1. Trivia Quiz

1.21. The Presidents and Progress.

1. Name the president and future president who witnessed the first successful flight of man in North America.

2. He was the first president or ex-president to have his photograph taken.

3. He was the first president to send a transatlantic telegram.

4. He was president when the first telephone was installed in the White House.

5. He was the first president to sign his papers under an electric light.

6. He was the first ex-president to ride in an airplane.

7. He opened the transcontinental telephone line with a call from the White House to San Francisco.

8. He was the first president to install a radio in the White House.

9. He was the first President to appear on Television.

10. He was the first future president to earn an airplane pilot’s license.

Section 1.21 ANSWERS

ANSWERS to Section 1.21.

1.21. The Presidents and Progress.

1. Name the president and future president who witnessed the first successful flight of man in North America. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on January 9, 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard (from France) conducted a balloon flight which started in Philadelphia. Washington (then President) and Jefferson (then Secretary of State) were present at the lift-off. [TJS 71-73]

2. He was the first president or ex-president to have his photograph taken. John Quincy Adams, 1843 [WTJB 13]

3. He was the first president to send a transatlantic telegram. James Buchanan on August 16, 1858 to Queen Victoria of Great Britain [WTJB 22].

4. He was president when the first telephone was installed in the White House. Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1879, when it was installed, it was hardly used, because there weren't many other phones in Washington to call. See http://www2.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/rh19.html
[x:telephone, first in White House]

5. He was the first president to sign his papers under an electric light. Benjamin Harrison [TWHT 82]

6. He was the first ex-president to ride in an airplane. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger in a Wright biplane piloted by Archibald Hoxey in St. Louis, Missouri on October 11, 1910. [FFF 451]

7. He opened the transcontinental telephone line with a call from the White House to San Francisco. Woodrow Wilson, January 25, 1915. [BELL 482] [x:telephone, transcontinental]

8. He was the first president to install a radio in the White House. Warren Harding on February 8, 1922 [FFF 450]

9. He was the first President to appear on Television. Franklin D. Roosevelt. On April 30, 1939 at the opening of the New York World’s Fair [FFTP 67].

10. He was the first future president to earn an airplane pilot’s license. Dwight D. Eisenhower. He learned to fly in 1939 while serving on Douglas MacArthur’s staff in the Philippines. [FFF 451]