Here are some of our favorite facts
from the book Don't Know Much About the Presidents
by Kenneth C. Davis
New York : HarperCollins Publishers,
2002
Did you know...
A writer actually made
up the story about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree.
John Adams and his wife Abigail got
lost trying to find the White House because it had woods all around it. Abigail
used to hang her laundry in the East Room.
Thomas Jefferson kept some grizzly bears
in the White House in a cage.
Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
died on the same day - July 4, 1826.
John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator
at the White House.
John Tyler found out while playing marbles
with his children that he had been elected President.
James Garfield could write with both
his hands at the same time!
Chester Arthur had been a teacher and
created difficult tests people had to pass to get a job with his administration.
Grover Cleveland answered his own telephone
while living at the White House.
William McKinley had a parrot that could
whistle "Yankee Doodle."
After a busy day at the White House,
Theodore Roosevelt would jog around the Washington Monument.
Woodrow Wilson's wife Edith was a descendent
of Pocahontas.
Herbert Hoover's son Allan had two pet
alligators that sometimes wandered loose around the White House.
Franklin Roosevelt was very superstitious.
He would not sit at a table with thirteen for dinner and refused to leave
for a trip on a Friday.
Harry Truman had read every book in
the Independence, Missouri library by the time he was fifteen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower created NASA.
John F. Kennedy was the first president
to have been a Boy Scout.
Lyndon B. Johnson once taught high school.
Richard Nixon was the first president
to visit all 50 states.
Jimmy Carter was a speed reader who
could read and understand nearly two thousand words per minute.
George H. Bush banned broccoli from
the White House menu.
