Anecdotes abound in regard to George Washington, and his famed wooden teeth is among them. However, that story is an enduring myth and not reflective of reality. Various historians and groups, including the National Constitution Center, note that George Washington’s dentures were not made of wood, but rather a combination of ivory, gold and human and animal teeth, among other materials.
· Two former presidents and founding fathers passed away within hours of each other. John Adams, who succeeded Washington as the nation’s second president in 1797, and Thomas Jefferson, who served as the third president of the United States between 1801 and 1809, each died on July 4, 1826.
The two one-time friends and then foes ultimately reconciled prior to their deaths.
· John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829, are the only presidents among the first twelve to have never owned slaves.
· Though outdoor inaugurations are now the standard, they were not always. The nation’s fifth president, James Monroe, was the first to be inaugurated in the elements.
· So long as they’re eligible to run for reelection, sitting presidents typically seek a second term.
But that’s not always the case. James K. Polk, who served as the nation’s eleventh president, was the first to retire after one term. Though Polk did not necessarily set a trend, subsequent presidents James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Calvin Coolidge, and Harry S. Truman also did not seek a second term. And while Teddy Roosevelt did not seek a second term in 1908, he did in 1912.
· Many U.S. presidents came from humble beginnings. Millard Filmore, who served as the thirteenth president between 1850 and 1853, was born into poverty in upstate New York. Filmore became president upon the sudden death of President Zachary Taylor, who died suddenly on July 9. Perhaps his humble origins and unexpected ascendancy to the presidency is why Filmore memorably refused an honorary degree from Oxford University.
· One of the more notably named U.S. presidents was not actually given his memorable moniker at birth. According to the National Constitution Center, President Ulysses S. Grant, who was the eighteenth individual to take the office of the president, was actually named Hiram Ulysses Grant. He only became Ulysses S. Grant, a name that clearly stuck, after Congressman Thomas Hamer mistakenly listed his name as “Ulysses S. Grant” upon nominating the young man to attend West Point.
· President John F. Kennedy, who served as the thirty-fifth U.S. president until his assassination in November 1963, was the first American president born in the twentieth century. It will likely be awhile before the first U.S. president born in the twenty-first century takes office, as the nation’s current president, Joe Biden, was born just 25 years after JFK.
· It took some time before the United States had its first American-born president, but that happened upon the election of Martin Van Buren in 1837.
Prior to Van Buren’s victory, all presidents had been born before 1776 and were thus British subjects at their time of birth.
· Many Americans fought long and hard to secure the right to vote, but one president never voted until his own name appeared on the ballot. Zachary Taylor, the nation’s twelfth president, acknowledged he had never voted prior to 1848, the year he was elected president.
· Only two men in U.S. history have been elected to serve non-consecutive terms as president. The first to do so was Grover Cleveland, who served as the nation’s twenty-second and twenty-fourth president.
That feat was not replicated until it was pulled off by Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016 as the nation’s forty-fifth president and then again in 2024.