Power of 50: Fascinating Facts About Presidents

Record Setters

Tallest: Abraham Lincoln (6 feet 4 inches)
Shortest: James Madison (5 feet 4 inches)
Heaviest: William Howard Taft (over 300 pounds)
Biggest feet: Warren G. Harding (size 14)
Youngest elected: John F. Kennedy (43)
Youngest to take office: Theodore Roosevelt (42)
Oldest elected: Ronald Reagan (69)
Longest-lived: Gerald Ford (93 years, 166 days)
Longest time in office: Franklin D. Roosevelt (12 years)
Shortest time in office: William Henry Harrison (31 days)

First president who was …

Born a U.S. citizen: Martin Van Buren
Born west of the Mississippi: Herbert Hoover (Iowa)
Born in a log cabin: Andrew Jackson
Born in a hospital: Jimmy Carter
Bearded: Abraham Lincoln
A bearded Democrat: none
Assassinated: Abraham Lincoln
Impeached: Andrew Johnson
A boomer: Bill Clinton

First president who …

Died in office: William Henry Harrison
Attended a major league baseball game: Benjamin Harrison
Spoke on radio: Warren G. Harding
Appeared on television: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Established a national park: Ulysses S. Grant
Presided over 50 states: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Appointed a woman to his cabinet: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Frances Perkins)
Appointed an African American to his cabinet: Lyndon B. Johnson (Robert C. Weaver)

Only president who …

Didn’t live in Washington: George Washington
Was defeated by his vice president: John Adams (Thomas Jefferson)
Founded a university: Thomas Jefferson (University of Virginia)
Could write with both hands at the same time in two different languages: James Garfield
Hanged people: Grover Cleveland (as a county sheriff)
Served two non-consecutive terms: Grover Cleveland
Later served as Supreme Court chief justice: William Howard Taft
Was sworn into office by his father: Calvin Coolidge (John Calvin Coolidge)
Resigned: Richard Nixon
Served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office: Gerald Ford
Survived a bullet wound while in office: Ronald Reagan
Earned a Ph.D.: Woodrow Wilson
Earned an MBA: George W. Bush
Served in the 20th century and didn’t graduate from college: Harry S. Truman

Family Matters

Only children: none
Raised with half-siblings only: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton
Bachelor: James Buchanan
Got married while president: Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson
Divorced: Ronald Reagan
Fathered the most children: John Tyler (15)
Fathered another president: John Adams and George H.W. Bush (John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush)
Grandfather of another president: William Henry Harrison (Benjamin Harrison)
Father-in-law to Confederate president: Zachary Taylor (Jefferson Davis)

Richard Lederer is the author of Presidential Trivia: The Feats, Fates, Families, Foibles, and Firsts of Our American Presidents (Gibbs Smith, Publisher).