TOP 15 Obscure Facts You Didn't Know About U.S. Presidents Vol-1

 

1. George Washington -

Washington was an ultra-successful liquor distributor in the new country. He made rye whiskey, apple brandy and peach brandy in his Mount Vernon distillery.

2. John Adams -

Adams and Thomas Jefferson were close friends and correspondents — but they also had a bit of a rivalry. Adams' dying words were, "Thomas Jefferson survives," unaware that he had died hours earlier. In another shocker, both died on July 4, 1826.

3. Thomas Jefferson -

Jefferson and John Adams paid a visit to William Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1786. There, they chipped off a piece from Shakespeare's chair as a souvenir.

4. James Madison -

James Madison was Princeton University's first graduate student.

5. James Monroe -

Monrovia, the capital of the Liberia, is named after James Monroe. He supported the American Colonization Society in its work to create a home for freed slaves in Liberia.

6. John Quincy Adams -

During his presidency, John Quincy Adams enjoyed skinny-dipping in the Potomac River in the early mornings.

7. Andrew Jackson -

Jackson was involved in as many as 100 duels, most of which were fought to defend the honor of his wife, Rachel. He was shot in the chest in a duel in 1806 and took a bullet in the arm in a bar fight with Missouri Sen. Thomas Hart Benton in 1813.

8. Martin Van Buren -

Van Buren's nickname was "Old Kinderhook" because he was raised in Kinderhook, N.Y. A popular theory states that the term "O.K." is derived from the O.K. clubs that sprung up to support his campaign.

9. William H. Harrison -

Democrats ran a smear campaign during Harrison's campaign that tried to cast him as an out-of-touch old fogey who would rather "sit in his log cabin, drinking hard cider" than run the country. Harrison one-upped the haters by adopting the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. He even commissioned bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins.

10. John Tyler -

John Tyler had 15 children, more than any other president. Two of his grandsons are still alive today. One of Tyler's children, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, born in 1853, fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and Harrison Ruffin Tyler in 1928.

11. James K. Polk -

Here's one for the underdogs. James Polk, nicknamed "Young Hickory," was America's first dark horse presidential candidate. He was considered a Plan B after the more likely choice, Martin Van Buren, failed to secure the party's nomination.

12. Zachary Taylor -

Zachary Taylor was a tough guy — a major general in the U.S. Army and hero of the Mexican-American War. But oddly enough, what brought him down in the end was a glass of milk and some cherries that he enjoyed on July 4, 1850. The cherries were likely contaminated with bacteria that caused his death by cholera five days later.

13. Millard Fillmore -

Millard Fillmore lived the dream of many a teenage schoolboy. Fillmore's first wife, Abigail Powers, was his teacher while he was a 19-year-old student at the New Hope Academy in New York.

14. Franklin Pierce -

Pierce had a tough time guiding the nation and perhaps an even tougher time guiding his horse. During his presidency, Pierce was arrested for running over a woman with his horse. Charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence.

15. James Buchanan -

James Buchanan regularly bought slaves in Washington, D.C. and quietly freed them in Pennsylvania.