Interesting facts about presidents of different countries. Little-known facts about US presidents

Theodore Roosevelt (26th President of the United States) loved hunting and was a very brave soldier. His exploits during the war with Spain earned him fame as a hero. However, nothing human was alien to him. So, one day a story happened to him that had very peculiar consequences. Already being president, Theodore Roosevelt one day went hunting, accompanied by his subordinates and friends. But having met a bear cub in the forest, he did not shoot at it and allowed the cub to hide in the thickets. This case quickly became the property of the whole country, passed from mouth to mouth and from newspaper to newspaper. And if ordinary Americans became even more proud of their president, toy manufacturers decided to take advantage of such a successful opportunity as a commercial idea. They launched a “Teddy Bear” production line, which immediately became mega-popular and sold out instantly. As we all know, more than a hundred years have passed, but this bear cub is still known and loved. And not only by the Americans.

Ten thousand cigars

This is, of course, a rather sad story. But it is very instructive. Ulysses Simpson Grant (18th President of the United States) was a heavy smoker. Perhaps today he would be diagnosed with nicotine addiction, since he smoked at least 20 cigars every day! It is documented that after the end of the Civil War in 1865. the president was presented with a gift - a collection of 10,000 cigars! It is not known for certain whether he managed to smoke them, but in 1985 U.S. Grant died, and the cause of his death was esophageal cancer.

Ulysses Grant in Harper's Weekly magazine.

President for a month

This is also not the most cheerful fact, but it is a story that has already been recorded in the chronicles of the United States of America. So, the shortest presidential term was that of William Henry Harrison (9th President of the United States). It was only one month. And it all happened like this. Taking over his rights, W. G. Harrison gave a long, heartfelt speech. This speech, by the way, is recognized as the longest speech in the entire history of inaugurations - the speech lasted almost two hours! Unfortunately, the weather on this March day was damp and cool. As a result, the president caught a cold and went to bed with pneumonia. Doctors were unable to cure him, and exactly a month after he was elected, William Harrison died.

William Henry Harrison. Author: Albert Sands Southworth (American, 1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (American, 1808–1901). Edited by: Fallschirmjäger - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession number: 37.14.44. Search for "William Henry Harrison" on the museum's site.

Golf in the snow

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (28th President of the United States) was a big fan of golf. Moreover, his doctor once prescribed golf to him as a medicine after the most honorable patient felt some discomfort. As a result, Woodrow Wilson began almost every day with a game of golf (by the way, the same doctor usually kept him company). No longer imagining his life without this game, Wilson ordered the ball to be painted so that he could continue playing even in winter time, when snow fell and the usual white ball could not be seen. By the way, they painted it with black paint.

Woodrow Wilson and his wife.

Modest guy

Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the United States) can probably be called the most modest of all presidents. Judge for yourself: sensing his imminent death, Jefferson dictated a memorial text that was to be carved on his tombstone. He made sure to include the fact that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence and also founded the University of Virginia. And out of modesty (or forgetfulness, or some other reason) he decided not to mention the fact that he stood at the helm of the state for 8 years.

Thomas Jefferson.

We bring to your attention 45 interesting facts about US presidents that you probably didn’t know before.

• Abraham Lincoln is the only US president who worked as a licensed bartender. He was part owner of the Berry and Lincoln Saloon in Springfield, Illinois.
• The only unanimously elected US president was George Washington. He also refused to receive the president's salary, which at the time was $25,000 per year.
• Grover Cleveland was the only president in US history to serve as executioner. Before becoming president, he worked as the sheriff of Erie, New York, once he had to either carry out a death sentence himself or hire an executioner for $10. Cleveland chose to execute the prisoner himself.

