U. S. Presidents

Today, the third Monday in February is the day Congress has designated Presidents' Day.  When most people think of this day, they think of  George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.  However, there have been a total of forty-four presidents in the two hundred and forty-nine years that we have been a nation. Most of us will remember a president by name, political party, when he served, or the major news headlines of his presidency, but do you know who...

 - was the first president who was a U.S. Citizen?
 - was born outside the original 13 colonies?
 - was born in a hospital?

(Martin Van Buren, Abraham Lincoln, and Jimmy Carter)


Do you know who....

- was the shortest president at only 5'4" and never weighed more than 100 pounds?
- was the tallest president at 6'4"?
- was so large that he got stuck in the White House bathtub so many times that he had to have a special tub designed just for him?

(James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and William Howard Taft)



Do you know.....

- which president served in both World War I and World War II?
- which president could write Latin with one hand while simultaneously writing Greek with the other hand?
- which president bet the White House china in a poker game and lost?

(Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Garfield, and Warren G. Harding)

If you want to find out more, come down to the library and look for one of these great books. Three Presidents Died on the 4th of July: And Other Freaky Facts About the First 25 Presidents by Seuling, Weird But True Facts About U.S. Presidents by Ringstad, Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives of Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Institution by Kessler, Inside the White House: America's Most Famous Home, the First 200 Years by Caroli, and many other interesting materials about the presidency, the first wives' who loved and served with them, and the history of the American political system.

Lori C. Lewis
Administrative Assistant