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Last Update: 2002-04-02. |
6.6.1. George Washington (1879-1897)
1. His nickname was "The Father of His Country".
2. He once wrote of "The miraculous care of Providence, that protected me beyond all human expectation." [TWHT 16]
3. The Bible used for his swearing in was from St. John's Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons [FFF 444]
4. His first inaugural ball took place on May 7, 1789. [FFF 444]
5. During his first term, he toured the United States as it then existed. he toured northern states (that were then in the union) in fall of 1789. He toured the southern states in the spring of 1791. [FFF 452]
6. Actor William Holden and actress Ginger Rogers are related to Washington on his mother's side of the family, while musician Quincy Jones is related on his father's side. [RRF 6, 18-20]
7. The construction of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. was begun in 1793 when he laid the cornerstone, "anointing it with wine and oil in Masonic style." [WDC1 108-109] A cornerstone is traditionally laid in the southeast corner of a building, but the building had more that one section, and archeologists are currently unable to confirm the actual location of the cornerstone. [From a Capitol building exhibit]
8. The main reception room at Mount Vernon contains the key to the Bastille, presented to Washington by Thomas Paine on behalf of Lafayette. The key has left Mount Vernon only once, to be flown to Paris for the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. [WDC1 248]
6.6.7.. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
.
1. To decide where to build the Treasury Building
in Washington, D. C., he stuck his cane in the ground and declared,
"Build it here!" [WDC1 101] There had been a debate on the
location because some did not want the view of Congress from the White
House to be obscured.
6.6.12.. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
1. He refused to pay postage due on the letter informing him of his Presidential nomination.
2. His nickname in the military was "Old Rough & Ready" .
3. His body was exhumed a few years ago so it could be tested for poison. None was found.
4. His daughter was the first wife of Jefferson Davis, the future CSA president. She died soon after their marriage, which Taylor opposed.
5. Taylor did not vote in any election until the age of 62. [EN2K, Zachary Taylor]
6. Taylor " ... a hero of the Mexican war of 1846, provided a home for his old war-horse Whitey, on the White House grounds. ... visitors pulled hairs from his tail for souvenirs." [FFTP ?]
6.6.16.. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
1. During the Civil War he refused to allow construction of the Capitol dome to be halted. "If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on," he said. [WDC1 15]
6.6.18.. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
1. One of his favorite foods while in the White House was hominy grits. [WDC1 174]
6.6.26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
1. He signed the Pure Food and Drug Act after reading Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle."
2. He was the first president to appoint a Jew to his cabinet (Oscar Solomon Straus to be Secretary of Commerce).
3. He was wounded in an assassination attempt during a presidential campaign. On October 14, 1912 he was shot in the chest immediately before he was to give a campaign speech. He gave the speech with the bullet still lodged in his chest.
4 He invited Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House.
5 He wrote The Rough Riders in 1899, based on his experiences in the Spanish-American war.
6. He was the nephew of the Confederate chief of secret service in Europe. James D. Bulloch was the brother of Roosevelt's mother, who was born in Georgia.
7. He owned the Maltese Cross Ranch near Medora, North Dakota.
8. The Teddy Bear was named for him.
9. In 1906, he designated the Devils Tower landmark in Wyoming a U.S. National Monument. (contributed by prez58)
10. His favorite foods while in the White House were liver with bacon and kidney stew. [WDC1 174]
11. In 1908 he laid the cornerstone of the Washington National Cathedral. Construction was not completed until 1990. [WDC1 141]
6.6.32. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
1. He is buried in the Washington National Cathedral [WDC1 141], and is the only president buried in Washington, D. C.
6.6.30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
1. He published the book, Have Faith in Massachusetts in 1919. It was a collection of campaign speeches. He was elected governor of Massachusetts that year.
2. His nickname was "Silent Cal."
3. He sent a navy cruiser to bring Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis back from Europe after Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic.
4. He sent Marines to occupy Nicaragua in 1927.
5. His wife had two pet raccoons, Rebecca and Horace.
6. While Governor of Massachusetts, he said that there is "no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." This was in response to a threatened Boston Police strike in 1919. He became famous for the quote and this lead to a vice presidential nomination in 1920.
7. His Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellog, won the Nobel peace prize for negotiating the Kellog-Briand Pact which outlawed war as an instrument of national policy.
