Hail to the Chief! Presidents Day falls on the 3rd Monday of February each year. Originally known as Washington’s Birthday, the day is also famous in the retail world as a day to break out the winter sales. So celebrate by attending a parade, wearing red, white and blue, or buying a new car. While you’re honoring our nation’s leaders, keep your brain busy with some mind-popping presidential trivia!
DID YOU KNOW?
- America’s first president, George Washington, was the only president ever to be unanimously elected.
- America’s fourth president, James Madison, was the shortest president, measuring in at 5’4”.
- America’ss sixth president, John Quincy Adams, regularly swam nude in the Potomac River.
- The term “O.K.” came from our eighth president, Martin Van Buren. He was raised in Kinderhook, New York and was known as “Old Kinderhook.” O.K. became a shorthand for Van Buren, and thus “okay” was born.
- Tenth president, John Tyler, had 15 children – the most of any U.S. president.
- Fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce, was the first president to introduce a Christmas tree into the White House.
- Fifteenth president, James Buchanan, was the only president to stay a bachelor.
- Sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, was the tallest president at 6’4”.
- Seventeenth president, Andrew Johnson, had no formal education. His wife taught him to read, write and do math.
- Twenty-second president, Grover Cleveland, answered the White House phones personally.
- Thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon, was the first president to visit all 50 states and also to ever visit China.
- Thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy, suffered from Addison’s disease.
- Forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, is the first black president of the U.S.
- Eight presidents were left-handed: James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
- Only two presidents are buried in Arlington National Cemetery: John F. Kennedy and William H. Taft.
Do you have any interesting presidential factoids to share? Leave them in the comments section below!
http://www.biography.com/presidents/pres_facts_trivia.jsp
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/prestrivia1.html
http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/pres/trivia.htm