“Interesting” Facts About Our Previous Presidents

Happy President’s Day!  I was trying to think of something fun to write in commemoration of this holiday.  I love to research and find out the “why?” and other interesting facts BUT this time I wanted to add a twist…

Here are some funny or odd facts about our previous presidents:

•  Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender (the only president to have been a bartender too).
• Gerald Ford modeled at one time – he was on the cover of a Cosmopolitan magazine!
• Ulysses S. Grant received a ticket for speeding down a road…on his horse.
• Odd White House pets include: two bear cubs (Thomas Jefferson); an alligator (John Quincy Adams); an elephant (James Buchanan), and a zebra (Theodore Roosevelt)
• After leaving office, William Taft became the only ex-president to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, effectively becoming the only person to serve as the head of two branches of government. In doing so, he swore in both Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover to the presidency.
• My youngest would love to meet Obama as he has an extensive collection of Spider-Man comic books.
• In Social Studies class, I was told that George Washington’s teeth were made of wood.  They weren’t!  Not that this sounds any better, but they were made of walrus and elephant tusks.
• The smallest President was James Madison – weighing in at under 100 lbs and about 5′ 4″.  The tallest president was Abraham Lincoln – 6′ 4″.
• James Garfield could write in Latin with one hand, and in Greek with the other – all at the same time!
• This is an odd one – Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital.
• The 4th of July, besides marking Independence Day, also marks the day of the deaths of three presidents (Adams, Jefferson and Monroe) and the birth of one (Coolidge).

Cool facts were found via Huffington Post and Little Known Facts