Follow U.S. investment immigration and listen to American stories: Presidents are human too. Behind their political dominance, there are many little-known anecdotes and quirks.
They are not only the leaders of the United States of America, but they are also multi-talented, unique, and sometimes even quite eccentric. We are all familiar with their contributions to American history. But do you know the following facts?
1. The 6th U.S. President, John Quincy Adams, had a habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River before dawn when the weather was hot.
2. The 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison, delivered the longest inaugural address in U.S. presidential history. Because the weather was extremely cold on the day of the inauguration, President Harrison caught a cold that quickly developed into pneumonia. He passed away just one month into his term, becoming the U.S. president with the shortest tenure in history.
3. The 10th U.S. President, John Tyler, was a father of fifteen children (the most of any U.S. president)—eight with his first wife and seven with his second. President Tyler's fifteenth child was born on his seventieth birthday.
4. The 11th U.S. President, James K. Polk, underwent gallbladder surgery at the age of seventeen without anesthesia, relying on brandy to endure the procedure.
5. The 15th U.S. President, James Buchanan, was the only unmarried president. He had been engaged, but after the engagement was broken off, his fiancée died suddenly, and he remained single for the rest of his life.
6. In many photographs, the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, is seen wearing a tall black top hat. In fact, he often kept letters, bills, and notes inside his hat.
7. The 17th U.S. President, Andrew Johnson, never attended school. When he was seventeen, Eliza McCardle, who later became his wife, taught him how to write. (Another fact about Johnson: he made all of his own suits.)
8. The 18th U.S. President, Ulysses S. Grant, died of throat cancer. Throughout his life, he smoked an average of twenty cigars a day.
9. The 20th U.S. President, James A. Garfield, was ambidextrous and proficient in multiple languages, which allowed him to write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other simultaneously.
10. The 22nd and 24th U.S. President, Grover Cleveland, secretly underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his upper jaw on a yacht in 1893.
11. The famous American toy, the Teddy Bear, was named after the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt (whose nickname was Teddy). While hunting in Mississippi, Roosevelt encountered a mother bear but refused to shoot it because it was with a cub, and he let it go.
12. The 27th U.S. President, William Howard Taft, weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg), and the White House had a special extra-large bathtub installed for his use.
13. The 29th U.S. President, Warren G. Harding, played poker at least twice a week and would lose at least one full set of White House china. His advisors played with him, earning them the nickname the "Poker Cabinet."
14. The 30th U.S. President, Calvin Coolidge, suffered from chronic stomach issues and needed to sleep 10 to 11 hours every night, in addition to taking afternoon naps.
15. The 31st U.S. President, Herbert Hoover, published at least 16 books, one of which was titled "Fishing for Fun—and to Wash Your Soul."
16. The 32nd U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was related to 11 former U.S. presidents.
17. The 33rd U.S. President, Harry S. Truman, had a middle name consisting of only the letter S, because both his paternal and maternal grandfathers had names starting with the letter S.
18. The 34th U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, loved to cook. He developed a vegetable soup recipe that was 894 words long and included nasturtium stems as an ingredient.
19. The 40th U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, broke the "20-year presidential death curse," which held that any president elected in a year ending in 0 would die in office.
20. The 43rd U.S. President, George W. Bush, and his wife, Laura, were married after knowing each other for only three months.