Fun facts for kids and adults alike. Feel free to look through the links given for even more great information.
Fun facts for kids and adults alike. Feel free to look through the links given for even more great information.
Among other things, president today is a common title for the head of state of most republics, whether popularly elected, chosen by the legislature or a special electoral college. It is also often adopted by dictators.
01 
Washington, George (1789-1797)
02 Adams, John (1797-1801)
03 Jefferson, Thomas (1801-1809)
04 Madison, James (1809-1817)
05 Monroe, James (1817-1825)
06 Adams, John Quincy (1825-1829)
07 Jackson, Andrew (1829-1837)
08 Van Buren, Martin (1837-1841)
09 Harrison, William Henry (1841)
10 Tyler, John (1841-1845)
11 Polk, James Knox (1845-1849)
12 Taylor, Zachary (1849-1850)
13 Fillmore, Millard (1850-1853)
14 Pierce, Franklin (1853-1857)
15 Buchanan, James (1857-1861)
16 Lincoln, Abraham (1861-1865)
17 Johnson, Andrew (1865-1869)
18 Grant, Ulysses S. (1869-1877)
19 Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (1877-1881)
20 Garfield, James Abram (1881)
21 Arthur, Chester Alan (1881-1885)
22 Cleveland, Grover (1885-1889)
23 Harrison, Benjamin (1889-1893)
24 Cleveland, Grover (1893-1897)
25 McKinley, William (1897-1901)
26 Roosevelt, Theodore (1901-1909)
27 Taft, William Howard (1909-1913)
28 Wilson, Woodrow (1913-1921)
29 Harding, Warren Gamaliel (1921-1923)
30 Coolidge, Calvin (1923-1929)
31 Hoover, Herbert Clark (1929-1933)
32 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1933-1945)
33 Truman, Harry (1945-1953)
34 
Eisenhower, Dwight David (1953-1961)
35 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1961-1963)
36 Johnson, Lyndon Baines (1963-1969)
37 Nixon, Richard Milhous (1969-1974)
38 Ford, Gerald Rudolph (1974-1977)
39 Carter, James Earl Jr. (1977-1981
40 Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1981-1989)
41 Bush, George Herbert Walker (1989-1993)
42 Clinton, William Jefferson (1993-2001)
43 Bush, George Walker (2001-present)
Requirements for holding office
The president and vice president serve a term of office of four years. The Twenty-second Amendment (which took effect in 1951) provides that no one may be elected to the office more than twice, and that no one may be elected president more than once who has held the office of (or acted as) president for more than two years of another's term. Prior to the ratification of this amendment, and following the precedent set by George Washington, an unofficial limit of two terms was generally observed, with the only exceptions being Theodore Roosevelt, who ran unsuccessfully for a third nonconsecutive term (although his first term was to finish the term of President William McKinley, who was assassinated—hence he was only elected once, for his second term), and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected 4 times, served three full terms and died in his fourth after just over 12 years in office. Ulysses S. Grant also briefly sought a third nonconsecutive term, making an unsuccessful run for the Republican Party nomination in 1880. Since the amendment went into effect, three presidents have served two full terms: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term but resigned before completing it. Current President George W. Bush will become the fourth should he complete his current term, on January 20, 2009. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president since the ratification of the amendment to have been eligible to have served more than 2 terms, having served only 14 months of John F. Kennedy's term after becoming president following the latter's assassination. Harry S. Truman himself was not subject to term limits, as the 22nd specifically states that it both did not apply to the current term of the president in office upon its ratification (Truman) or "to any person holding the office of president when this Article was proposed by the Congress" (Truman). He briefly allowed his name on the ballot for the 1952 election (but did not campaign), and officially withdrew after losing the New Hampshire primary.
Traditionally, the president is the highest-paid government employee, though not in terms of traditional salary. His/her annual earnings total $150,000, though the president is given a $300,000 expense account. Consequently, the president's salary and total expense account serve as a traditional cap for all other federal officials, such as the Chief Justice. A raise for 2001 was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 because other officials who receive annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching the president's. Consequently, to raise the salaries of the other federal employees, the president's salary had to be raised as well. The President's monetary compensation is minuscule in comparison to the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies and comparable to that of certain kinds of professionals e.g. attorneys and physicians in some parts of the United States. Overall the vast majority of U.S. presidents were very affluent upon entering office and thus were not dependent on the salary.
Prior to passage by Congress of the Former Presidents Act (FPA) in 1958, retired presidents did not receive a pension. All living presidents in 1959 began to receive a pension of $25,000 per year, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries (Executive Level I), which is $183,500 as of 2007.
The FPA, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and mailing privileges. Secret Service protection for former presidents is also authorized by statute.
