DISCOVER 57 FUN FACTS ABOUT PRESIDENTS YOU LIKELY NEVER KNEW
Think you’re a history buff? Let’s test that theory! We’ve got a sh*t ton of fun facts about presidents waiting for you just in time for Presidents’ Day, and we bet you don’t know them all! When the average person thinks about history and presidents, it can be easy to imagine a bunch of old dudes detached from reality. They lived so long ago, right? Well, these facts will bring them right back down to earth with a crash. We’ve got the strange, the funny, the sad, and the weird of our nation’s presidents all right here in one convenient place. For more holiday facts, check out this blog:11 Veterans Day Facts You Never Knew (2021 Edition)
Specific Fun Facts About Presidents
Fun Facts About George Washington
- He left school when he was only 15 years old, but he continued educating himself throughout his lifetime.
- He owned more than 50,000 acres of land at the time of his death. That’s a lot of land for cherry trees!
- He was the very first person to sign the U.S. Constitution.
- He freed all of his slaves after his wife’s death, making him the only president to do so. His estate also continued to pay for the care of many of his former slaves long after his death.
- He never actually had wooden teeth, but he did wear dentures containing ivory, lead, gold, and even OTHER HUMAN TEETH.
- He was America’s first mule breeder.
- He was nearly a homewrecker! While married to Martha, he sent love letters to his BEST FRIEND’S FIANCEE, Sally Fairfax.
Thomas Jefferson Fun Facts
For some odd reason, Thomas Jefferson fun facts are filled with chairs… Go figure that one out!
- He invented the swivel chair! Weeeeeeee!
- He vandalized a chair owned by Willian Shakespeare, cutting a sizable chunk of wood out of it. Uneasy lies the a** which sits in the chair…
- He was the first American archaeologist.
- He was obsessed with wine (aren’t we all)! He was an aficionado, and he owned two vineyards at his estate in Monticello. During this time, he imported over 20,000 bottles of wine to his estate solely for his own collection.
- Like your mother-in-law, he wasn’t good at taking criticism. He was straight-up annoyed when Congress called for large-scale revisions to his draft of the Declaration of Independence. Who can blame him?
Fun Facts About Abraham Lincoln
- Out of 300 professional wrestling matches during his time, he only lost one. He is, therefore, honored in the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
- Though not technically about Lincoln himself, this one is a bit of insane cosmic comedy. The literal BROTHER of John Wilkes Booth (the man who assassinated Lincoln) SAVED the life of Lincoln’s son just months before the assassination. Props to Edwin Booth!
- He is the only U.S. President to hold a patent.
- The Lincoln Bedroom is a sham! Lincoln never actually slept inside the Lincoln Bedroom, making this one hilarious historical misnomer.
- He signed legislation to create the Secret Service the same night he died. If only it had been created a week or two prior…
Theodore Roosevelt Fun Facts
- He was present during Lincoln’s funeral procession as a child.
- He had a photographic memory.
- His wife and mother both died only hours apart on the same day: Valentine’s Day 1884. That day, he wrote in his journal, “The light has gone out of my life.”
- He was shot while giving a speech in 1912, but not even an attempted assassination could stop him. He continued until he finished his 50-PAGE speech. He said, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.” What a BADA**!!!
- He wrote approximately 35 books in his life.
- He dropped out of college. Now you have someone to look up to!
- And, of course, he was the inspiration for the teddy bear. He refused to shoot and kill a bear that was restrained to a tree during a hunting trip, saying to do so would be unsportsmanlike. The rest is history!
John F. Kennedy Fun Facts
- He was the first president who was also a boy scout.
- He was a sickly man, suffering from diseases like Addison’s, chronic back problems, and experiencing frequent infections. Because of this, he was actually read his last rites three times before he was even president.
- He was the first, and currently the only, president to win a Pulitzer Prize.
- Creepy or cautious? He was in charge of the first installation of a secret taping system in the White House.
- Apparently, he could read 1,200 words per minute. Keep in mind: The average person’s reading speed is just 300 WPM.
- Best birthday gift ever! JFK got $1 million on his 21st birthday thanks to a trust fund left to him and his siblings by his father, Joseph.
Interesting Facts About Jimmy Carter
You might think that Carter is an odd addition among the rest of these presidents, but he has some facts that we just couldn’t NOT bring to light.
- He was in a publication of Playboy. Yep. The soft-core po*n magazine. No, he didn’t pose nude, you sicko. However, he was interviewed for his thoughts on sex, which didn’t make him look too hot for his political prospects (pun intended). In the interview, he admitted, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”
- He left Navy service to help save his family’s peanut farm.
- Jimmy Carter is currently the longest-living U.S. president at age 97 (at the time of publication).
- He was a fanboy for President Harry Truman.
- He collected arrowheads.
Ronald Reagan Facts
- One of the biggest advisors to the Reagan administration was an astrologist.
- He was left partly deaf in one ear following an accident on a movie set in the 1930s. This accident made him particularly empathetic when Michael Jackson similarly suffered an entertainment-related injury. He wrote a personal letter to Jackson in 1984, emphasizing his sympathy.
- He hated brussels sprouts. How much more relatable does it get?
- He was in more than 50 films during his time as an actor, and he had a contract with Warner Bros. Studios for a time.
- He fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981 after they went on strike.
- He obsessively munched on jellybeans in an attempt to quit his habit of pipe-smoking.
General Fun Presidents Facts
Let the fun facts about presidents continue!
Fun Facts About Presidents’ Birthdays
Concerning presidents’ birthdays, here are some facts and stats that we thought were fun to learn.
- Only one president was born in September: Willian H. Taft.
- October and November are the most common months for presidents to be born, hitting a tie of six presidents born in those months.
- June was the last month to have a president born in it. That president was George H. W. Bush (June 12).
- The youngest U.S. president, Roosevelt, was elected at age 42 and born in October.
- Van Buren was the first U.S.-born president. He was born in December.
Fun Facts About Presidents’ Pets
- It is purported that John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator.
- George Washington had some funny names for his dogs, including Drunkard and Tipsy.
- Warren G Harding was a lazy namer of pets, as he had two pets named Petey and Pete.
- Calvin Coolidge was probably the best at naming his pets. His additions include Boston Beans the Bulldog and Tax Reduction the Lion Cub.
- Teddy Roosevelt had the largest collection of pets in the White House. He is rivaled closely by Coolidge.
- George Washington was gifted a pet donkey by King Charles III of Spain.
Bonus Fun Facts About Presidents
Here’s a set of fun president facts that didn’t quite fit into any specific category, but we wanted to include them nonetheless!
- Only one president never married: James Buchanan. He’s also the only president from Pennsylvania.
- Calvin Coolidge was oddly obsessed with Vaseline, and he apparently liked having his head rubbed with it every morning. We’re not even gonna ask.
- Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith Bolling Galt, was reportedly a direct descendant of Pocahontas.
- Part of Grover Cleveland’s jaw was fitted with a vulcanized rubber prosthesis after doctors discovered a tumor in his mouth.
- James A. Garfield was ambidextrous. Not only that, but he could write in two different languages with each hand at the same time. Insane! Most of you can barely write in English!
What did you think about these fun facts about presidents? Which fact (or facts) shocked you the most? Personally, we LOVED learning that our nation’s first president was almost a homewrecker. But Coolidge’s obsession with Vaseline is way up there too. Tell us your opinions on these fun facts about presidents below or on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or share them with your friends!Related read:What Is Presidents’ Day? Honoring Our Nation’s Leaders
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