• In 1902, while hunting, President Theodore Roosevelt took pity on a little bear cub. This episode was seized upon by toy factories, which began churning out the still popular “Teddy Bear”
• George Washington never lived in the White House. At that time the capital was in Philadelphia, as well as other cities. Washington was also the only president who did not represent any political party
• James Garfield became the first president to ever speak on the telephone. When talking to Alexander Bell, who was 13 miles away, the first thing he said was: “Please speak a little slower.”
• Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in Washington
• Grover Cleveland is the only US president who was elected to 2 consecutive terms. He was the 22nd and 24th president
• Martin Van Buren was the first US citizen president. All previous presidents were British subjects
• Six US presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter
• Dwight David Eisenhower was the only president to serve in World Wars I and II
• Richard Nixon became the first president to visit all 50 states and made his first visit to China
• President Herbert Clark Hoover ordered servants working in the White House to stay out of his sight. Otherwise they could be fired
• President Ulysses Grant smoked about 20 cigars a day. After winning the Civil War, he was given 10,000 cigars. He later died of throat cancer
• At John Tyler's had more children than any other US president. Eight children from his first marriage and seven from his second
• James Madison was the smallest US president, his height was only 164 cm and his weight was 45 kg
• George Washington gave the shortest inaugural address. It consisted of only 133 words
• William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address of any US president. It consisted of 8578 words and lasted 100 minutes. The weather was bad on Inauguration Day. A month later, Harrison died of pneumonia, becoming the shortest-serving president
• Presidents: Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson and Ford were Freemasons, many of the symbols depicted on American dollars
• Body of John Harrison, father of the President Benjamin Harrison , was stolen from the grave and sold to medical college in Cincinnati, State Ohio for conducting experiments. The body was later reburied
• President Rutherford Hayes suffered from lysophobia - an obsessive fear of going crazy
• Three US presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826) and James Monroe (1831). Calvin Coolid f - the only president born on July 4 (1872)

• In 1945, the US Congress voted to have the profile of Franco Delano Roosevelt embossed on the 10-cent coin.
• George Herbert Walker Bush the only US President full name which consists of four words
• The first child to die in the White House was Abraham Lincoln's 12-year-old son
• The assassin of President James Garfield shot his victim in the back five times with a British Bulldog pistol. According to the killer, he chose this particular pistol because it would look good on the stand of a museum. Currently no one knows where this gun is
• William Howard Taft nicknamed "Big Bill", was the largest US president. He weighed 325 pounds, causing him to often get stuck in the White House bathroom, where he was repeatedly pulled out by his advisers
• During Theodore Roosevelt's election campaign, an attempt was made on his life. Having received a bullet in the chest, Roosevelt still finished his speech
• To play golf in snowy weather, Woodrow Wilson asked to paint his balls black
• Thomas Jefferson himself wrote the inscription for his tombstone, which stated that he was the author Declaration of Independence and founder of the university in Virginia . However, he forgot to mention that he was President of the United States
• Abraham Lincoln was the first bearded US President
• T. Roosevelt's last words were: “Please turn out the lights.” T. Jefferson - "Is this the fourth?" John Adams - "Thomas Jefferson is still alive", although Jefferson had died a few hours earlier
• To get to his inauguration, George Washington had to borrow $600 from his neighbor
• Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson and Cleveland did not attend college. A Harry Truman became president in the 20th century without higher education
• The capital of Liberia is Monrovia, named after the 5th President of the United States, James Monroe.
• There has not been a single president in the United States who was an only child.
• Abraham Lincoln was the first president born outside the 13 colonies.
• Some historians argue that the American revolutionary John Hanson (1721-1783) should be considered the first president of the United States. he was the first leader of the Confederacy, as stated in some government documents

We selected from it the most interesting and unusual facts about the lives of presidents.

Jimmy Carter, as President of the United States, once sent his jacket to the dry cleaner, having forgotten the cheat sheet with the launch codes for nuclear weapons in his pocket.

Pedro Lascuarin is the president of Mexico, known as the shortest-reigning president in world history. On February 18, 1913, Mexican President Francisco Madero was assassinated, and the vice president and attorney general were removed from their posts. According to the Constitution, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was appointed interim president, and this was Lascuarin. He served as president for less than an hour (according to various sources - from 15 to 55 minutes), and then resigned.

The first US president, George Washington, borrowed money to travel to Washington for his own inauguration.

In 1942, Konstantin Päts was imprisoned in the Kazan prison psychiatric hospital for “the patient’s persistent belief that he was the former president of Estonia.” Päts was indeed the President of Estonia.

A reporter once asked US President Lyndon Johnson why the Americans were fighting the war in Vietnam. Johnson unzipped his fly, took out his dick and said, “That’s why.”

US President Truman, after resigning in 1953, took his wife Bessie, put her in the passenger seat of the car, got behind the wheel and drove home to Missouri.



Abraham Lincoln, when filling out his application for work in Congress, wrote “Inadequate” in the “Education” column.

Matt Damon often in his interviews urged everyone to vote for Obama - but when he became president, he considered that he could not cope with his responsibilities. Obama retorted to him at one of the press conferences:

I failed my key voters - movie stars! For the day Matt Damon – I love this guy! – said that he was disappointed in my performances. You know, Matt, I recently watched your new film “Reality Changers”... Who would say!



The 29th President of the United States, Warren Hardin, had two mistresses. He started dating one when he was still a senator, she was then 16. They had sex in the White House, she gave birth to a daughter, whom he never saw, and wrote a book about their relationship, dedicating it to all single mothers. The second mistress was the wife of Harding's friend; Harding wrote letters to her in which he called his penis "Jerry" and her vagina "Miss Paterson." Harding was president for only two years and died under unclear circumstances. There is a version that his wife poisoned him.

