As long as I can remember, I’ve loved history, particularly
presidential history. Visiting Washington’s Mount Vernon and Jefferson’s
Monticello at a young age arrested my senses and filled me with an enduring
fascination. To this day, rattling off the Presidents in order as I
learned to sing them to the tune of “Ten Little Indians” is an enjoyment.
So in the spirit of celebrating our rich tradition of
peaceful transitions and the dignity, elegance, and ceremony of an inaugural
weekend, here are a few tidbits of trivia about Presidents and First Families past
and present. As a contextual aid, the numbers in parentheses indicate the place
each President holds in the order, from 1st to 45th.
-
Melania Trump (45) is the second First Lady of
foreign birth. The first was English-born Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John
Quincy Adams (6).
-
Donald Trump is the 45th President,
but only the 44th man to be President. How does that work? We can
thank Grover Cleveland for the confusion. He served as the 21st and
23rd Presidents, with his first term from 1885-1889 and his second
from 1893-1897.
-
Sandwiched in between Cleveland’s two terms was Benjamin
Harrison (22), who was the only President to be a grandson of another
President, namely William Henry Harrison (9).
-
William Henry Harrison (9) not only was the
oldest President to be elected at the time, but also was the last President
born as a British subject (i.e. before American independence) and the first to
die while President. He was also President for the shortest amount of time,
having died one month into his term.2
-
“Thomas Jefferson [3] had a pet mockingbird
named Dick, who would hop up the stairs beside him when the president retired
for the evening.”3
-
George H. W. and Barbara Bush (41) have become
the longest married Presidential couple just this month, celebrating 72 years
of marriage.
-
John Quincy Adams (6) served in the House of
Representatives after his Presidency.
-
More Presidents (eight) have been born in
Virginia than in any other state. They are George Washington (1), Thomas
Jefferson (3), James Madison (4), James Monroe (5), William Henry Harrison (9),
John Tyler (10), Zachary Taylor (12), and Woodrow Wilson (28). The runner-up is
Ohio, with seven, and with Donald Trump’s inauguration, New York has emerged
out of a tie with Massachusetts for third place. President Trump joins Martin
Van Buren (8), Millard Fillmore (13), Theodore Roosevelt (26), and Franklin D.
Roosevelt (32), to be the fifth President born in New York. Massachusetts is
the birthplace of four Presidents, John Adams (2), John Quincy Adams (6), John
F. Kennedy (35), and George H. W. Bush (41).4
-
Barron Trump (45) is the first male First Child
to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. (35) in the 1960s.
-
Gerald Ford (38) was the only President to serve,
not having been elected as President or Vice President. He was nominated as
Vice President by Richard Nixon (37) to replace Spiro Agnew, and became
President upon Nixon’s resignation. He lost his subsequent election run to
Jimmy Carter (39).
-
James Buchanan (15) was the only bachelor
President. His niece, Harriet Lane, served as First Lady.5
-
The terms of Bill Clinton (42), George W. Bush
(43), and Barack Obama (44) [1993-2017] marked the first time we saw three
consecutive 2-term Presidents since Thomas Jefferson (3), James Madison (4),
and James Monroe (5) [1801-1825].
-
“Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. [26] had a pet macaw
named Eli Yale. Other Roosevelt pets included raccoons, snakes, and badgers—and
some plain old dogs.”6
-
President Coolidge (30) was known for being a
prankster. One trick he pulled off as President was to push every button on his
desk in the Oval Office, only to run and hide behind the door as every aide,
assistant, and Secret Service member rushed in to answer his call.7
-
William Howard Taft (27) is the only former
President to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
-
George Washington (1) not only set the precedent
for serving only two terms (which precedent was broken by FDR and then made the
law of the land by the 22nd Constitutional amendment in 1947), he also sent a
profound nonverbal message on the day of John Adams’s (2) inauguration. The
swearing in ceremony took place indoors in Philadelphia, after which the former
President (Washington), the new President (Adams), and the Vice President
(Jefferson) would exit to a waiting crowd of the populace. Instead of exiting
first, Washington consciously stepped back and made way for Adams, so that
Adams would be the first one the people saw. Had he exited first, he would have
been sending the message that he was still really in charge, but he deferred to
Adams, silently proclaiming that the first peaceful transition of power in
American history was real and effective.
Photo credit: Alandra Blume Hinkle. Used with permission.
[1] Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, “The Nixon Family,” https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/thelife/thenixonfamily.php (accessed January 21, 2017).
[2] Biography.com Editors, “William Henry Harrison Biography,” Biography.com http://www.biography.com/people/william-henry-harrison-9329968#synopsis (accessed January 23, 2017.
[3] Catherine O’Neill Grace, The White House: An Illustrated History (New York: Scholastic, 2003), 122.
[4] Chris Cillizza, “Where every president was born, in 1 map,” Washington Post, January 14, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/01/14/where-every-president-was-born-in-1-map/?utm_term=.b80fadfa43c4 (accessed January 21, 2017).
[5] C. Brian Kelly, Best Little Stories from the White House, (Nashville: Cumberland House, 1999), 377.
[6] Grace, The White House, 122.
[7] Kelly, Best Little Stories from the White House, 54.
[8] Ibid., 377-378.
[9] Grace, The White House, 122.
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