6.6.32.. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
1. One of his favorite foods while in the White House was creamed chipped beef. [WDC1 174]
2. Before WWII he and Eleanor visited Kyoto, Japan on vacation and fell in love with the city. During the war, he gave orders that Kyoto not be bombed. Learning of the order, the Japanese built aircraft production plants at Kyoto to avoid American bombers. [IAA 330-331]
6.6.35.. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
1. He once described Washington D.C. as a city of "Northern charm and Southern efficiency." [WDC1 10]
2. He appointed the first black federal commissioner for Washington D.C. in 1961. This was before the city had its own locally elected government. [WDC1 17]
3. The airplane he used during his 1960 campaign was named the Caroline. [CWK 16]
4. He was very fond of clam chowder. He was once observed eating four bowls of clam chowder as a snack. [CWK 28]
5. On election night 1960, with the election results still hanging in the balance, he received a phone call from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who told him cryptically, " ... with a little bit of luck and the help of a few close friends, you are going to carry Illinois." [CWK 33]
6. Many of his advisors came from Harvard University. He selected Orville Freeman, then Governor of Minnesota, to be Secretary of Agriculture. When the Governor was asked why he had been selected, he replied, "I am not really sure, but I think it has something to do with the fact that Harvard does not have a school of Agriculture." [PG 31]
6.6.37. Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974)
1. When Nixon worked, he liked to have a roaring fire going in the room. In the summer, the fire would be set, but the air conditioning was turned up so the room would not be too hot. (One of the fires he had set at his home in San Clemente, California, caught the house on fire!)
2. For many years Nixon had a valet named Manolo Sanchez who also tried to teach Nixon Spanish.
3. He tried to fix up his daughter Tricia with Prince Charles of England. He got them together on two occasions but there was no romance.
4. Nixon personally went to Independence Missouri, the home of former president Harry Truman, to give the Truman library the old White House piano that Truman had played when he was president. Truman (who hated Nixon) was there to receive the piano. Then Nixon sat down and played "The Missouri Waltz, " supposing that this would flatter Mr. Truman. However, Truman also hated that particular song.
5. He was known for making symbol for victory,
V's formed with the fingers of both hands held high.
6.6.39. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
1. Concerning the government loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation in 1979, Lee Iacocca, then president of Chrysler wrote: "Since leaving office, Carter has come to see me twice. He's proud that Chrysler is thriving. ... 'Of all the things we accomplished in my administration,' he told me, 'I look back on this as something we really did right.'"
6.6.40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
1. In the late 1940's became an FBI informant in an effort to purge Communists from Hollywood's unions.
2. He was given the nickname "Dutch" by his father at birth
3. He ordered the invasion of Grenada (a small Caribbean Island) on October 25, 1983.
4. His is famous for keeping a jar of jelly beans on his desk and a sign that read "IT CAN BE DONE!" [jellybeans]
5. His wife Nancy consulted an astrologer to help plan the president's schedule.
6. He had a pen pal, a black youth who lived in a Washington D.C. ghetto. The letter exchanges continued during most of RR's presidency and the president even attended one of the young man's birthday parties.
7. As a young man he worked summers as a life guard and saved over seventy lives.
8. Actor William Holden was the best man at his (second) wedding.
9. He is the only president who had biological children and an adopted child.
10. He had two operations in 1985 to remove cancerous growths, one from this colon and one from his nose.
11. He appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and 360 judges to lesser federal benches, more than any previous president. [WH88 29]
12. He brought about the largest military buildup in the nation's peace time history. [WH88 35]
13. He was inaugurated on the West terrace of the Capitol. Most modern presidents preferred the East terrace. [WDC1 109]
E-mail: I was wondering if there are any similarities between George Bush and Abraham Lincoln. If so could you please tell me where to find them or if applicable display a list.
Reply: 1. They were both tall lanky Republicans who only completed one term. 2. Both of their presidencies witnessed the fall of a major enemy of the U.S. (the CSA for Lincoln and the communist block for Bush). 3. Both had sons who served in public office. 4. Neither was elected from the state of his birth.
E-mail: My question: Are there any similarities in the lives of Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge?
Reply: 1. Both served as governors of adopted home states--not the states of their births. 2. Both were conservative Republicans. 3. Both had the reputation of napping during the day. This was true of Coolidge, but not of Reagan.