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43 Facts about the American Presidency

by Neighborhood-Kids.com2/16/2008 5:54:23 PM

In recognition of President’s Day, here are 43 interesting and kid-friendly facts about the American presidency.

1. Eligibility for the presidency includes being at least 35 years old, being a natural-born citizen of the United States, and residence in the United States for at least fourteen years.
2. Ronald Regan was the oldest president elected at the age of 69 years old in 1980.
3. John F. Kennedy was the youngest president elected at the age of 43 in 1960.
4. William Henry Harrison holds the record for the briefest presidency; he died of pneumonia after 31 days in office.
5. The longest presidency was held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms and served from 1933 to 1945.
6. The Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, prevents the election of a president for more than two terms (eight years).
7. Until the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, the vice president was the runner-up in the presidential election.
8. George Washington was not affiliated with a specific political party.
9. Mount Rushmore, completed in 1941, boasts the images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, representing the first 150 years of the American presidency.

10. James Buchanan was the only president who never married.
11. John Tyler was the first president to get married during his presidency in1844; his first wife died during the first year of his term.
12. Grover Cleveland is the only president to have a wedding in the White House.
13. John Adams was the first president to live in the White House upon its completion in 1800, although it was known as the “President’s House” or the “Executive Mansion” until the 20th century.
14. John F. Kennedy is the most recently elected president to be featured on currently circulating American currency, the half dollar coin.
15. Ronald Reagan, the 40th American President, was also President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952.
16. Virginia is the state which has produced the most presidents (8).

17. Since the death of Gerald Ford in 2006, there are currently four living presidents.
18. Eleven presidents were given the names of their fathers.
19. Eleven presidents were not involved in any type of military service prior to their presidency.
20. Eight presidents have died while in office; four were assassinated and four died of various medical complications.
21. Fourteen vice presidents have become president; eight following the death of a president, one following a resignation, and four were elected in their own right.
22. The most common profession held by presidents before their election is lawyer.
23. James A. Garfield was the first and only clergyman to be elected president, although he relinquished his eldership following his election in 1880.
24. Since the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment, the president is sworn into office on Inauguration Day on January 20th.
25. The only instance of a presidential oath being administered by someone who was not a judge was in 1923 when Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public, after the sudden death of Warren G. Harding.
26. George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt are the only two presidents who did not mention or refer to “God” in their inaugural addresses; these instances were in both presidents’ second address.
27. George Washington gave the shortest inaugural address at 135 words.
28. William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,495 words.

29. William H. Taft is the only former president to go on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
30. Judge Sarah T. Hughes was the first and only woman to swear in a president, Lyndon Johnson in 1963.
31. George W. Bush spent $30 million on his inaugural celebration.
32. Henry Clay ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times between 1824 and 1848.
33. George Washington was unanimously elected in 1789 and1792.
34. In the election of 1820, James Monroe ran largely uncontested; one electoral vote went to John Q. Adams because the delegate from New Hampshire wanted George Washington to be the only unanimously elected president.
35. In a presidential election, the House of Representatives decides the winner if no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes.
36. The Presidents of the United States of America formed in Seattle in 1993.
37. The first televised presidential debate took place in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
 
38. The first unofficial presidential library was founded in 1885 as a memorial for James A. Garfield.
39. Grover Cleveland is both the 22nd and 24th president; he was elected in 1884, lost in 1888 to Benjamin Harrison, and won again in 1892.
40. Richard Nixon is the only person to serve two terms as vice president and to be elected as president twice.
41. The United States capital was named after George Washington in 1791, although he preferred to call it “Federal City.”
42. Washington, which joined the Union in 1889, is the only U.S. state to be named after a president.
43. James Monroe is the only president to be the namesake of a non-American capital city (Monrovia, Liberia).