44 Facts About United States Presidents That Will Blow Your Mind
1. George Washington grew large amounts ofcannabis.
2. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson went to see William Shakespeare’s home in 1786. They thenripped off a pieceof Shakespeare’s chair with a knife to take with them as a memento.
3. Thomas Jefferson inventedthe swivel chair.
4.James Madisonweighed under 100 pounds and was only 5’4”.
5.James Monroechased William Crawford, the secretary of the Treasury, out of the White House with a pair of fire tongs.
6. John Quincy Adams and Herbert Hoover bothhad pet alligators.
7. Andrew Jackson taught his parrothow to curse— it was so bad that the parrot had to be removed from Jackson’s funeral for swearing too much.
8.Martin Van Burenwas the first U.S. president to be born a citizen of the United States, but his first language was Dutch, because he grew up in a Dutch part of New York called Kinderhook.
9. William Henry Harrisoncommissioned bottles of hard ciderin the shape of log cabins as part of his campaigning.
10. John Tyler was born in 1790, and he still hastwo living grandchildren.
11. When James K. Polk was 17,he had surgeryto remove gallstones without any anesthesia or antiseptic.
12. Zachary Taylordied suddenly, and while his exact cause of death is still disputed, it most definitely originated from eating cherries and fresh milk.
13. Millard Fillmore had a schoolboy crush andmarried his teacher.
14. While president, Franklin Pierce was arrested for running over an old woman with his horse; the chargeswere later dropped.
15. James Buchanan was rumoredto be gay.
16. Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Servicehours before his assassination.
17. Andrew Johnson wascompletely hammeredat his vice presidential inauguration in 1865.
18. Ulysses S. Grant oncegot a speeding ticketon his horse. He was fined $20.
19. Rutherford B. Hayes signed the actthat allowed womento plead cases before the Supreme Court, making it legal for women to practice in the court system.
20.James Garfield was ambidextrous, and could write Greek with his right hand while simultaneously writing Latin with his left.
21. When Chester A. Arthur was 24,he successfully representedElizabeth Jennings, a black woman who sued a streetcar company for kicking her out of the white section of a streetcar. As a result, all New York City streetcars were forced to desegregate.
22. Grover Clevelandallegedly date-raped a woman, got her pregnant, forced her to put the child in an orphanage, and committed her to an insane asylum.
23. Benjamin Harrisonwas nicknamed “kid gloves,”because he always wore goat-skin gloves, allegedly to protect himselffrom infection.
24. Grover Cleveland is the only president to have ever served as a hangman. Hecarried out multipleexecutions.
25. William McKinley’swife suffered from epileptic seizures,and when she had seizures during public events, McKinley would gently place his handkerchief over her face and carry on.
26. Theteddy bear got its name fromTeddy Roosevelt. Duringa hunting trip, a guide tied a bear to a tree for the president to shoot, but he refused, stating that it was unsportsmanlike.
27. William Taft was a member ofthe secret Skull and Bonessociety at Yale, which his father co-founded.
28. Woodrow Wilson is the only presidentto have earned a Ph.D., and he didn’t learn to read until he was10 years old.
29. Warren G. Harding drank during prohibition, had extramarital affairs, and allegedly had a child out of wedlock with a woman who was31 years his junior.
National Archives, Hulton Archive/ Fox Photos, Hulton Archive
30. Calvin Coolidgehad a pet pygmy hippopotamusnamed Billy.
31. While living with his uncle on a Native Americanreservation in Oklahoma, Herbert Hoover learned to make bows and arrows.
32. Franklin Rooseveltwore dressesup until the age of 5.
33. To help his early political career,Harry S. Truman briefly consideredjoining the KKK, but turned them down after he learned that he would be banned from appointing Catholics to any government jobs.
34. Dwight Eisenhowerwas a painter, and he produced more than 250 known pieces.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Getty/ Central Press
35. John F. Kennedy was a massivefan of James Bond author Ian Fleming, and upon meeting Fleming at a dinner party in 1960, he asked the author about overthrowing Fidel Castro.
36. Lyndon Johnsonhad so many extramarital affairswhile in office that his male aides referred to the girls he met with as his harem.
37. Richard Nixon pursuedhis wife for two years, and would even chauffeur her on dates with other men during that time.
Cosmopolitan / Viawillrabbe.com
38. Gerald Ford wasonce a male modelon the cover ofCosmopolitan, andhe could have playedin the NFL.
39. Jimmy Carterwent on recordas having seen a UFO, and he’s the first known president to do so.
40. The only U.S. president whohas been divorcedis Ronald Reagan. He divorced actress Jane Wyman in 1948, and married Nancy Davis in 1952.
41. While captain ofYale’s baseball team, George H.W. Bush met and posed for a photo with Babe Ruth. It was just a few months before the Bambino’s death.
42. Duringa radio interview, Bill Clinton aced a quiz aboutMy Little Pony.
43. George W. Bush wasthe head cheerleaderhis senior year at Phillips Academy.
44. Barack Obamais an avid collectorof comics, but in particular of Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.