Kanaan Banana, the first president of Zimbabwe, came up with a law that made it possible to get jailed for making jokes about his name.

Viktor Yushchenko received 5.45% of the votes in the 2010 presidential elections. This is a record low result among sitting presidents in the history of democratic elections.



John Kennedy came up with the idea of ​​giving cigarettes with the president's signature to all his guests on Air Force One. Already in the 80s, Reagan replaced cigarettes first with Jelly Belly candies, and then with M&M's. The package, about the size of a cigarette pack, features the presidential seal and signature on one side and a yellow American flag on the other. Even Obama gave out M&M's, although he himself did not like them very much.

During World War II, the future American President John Kennedy and his crew came under fire while at sea and miraculously escaped in the Solomon Islands. To get him out of there, Kennedy carved a message into a coconut and, with the help of a local resident, delivered it to a nearby military base. This coconut later served as a paperweight for him in the Oval Office.

The history of the American presidency is filled widely known facts about various eccentricities, scandalous stories and manifestations of heroism. But there are also lesser-known points that deserve attention. They will be discussed in this article.

1. Grover Cleveland and the illegitimate child

Grover Cleveland had a child born out of wedlock long before he decided to run for President of the United States in 1884. When this information hit the news, Cleveland calmly admitted that he had a relationship with Maria Halpin. He also alleged that Halpin was dating many other men at the time. According to him, he admitted his paternity only because he was the only bachelor among them.

At the time, these statements about Halpin's morals, which indicated that Cleveland had seduced a girl who was not at all innocent and decent, were seen as exculpatory circumstances. Halpin, in turn, claimed that Cleveland raped her, that he was the only person who could be the father of the child, and that he promised to grind her into dust if she told anyone about what happened.

Cleveland's opponent James Blaine used this story in his election campaign, however, he was not talking about rape, but about extramarital sex. Blaine's supporters chanted in the streets: "Mommy, Mommy, where's my daddy?" After Cleveland's victory, his supporters found an answer in rhyme: “Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”

2. William Henry Harrison - Lie about being born in a cabin

William Henry Harrison was not particularly active. When he ran for president, his opponent's newspapers wrote: "Give him a barrel of hard cider and a pension of two thousand dollars a year, and you can be sure that he will spend the rest of his days in his cabin."

Harrison's team decided to take advantage of this and, during the election campaign, presented him as an ordinary person concerned with everyday problems. This worked well because the United States was in dire financial straits at the time, with high inflation and unemployment, and Harrison's opponent, President Martin Van Buren, was unable to fix it.

Harrison even claimed to have been born in a log cabin. This was not entirely true - unless you consider the red brick mansion to be a slightly overgrown wooden hut. Harrison was born into a much wealthier family than his adversary Van Buren, whose family history may well have included a birth in a cabin.

3. Millard Fillmore: Support for Slavery, Ethnic Cleansing and Guano

Millard Fillmore is one of the most rarely mentioned US presidents. He's even called the "accidental president" because he was Zachary Taylor's vice president and took over after he died.

Unlike Taylor, Fillmore supported slavery and pushed for the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. This law required that slaves who escaped to free states be returned to their owners and made it illegal to assist fugitive slaves. Fillmore also supported ethnic cleansing, forcing Native Americans onto reservations to make room for white settlers.

However, he always sought to solve a problem as soon as he noticed it. In 1850, Fillmore devoted a few minutes of his Presidential Address to Congress to making guano (fertilizer made from seabird droppings) affordable to every American.

4. William McKinley - cruel gossip about his wife

Ida McKinley was an outstanding woman who was taught by her banker father the rules of business and not to rely solely on men in her life. She was also a supporter of women's right to work.

Shortly after her marriage to William McKinley, she lost her mother and first child within weeks of each other. She later suffered an injury that caused epilepsy. Two years later, Ida lost another child.

You might think that after such a series of personal upheavals, McKinley's opponents would be unlikely to touch his wife during the presidential campaign. But we should not forget what political campaigns are.

They began to spread rumors that Ida McKinley was mentally ill. Some even claimed that she was English spy. To quell these rumors, McKinley's campaign wrote a biography of his wife and included it in their campaign materials, beginning a practice that continues to this day.

5. Herbert Hoover - preventing mass starvation

Herbert Hoover's presidency is generally considered a failure due to the outbreak of the Great Depression, but in Europe, especially Belgium, Hoover is remembered with great gratitude. During World War I, various naval blockades left Belgium's food supply dangerously low. Hoover made it his personal mission to prevent famine and used all his influence to persuade the various warring countries to allow food supplies to pass through their territory.

