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Interesting Facts About US Presidents 3
More interesting trivia concerning US President, from the 31st to the newest President-elect.
(31st) Herbert Hoover (1929 – 1933)
- Hoover, along with Thomas Edison, was named the two greatest engineers in United States history in a survey carried out by the School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University in 1964.
- He communicated with his wife in Chinese to keep their conversations private
- He wrote more than sixteen books; his last book entitled “Fishing for Fun – And to Wash Your Soul” was published just a year prior to his death
(32nd) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 – 1945)
- FDR was elected to an unparalleled four terms of office; he was also the first president to travel by airplane
- Despite having contracted polio and confined to a wheelchair, FDR enjoyed driving around the presidential limousine, which was equipped with hand controls. He was forced to stop driving altogether after experiencing an attempt on his life in 1933. From then on, the limousines were plated with steel armor.
- It has been determined that FDR was somehow related to 11 former presidents – 6 by marriage and 5 by blood. They are George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft.
(33rd) Harry S Truman (1945 – 1953)
- Truman was a haberdasher before joining politics
- S was his complete middle name and did not stand for anything. His parents could not seem to agree on whether to honor his paternal grandfather Anderson Shippe Truman or his maternal grandfather Solomon Young. The letter S was the result of a compromise, since both names contain the letter.
- He had read every book in the library of his hometown in Lamar Missouri
(34th) Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953 – 1961)
- As commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, Eisenhower often employed deaf civilians to send top secret messages to his field officers in sign language before the D-day to prevent Nazi interference
- A capable chef, he created a vegetable soup recipe that is 894 words in length and includes nasturtium flower stems as an ingredient. He was also famous for his steaks and cornmeal pancakes; and his favorite dessert was prune whip.
- He was the first president to have a transparent plastic bubble installed on the rooftop of his limousine so that he could be seen even during unfavorable weather conditions
(35th) John F. Kennedy (1961 – 1963)
- JFK was the youngest elected president age 43 upon taking office; and was also the youngest to die at age of only 46
- He is the first and only president so far to win a Pulitzer Prize. It was for his biography “Profiles of Courage.”
- He was particularly careless when it comes to money. Although he came from a wealthy family, he never brought any cash with him and was always loaning from his friends, some of whom became very annoyed by the fact that he never even bothered to pay them back.
(36th) Lyndon B. Johnson (1963 – 1969)
- LBJ and his wife Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, a daughter of a wealthy merchant, were married only two months after their first date. Their wedding ring worth only $2.50 wedding rings were bought at Sears.
- He once sat through an entire meeting on a toilet
- Following Kennedy’s assassination, he had the presidential limousine completely renovated with bulletproof glass and a non-detachable roof, adding almost a ton of steel plates.
(37th) Richard M. Nixon (1969 – 1974)
- Nixon was the only president to have traveled to all 50 States during his term
- He was the first president to use sign language to translate his speech; regrettably it was for his resignation speech shortly after Watergate scandal exposé
- He once recommended a play to the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI
(38th) Gerald R. Ford (1974 – 1977)
- Ford was the first president not elected by the people to the position either as President or Vice President. He was appointed Vice President by then President Nixon after former Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973, and became President himself when Nixon himself resigned in 1974.
- Though he was a star player for the University of Michigan football team in the early 1930s, he turned down offers to play professional football
- Considered one of the most embarrassing occasions in the White House history, Ford asked the Queen Elizabeth of England for a dance in a state dinner held in her honor. It could have been a lovely evening but he chose the song “The Lady is a Tramp.”
(39th) James Earl Carter (1977 – 1981)
- Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital
- He was also the first president from the Deep South (Georgia) to be elected to the presidency since prior to the Civil War
- In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after his presidential tenure. (Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize during their term.)
(40th) Ronald W. Reagan (1981 – 1989)
- Reagan took office just sixteen days shy of his 70th birthday, making him the oldest to be elected president
- He was a Hollywood actor and a swimmer before becoming president. In fact, he saved around 70 people from drowning working as a lifeguard at a beach near Dixon, Illinois.
- One of his goof ups involved a speech on Third world countries, in which he said that “The United States has much to offer to the Third World War!”
(41st) George H. W. Bush (1989 – 1993)
- Bush was the second president to have a son (George W. Bush – 43rd president) to follow in his footsteps. (The first president was John Adams, the 2nd president, whose son John Quincy Adams was the 6th president.)
- Just three days short of his 19th birthday, he became the youngest pilot then in the Navy when he was commissioned as an ensign in 1943. He would survive four planes crashes in World War II.
- Running against Ronald Reagan during the 1980 Republican primaries, Bush labeled Reagan’s economic policies as “voodoo economics,” a statement he undoubtedly regretted when Reagan chose him to be his running mate.
(42nd) William J. Clinton (1993 – 2001)
- Clinton was only 32 years old when he was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978. He was the youngest governor at the time.
