Fast Facts About The American Presidents

When it comes to American history, Dirk Kettlewell has a soft spot. So much has taken place in the great American past that has shaped the way of the present America we live in. Below are some fun fast facts about the American presidents that you may not have previously known.

• The first president to ever talk on the phone was James Abram Garfield. He spoke with Alexander Graham Bell, who was located on the other end only thirteen miles away. Garfield said “Please speak a little more slowly”.
• The first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. was Thomas Jefferson.
• The term “O.K.” came from the “old Kinderhook”, also known as President Martin Van Buren. Van Buren was raised in Kinderhook, New York and O.K. clubs were created to support his campaigns.
• The only president to be elected to two non consecutive terms was President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was the 22nd and the 24th president.
• The inaugural speech given by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” echoes a similar speech at the 1916 Republican convention: “We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.”
• The first president to be a United States citizen was Martin Van Buren. All previous presidents were born British subjects.
• Throughout the presidency, six presidents were named Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.
• President Dwight David Eisenhower is the only president that served in both the World War I and the World War II.
• President Richard Milhous Nixon was the first president to visit all fifty states and the first president to visit China. He is also the only president to resign.