Presidents' Day Facts

This American president's inaugural speech lasted only a minute and a half. Who was it? (George Washington)

What was President George Washington's annual salary? ($25,000)

Who are the four presidents on Mount Rushmore? (Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson)

Thomas Jefferson was the first U.S. president to do wear what? (To wear long pants. Washington and Adams wore knee-length "knickers.")

What is the only U.S. coin on which a president's head faces right? (Lincoln penny)

Who was the first president defeated for re-election? (John Adams, 2nd president. Defeated by Thomas Jefferson)

In President Rutherford B. Hayes' name, what does the "B" stand for? (Birchard)

Which American President was originally a king? (Gerald R. Ford, he was born Leslie King)

Andrew Johnson was the first American president to ever do this. (Shake hands with people. Up until then, all presidents bowed to subjects they were meeting or addressing)

Who was the first American President born in a hospital? (Jimmy Carter)

What former U.S. president was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1989? (Ronald Reagan)

Which U.S. president had a pet turkey named Jack? (Abraham Lincoln)

Who were the youngest and oldest elected Presidents in American history? (John F. Kennedy, 43, and Ronald Reagan, 73, to start his second term)

Who was the President when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon? (Nixon)

Of all the presidents ever elected in the U.S., only one was Catholic. Which one? (John F. Kennedy)

When President Nixon resigned who took over as President? (Gerald Ford)

What play was President Lincoln watching when he was shot? ("Our American Cousin")

Which president nearly died from Scarlet fever at the age of three. Had German measles, Whooping Cough, Asthma, Jaundice, Chicken Pox, Diptheria, Malaria, Pneumonia, Colitis, a bladder problem, spastic colon, prostate disease and hemorrhoids? Answer: John F Kennedy

Can you name the only President to weigh under 100 pounds? James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, stood five feet four inches and weighed ninety-eight pounds.

Name 5 presidents whose last names had 4 letters in it? Bush, Bush, Ford, Taft, and my favorite, Polk.

How many U.S. state capitals are named after presidents? (Four. Jackson, Mississippi; Jefferson City, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Madison, Wisconsin)

Which president installed a toilet seat in the White House bearing his college emblem, the University Of Michigan? A :Gerald Ford 

John F. Kennedy liked coleslaw. Lyndon Johnson ate chile. But who was it that like cottage cheese and catsup? A: Richard Nixon 

Which president sired the most offspring? Fifteen children by two wives? A: James Tyler

Who was the first president to throw out a baseball to offically open the baseball season? A: William Taft ***.

Who was the only bachelor to serve as commander in chief? A: James Buchanan

Which president had electric lights installed in the White House? A: Benjamin Harrison 

A bathtub and inside toilet were provided by which president? A: Millard Fillmore 

PRESIDENTS' DAY

The holiday scheduled to be celebrated on the third Monday in February every year, and is one of eleven permanent holidays established by Congress. On that day, federal government offices are closed.

Presidents' Day is actually not the official name of this holiday; the official name is "Washington's Birthday," after the first American President, George Washington, who was born on February 22, 1732.

There have been a few attempts to official rename Washington's Birthday "Presidents' Day," in 1951 and again in 1968, but those suggestions died in committee.

The holiday was first implemented as a day honoring George Washington by an act of Congress in 1879, and in 1885 it was expanded to include all federal offices. Up until 1971, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual date of birth, February 22. In 1971, the observance of the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. But, that means the federal holiday for Washington always falls between February 15th and 21st, never on his birthday.

Traditionally, many people celebrate Washington's birthday with desserts made with cherries. This relates to a story invented by Mason Locke Weems a.k.a. "Parson Weems"; that as a boy Washington confessed to his father that he chopped won a cherry tree because he "could not tell a lie." Or rather in stumbling iambic pentameter written by Weems: "If somebody must be whipped, let it be me, for it was I and not Jerry, that cut the cherry tree."

On February 22nd, 1862, 130 years after Washington's birth, the House and Senate celebrated by reading aloud his Farwell Speech to Congress. The event became a more or less regular event in the U.S. Senate beginning in 1888.

The Congress read the Farewell Address in the Middle of the American Civil War, as a way to boost morale. This address is important because it warns of political factionalism, geographical sectionalism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation's affairs. Washington stressed the importance of natural unity over sectional differences.