President’s Day: 11 Little Known Facts About U.S. Presidents

The first televised presidential debate, Kennedy-Nixon (AP Photo); The first telephone in the White House; Presidents George W. Bush, James Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, and Thomas Jefferson. (Wikimedia Commons)

President’s Day falls on the third Monday of February, that’s Feb. 17 this year. Here are 11 little-known facts about U.S. presidents. 

 

11. First president born a U.S. citizen

Martin Van Buren, in Kinderhook, NY, 1782

 

 

10. Most common presidential home state

Virginia, with 8 presidents:

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

James Monroe

William Henry Harrison

John Tyler

Zachary Taylor

Virginia is also the state where the most presidents, 7, are buried:

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison 

James Monroe

John Tyler

William Howard Taft

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

 

 

9. First president photographed while in office

James K. Polk, in 1849

 (Library of Congress)

 

 

8. First president to have a telephone in the White House

Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1877.  The phone number was 1. That’s it, 1. The phone was installed in the Oval Office, but it’s not the same Oval Office as today’s Oval Office. 

Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1877.  The phone number was “1.”

 

 

7. First president born in a hospital

Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia, 1924

 

 

6. Only bachelor presidents

James Buchanan, never married

James Buchanan, president from 1857 to 1861. 

Grover Cleveland, married Frances Folsom in the White House in 1886

Grover Cleveland, 1903

 

 

5. First president to appear on TV

Franklin D. Roosevelt at the opening ceremonies for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York

 

4. First president to hold an Internet chat

Bill Clinton, in 1999

 

 

3. Presidents who died on July 4

Both the second and the third presidents of the United States died on July 4. 

Thomas Jefferson (L), John Adams (R)

John Adams, second president, 1826

Thomas Jefferson, third president, 1826

James Monroe, 1831

 

 

2. Presidents who lost the popular vote while winning the election

John Quincy Adams, in 1824

Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1876

Benjamin Harrison, in 1888

George W. Bush, in 2000

 

 

1. Elections with the highest and lowest voter turnout, by percentage

Kennedy-Nixon, 1960, had the highest voter turnout at 62.8 percent. This was also the first election in which the presidential debate was televised. Clinton-Dole-Perot, 1996, had the lowest turnout at 49 percent.

(AP Photo)