As the war dragged on, the project became increasingly difficult and expensive, but Hoover's efforts delivered five million tons of food to Belgium, preventing mass starvation. This effort, unprecedented at the time, later became a model for humanitarian assistance.

6. Herbert Hoover hosted African Americans at the White House

Herbert Hoover was defeated for re-election not only because of the Great Depression. In 1929, his wife Lou invited several guests to tea, including Jessie DePriest, the wife of Illinois Congressman Oscar DePriest. The De-Priests were African-American.

Many southern politicians were outraged by this act, the White House was bombarded with letters and telegrams of protest, and the Texas Legislature even voted to formally condemn Mrs. Hoover.

The official White House response emphasized that the First Lady inviting the wives of congressmen to tea was an established tradition. However, it is difficult to consider it a coincidence that a week after the tea party, President Hoover invited the African American Robert Moton, president of the Tuskegee Institute, to dinner.

7. James Buchanan and his tragic love

James Buchanan was the only president who never married. Today there is much speculation about whether he was heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual. Much of the debate centers on Buchanan's relationship with William Rufus King, his closest friend.

However, throughout his life, Buchanan himself stated that he was a bachelor due to an unsuccessful romance with a woman. In 1819 he courted Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a very wealthy man. There were rumors that Buchanan was more interested in the girl's wealth than in herself, and these rumors were confirmed by the fact that James showed signs of attention to other women.

Anne broke off the engagement and died unexpectedly a month later. Perhaps it was suicide. Buchanan wrote to her father, begging him to be allowed to attend the funeral, but the ruthless parent sent the letter back unopened.

After Buchanan died, his heirs discovered that he had kept Anne's letters in his safe with instructions that they should be burned unread.

8. John Quincy Adams swam completely naked

John Quincy Adams was lucky that he was born before the era of widespread installation of CCTV cameras, otherwise he could have found himself at the center of a major scandal. He regularly swam in the Potomac, leaving his clothes on the riverbank.

According to undocumented rumors, journalist Anne Newport Royall was unable to obtain an interview with him. in the usual ways, so she went to where he usually bathed and sat on his clothes until he gave her an interview on the spot.

9. Abraham Lincoln suffered from smallpox

On the eve of delivering the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln was weak, dizzy, and appeared seriously unwell. He still managed to give his famous speech, but on the way back to Washington he felt ill. Lincoln developed a fever, felt pain in his back, and developed a rash all over his body that did not go away for several weeks.

To prevent panic, doctors said that Lincoln had contracted "varioloid" (a mild form of smallpox that occurs in people who have previously had the disease or in those who have been vaccinated against the disease). But later research shows that smallpox was full-blown and quite possibly fatal. If this had happened, this case of smallpox could have changed the course of the Civil War and the entire history of the United States.

10. Richard Nixon couldn't resist alcohol

President Richard Nixon was weak on alcohol, and even a couple of drinks could influence his decision. According to some accounts, Nixon drank regularly during his time as president.

After North Korea shot down an American spy plane in 1969, Nixon demanded a nuclear strike as retaliation. He went so far as to order the Joint Chiefs of Staff to identify strike targets. Fortunately, Henry Kissinger intervened, saying that nothing needed to be done until the morning until Nixon sobered up.

+ John Adams passed sedition and libel laws

Although freedom of speech is a cornerstone of the United States Constitution, the Sedition Act was passed under John Adams in 1798 as part of the Alien and Libel Acts. Together, these laws made it easier to deport aliens and made it more difficult for immigrants to vote.

One Federalist, Harrison Gray Otis, declared that the United States did not wish to "invite hordes of wild Irishmen, nor troublemakers from all over the world, who come for the sole purpose of disturbing our peace." The libel law prohibited "any false, scandalous or malicious article" about the federal government, but left the definition of these terms open to broad interpretation.

After the law was passed, 25 people were arrested for violating it, including Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache. Bache was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party and an outspoken opponent of the Federalist Party, which Adams represented. He was arrested for "various publications containing slander against the President and the executive branch, thereby inciting rebellion and opposition to the laws."

+ Chester Arthur - anti-Chinese immigration laws

When James Garfield appointed Chester Alan Arthur as vice president, it raised eyebrows among many. E.L. Godkin, editor of The Nation, wrote: “There was no position other than that of Vice President in which he could do less harm.” He added that "[Garfield] may die during his term, but this is too unlikely a circumstance to focus on."

