Fun Presidential Facts

With the U.S. presidential election preliminaries in full swing, and the presidential candidates swinging at each other any which way they can, it seems an ideal time to cobble together a few fun presidential facts about both past as well as present presidents – so here they are:

Although George W. Bush is the 43rd president of the United States, there have actually been just 42 presidents. Grover Cleveland held office twice, when he was the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889, and then the 24th president from 1893 to 1897, and hence is counted twice.

Standing at 6 ft 4 in, or 1.93 m, Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president, while James Madison was the shortest at 5 ft 4 in, or 1.63. Incidentally, with a height of 6 ft, or 1.83 m, Eleanor Roosevelt was the tallest First Lady.

Talking about First Ladies, the term was first used for Lucy Ware Webb Hayes in 1877. It is said that most First Ladies detested the label, including Jacqueline Kennedy.

The United States has had seven left handed presidents: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Harry S. Truman, Herbert Hoover, and James A. Garfield. Amongst them, James Garfield was ambidextrous, and often amused his guests by using one hand to write in Greek and the other to write in Latin.

At 43 years of age, John F. Kennedy was the youngest president who was elected, although, at 42, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president who was inaugurated, after William McKinley was assassinated. Ronald Reagan was the oldest president when he left office at 77 years of age.

Standing at 6 ft 2 in, and weighing above 300 lbs, William Howard Taft was the heaviest president, and no standard sized bathtub could accommodate his size. Hence, he got a custom-made one installed in the White House. When it was made, four (fully dressed) men posed in it for a photograph. In contrast, weighing just 100 lbs, James Madison was the lightest president.

A former girlfriend of Gerald Ford introduced him to modeling, and both of them appeared in Look and Cosmopolitan magazines in the early part of the 1940s, before he became a U.S. president. Betty Bloomer Warren, the girl he actually married in 1948, had also been a fashion model.

John F. Kennedy apparently had the Germans chuckling when he said ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, in a speech he made in Berlin, which in English means ‘I am a jelly doughnut’. Although, one must say in his defense that the word Berliner can mean both, a citizen of Berlin, as well as the pastry filled with jelly.

It was Benjamin Harrison who was the first to install electricity in the White House, in 1891. However, this new technology frightened the First Lady, Caroline, who refused to switch on or off the newly installed lights, afraid of getting a shock. Therefore, the electrician, Ike H. Hoover, who had installed them, was asked to stay and operate them.

Thomas Jefferson’s pet mockingbird was allowed to fly freely all around the White House, except when the president had guests.

William Henry Harrison’s inauguration speech was the longest ever, which he gave on a day that was bitterly cold. He caught a bad cold which turned into pneumonia, killing him exactly one month after he became the president, making his presidential term the shortest in the history of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln is often shown wearing his tall and black stovepipe hat, and it is said that the president carried notes, bills, and letters in it.

Apparently, George Washington donated a few of his own silver forks and spoons when what was a new country at that time, the United States, needed gold and silver to make money.

President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was the inspiration for the creation of the much loved toy, the teddy bear. This was because he would not shoot a bear since she had her cub with her when he was on a hunting trip. In fact, during his re-election campaign, the bear was the mascot, which resulted in a surge in the sales of teddy bears.