Which president turned down an offer to play for the Green Bay Packers? Who set a world record for the most handshakes in one day? And why do not one but two US presidents have the same made-up initial instead of a middle name? If only school history lessons had included these fascinating facts about America’s past presidents.
Click or scroll through the gallery to discover amazing facts about past occupants of the White House...
Speeding tickets might seem a modern invention, but 19th-century President Ulysses S Grant was pulled over and fined $20 for going too fast – not by car, but in his horse and buggy. A 1908 news report, quoting retired police officer William West, revealed the president was stopped in 1872 for racing his friends along Washington DC's 13th Street on the way to the horse track. While there are no contemporary reports of the incident, there is also evidence of Grant being arrested for speeding in 1866.
Ever wondered what the middle initial ‘S’ stands for in the name of Ulysses S Grant? The answer is nothing. Christened Hiram Ulysses Grant, the 18th president decided to make ‘Ulysses’ his first name to avoid having the initials ‘HUG’, but a mistake on his application to West Point added an S in place of new middle name ‘Hiram’, and it stuck, often being mistaken for his mother’s maiden name, Simpson.
Perhaps it was a presidential trait, but the ‘S’ in Harry S Truman wasn’t short for a real name either. Supposedly, the ‘S’ was a compromise so it could stand in for either of his grandfathers – Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young – but there was no actual name attached to it.
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Shaking hands is par for the course for politicians keen to connect with the public – but can you imagine doing it more than 8,000 times in one day? President Theodore Roosevelt set a world record for the most handshakes in a single day by a head of state, clocking up some 8,513 handshakes during an official function at the White House on 1 January 1907.
When he wasn’t shaking hands, Teddy Roosevelt was collecting quite a menagerie of animals, with more pets than the White House had ever seen before. These included a bear named Jonathan Edwards, guinea pigs, a badger, macaw, lizard, hyena and a pony called Algonquin. The pony was so dear to his children that when Roosevelt’s son Archie was sick in bed, brothers Kermit and Quentin (pictured, atop Algonquin) snuck the animal inside and brought him up by elevator to the little boy’s room.
Those weren’t the only unusual animals to find a home in the White House. President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Edith Wilson did their bit for the World War I effort by having sheep graze on the front lawn, with wool being sold to help fund the Red Cross. President Benjamin Harrison also kept pet opossums named Mr Reciprocity and Mr Protection, while Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon called Rebecca.
President Calvin Coolidge had national pride in his veins as he was quite literally born on 4 July 1872 in Plymouth, Vermont. But Independence Day hasn’t always been quite so fortunate for the US. Fellow founding fathers John Adams (left) and Thomas Jefferson (right) – the second and third presidents, respectively – died within hours of each other on 4 July 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which the two ‘frenemies’ had helped create. Five years later, fifth president James Monroe also died on 4 July.
The third US president was a renowned foodie, having spent time in France as an ambassador. While he missed pecans and Virginia hams during his time in Europe, on his return to the US he brought some French culinary highlights with him – including macaroni, blancmange, French mustard, Italian olive oil and even ice cream, for which he wrote the first documented recipe in US history.
George Washington and James Monroe are the only two presidents in US history to be elected essentially unopposed – the former was chosen unanimously by all 69 electors in the 1789 election, while the latter was the incumbent in 1820, securing all but one of the electoral college votes, with a rogue single vote going to John Quincy Adams. Monroe was also the first to hold his inauguration (pictured) outside, following a spat between the Senate and the House of Representatives over where to hold it inside.
The 12th US president, aka ‘Old Rough and Ready’, was an army officer and political outsider, whose appeal lay in his lack of politics. He was nominated by the Whig party in 1848 but wasn’t at the convention to learn of his newfound promotion – reportedly hearing about it only weeks later. He refused to campaign and had never even voted until he cast a ballot for himself. Alas, his presidency was short-lived. He died in July 1850, just 16 months after taking office.
Would you believe that wooden teeth were all America’s founding father had to chew on? Well, hopefully not – since this is nothing more than a myth. Indeed, Washington suffered toothache and decay as early as his twenties, spending much of his time in dental distress – but his dentures (pictured) were made from real human teeth (some bought from enslaved people), elephant ivory and lead.
Despite serving at a time when healthcare and nutrition meant the average height was considerably shorter than his 6 foot 4 inches (1.93m), Lincoln is the tallest president in US history. Doctors have since posited that he might have suffered from Marfan syndrome, which can lead to a tall stature, abnormally long limbs and heart or vision problems. This condition was most likely inherited from his mother. Blood tests have since clarified that he may actually have had a similar syndrome known as multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2B.
Before he went to the White House, Lincoln worked as a ferryman on the Mississippi River and was twice stranded on boats that ran aground in the shallows. So putting that soon-to-be-presidential intellect to good use, he invented ‘adjustable buoyant air chambers’ to attach to the side of a boat, which could lift the vessel over obstructions in the water. He was granted a patent on 22 May 1849 but the contraption was never made.
History sometimes turns on a dime – and there's no better example than the 14 April 1865. On the night that Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth stood up in Ford’s Theatre and assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, a future White House resident was almost in the box alongside him. Ulysses S Grant and his wife, Julia Dent, were also invited, but they declined – perhaps because there was no love lost between them and Abe’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.
Martin van Buren set plenty of precedents – the first president to be born an American, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the first non-native English speaker, having grown up in Kinderhook, New York, speaking Dutch. But van Buren also stands out for his two pet tiger cubs, gifted to him from Kabul al Said, the Sultan of Oman. They caused him to fall foul of Congress, who eventually confiscated the cute cubs and rehomed them in a local zoo.
