- The longest lived of all our presidents are John Adams and Herbert Hoover, with an impressive 90 years each.
- The first person to serve ice cream in the White House was First Lady Dolley Madison.
- The president who had the most children was John Tyler, with fifteen to his name (seven from his first marriage, eight from his second).
- John Quincy Adams used to skinny-dip in the Potomac River almost daily.
- The only president who never married is James Buchanan.
- Ulysses S. Grant was tone deaf. He often remarked, “I know two songs. One is Yankee Doodle, and the other isn’t.”
- Rutherford B. Hayes had the first White House telephone installed.
- Known as the first left-handed president, James Garfield was actually ambidextrous; he could write (simultaneously!) in Latin with one hand, and in Greek with the other!
- The Baby Ruth candy bar was not named after a famous baseball player. It was, in fact, named for Grover Cleveland’s daughter.
- Believe it or not, Jimmy Carter (born in 1924) was the first U.S. President to be born in a hospital.
- In the first decade of the 20th century, this clever palindrome was coined, describing one of Teddy Roosevelt’s most important projects: “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!” (Try spelling it backwards; it really works!)
- William Taft was the Chief Executive who began the presidential tradition of throwing the first pitch of the baseball season.
- The only president to win the Pulitzer Prize is John F. Kennedy, for his book Profiles in Courage.
- Gerald Ford was a great athlete and football player. Before his career in politics, he had been offered a contract by both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers.
