Month: <span>February 2016</span>

• George Washington was the only American president to be unanimously elected.
• John F. Kennedy was the first president to hold a press conference on television.
• William McKinley was the first president to campaign by telephone.
• Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to call his residence in Washington, D.C. the “White House.” Prior to his term, it had been called the Executive Mansion or the President’s House.
• James Madison was the shortest and lightest president at 5 feet, 4 inches and about 100 pounds.
• Andrew Jackson was the first president to ride a railroad train.
• Barack Obama collects Spiderman and Conan the Barbarian comic books.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only American president to be elected four times. After his service, the 22nd Amendment ratified in 1951, limited the presidential office to two terms.
• William Henry Harrison served the shortest presidency, dying just 32 days after he was elected.
• George Washington was the only president who did not represent a political party.
• Jimmy Carter studied nuclear physics at Annapolis.
• At age 69, Ronald Reagan became the oldest person ever elected U.S. president.
• Jefferson’s library of 6,000 books was purchased for $ 23.950 and formed the basis of the Library of Congress.
• Warren Harding was the first president to speak over the radio.
• Harry S. Truman was the first president to give a speech on television.
• William Taft’s wife was responsible for the planting of the Japanese cherry trees in Washington.
• James Buchanan was the only president that never married.
• John Adams was the first president to reside in the White House, moving in November, 1800 while the paint was still wet.
• John F. Kennedy was the only president to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his biography “Profiles in Courage”.
• Abraham Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard and the tallest president at 6’ 4″.
• Ronald Reagan was the first actor elected president. He acted in 53 films before becoming president.
• Andrew Jackson was the only president to have been a prisoner of war.
• George Washington was the first President to be on a postage stamp. His face is also on the $1 bill and the quarter.
• Only five United States presidents had facial hair when they took office, the latest one being Benjamin Harrison in 1889.
• Grover Cleveland was the only president married in a ceremony at the White House, June 2, 1886.    
• George Washington never lived in the White House. The nation’s capital was located in Philadelphia, as well as several other cities, prior to its move to Washington, D.C.
• John Tyler was the president with the most children—he had 15.
• John Quincy Adams was the first president to be photographed.
• John Quincy Adams regularly swam nude in the Potomac River. The first American professional journalist, Anne Royall, knew of Adams’ 5:00 a.m. swims. After being refused interviews with Adams many times, she went to the river, gathered his clothes and sat on them until she had her interview. Before this, no female had interviewed a president.
• The name “Teddy” bears for stuffed animals was coined in 1903 when a stuffed toy bear was given to the noted outdoorsman Theodore Roosevelt.
• Richard Nixon is the only U.S. president to resign.
• An avid golfer, Woodrow Wilson used black golf balls when playing in the snow
• During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency a flock of sheep was raised on the White House lawn. The wool was used to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I.
• Herbert Hoover donated his salary to charity.
• William Henry Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address at 105 minutes. He did not wear an overcoat or hat and afterwards developed pneumonia and died in the White House exactly one month after giving his speech, on April 4.
• Dwight David Eisenhower liked to play golf so much he had a putting green built on the White House lawn.
• Andrew Johnson had no formal education. His wife taught him reading, writing and math.
• While president, Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for driving his horse too fast and was fined $ 20.
• Herbert Hoover often spoke Chinese to his wife to keep their stories private.
• Richard Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states and the first president to visit China.
• Bill Clinton was the first U.S. Democratic president to win reelection since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• George W. Bush was the first son of a president to take the office since John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams.
• John F. Kennedy was the youngest American elected president and the youngest to die in office.
• Thomas Jefferson was an avid inventor who is credited with inventing several items including the coat hanger, hideaway bed, and dumbwaiter.
• Warren Harding played poker at least twice a week and once put an entire set of White House china up to stake his hand — he lost the hand and the china.

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