Interesting and Fun Facts About The First Ten American Presidents

1. George Washington

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Contrary to popular belief, George Washington wasn’t the first president of the United States.  This fact is quite difficult to accept because everyone has been taught from young that George Washington was the first president of the United States but it seems that this is not so. Read the full explanation of why George Washington wasn’t the first president of the United States.

2. John Adams

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The first American president to live in the White House was John Adams. He served as George Washington’s vice president before becoming president.  George Washington was the only president who didn’t live in the White House because the White House wasn’t built during his presidency. In fact the seat of government during Washington’s time was first in New York and then in Philadelphia. When the White House was built in the new capital, the capital of the United States was named after Washington in his honor.

3. Thomas Jefferson

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Born on April 13th, 1743, Thomas Jefferson died on the same day as John Adams which coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1826.

4. James Madison

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Being only 5 feet 4 inches tall (163cm), James Madison was the shortest American president. Weighing in at 100 pounds (45.4 kg), he was also the smallest American president.

5. James Monroe

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Before becoming president, James Monroe was a United States senator. He was the first senator to be elected president. To date, sixteen US senators had gone on to become the president of the United States. Three went straight from US Senate to the White House and they were Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama.

6. John Quincy Adams

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Diary entries revealed that John Quincy Adams loved to swim naked in the Potomac River. He’s up very early at 5 in the morning daily to start swimming. One diary entry recorded a day when he nearly drowned but that never deterred him from engaging in this rigorous exercise.

7. Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donelson Robards while she was technically still married to another man but after the divorce was finalized, he remarried her. She died before he was inaugurated as president of the United States. He blamed his opponent for the untimely death of his wife who died of a heart attack. He never remarried.

8. Martin Van Buren

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Nobody has yet come up with a satisfactory reason why Martin Van Buren was known among his friends and political rivals as “The Little Magician”. Some said it was because of his small stature (5 feet 6 inches). Others claimed that Van Buren had the capability to magically come up with the winning side of any debate.

9. William Henry Harrison

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William Henry Harrison was the first president to die while in office. He made the longest inaugural address by any president that lasted about two hours. He subsequently caught a cold that led to pneumonia and after only one month serving as the president of the United States, he died.

10. John Tyler

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When William Henry Harrison died after just one month as president, John Tyler who was then the vice-president was installed as the successor. He was the first vice-president to succeed to presidency upon the death of a president setting a precedent for future presidents who died while in office. He was also the first US president to marry while in office.

The above are some of the most interesting facts about the first ten presidents of the United States.