A little trivia about President’s Day, which is celebrated today Monday, February 21st this year and Presidents in general.. Did you know that:
THE THIRD MONDAY IN FEBRUARY is designated in the United States as Washington's Birthday, but now commonly known as Presidents Day.
1885 IS WHEN WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY BECAME A FEDERAL HOLIDAY – although many across the newly formed United States celebrated Washington's Birthday in the 17th century while George Washington was still alive, it didn’t become a federal holiday until 1885 when Chester Arthur signed the official bill
BARACK OBAMA IS OUR 44TH PRESIDENT, but there actually have only been 43 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.
EIGHT PRESIDENTS WERE BORN BRITISH SUBJECTS: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.
NINE PRESIDENTS NEVER ATTENDED COLLEGE: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman. The college that has the most presidents as alumni (seven in total) is Harvard: J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Kennedy, G. W. Bush (business school), and Barack Obama (law school). Yale is a close second, with five presidents as alumni: Taft, Ford (law school), G.H.W. Bush, Clinton (law school), and G. W. Bush.
PRESIDENTS WHO WOULD BE CONSIDERED "WASHINGTON OUTSIDERS" (i.e., the 18 presidents who never served in Congress) are: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and G. W. Bush.
MOST COMMON RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.
ANCESTRY OF 42 PRESIDENTS is limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German.
BARACK OBAMA IS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN to be elected president of the United States. He was also born in Hawaii, making him the first president not born in the continental United States.
OLDEST & YOUNGEST PRESIDENTS: The oldest elected president was Reagan (age 69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president—he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated.
THE OLDEST LIVING FORMER PRESIDENT: was Gerald Ford, who was born on July 14, 1913, and died on Dec.27, 2006, at age 93. The second oldest was Ronald Reagan, who also lived to be 93 years.
TALLEST & SHORTEST PRESIDENTS: The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.
EIGHT LEFT-HANDED PRESIDENTS: James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama
These trivia facts were from the following websites:
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/holidays/tp/presidents_day.htm
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