MORE INFO

Theodore Roosevelt, not John F. Kennedy, was our youngest President. Kennedy was our youngest elected President. However, when Roosevelt took office after President McKinley's assassination, he was younger than John Kennedy was on January 20, 1961.

Theodore Roosevelt was Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin (Eleanor was also Franklin's fifth cousin, once removed). He gave Anna Eleanor Roosevelt away at her wedding, making her Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt.

David Rice Atchison was President for one day. When Zachary Taylor would not take the Oath of Office on that Sunday in March of 1849 because it disturbed the Sabbath, the offices of President and Vice President were vacant. At that time, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate would take over, making Atchison the "true" twelfth President. However, he did not do much. Davey appointed a new Cabinet, had a party in the Presidential Mansion (now called the White House), and went to bed early.

"It's OK." Believe it or not, but this expression came from our eighth President, Martin Van Buren, who grew up in Kinderhook, New York. When he entered the political spectrum he became known as "Old Kinderhook." During his term as President, he would let mail pass by signing the initials OK, standing for his nickname. Soon, people began saying, "Is it OK?" The word "okay" was derived, but the most proper usage of the term is the two-lettered, capital, OK.

"Good to the last drop." Maxwell House Coffee earned this distinction in 1912, when then-President Theodore Roosevelt drank the coffee during breakfast and proclaimed, "That coffee tastes good, even to the last drop!"

President Grover Cleveland was the first Executive movie star!! In April of 1895, Alexander Black came to Washington, DC, to convince the President to appear in A Capital Courtship, his photoplay. When the President understood Black's conflict, he agreed to be photographed signing a bill into law. Thomas B. Reed, the Speaker of the House at the time, also appeared in the photoplay. A Capital Courtship was a smash hit on the Lyceum Circuit. Sixteen years before Ronald Reagan was born, Grover Cleveland became the first President to be a movie star!

The mystery of the S is finally unraveled! Harry Truman's middle name is simply "S". Let Mr. President Truman tell the story.
"I was supposed to be named Harrison Shippe Truman, taking the middle name from my paternal grandfather. Others in my family wanted my middle name to be Solomon, taken from my maternal grandfather. But apparently no agreement could be reached and my name was recorded and stands simply as Harry S Truman." - Harry S Truman

Boxer Jack Dempsey was named after President William Henry Harrison. His full name was William Harrison Dempsey.

President Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, but when his father died his mother remarried. King took his adoptive father's name, Gerald Ford.

Woody Guthrie, a famous folk singer, was named after Woodrow Wilson. His full name is Woodrow Wilson Guthrie.

Liberia is an African nation which was started and developed by the United States. Its capital, Monrovia, is named after President James Monroe.

The Johnson family saved tons of money on monogramming items. Almost every family member's name was initialed LBJ- Lyndon Baines, Lady Bird, Lynda Bird, and Luci Baines.

"Why do you come and ask me, the leader of the Western world, a chicken-(synonym of manure) question like that?" - LBJ to a reporter

President Chester Alan Arthur sold twenty-six wagons full of White House furniture for about eight thousand dollars. What he did not know was that the furniture was priceless. The money probably went toward buying knew pants to add to Arthur's collection of eighty pairs. He also changed pants several times a day.

"Tell him to go to (you know where)!" - Truman's first response to the messenger who told him that FDR wanted him to be his running mate. This is quite typical of vice-presidential nominees. There's an old tale that goes, "A farmer had two sons, neither of which wanted to grow up to be a farmer. One son sailed off to sea. The other became Vice President of the United States. Nothing was heard of either ever again." The reason why many politicians have a negative attitude toward becoming Vice President is because the office has no responsibility or power. The Constitution only demands two things of the Vice President:
1. That he preside over the Senate (modern-day Vice Presidents physically preside over the Senate less than two percent of the time)
2. That he be ready to take over the powers and duties of the office of President in case the President is not able to do his job.
So what? The Veep* attends Senate and Cabinet meetings. But he is also on various committees, like the Space Council.
*The word veep was created by the ten-year old grandson of Vice President Alben Barkley, who served under Harry Truman.

"Well, why don't you take the Quayle and insert the word Bush wherever it appears, and that's the crap I took for eight years. Wimp. Sycophant. Lapdog. Poop. Lightweight. Boob. Squirrel. George Bush." - President Bush consoles his Vice President.

Which election was the most controversial in the history of the United States? The election of 1876. Both candidates were known as reform-minded administrators. The Republican candidate was Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. His Democratic adversary was Governor Samuel Tilden of New York. Both pledged to end the corruption that still haunted the Grant presidency. Tilden was the favorite early on because of his national reputation and the revival against President Grant. However, the Republicans were still the stronger party, and the race was very close. Tilden won the popular vote, but twenty electoral votes were in doubt. Tilden needed only one of those votes to win the presidency. A special election commission made up of ten Congressmen and five Supreme Court justices was assembled and voted 8-7 along party lines to give all disputed electoral votes to Hayes, who won 185-184.
My analysis of this election: Even though I am a traditionally conservative republican, I feel that Tilden should have won. The only reason why he lost is that there were more Republicans than Democrats on the commission. Had there been an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, at least one electoral vote would have gone to Tilden, making him the winner. I feel that a law should be passed which states: In the event that any electoral votes in a presidential election should be uncounted, unreported, or otherwise misplaced; and if one candidate needs less than half of the amount of electoral votes missing in order to win the election, and that candidate has a margin of victory in the popular vote equal to the lowest number of popular votes he could acuire if he received half of the missing electoral votes; then that candidate shall win the election and be declared the president-elect of the United States.

Back to the homepage