Arthur demonstrated his political skills after Garfield was killed. The Anti-Chinese Immigration Law not only prohibited the admission of any immigrants from China for 20 years, but also required mandatory registration all the Chinese who have already arrived in government agencies.

In response, nativists across the country condemned Arthur, lowered U.S. flags to half-staff, and even began hanging or burning him in effigy. When it became clear that, despite the president's veto, the law would be adopted in a compromise version that prohibited the admission of Chinese for ten years and did not require their mandatory registration, Arthur signed it, but declared that this was a “violation of our national foundations.”

Politicians are people too and nothing human, including oddities, is alien to them.

George Washington loved horseback riding. However, he demanded that the horse he was about to ride be perfectly clean. Washington even checked the cleanliness of the animal's teeth.

Thomas Jefferson designed his own tombstone and wrote the text for it, which did not indicate that he was president.

John Quincy Adams often swam naked in the Potomac River at dawn. He practically did not change his outfits and wore one suit for more than ten years.

Andrew Jackson was an inveterate duelist. During one of the duels, he received a bullet in the chest, surgeons were unable to remove it, and Jackson lived with this piece of lead all his life.

Martin Van Buren, after leaving the White House, wrote an interesting memoir in which his wife was never mentioned.

William Harrison's inauguration ceremony (1841) was held on an extremely cold day. The new president immediately caught a cold. Soon his cold developed into pneumonia from which he died a month later. He led the United States for a record short time.

John Tyler is the largest president in US history. He had 8 children from his first wife, and 7 from his second. His 15th child was born when the president was over seventy.

Zachary Taylor chewed tobacco everywhere and always. During all official events, he held a snuffbox with tobacco in his fist.

Millard Fillmore refused to accept an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. He explained this by saying that he had done nothing for science.

When the eleventh President of the United States, James Polk, was 17 years old, he had his gallbladder. Doctors administered pain relief by giving the future president cognac.

James Buchanan is the only US president who was not married. He was once engaged, but his bride broke off the engagement and died soon after.

President Abraham Lincoln always wore a tall black top hat on his head, inside which he kept letters, financial papers, bills and notes.

Andrew Johnson never went to school. He was taught to read by his future wife Eliza McCardle at the age of 17. President Johnson wore exclusively suits that he cut and sewed himself.

Throughout his life, Ulysses Grant smoked 20 cigars a day. He died of throat cancer.

President James Garfield was ambidextrous and polyglot. He could simultaneously write in ancient Greek with one hand and in Latin with the other. He died as a result of a cut on his finger - blood poisoning occurred during treatment.

Chester Arthur had about 100 pairs of trousers in his wardrobe.

Grover Cleveland underwent secret surgery to remove part of his jaw that was affected by cancer.

Benjamin Harrison hated electric light and demanded that the light bulbs be turned off and candles lit during his stay in the White House.

During a hunt, President Theodore Roosevelt refused to kill a mother bear and her cub. After this, a new toy appeared - teddy bears, which began to be called “teddy bears” (“Teddy” is a diminutive - caressing form named "Theodore").

William Taft weighed more than 136 kilograms. A special oversized bathtub was installed for him in the White House.

Warren Harding played poker at least twice a week. Once he even lost the entire Chinese porcelain service that belonged to White House. His advisors were nicknamed “Poker Cabinet”, as they were his main partners during this gambling game.

Calvin Coolidge had a very sick stomach. For treatment and prevention, he slept 10-11 hours at night and also rested during the day. Two tame raccoons lived with him in the White House.

Franklin Roosevelt was related to 11 of his predecessors in the White House.

Harry Truman had a pet goat that grazed on the White House lawn.

Military leader and President Dwight Eisenhower was a great lover and master of cooking. He even came up with a recipe for vegetable soup that included nasturtium stems.

John Kennedy was the first Boy Scout in US history to become president.

Lyndon Johnson loved giving gifts to his employees and visitors. His favorite gifts were electric toothbrushes. The author of Johnson's biography received 12 brushes from his hero over 10 years.

Richard Nixon always heated his office with a fireplace, refusing to use steam heating.

Gerald Ford, at the age of 12, was told by his parents that they had adopted him.

Jimmy Carter became the first US president to publish a historical novel (The Hornet's Nest). True, Carter wrote the novel after leaving the White House.

Ronald Reagan became famous for breaking the “20-year curse” of the White House, under which every president elected in a year ending in zero would die or be killed before the end of his presidential term.

George Bush Sr. was distinguished by the fact that he adored Mexican and Chinese cuisine, but never ate broccoli.

Bill Clinton ordered the creation of a personal website for his cat Sox.

George W. Bush and his wife Laura got married just three months after they met.