Freaky Secrets of the presidency

I was just lurking around the web as usual when I came across some weird and true facts about the presidents of the USA. I think a lot of ATSers would be interested in this. So were we go

Did you know that George Washington wasn’t actually the first usa president? A man called John Hanson was, he was considered to be a ‘man of color’ because of his Moorish background. The Constitutional Congress to the office of "President of the United States in Congress Assembled elected him on November 5th 1781, he served for a year and was later followed by 6 other presidents before George Washington.

Did You know that president Grover Cleveland was a Draft Dodger?, he instead sent someone else in his place in the army. He got a lot of stick by an opponent called james blaine ,but it was later found out that blaine had done the same thing!
President Ulysses S. Grant was stopped and convicted of exceeding the speed limit whilst on his horse in Washington DC, he was issued with a $20 fine.

Weird Presidential Facts

President Garfield could write in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other... at the same time!

thomas Jefferson invented the coat hanger, the hideaway bed, the calendar clock and the dumbwaiter.

Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized the institution of slavery. this original draft was also written on hemp paper.

President James Buchanan was the only bachelor to occupy the Oval Office. His niece, Harriet Lane, played the role of First Lady.

President Washington was the wealthiest man in American at the time of his election as President, but he had to borrow money to attend his inauguration. His enormous wealth was attributed the vast property that he owned which produced almost no cash flow.

John Tyler, who was President from 1841 to 1845, joined the Confederacy twenty years later and became the only President named a sworn enemy of the United States.

President Andrew Jackson believed the world was flat and FDR was so superstitious, that he would never leave town on a Friday and never sit at a table with 13 people.

Did you know that A man named David Rice Atchison was apparently president of the usa for a while ONE DAY?. According to the law at the time, if neither the President nor the Vice President were in office, the President Pro Tem of the Senate (Atchinson) became President. On March 4, 1849, President Polk's term had expired and President-elect Taylor could not yet be sworn in because it was a Sunday. Atchinson did not realize that he had been President for a day until several months later.

The biggest president loser of all time??

I wonder who you can guess who the following is about.
At 22 yrs old he already had a failed business under his belt.
At 23 he lost a bid for U.S Congress.
At 24 he had another failed business.
The following year he was finally elected to state legislater, but he lost his sweetheart when he was 26 years old, this then lead to a full nervous breakdown by the time he was 27.
When he was 29, he was defeated for the post of Speaker of the House in the state legislature.
When he was 31, he was defeated as Elector.
When he was 34, he ran for Congress again and lost.
At 37, he ran for Congress yet again and finally won, but two years later he lost his re-election campaign.
At the age of 46, he ran for a U.S. Senate seat and lost. The following year he ran for Vice President and lost.
Finally, at the age of 51, he was elected President of the United States.
Do you know who he is yet? It was none other than CLICK ME TO FIND OUT

Coincidental death?

Did you know that Tomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day? July 4th 1826. Jefferson's last words were: "Is it the fourth?" This coincidentally was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence.
Jefferson and Adams die on same day

Did you know that Robert Todd Lincoln was at the assassinations of none other than 3 presidents :O, his father's, President Garfield's and President McKinley's. He would not have been present at these events if it hadn't been for the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who saved his life years earlier. Makes you wonder who the real target was LOL
Heres an interesting fact for you: There is a belief that a curse has been responsible of the deaths of every US president before the end of their term in office, if they were elected in a year that ended with 0. The first victim of the curse was William Henry Harrison, whose troops killed the Indian chief in 1813.

Harrison, elected in 1840, died of pneumonia after serving 31 days in office.

Lincoln, elected in 1860, assassinated.

Garfield, elected in 1880, assassinated.

McKinley, elected to a second term in 1900, assassinated.

Harding, elected in 1920, died of a stroke in 1923.

Roosevelt, elected to a third term in 1940, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945.

Kennedy, elected in 1960, assassinated.

Reagan, elected in 1980, survived an attempted assassination.

This was the curse of Indian chief Tecumseh Which was meant to have lasted 30 years.


Strange But True

Prophetic Presidents - Lincoln prophesized his own death and even warned Congress about it. Washington prophesied the great future of the United States, including the victories in two Great Wars, and overcoming the devastation of a third (yet to occur?) global conflict.


All in the Family Affair?

Franklin Roosevelt was related to Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and even his own wife, Eleanor, a second cousin. Although the relationship with the Roosevelt's was an uncomfortable situation for many people, there was strange twist to the First Couples marriage. For 30 plus years, from 1932 on, Eleanor Roosevelt had an affair with another woman, Associated Press reporter Lenora Hickok. Eleanor wrote well over 2,300 passionate love letters to Hicky which Hicky saved on the condition that they not be published until 10 years after Eleanor's death.

Sources and Other strange president Facts
Presidential facts
snopes
present facts document
national geographic
random facts

Thank's for this thread
S&F.

I wouldnt wana be POTUS. So much mystery goin on there.

Nice suspense on the loser POTUS

I always wondered about the Adams-Jefferson death. Its almost like some Faustian deal where they got exactly 50 years from the signing of the declaration to live as "kings".

Also, I"m glad to hear Lincoln was a failure. It gives me hope. But the thing about his brother being at all the assassinations is quite fishy. Do you think he was the assassin?

reply to post by doctornamtab


in all honesty i have no idea makes u wonder if he was the target, the assassin or was damned unlucky LOL

Originally posted by ronishia
Did you know that Tomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day? July 4th 1825.

That would be July 4, 1826

This coincidentally was the 5th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence.
Jefferson and Adams die on same day

That would be the 50th anniversary. Are you certain this was a coincidence?

reply to post by schuyler


oops lol typos

wasnt me...nothing to see here *whistles*

reply to post by ronishia


In today medical terms Lincoln was Bipolar. I find it peculiar in who we as Americans put into leadership/presidents position, take Bush 2nd, he was educationally challenged during his entire elementary and high school years,required a tutor to get through college, partied like a rich spoiled brat his whole life then becomes president and leads our country...As for Obama, we elected a American traitor to lead us. So is our past presidents stories really all that weird?

Originally posted by doctornamtab
I always wondered about the Adams-Jefferson death. Its almost like some Faustian deal where they got exactly 50 years from the signing of the declaration to live as "kings".

Also, I"m glad to hear Lincoln was a failure. It gives me hope. But the thing about his brother being at all the assassinations is quite fishy. Do you think he was the assassin?

Robert Todd Lincoln was Abe's son not his brother. He wasnt actually present at his fathers assassination though, the other two however he was at. In a somewhat odd bit of irony, several months before his father was assassinated, RTL was actually saved from death after falling from a train platform by Edwin Boothe, brother of John Wilkes Boothe.

well not clicking the link but I think we all know who the biggest loser was that is none other then George W Bush. he was always trying to to impress his daddy has any one here ever watched W it is a funny show and man if that show had any truth at all to it then my four year old daughter could become president and do much better job then he did.