More presidential fun facts-and the last of them
Gerald Rudolph Ford’s name before he was adopted was Leslie Lynch King Jr
As a young man, Rutherford Birchard Hayes fought lyssophobia, or the fear of going insane
Three presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe. Calvin Coolidge is the only president to have been born on the Fourth
James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously
John Quincy Adams would often skinny dip in the Potomac River
James Monroe once chased his Secretary of State from the White House with a pair of fire tongs
When Mexican general Santa Ana demanded Zachary Taylor, Taylor said, “Tell him to go to hell.
Andrew Jackson was reportedly involved in over 100 duels, most to defend the honor of his wife, Rachel. He had a bullet in his chest from an 1806 duel and another bullet in his arm from a barroom fight in 1813 with Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton
Herbert Hoover was an orphan whose first job was picking bugs off potato plants, for which he was paid a dollar per hundred bugs. He also was a mine worker (aw...)
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to ever be photographed at his inauguration. In the photo, he is standing near John Wilkes Booth, his future assassin
Robert Lincoln is the only man in U.S. history known to have witnessed the assassinations of three different presidents, his father, James Garfield, and William McKinley. After he saw anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoot McKinley, he vowed he would never again appear in public with an incumbent president (somebody was traumatized)
The first attempt to assassinate a president was on Andrew Jackson by Richard Lawrence, a house painter. Both of his guns misfired, however—an event that statisticians say could occur only once in 125,000 times. Andrew Jackson then chased Lawrence with his walking stick
Teddy Roosevelt’s last request before dying was “Please put out the light.” Thomas Jefferson’s last words were “This is the Fourth?” John Adam’s dying words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” unaware that Jefferson had passed away a few hours earlier
George Washington didn’t have enough money to get to his own inauguration so he had to borrow $600 from his neighbor
Every so often, Calvin Coolidge would press all the buttons on the President’s desk and hide and watch his staff run in. He would then pop out from behind the door and say that he was just seeing if everyone was working (I laughed so hard at this one. I would totally do that!)
George Washington’s original ancestral name was de Wessyngton, from a certain William de Hertburn, a twelfth-century noble knight of the manor and village of Wessyngton who later changed his name to de Wessyngton
- Much has been written about Lincoln-Kennedy assassinations coincidences, including:
- Both had seven letters in their last names.
- Both were shot in the head on a Friday seated beside their wives.
- Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln Limo, which was made by Ford.
- Lincoln was in Box 7 at Ford’s Theatre, and Kennedy was in Car 7 of the Dallas motorcade.
- Both assassins had three names with 15 letters (John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald).
- Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and was captured in a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy in a warehouse and was captured in a theater.
- Both were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in ’46 (1846/1946), were runners-up for their party’s nomination for vice president in ’56, and were elected president in ’60.
- Both were succeeded by southern Democrats named Johnson
Replies
ohh yeah. i do know you would!
That whole thing about Lincon and Kennedy's assassinations is pretty funny how they had that many things in common.... I dont know about you but that would have really really freaked me out man.... :)