Now, let’s be honest, a few US Presidents don’t exactly have the most interesting
lives in the world.
Looking at you, Benjamin Harrison.
But there are actually a lot of pretty interesting and weird facts and stories about America’s
leaders.
And I’m here to list 10 of them.
Sidenote: These aren’t in any particular ranking, it’s just a list of cool facts.
Now, let’s go.
Number 10: We all know that George Washington is on the 1 dollar bill, Abe Lincoln is on
the five, and Ben Frankie is on the 100 dollar.
But did you know that there is a 100,000 dollar bill with Woodrow Wilson on it?
Ok, question.
Who, in the real world, owns a 100,000 dollar bill, besides like, Bill Gates, and Batman.
You could literally lose your life savings if you lost one of those.
Also, quick note, there is also a 10,000 dollar bill, that does not feature any famous president,
but a politician from the 19th century called Salmon P. Chase.
Maybe he’s super famous and I’m just ignorant, but I’ve certainly never heard of Mr. Salmon
here.
Number 9: Being a parent, I assume, is pretty difficult.
Raising one or two kids must be hard enough.
Well guess what.
John Tyler, 10th president, had 15 kids.
He should seriously get his own TV show on TLC.
He had two wives, the first of which had 8 kids, and the second of which had 7.
So, between the two of them, it was pretty evenly distributed.
Number 8: What with America having an African-American president, and Hillary Clinton coming close
to being the first female president, it seems that the line-up of American Presidents is
becoming more diverse.
But we still haven’t had a gay president.
Or have we?
James Buchanan, the 15th president and predecessor to Abraham Lincoln, was by no means an amazing
or that interesting president.
But he has come to light a bit recently, being called, “America’s first gay president.”
Now, there is no solid evidence or statements to prove this fact.
One reason it started was that he is the only bachelor president, so I guess people just
assumed he’s gay.
By those standards, that would mean Zac Efron, Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, and Leonardo
DiCaprio are gay, just because they are married.
Also, this started a bit because after breaking his engagement with a woman, he lived with
a dude called William Rufus King for 10 years, and some people at the time noted that they
were sort of inseparable.
However, I wouldn’t consider this “evidence” as they could have just been BFFs.
Number 7: We all know Thomas Jefferson.
Yeah, that guy who wrote the Declaration of sumpin or other.
And some of us know John Adams, that guy who was George Washington’s vice president and
then became president himself.
Anyway, the two of them had their fair share of differences and fights, especially towards
the end of John Adams’ term and the beginning Thomas Jefferson’s.
They virtually hated each other for a while.
However, when both men retired, they became buddies again.
Funny thing is, both men died on the same day.
Now, that’s not THAT cool, until you find out that they both died on the 4th of July,
1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, that thing
Thomas Jefferson wrote.
What a coincidence.
Number 6: Now we come to our current president, Mr. Barack Obama.
When he was in college, he was really good on the basketball court, and I mean really
good, doing awesome dunks and all that good stuff.
And because of his mad skills, he got the nickname Barry O’Bomber, which is a little
bit too ironic.
Number 5: This one, is a little weird.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is obviously one of the best presidents.
His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, is one of the best First Ladies ever.
Fun fact: Eleanor was Franklin’s cousin.
Alright, so it’s not as bad as it sounds.
She wasn’t his first, second, or third cousin, but fifth.
So it’s not that weird.
Right?
One way to see it: her name was Roosevelt before she married Franklin.
Which, unless I’m mistaken, doesn’t that mean her name is Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt?
Number 4: Presidents have pretty regular middle names, Walker, Baines, Milhous, Rudolph.
But one stands out.
Harry S Truman had a very strange middle name.
He didn’t have one.
Well, I mean, technically he did, but it was only the letter S. His parents couldn’t
decide which of his grandfathers his middle name should be honoring: Solom of Shipp.
So they decided to just put an S.
Number 3: Ulysses S Grant is one of the worst presidents ever.
He was originally named Hiram Ulysses Grant, but something about that name bothered him.
It was the fact that his initials were HUG.
I kid you not.
He didn’t like this, as he was trying to be a bit of a tough guy a lot of the time
and Hug wasn’t very intimidating.
So, he changed his name to what we now know him as.
Another fun fact, he smoked about twenty cigars a day.
Yeah, guess what he died of?
Throat cancer.
Don’t smoke.
Number 2: Chester A. Arthur was America’s 21st President.
He had one of the most awesome beard, moustache, muttonchop hybrid things of all time.
Seriously, what is that thing?
Anyway, a little known fact about him, he owned 80 pairs of pants.
Even by today’s standards that’s quite a lot of pants for one guy.
Make in the late 1800s, it was crazy.
He would often change them throughout the day, wearing one pair in the morning, one
in the afternoon, and one in the evening.
What a classy guy.
Number 1: Now, this one is a bit of a story more than a fact, but whatevs.
Calvin Coolidge was a man of few words.
As in, he didn’t talk.
Like, at all.
I mean, he talked a bit as any President would, but he was so quiet that his nickname was
Silent Cal.
Two friends had a bet that one could make Coolidge say more than three words.
The friend told Coolidge about the bet and asked if he could in fact say three words
for him.
Coolidge respond with: You lose.
Anyway, those were some of the strange and curious facts about America’s leaders.
Did I miss any?
Tell me in the comments.
Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe!