although he was not the youngest president. Theodore Roosevelt, who became president with the assassination of McKinley, was younger at the time of his inauguration. Kennedy was the youngest president to die. As the second millionaire president, Kennedy donated his annual salary of $100,000 to charity and did not accept the $50,000 allotted to him for expenses. He was the first former Boy Scout to be elected President and the first Chief Executive to hold a press conference on television.

JFK was the first president to appoint his brother to a cabinet position. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic President and the first President to visit the Pope during his term of office. Kennedy had the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations attend his Cabinet meetings. He was a very fast random speaker, with upwards of 350 words per minute. One of his favorite poems was Alan Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death.” Kennedy was the only U.S. President to have been survived by both his parents. The first physician to see President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital in Dallas had delivered the Oswald baby one month earlier.

Lyndon B. Johnson:

Johnson once informed a college friend that he intended to live his life in such a way that a hundred years after his death, he would have been known to have lived. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt met Johnson, he came away telling friends that he might just have met the first future Southern president. Lyndon B. Johnson was the eighth president of the U.S. to succeed a president who died in office and he was the first president to take the oath of office from a woman, Sarah T. Hughes, a Texas judge. LBJ’s nomination of Robert C. Weaver as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development was the first appointment of an African American to a Cabinet level post. While using the White House bathroom, President Johnson often required others accompany him and continue to discuss official matters or take dictation. Among those awarded this “privilege” was Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post.

Richard M. Nixon:

Nixon was nominated as the Republican candidate on the presidential ticket a record five times. He was the only person to be elected vice president twice and president twice. He also was the only person to be elected President after having previously lost a presidential election. On the day that President Kennedy was assassinated, Nixon was in Dallas. Nixon was the last former U.S. president to die in the 20^th century. He was the first U.S. President to address the Russians on television. Nixon liked to have a roaring fire in the fireplace … even in the summertime. Then they would have to turn up the air conditioner because it would get too hot in the room.

Nixon was the first president to visit all fifty states. He met Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first time a U.S. President ever met with a Japanese monarch. Nixon’s mother wanted him to become a Quaker missionary. He wanted to be an FBI agent and actually applied for a Special Agent position. Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize. During the 1968 presidential campaign, Nixon made a cameo appearance on the TV show Rowan & Martin Laugh-In. He delivered the famous stock line from the show as a deadpan question: “Sock it to ME?” Humphrey was invited to likewise make an appearance on the show, but declined. Nixon had the White House swimming pool filled in to give the press more room to stand when covering White House events. In 1985, he became the first former President voluntarily to give up life-time Secret Service protection, saving taxpayers $3 million per year.

Gerald Ford:

Gerald Ford was the oldest living president at 93 years and 165 days with Ronald Reagan a close second at 93 years and 120 days. Ford was only the third oldest surviving Vice President, following John Nance Garner who lived to be 98 and Levi Parsons Morton who made it to 96. Ford became the fourth president to live into his 90s. The other two were John Adams and Herbert Hoover, both of whom lived to age 90. Ford was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission. He was the first president whose parents were divorced. Jerry was the only president born in Nebraska and the only one who was a resident of Michigan. He was the only person to hold the posts of president and vice-president without having been elected to either. Ford was the first president to visit Japan while in office. Ford appointed future President George W.H. Bush director of the CIA.

The President had a tendency on occasion to be clumsy. His falls were classic and brought a smile to the nation, not of mockery, but because he was anything but an imperial president. The day he took the oath of office, a photographer caught the image of him preparing his own breakfast in the White House kitchen, which to many made him a breath of fresh air in the country. Ford was lampooned good naturedly by Chevy Chase on the television show “Saturday Night Life.” When, at age 64, Ford tripped on the Air Force One stairs in Salzburg, Austria, he tumbled down them in full view of the press and the waiting dignitaries. But he managed to land on his feet and shake the hands of the reception committee without missing a beat.

Ford was the only president to have been an Eagle Scout. He always regarded this as one of his proudest accomplishments. Scouting was so important to him that his family asked about 400 Eagle Scouts to be part of his funeral procession, forming an honor guard as the casket went by the front of the Ford Museum where the President’s final funeral service was held. Ford is the only president who was ever employed by the National Park Service. He was a park ranger at Yellowstone Park in 1936.

Jimmy Carter:

Carter was the first president to be sworn in using his nickname. He was the first president to be a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis and the only president born in Georgia. Carter was the only U.S. President to command a submarine. He was one of three presidents to attend a military academy, the others being U.S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the age of 9, Jimmy Carter bought 5 bales of cotton for 5 cents a pound, which he stored for a few years, when he sold it for more than triple the price. At Annapolis, Midshipman Carter was paddled and hazed for refusing to sing General Sherman’s battle hymn, “Marching through Georgia.” He was the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor in 1848. On October 4, 1976, President Carter signed into law a bill that legalized the home brewing of beer and wine. He was the first president to make public statements in support of Gay Rights.

Ronald W. Reagan:

Reagan was the only president born in Illinois, the only professional actor and the first divorced person to be elected president. He never won an Academy Award, but he did receive a Golden Globe Award for his performance in Hollywood Citizenship (1957). The warmest temperature at a presidential inauguration was 55º at Reagan’s first and the coldest was 7º at his second. Reagan’s first inauguration was in competition with football’s The Super Bowl.” Reagan was the oldest person to become President at age 69.years and 349 days. He was the oldest person to be elected president at age 73, when elected to his second term, and he also was the eldest President of all time, serving until he was 78. He was the second oldest surviving ex-president. President Ford lived just over a month longer than President Reagan. Reagan spent more time at Camp David than any other president, enjoying horseback riding and working in the woodworking shop.

The Killers, in which he portrayed a gangster, was the last movie he made before entering politics. As a former president of the Screen Actor’s Guild, Reagan was the first president to have headed a union. He was the only president to be wounded in an assassination attempt to survive the shooting. On June 8, 1982, Reagan became the first American president to address both houses of the British Parliament. Reagan had a sweet tooth for jellybeans, which he ate to curb his urge to smoke, and ordered three tons of them for his inauguration. The Jelly Belly Company designed a special blueberry flavor in his honor. Sales of Jelly beans soared because of his habit of having a bowl of them on his desks and on the table during Cabinet meetings. When he got his first hearing aid, sale of hearing aids increased in the U.S. by 40 percent. Reagan often took questions for reporters while his helicopter was roaring in the background so he could plead he couldn’t hear them. He was the only U.S. president to ever address the Japanese Diet (legislature). Reagan was twice named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year”.

George H.W. Bush:

With Bush being born in June, there has been at least one president born in each of the 12 months of the year. Bush was the first Vice President elected President since Martin Van Buren. President Bush resigned his life membership in the National Rifle Association, when they issued a statement critical of law enforcement officials after the Oklahoma City bombing. In January 1992, after informing the press that he was an expert in hand gestures, Bush flashed the “V-for-Victory” sign as he drove in his armored limousine past demonstrators in Canberra, Australia, unaware that in Australia, holding up to fingers to form a “V” has the same vulgar meeting as the middle-finger gesture does in the States. The Aussie demonstrators were outraged and signaled the same gesture back at the president. Bush later apologized.

The tenth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, set to launch in 2009, will be named the USS George H.W. Bush. The elder George Bush hosts his own annual fishing tournament at Islamorada, an island in the Florida Keys. The George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas was renamed after the former president in 1997. Having parachuted from airplanes during WWII, Bush always said that after his presidency he would do it again before he died. He did, including his latest jump at age 83, when he said:

“Just because I’m old, I don’t have to just sit around doing nothing.”

For forty years, Bush carried in his wallet a shamrock, a photo of his wife from their engagement announcement in the New York Times, and a remembrance of their daughter Robin who died of leukemia at age three. Bush appointed Magic Johnson to the Presidential AIDS Commission.

Bill Clinton:

Clinton was the first U.S. President to play the saxophone, which he played at many appearances during his presidential campaign. He gave serious consideration to becoming a musician; he plays both the tenor and soprano saxophone. At another time he thought of becoming a physician, but while still in high school in 1962, as a delegate to Boys Nation Clinton met President Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter inspired him to aspire to a life of public service. He was the fist president born after WWII and the first baby boomer elected president. He was the first and so far only president to have been born in Arkansas. Clinton was the first Rhodes Scholar to become president and he was the first to be graduated from a Roman Catholic University, Georgetown. Clinton was the only President ever elected twice without receiving 50% of the popular vote in either election. He had 43 percent in 1992 and 49 percent in 1996. He was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term.

George W. Bush:

Bush is the only president to earn an MBA. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are only the second father and son to be elected president; the first were John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Bush banned the wearing of jeans in the Oval Office, a custom that began during the Clinton administration. Bush was the first president to have run a marathon, finishing with a time of 3:44:52. He is the first Governor of Texas ever to be elected president and the only president born in the state of Connecticut. Bush was the first president to hold Little League baseball tryouts on the White House lawn. He coined the word “Strategery.” On March 23, 2006, President Bush passed President James Monroe for the number of days in office without using his veto powers. On that date he had been in office for 1,889. Only Thomas Jefferson went longer without using the veto.

Barack Obama:

Obama is the first African-American president and the first president to be born in Hawaii. He shares his surname with a small city in western Japan, which means “small shore” in Japanese. Barack Obama is the 27^th president to have been a lawyer. In 2005, New Statesman magazine chose him as one of “10 people who would change the world.” He was named on of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” list in 2005 and 2007 and was chosen as Time’s “person of the Year” for 2008. .He won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording. It was for the audio version of his book Dreams From My Father. He won a second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for The Audacity of Hope. He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee of judges. While he was on the campaign trail, he refused to watch CNN and had the sports challenges on instead. Barack owns a pair of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali.