Fun presidential facts

Apparently Herbert Hoover and his wife were both fluent in Mandarin Chinese. They would speak it to each other in the White House when they wanted to keep their conversations private.
Any other fun presidential facts? I love shit like this.

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Obama was the first black president

Probably one of my favorites:
Andrew Jackson had a grey parrot which was present at his funeral. The parrot loudly swore nonstop through the ceremony and it had to be removed.

Ulysses S. Grant's birth name was actually "Hiram". He adopted Ulysses as his first name (it used to be his middle name) when Congressman Hamer accidentally wrote it as his first name while nominating him for the military academy. He probably preferred it this way; his nickname became "Sam" among army colleagues at the academy, since his initials were U.S. Grant. Otherwise his initials would've been the less-intimidating H.U.G. During the war he got nicknamed "Unconditional Surrender" Grant following his victory at Fort Donelson.

Also, though the S didn't stand for anything according to Grant, Hamer wrote it down as "Simpson".

Hoover was also present at the Tianjin legations during the Boxer siege and responsible for making sure Germany didn't completely fucking starve to death in the immediate aftermath of WWI. I don't have any other fun President facts, but Vice President Charles Dawes of Dawes Plan fame was an accomplished composer and is the only Vice President and U.S. General credited with a #1 hit.

Martin Van Buren is, to our knowledge, the only president who didn't speak English as his first language.

That's cool. Grant was also the last president to own slaves.

But they were happy slaves

Grant owned one slave: a thirty-five-year-old man named William Jones, left behind by his father-in-law. A few months later, Grant freed Jones, who was 35 years old and worth about $1,500, instead of selling him at a time when Grant desperately needed money.

James Garfield could write Greek and Latin with each hand at the same time.

McKinley's wife suffered from a debilitating psychological problem that demanded persistent attention from her husband to keep her from having fits. She would occasionally have these fits at presidential dinners and McKinley would gently drape a napkin over her face to keep the guests from gawking at her and to maintain her dignity. He was adamant that nobody mention her peculiarities in his presence, he wanted everyone to treat her as if she was completely normal for her sake.

interesting, I wonder if this is only a tall tale.

I'm sure a sedate service for the dead being interwoven with the scurrilous ravings of his own pet bird is just how Jackson would have wanted it

obama was mulatto and was black to the extent that his skin was brown. his lineage doesn't even have roots in african american culture because his dad was kenyan. besides that he was culturally white because he was raised my his white mom and grandparents

>would gently drape a napkin over her face to keep the guests from gawking at her and to maintain her dignity
>drape a napkin over her face
>maintain her dignity

The parrots name was pol if i remember correctly.
He truly is /their/ guy.

they were like mild epileptic fits or something. she would have been drooling, mouth gaping, eyes peeled back, that sort of thing. So yeah, it's a bit more dignified than that.

He's also the only president that isn't related to William the Conqueror. Even Obama was. (don't know about Trump.)

Thomas Jefferson raped his slaves.

Probably not. Trump is of German lineage, not anglo. I'm skeptical that Kennedy was as well. The claim is likely bogus.

Americans generally follow the one drop policy.

He was also the first president of non-British ancestry.

Wasn't that common for educated men at the time, though?

It's not so much the Latin/Greek thing, but that he could write them both at the same time, using both hands.

Being able to write ambedextrously is already a decent talent. Doing so at the same time in two different languages is a rarity.

>he was culturally white because he was raised my his white mom and grandparents


But he hung out and associated with blacks.

Buchanan was a queer and sucked cocks.

John Quincy is the earliest president to have been photgraphed.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826.

The "Taft was so fat that he got stuck in the bathtub in the White House" rumor is false and likely based on him replacing the old bathtub.

*John Quincy Adams

The "S" of Harry S. Truman doesn't mean anything, it's just a letter

Quincy is pronounced Quinn-zee because new Englanders are weird.

>sucked cocks
Is there any proof of that? I know it was widely suspected and whispered about. Even Jackson got in on it. But is there any proof of a dalliance with another man?

Imagine being there

No.

He also invented Hooverball.

youtube.com/watch?v=TPum5o5fvsI