Test Your POTUS Knowledge With This U.S. Presidents Quiz

One of the odder presidential “pets” was the family of white mice that Andrew Johnson cared for during his time in office. During his impeachment proceedings, Johnson remained secluded in the White House playing with a group of mice that he had befriended in his bedroom. Johnson used flour and grain from family businesses to feed his beloved pets.

An 1866 act passed by Congress prohibited the likenesses of living people on paper currency, and federal law now stipulates the same for coins. A notable exception occurred in 1926, when President Calvin Coolidge appeared with George Washington on the Sesquicentennial commemorative half-dollar coin, the first and, so far, only American coin to depict a President during their lifetime.

On a cold, wet day in March 1841, William Henry Harrison refused an overcoat as he delivered his 8,445-word inaugural address. Shortly after, Harrison died, just 31 days into his term. While some attributed his death to the long, chilly speech, researchers now believe unclean drinking water was the cause of his fatal illness.

Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. When Cleveland ran for reelection after his first term in 1888, his opponent Benjamin Harrison won the electoral count despite Cleveland winning the popular vote. Four years later, Cleveland was successful in denying Harrison’s reelection and reclaiming his former role as President.

It’s hard to imagine a President swimming in the Potomac River, let alone in the nude. But according to his own diaries, President John Quincy Adams liked to wake before 5 a.m., walk two miles from the White House to the riverfront, and take a dip. Historians say this wasn’t so unusual in the 19th century, and Adams likely wasn’t the only person to enjoy the pastime.

In 1863, the Lincolns were given a live turkey for Christmas, but President Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad took a liking to the bird (named Jack) and trained it to follow him around the White House grounds. When the holiday came, the President gave in and wrote Jack a reprieve. Tad kept the pet turkey for another year.

Prior to the rise of the Republican Party, the two most popular political parties in the U.S. were the Democrats and the Whigs — even Abraham Lincoln was a Whig while serving in Congress. William Henry Harrison was elected as the first Whig President in 1840, and Millard Fillmore became the last after succeeding the deceased President Zachary Taylor in 1850.

President William McKinley’s face graced the $500 bill, the last of which was printed in 1945 before being formally discontinued in 1969. The note remains legal tender, though today, many are held by collectors. The also-defunct $1,000 bill once featured Grover Cleveland, and a Revolutionary-era $5,000 bill depicted the likeness of James Madison.

Credit for the National Park System often goes to Theodore Roosevelt, because he doubled the number of protected landmarks during his tenure. That was thanks to the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allowed him to proclaim historic landmarks as part of the Department of the Interior. It wasn’t until 1916, however, that President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service to manage the growing number of sites.

Eighteen states serve as the burial sites of the 39 U.S. Presidents who have passed away since serving as the leader of the country. But in addition to those burial sites, there is one plot in Washington, D.C. that belongs to Woodrow Wilson. Wilson died in 1924 and was buried at Washington National Cathedral in the nation’s capital.

George Washington may have been America’s first President, but he only presided over 11 official states. In fact, the honor of being President of 50 states belongs to the 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Alaska and Hawaii did not become official U.S. states until 1959, when Eisenhower was serving his second term as President.

The eight known left-handed Presidents are James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. If that doesn’t seem like a large number, consider that just 10% of the global population is left-handed, whereas seven of the last 15 Presidents have been lefties.

While many U.S. Presidents have received medals for their military service, the only to receive the Purple Heart was John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was awarded the medal for his heroic actions while commanding PT-109, a small watercraft that was struck by a Japanese destroyer, forcing the survivors into the water. Kennedy towed an injured crew member for a 3-mile swim while wounded himself.

Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States for an unprecedented 13 years, winning four back-to-back elections during his tenure. He first came into office in the midst of the Great Depression and brought with him a series of reforms known as the New Deal. He also led the country through WWII before passing away three months into his fourth term, in 1944.

Ronald Reagan was known for his love of jelly beans — so much so that more than three tons of Jelly Belly candies were shipped to the U.S. capital for the President’s inauguration. The flavors were Very Cherry (red), Coconut (white), and Blueberry (blue). Reagan used jelly beans to help quit smoking and was known to carry around a jar of them.

When Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford replaced him as the 38th President of the United States. The Republican congressman from Michigan had been appointed Vice President by Nixon during his term, replacing Nixon’s running mate Spiro Agnew. Because of this, Ford was not voted in by the American people, making him the only unelected President in U.S. history.

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first President to appear on television when he attended the World’s Fair in New York. The technology was fairly new, so not many people actually tuned in. Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, delivered the first televised presidential address in 1947, when he asked Americans to cut back on grain and meat consumption to help a struggling Europe.

Before being sworn in as the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower served as a lieutenant colonel in World War I. While he never went into the trenches, Eisenhower served at Camp Colt in Gettysburg. In World War II, Eisenhower served as a commanding general, leading American and British troops in North Africa to invade Italy and eventually resulting in Italian surrender.

While George Washington chose the site for the White House, he never actually lived there. Instead, Washington lived in Philadelphia, which was the U.S. capital at the time, as did his successor, John Adams, at first. Adams eventually moved into the White House in 1800, though the building was still unfinished at the time.

After losing his reelection to the presidency in 1912, William Howard Taft served as a law professor at Yale University until 1921. That year, President Warren G. Harding named Taft to the Supreme Court of the United States as chief justice, a role he held until 1930. Taft enjoyed his new role, saying, “I don’t remember that I ever was a President.”

The 1984 U.S. presidential election was among the most lopsided in history, as incumbent Ronald Reagan won every state except Minnesota. (He also lost Washington, D.C.) The residents of the North Star State voted for Reagan’s opponent, former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale. Reagan also lost Washington, D.C., but still won the electoral vote 525 to 13.