He campaigned for the White House in both English and German, but that wasn’t the only way James Garfield proved to be a man of many talents. He was also ambidextrous and could read both Latin and Greek. Some people even say he could write in Latin with his left hand and Greek with his right – at the same time. Historians have struggled to find contemporary accounts of this, but there’s no doubt that Garfield – the last president born in a log cabin – had a great mind. Sadly, he was shot in July 1881 and later died of his wounds.
Cleveland was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War, but before taking office, he had a rather less palatable position. He was nicknamed ‘the hangman of Buffalo’ for his role in hanging two criminals during his time as sheriff of Erie County in Buffalo, New York. The first was 28-year-old Irishman Patrick Morrissey, convicted of killing his mother after an argument, and the second John Gaffney, who had shot another man in the head after a gambling dispute.
First Family pets are the source of much attention, but none are as celebrated as presidential pooches, with 33 out of 45 presidents being dog owners. George Washington famously owned American foxhounds including Sweet Lips and Tipsy, while John Adams’ mixed-breeds, Juno and Satan (yes, Satan) were the first dogs to make their home in the White House. Moving into the 20th century, notable presidential pets include Gerald Ford’s dog, Liberty (pictured), and springer spaniel Spotty, the first pet to live in the White House under two presidents – George HW Bush and later, George W Bush.
There have been more than a few First Family cats, too – but not for President Andrew Johnson, who instead made friends with a family of mice that had taken up residence in the White House. During his impeachment trial in 1868, he left flour and a bowl of water out for the mice, who were said to have kept him company as he awaited the verdict.
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In the wake of the Great Depression, simple pleasures took precedence – and none could be simpler than stamp collecting. Franklin D Roosevelt had been an avid philatelist since he was a child, not only collecting them privately but also joining stamp clubs and buying treasured items from dealers or auctions. The White House released photos of him enjoying his hobby in the 1930s, and he even worked with Postmaster General James A Farley to create stamp designs.
Telephones and typewriters might not seem like cutting-edge technology to us now – but in 1879 and 1880 respectively, the administration took some big leaps toward 20th-century tech by installing the first of each new device, similar to this 1880 typewriter (pictured). By the time of Benjamin Harrison’s presidency a decade later, the White House would employ its first female staffer, Alice Sanger, to operate the new typing machines.
William Howard Taft isn’t exactly known for his sporting prowess, but he did start a very important sporting tradition. On 14 April 1910, he threw the first ceremonial pitch at a Major League Baseball game, sending the ball to the Washington Senators’ pitcher Walter Johnson to start the match against the Philadelphia Athletics, and giving the presidential seal of approval to the national pastime as he did so.
Ever played a game of ‘Hooverball’? The 31st president was so taken by a game of ‘bull-in-the-ring’ that he saw played onboard the battleship Utah in 1928 that when he got back, he tasked his physician, Admiral Joel T Boone, to create his own version. What resulted was a game similar to tennis or volleyball, but with a six pound (2.7kg) medicine ball, that Hoover played each morning, rain or shine. It was later named after him in a New York Times article.
A young Gerald Ford proved he had both sports and smarts in his playbook, as he played center in the University of Michigan’s football team, earning himself the accolade of 'most valuable player' in his senior year. No wonder both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers came calling, offering him contracts to play – but he turned them down in favour of law school at Yale.
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Nothing gets in the way of a good round of golf like having the responsibility of leading a country on your shoulders – so it’s no surprise Dwight D Eisenhower had to bring the game a little closer to home. In 1954, the avid golfer (pictured) had a putting green installed on the White House south lawn, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. It was later removed, but Bill Clinton reintroduced a golfing green with help from the designer's son, Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Nixon was famously a fan of good old-fashioned bowling – but it was President Harry S Truman who officially opened the first White House bowling alley, on 19 April 1947. It wasn’t Truman’s favourite pastime, but he gamely bowled the first ball anyway. It wasn’t until the time of Lyndon B Johnson and Richard Nixon that a second alley was added immediately below the North Portico entrance.
JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, amassed quite a fortune from stock trading and selling alcohol. It was enough to encourage his children not to follow in his business footsteps but rather to pursue public service. Wealthy enough to manage without his $100,000 presidential salary, John F Kennedy instead donated it to charities including the Boy and Girl Scouts, United Negro College Fund and the Cuban Families Committee. Herbert Hoover and, later, Donald Trump did the same.
President Jimmy Carter authored several books about topics as diverse as finding peace in the Middle East and how to make the most of life in older age, to a novel about the Revolutionary War and American South – but did you know he also penned a children’s book? The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, published in 1995, is the story of a boy who befriends a sea monster. It's based on a story he told his daughter, Amy, when she was a young girl.
Ronald Reagan’s past life as a Hollywood actor is well-known. Having made his on-screen debut in 1937, he went on to appear in 53 films. But before that, on the Rock River in Illinois, he was a lifeguard at Lowell Park. Legend has it he saved 77 lives during his time there, going on to save another, a young girl called Alicia Berry, in June 1969 as the old instincts kicked in and he rescued the non-swimmer from his pool in Sacramento.
Lyndon B Johnson proved his intellectual chops long before reaching 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He graduated early from Johnson City High School in Texas in 1924, at the tender age of 15. His parents wanted him to go to college, but he opted for California instead. Johnson did a bit of everything, from helping out in a diner to working in road construction. He eventually attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos and started his track to the White House.