12 Surprising Facts That You Didn’t Know About US Presidents

All of our high school and/or college history classes taught us plenty of important event/things associated with each our nation’s 46 Presidents throughout our country’s 244-year-old history. However, there’s a lot of interesting or little-known facts about our Presidents that many Americans probably don’t know. 

All of these interesting facts about our Nation’s Presidents featured in this article come from a variety of different categories, such as awards won (while in office or out of office), their post-Presidential careers, personal lives, and rules that all Presidents have to follow after leaving the White House, to name a couple of categories. 

Now, with all of that information being stated, let’s take a look down below and check out the following 12 Surprising Facts That You Probably Didn’t Know About US Presidents: 

1. One Former President Served On The US Supreme Court:

Out of the facts about US Presidents featured in this article, one of the most surprising ones is that William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States (POTUS), is the only person to have been elected President and serve on the Supreme Court. Taft was elected to the presidency in 1908 and served one term (1909-1913). After losing his reelection bid in 1912, Taft became a law professor at Yale. 

Taft’s tenure at Yale ended on 1921 when President William G. Harding nominated him to serve as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a position that the former President had long sought. After his confirmation, Taft served as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from July 11, 1921 – February 3, 1930, when he resigned due to poor health (Taft passed away one month and three days after his resignation). 

2. There Have Been Two Father-Son Combos To Have Held The Presidency:

Of our 46 US Presidents, there are only two Father-Son Combos who have held our nation’s highest office. John Adams (top-left) served as the 2nd President of the United States from 1797-1801 and his eldest son, John Quincy Adams (top-right), served as the 6th President of the United States from 1825-1829. George H.W. Bush (bottom-left) served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989-1993 and his eldest son, George Walker Bush (bottom-right), served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001-2009. To differentiate the two Bushes, the elder Bush was commonly referred as “Bush 41” while the younger Bush was referred as “Bush 43”. 

3. Three US Presidents Have Died On The Fourth of July:

July 4, aka Independence Day is one of the most important American holidays as it is the day that our nation declared our independence from Great Britain. A little known fact about July 4 is that it is the day that three of our nation’s Presidents passed away on. John Adams (top-right) and Thomas Jefferson (top-left), our nation’s 2nd and 3rd Presidents respectively, died on the same exact day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson passed away first and Adams died five hours later. James Monroe (bottom), the 5th US President, passed away five years later, on July 4, 1831. All three Presidents were also among our nation’s Founding Fathers. 

4. Four US Presidents Were Awarded The Nobel Peace Prize:

Since the Noble Peace Prize was established in 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. 

As of the 2020 Nobel Prize Ceremony, which was held on October 9, 2020, only four US Presidents have won the Nobel Prize: Theodore Roosevelt (top-left), who won the award in 1906; Woodrow Wilson (top-right), who won the award in 1919; Jimmy Carter (bottom-left), who won the award in 2002; and Barack Obama (bottom-right), who won the award in 2009 (which was controversial to many as Obama won the prestigious award nine months into his 1st term as President). Of the four, Carter is the only one to have won the Nobel Peace Prize after his Presidency ended. 

5. Several Vice Presidents Have Gone On To Become President of The United States:

With Joe Biden being inaugurated as the country’s 46th President (the photo below is of Biden taking the Presidential Oath), he became the fifteenth member of an exclusive club of people who went on to serve as the President of the United States after previously serving as the Vice President.  

Some of the club’s members, including Biden, ran for office after their terms as vice president ended. Others were unexpectedly sworn in as the President of the United States after the president’s resignation, assassination, or fatal illness. 

6. Gerald Ford Is The Only Man To Become Vice President and President of The United States Without Being Elected To Either Office:

Another one of the most surprising facts about US Presidents to be featured in this article is the fact that Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, is the only person to have served as both Vice President and President without being elected to either office by the Electoral College. 

After Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned due to a scandal that occurred when he was Governor of Maryland, President Richard Nixon nominated Ford, the then- House Minority Leader, to replace Agnew under the 25th Amendment. Ford was sworn in as Vice President in December 1973. On August 9, 1974, Ford was sworn in as our Nation’s 38th President after Nixon resigned due to the Watergate Scandal. 

7. Four US Presidents Never Got The Opportunity To Appoint A Supreme Court Justice While In Office:

Of our first 45 Presidents (Note: President Joe Biden, whose presidency began on January 20, 2021, 3 days prior to this article being written), only four never got the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court Justice while in office. Those Four Presidents are William Henry Harrison, the 9th POTUS; Zachary Taylor, the 12th POTUS; Andrew Johnson, the 17th POTUS, and Jimmy Carter, the 39th POTUS. 

After Amy Comey Barrett’s controversial nomination (which was 35 days before the 2020 Election), and subsequent confirmation (a week before the 2020 election), will Joe Biden, the current POTUS, get an opportunity to appoint at least one justice onto the Supreme Court during his presidency? 

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8. Martin van Buren is The Country’s First President To Have Been Born In The United States:

According to the US Constitution, a person must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for at least 14 years, and at least 35 years old. Our nation’s first seven Presidents were born before the United States was a sovereign nation. As a result, that makes Martin Van Buren, our nation’s 8th President, was the first president born and raised entirely as a US citizen. 

9. Three US Presidents Have Won A Grammy:

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter (on the left), Bill Clinton (middle), and Barack Obama (on the right) are the only Presidents to have won a Grammy Award. All three won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album multiple times. Carter has won the award three times (from nine nominations). On the other hand, Clinton (from four nominations) and Obama (from two nominations) have won the award two times each. 

10. James Buchanan is The Only Bachelor President:

Of our nation’s 46 Presidents, only one was a bachelor: James Buchanan, the 15th Presidents of the United States. Buchanan was a lifelong bachelor whom historians speculate might had a romantic relationship with William Rufus DeVane King, former Vice President under Franklin Pierce and a former US Senator from Alabama. If this rumor is true, it would make Buchanan the first gay President. 

11. Former Presidents Cannot Receive Any Private Mail:

There are several rules that all Presidents must follow after they leave the White House. Some of the most well-known of these rules include being barred from  running for President again (this rule only applies to two-term Presidents) and not driving on public roads.

One of the most little-known of these rules that former Presidents must follow is allowing the Secret Service to screen/inspect all of their mail. According to an article by NPR, the screenings take place at an “off-site location, …. where they have available a number of different sensors that detect biosensors, radiation and other known gases. And in this case, if it was a pipe bomb, it would have been easily detected in an X-ray machine or a trace detection machine on-site.”

The reason for this rule is to keep these threats far away from former Presidents. After the October 2018 US Mail Bombing Attempts, it is a great thing that this rule barring former US Presidents from receiving any private mail was established. Cesar Sayoc Jr., the perpetrator, sent sixteen packages found to contain pipe bombs via the US Postal Service to several Democratic Party politicians and other prominent critics of then-US President Donald Trump. Among the targets of these packages included our nation’s newest President Joe Biden and former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. 

12. After Leaving Office, Former Presidents Have Secret Service Protection For The Rest of Their Lives:

The second of the two rules featured in this article is that all Presidents receive Secret Service Protection for the rest of their Lives. Former First Ladies are also entitled to receive Secret Service Protection for their rest of their lives as well, even if their husbands perish before them. However, if a former First Lady divorces and/or remarries, she loses her Secret Service protection, like Jackie Kennedy did when she wed Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Former First Children are also entitled to this benefit until they turn 16-years-old. As for former vice presidents, they only receive (by the law), Secret Service Protection for six months after leaving office.

Besides the ones listed above, are there any other surprising facts about US Presidents that you would like to share? Feel free to share  which facts and Presidents they are about down below in the comments section!

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