- As an avid golfer, he developed quite a reputation for his innovative mathematical abilities in calculating his score. Once, he made more than 200 strokes to tally a score of only 82.
- A gifted musician, he was part of the state band’s saxophone section; and had also played saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show
(43rd) George W. Bush (2001 – 2009)
- Bush earned his bachelor’s degree (in History) from Yale and his Masters (in Business Administration) from Harvard
- He was the head football cheerleader during his senior year at Phillips Academy, a prep school in Andover, Massachusetts
- He has a collection of over 250 autographed baseballs
(44) Barack Obama (2009 – 2013)
- Born in Hawaii, Obama will become the only president to be born outside the continental United States when he takes office in January 20, 2009
- He has read through the entire Harry Potter series with his daughter Malia Ann
- He won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for audio version of his two best selling books: “Dreams from My Father” in 2006; and “The Audacity of Hope – Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” in 2008
US Presidential Trivia series:
- 1st to the 15th President
- 16th to the 30th President
- 31st to the new President-elect
More history articles:
- Warrior Women
- Mighty Women
- Man-made Environmental Disasters
- Rocks and Stones with Historical, Cultural and Religious Significance
- Famous Teen Deaths
- Birthday Deaths
- Famous Holocaust Survivors
- Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 1
- Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 2
- 10 Bizarre Deaths in History
- 10 (More) Bizarre Deaths in History
- 10 (Ultimate) Bizarre Deaths in History
All images courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
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31 Comments
Very interesting stuff.
So well done with contents and presented nicely too. Thank you.
I ditto Valli. Very interesting stuff.
Very nice. It was a nice refresher course.
Excellently presented article! Well done.
Well written and well-presented. The story of Ford’s encounter with the Queen made me laugh.
Thanks!
Inna
Good presentation of the successive Presidents of the United States, I have fond memories of President Clyinton when he came to Chile, wanted to know a town called “White House” located between Santiago and Valparaiso, there was very well received, and a bar is kept up the glass when he drank Coca-cola.
Correction: Barack Obama Born in Mombasa, Obama will become the only president to be born outside the United States when he takes office in January 20, 2009.
Thanks everybody for all your kind comments. Thanks very much!
Dod Constitution: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, it is his father Barack Obama Sr who was born in Kenya.
Well done eddie,
This is a nice read. brief but greatly informative.
How about including Presidents who had children with their slave girls?
I can sense some negativity in here but, my dear this was very informative and interesting. Regarding #8, I think where he was born was the farthest from everyone’s mind when the youth of the nation stood up and produced the largest turnout of voters in years. GO OBAMA!
Really great work – I’m really impressed that Harry S. Truman read every book in his local library… I am beyond impressed by that.
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
Nice piece!!
Jimmy Carter is the only senile living president to not have the sense to stay out of the public eye.
Harry Truman was one of few presidents to face a serious constitutional crisis when Doug McCarthur questioned if the president had the right to tell the military what to do.
Think about this if it had been Carter. He would have wimped out.
Thank God it wasn’t Obama, but thankfully he isn’t president yet and the electoral college may say the electorate didn’t know what they were doing and elected a foreign national… and torpedo him….
Really great work, well presentation.
Good work on these facts and figures that you compiled about famous Americans!
Very nice work, Eddie. Well written and presented series. I’ve been eyeballing these all day and wanting to have a chance to sit and read them through. I’m glad I took the time. It was well worth it.
-M
Good job!
An interesting bunch, aren’t they!
Grant
I knew several of these facts already, but some of them I didn’t know. All of them were interesting reading as many that I had read before had slipped my mind since I read them last. Thanks for posting them.
Damon/johnny yuma
Interesting series Eddie
A very gluing article bro; I’m poor though, but I’m kind of similar to Kennedy when it comes to money matters. And I’m having troubles thwarting the habit.Lol.
VEry interesting although I am not a US resident, anything on George W or are you waiting for him to depart ?
That’s interesting
That’s interesting
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http://www.czechyoself.com
Excellent, excellent series, Eddie! A great subject with very interesting bits and pieces of information! I wish my history class had been this interesting…anyone who’s a teacher; take note!
As for Barack Obama, I don’t care if he was born in China! If he can build this country back up after all the tearing down that’s been done by Bush, then he’s the right man for the job!
As far as George W. Bush goes, the only thing I want to read is his OBITUARY!
Superb series! I love this part most. Thanks!
This is interesting, with all the facts and photos/pictures. I cannot believe that Bush is leaving us in this economic crisis and leaves his mess to Obama. If Obama does makes this country better, then he will be extremely honored…God Bless him!
Could you put up SOME ON JAMES KNOX POLK THAT WOULD BE awesome!!!..so do it!
COULD YOU PUT SOME FACT UP ABOUT JAMES POLK THAT WOULD BE AWESOME ………………. THANX…..!!!!!!!!!!..LOL
BLESSINGS,
YESSICA