Some things you may not have known about past Presidents

[rpannier]

1. In warm weather, 6th president of the United States John Quincy Adams customarily went skinny-dipping in the Potomac River before dawn.

2. Andrew Johnson only wore suits that he custom-tailored himself.

3. Both ambidextrous and multilingual, 20th president of the United States James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while writing Latin with the other.
(I guess he is the balance to DUH-bya who can't write anything in any language)

4. Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States, underwent a secret operation aboard a yacht to remove his cancerous upper jaw in 1893.

5. Warren Harding, 29th U.S. president, played poker at least twice a week, and once gambled away an entire set of White House china.

6. 32nd president of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt was related, either by blood or by marriage, to 11 former presidents.

7. The letter "S" comprises the full middle name of the 33rd president, Harry S. Truman. It represents two of his grandfathers, whose names both had "S" in them.

8. Military leader and 34th president of the U.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower loved to cook; he developed a recipe for vegetable soup that is 894 words long and includes the stems of nasturtium flowers as one of the ingredients.

link:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/homework/?article=uspresidents

[dsc]

1. Garfield also discovered a proof to the pythagorean theorem

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/emt668.student.folders/HeadAngela/essay1/Pythagorean.html

You can scan down to find his proof.

[NV Whino]

2. I love useless trivia such as this.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Adams was trapped in the river by an intrepid lady reporter

who wanted to talk with him on an important matter--he had evaded her. But she knew about his habit of bathing in the river, and sat on his clothes until she was done with the interview.

[Johnyawl]

4. Anne Royal, a fascinating woman!

I had my doubts about this story, mostly because I was sure there was no female reporters in the America of 1825-29, so I went looking for some evidence. I was astounded at what I found! The story is about Anne Royall, who was indeed a journalist, the first woman journalist in the country according to her bio. An utterly fascinating woman who led a remarkable life!

She basically sat on his clothes until he agreed to support her petition for a pension.

from Wikipedia:
While in Washington attempting to secure a pension, Anne caught President John Quincy Adams during one of his usual early morning baths in the Potomac River. The oft-told story that Anne gathered the president's clothes and sat on them until he answered her questions, earning her the first presidential interview ever granted to a woman, is, alas, apocryphal. Adams afterward supported Anne's petition for a pension


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Royall

I would have never known about her, if you had't mentioned this story. Many thanks! :applause:

[Tindalos]

14. !

:spray:

Good for her!

[marlakay]

5. Husband just told me that Taft started the 7th inning stretch

when he went to a game and couldn't sit the whole time so got up to stretch and everyone else got up with him.

[rpannier]

6. Interesting

Thanks

[Jack Rabbit]

9. I didn't know that about Taft

But I know he started the custom of the president throwing out the first ball of the new baseball season.

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. That's the popular story

But the stretch goes back to baseball's early days in America. Harry Wright, captain of the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869, mentioned fans standing and walking around after the top of the seventh in a letter to a friend.



Taft, like Harding, was a poker player, and Ty Cobb was a frequent guest in games with both. Cobb also noted that Taft, a Mason whom he called "three hundred pounds of joviality," fell asleep and snored during Masonic services. :)

[KoKo]

7. kick for fun read..........

[RB TexLa]

8. Why is there a period after Harry Truman's full middle name?

:shrug:

[rpannier]

12. I wasn't using the full middle name

I was using the letter abbreviation :evilgrin:

[bushmeister0]

10. What about veeps?

Richard Mentor Johnson, Martin Van Buren's veep, was an interesting one.

He carried on an open relationship was a slave. Three slaves, actually.

Answers.com

"(Johnson)began a long-term relationship with Julia Chinn, a slave left to him by his father. Chinn was a light-skinned octoroon; nevertheless, the law considered her a Negro which prevented Johnson from marrying her.Throughout his career, Johnson treated Chinn as his common law wife.When Johnson was away from his Kentucky estate, Chinn was given free rein in his business affairs.

Julia Chinn died in an outbreak of cholera in the summer of 1833.Following his wife's death, Johnson engaged in a relationship with another family slave. When she left him for another man, Johnson had her captured and sold at auction. He then began a relationship with her sister."

Additionally:

"He was a loyal supporter of Pres. Andrew Jackson, who chose him as Martin Van Buren's running mate in the 1836 election. None of the four vice-presidential candidates won an electoral-vote majority, and the outcome was decided by the Senate, the only such occurrence in U.S. history. Johnson served one term in the office."

http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-mentor-johnson

[rpannier]

11. Interesting

Thanks

[fed_up_mother]

13. So that's what happened to the White House china!

:)