Four presidents[14] have been elected by a majority of the Electoral College without a plurality of popular votes:
1. John Quincy Adams trailed Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in the 1824 election[15]
2. Rutherford B. Hayes trailed Samuel J. Tilden by 264,292 votes in the 1876 election
3. Benjamin Harrison trailed Grover Cleveland by 95,713 votes in the 1888 election
4. George W. Bush trailed Al Gore by 543,895 votes in the 2000 election.
* Eleven presidents have been elected with a plurality of popular votes, without a majority of popular votes:
o James K. Polk—49.3% of the popular vote in the 1844 election
o Zachary Taylor—47.3% of the popular vote in the 1848 election
o James Buchanan—45.3% of the popular vote in the 1856 election
o Abraham Lincoln—39.9% of the popular vote in the 1860 election
o James Garfield—48.3% of the popular vote in the 1880 election
o Grover Cleveland—48.8% of the popular vote in the 1884 election
o Grover Cleveland—46.0% of the popular vote in the 1892 election
o Woodrow Wilson—41.8% of the popular vote in the 1912 election
o Woodrow Wilson—49.3% of the popular vote in the 1916 election
o Harry S. Truman—49.7% of the popular vote in the 1948 election
o John F. Kennedy—49.7% of the popular vote in the 1960 election
o Richard Nixon—43.2% of the popular vote in the 1968 election
o Bill Clinton—42.9% of the popular vote in the 1992 election
o Bill Clinton—49.2% of the popular vote in the 1996 election
* Two presidents have been elected by the House of Representatives when no candidate achieved a majority of electoral votes:
o Thomas Jefferson had the same number of electoral votes as Aaron Burr in the 1800 election.
o John Quincy Adams trailed Andrew Jackson by 15 electoral votes in the 1824 election, but Jackson did not have a majority.
* Two presidents won the electoral vote but lost their resident state:
o James Polk—lost Tennessee to Henry Clay but won the election in the 1844 election.
o Woodrow Wilson—lost New Jersey to Charles Evans Hughes but won the election in the 1916 election.
* Six presidents won the electoral vote but lost their birth state:
o William Henry Harrison lost Virginia to Martin Van Buren but won his resident state of Ohio and the 1840 election.
o James Polk lost North Carolina to Henry Clay but won the 1844 election.
o Zachary Taylor lost Virginia to Lewis Cass but won the 1848 election.
o Abraham Lincoln lost Kentucky to John Bell but won his resident state of Illinois and the 1860 election. Lincoln also lost Kentucky to George Brinton McClellan, but won Illinois and the 1864 election.
o George H. W. Bush lost Massachusetts to Michael Dukakis but won his resident state of Texas and the 1988 election.
o George W. Bush lost Connecticut to Al Gore but won his resident state of Texas and the 2000 election. Bush also lost Connecticut to John Kerry but won his resident state of Texas and the 2004 election.
* Only James Polk has won the presidency while losing both his resident state and birth state.
* All presidents have been white Christian men between the ages of 42 and 77 years.
* William Howard Taft is the only president to serve as both the head of the executive branch as president and the judicial branch as Chief Justice of the United States after his term as president.
* Except for John F. Kennedy who was Roman Catholic, all presidents have been either Protestant or Unitarian.
* Most presidents have been of substantially English descent, but there have been a few who came from a different background:
o Predominantly Dutch: Martin Van Buren
+ Although Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt had Dutch names, neither was predominantly Dutch; each had only one Dutch grandfather. Theodore Roosevelt's other three grandparents were all British; Franklin Roosevelt's other three grandparents were of Puritan stock.
o Predominantly German: Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower
o Predominantly of Irish or Scottish descent: William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.
* John Tyler's grandmother was Huguenot.
* Only one president was the son of two immigrant parents: Andrew Jackson. Five presidents (Jefferson, Buchanan, Arthur, Wilson, Hoover) had just one immigrant parent each.
* No president has been an only child.
* Only one president, James Buchanan, remained a bachelor. Bachelor Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom while in office, while both John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson became widowers and remarried while in office.
* Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have had a readily apparent physical disability.
* Four presidents were father-son duos: John Adams and John Quincy Adams; George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
* One pair of presidents were grandfather and grandson, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.
* Historical rankings of United States Presidents by academic historians usually regard three presidents — in chronological order, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt — to be the three most successful presidents by a wide margin.
* The Secret Service and some agencies in the government use acronyms as jargon. Since the Truman Administration the President of the United States has been called POTUS, pronounced /poʊtʊs/. The wife of the president, traditionally referred to as the First Lady is called FLOTUS, pronounced /floʊtʊs/. The Vice President of the United States is often abbreviated to VPOTUS, pronounced /vipoʊtʊs/. See Secret Service codename.
* Military service: 31 out of the 42 U.S. presidents have served in the military. All but one served as officers.
* Three out of the first five presidents died on July 4 (Independence Day): John Adams (1826), Thomas Jefferson (1826), and James Monroe (1831). The first two died within hours of each other, 50 years to the day after adopting the Declaration of Independence together.
* Only one president, Calvin Coolidge, was born on July 4.
* Two presidents died on March 8: Millard Fillmore (1874) and William Taft (1930).
* Two presidents died on December 26: Harry S Truman (1972) and Gerald Ford (2006).
* Six presidents graduated and one got his Master's degree from Harvard University: The six were both Adamses, Hayes, both Roosevelts and Kennedy. George W. Bush received his Master of Business Administration degree there; four graduated and one earned his law degree from Yale University: The four were Taft, Ford, and both Bushes. Bill Clinton received his law degree there; three graduated from the College of William and Mary: Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler; two graduated from Princeton University: Madison and Wilson; two attended Columbia University : Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt; two graduated from the United States Military Academy: Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower; and one graduated from the United States Naval Academy: Jimmy Carter.
* Since 1947, almost every president[citation needed] has pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey, in a ceremony informally called the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation.
* Fifteen presidents were Freemasons: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford.
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