Posts Tagged Presidents

Abraham Lincoln created the model with his own hands out of wood. It is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.

President Abraham Lincoln was the only president to hold a patent.

Information & Photo via the National Museum of American History

“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”

- President Bill Clinton

“Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”

- President Lyndon Johnson

“I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency – even if I’m in a Cabinet meeting.”

- President Ronald Reagan

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, was the first chief executive to hold White House press conferences on a regular basis.

Ernie Couch, comp. Presidential Trivia. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1996, 68.
Photo

Pat Nixon, wife of Richard Nixon (the 37th President of the United States), was the first First Lady to earn a graduate degree. She graduated from the University of Southern California and earned a teacher’s certificate and graduated with enough credits to gain the equivalence of a Master’s degree. Afterwards, she became a teacher, a job she continued to do during the first year of her marriage.

While being the United States First Lady, Nixon realized the difficulties some encountered during their White House tours. She created special tours for those who were visually, hearing and physically impaired, allowing them full access to the rooms. By doing so, Nixon made the White House handicapped-accessible. For non-English speaking vistors, she commissioned brochures and pamphlets to be written in a variety of languages that would cover the various rooms and the history behind the White House.

Among some of her other “firsts” as First Lady include the following:

• In the fashion world she created her own mark by being the first First Lady to wear pants in public.
• During President Nixon’s 1969 trip to South Vietnam, Pat accompanied her husband and in doing so becaming the first First Lady to visit a combat zone.
• At game two of the 1971 World Series, Nixon threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Baltimore Memorial Stadium. This made her the first incumbent First Lady to toss out a baseball for a major league team.
• Finally, at the 1972 Republican National Convention, Nixon addressed the convention. While she was not the first First Lady to do so (Eleanor Roosevelt addressed a party convention during her time), Nixon was however the first Republican First Lady to do so.

Photo and information found at the National First Ladies’ Library website.

In 1941, Ronald Reagan was considered a “Star of Tomorrow” when Quigley Publication asked film exhibitors in the United States to choose ten of the newer screen actors who they thought were the most likely to achieve major stardom. The 1941 list also included John Payne, Ann Rutherford, Jackie Cooper and Rita Hayworth.

Steinberg, Cobbett. Film Facts.  New York: Facts on File, 1980, 62.

Theodore and Edith Roosevelt and five of their six children (the oldest, Alice, is not pictured).

In 1901, Theodore and Edith Roosevelt moved into the White House along with their six children. They soon found the living and office space to be too small. A year after moving in, President Roosevelt started construction on a new office building, known today as the West Wing.

whitehouse.gov

The world recognizes him as the charismatic young American president struck down in his prime by an assassin’s bullet, but the early chapters of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s life are often overlooked. In particular, the courage — what Hemingway famously characterized as “grace under pressure” — that kennedy exhibited more than once while serving in World War II is especially worth remembering. Considering the perils he faced during his naval service in the Pacific, in many ways JFK was lucky to have lived as long as he did. Above: JFK on board the torpedo boat he commanded in the Pacific in 1943.

Both John and his older brother Joseph (right) joined the Navy — John had back problems and needed to use family connections and appeal to the Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence in order to enlist — but otherwise their experiences could hardly be more dissimilar. John eventually served on an 80-foot, 56-ton torpedo boat in the Pacific, while Joseph became an aviator based in Britain.  Above: The two brothers in their naval uniforms, circa 1942.

The Kennedy Curse

 

As John was hailed as a hero, his older brother continued to risk death. Even though Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. completed his designated number of B-24 missions, he declined leave and instead volunteered for more missions involving aircrafts laden with explosives, from which the pilot would parachute before detonation. A premature explosion killed him and his co-pilot. He posthumously received the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal. The death had implications beyond being a family tragedy, as his brother John suddenly replaced him as the focus of their father’s political ambitions. John and their younger brother Robert would also die violent deaths, while sister Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish would perish in a plane crash.  Above: A photo taken not long before Joseph’s death at 29 on August 12, 1944.

Source: LIFE

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1942

Source: LIFE

"First Lady Frances Cleveland holds baby Esther, the first and only child of a president to be born at the White House. Esther was born on September 9 , 1893."

At the age of 21, Frances Cleveland (1864-1947) was the youngest first lady. She was also the only president’s wife to marry and give birth in the White House. Before their marriage, Grover Cleveland’s sister Rose Elizabeth Cleveland acted as the White House hostess.

The National First Ladies Library’s website.
Photo found here.

James Garfield, the 20th President, was the only one president who was a preacher.

White House’s website.
Photo via The Library of Congress

George Washington grew marijuana as one of the crops on his farm.

Lowe, Charlote. History Fact-O-Pedia. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011, 10.

During the funeral ceremonies for former president Andrew Jackson, his pet parrot, Poll, was ejected from the room. Why? Because Poll kept screaming obscenities at the mourners.

Eugenie Anderson pictured at a DFL State Convention in Minnesota, 1954.

Eugenie M. Anderson (1909-1997) was the first woman appointed as a United States Ambassador. In 1949, President Truman selected Anderson to be the Ambassador to Denmark. She was the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from October 20, 1949 to January 19, 1953.

She had been involved in local and state politics leading up to her appointment by Truman. After a trip to Europe and seeing the Communist state of Germany, Anderson joined the Democratic Party on her return to Minnesota. Anderson, along with Hubert Humphrey (future U.S. Vice President), eliminated the Communist sections within the party. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party formed out of these efforts, the DFL is still a leading political party in Minnesota today. This political activity earned Anderson the Ambassador role.

Information:
U.S. Department of State, Women in Diplomacy.
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
Binder, David, “Eugenie Anderson, 87, First Woman to Be U.S. Ambassador,” New York Times, April 3, 1997.
Photo via Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection.