You know how they say “truth is stranger than fiction”? We think this is why it’s fun to learn facts, especially unusual ones—they’re interesting because they’re true! This Presidents’ Day, inspire a love of facts in your students by presenting some fun facts about the interesting men who have run our country. 

The World Almanac® for Kids Elementary and The World Almanac® for Kids both feature lots of fun facts for elementary and middle school students. Here are just some of the ones you can find.

John F. Kennedy and Calvin Coolidge’s Amazing Menageries of Pets

The animals that have called the White House home range from cats and dogs to hippos and bears.

The Kennedys brought a small zoo with them to the White House. There were several dogs and horses, a rabbit, hamsters, parakeets, and cats that lived with the family. First daughter Caroline Kennedy’s Shetland pony, Macaroni, was allowed to wander freely on the White House lawn.

The Coolidges also loved animals, especially First Lady Grace Coolidge. They had five dogs, a cat, a bear, two lions, a goose, a bobcat, an antelope, a wallaby, and a pygmy hippo, as well as a raccoon named Rebecca.

Presidents and Sports

• While president, Theodore Roosevelt once impressed a Japanese delegation with his jujitsu skills, which he started learning as a young boy to strengthen and improve his health. He had struggled with severe asthma (a lung condition that makes breathing difficult) but realized that a healthy exercise regimen helped minimize asthma attacks.
• William H. Taft was especially enthusiastic about golf. He was the first president to play it, and sparked a surge of interest in the game, as well as many critics who felt he should play less golf and do more work. Taft was also the first president to begin the tradition of throwing out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game. He threw a ball from his seat to Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson on April 14, 1910, which was the season opener.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower grew up wanting to pitch for the New York Yankees baseball team. He made it to the minors in the Kansas League, but eventually began a military career that led him to the presidency. Eisenhower also played football at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he once tackled legendary athlete Jim Thorpe in a game. That didn’t stop Thorpe for long, though; he ran right through Eisenhower on the following play and scored a touchdown.
• Gerald Ford gained a great deal of attention when he took over for Richard Nixon as president, but he easily could have made his name in a very different arena.  Ford was a football star in college, and was drafted by National Football League (NFL) teams the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. He turned them down to go to Yale Law School, where he was a line coach for the school’s football team.

Inauguration Fun Facts

• George Washington’s was the shortest inaugural address at 135 words.
• John Quincy Adams was the first president sworn in wearing long trousers.
• William H. Harrison’s was the longest inaugural address at 8,445 words. Despite a snowstorm, Harrison did not wear an overcoat, hat, or gloves during his nearly two-hour inaugural address. He died of pneumonia one month later.
• Abraham Lincoln was the first to include African Americans in his parade.
• Women were included for the first time in Woodrow Wilson’s second inaugural parade.
• Jimmy Carter’s inaugural parade featured solar heat for the reviewing stand and handicap-accessible viewing.
• Barack Obama had to recite the oath of office two times. During the original ceremony, Chief Justice John Roberts incorrectly recited the oath of office, so he readministered the oath the next day at the White House.

More Presidential Facts

• Only seven presidents were left-handed: James A. Garfield, Harry S. Truman, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
• Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president in history at 6 feet, 4 inches. James Madison was the shortest at 5 feet, 4 inches.
• James Garfield was very well educated. He had a funny way of entertaining others: he would write Greek with his right hand, Latin with his left, and speak in German—all at the same time.
• Theodore Roosevelt was once shot on the way to a campaign event. Still, he went to the event, instead of heading to the hospital. Roosevelt was bleeding through his shirt, but managed to give a 50-minute speech to the audience.
• Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry, lived in China as newlyweds, and had even witnessed the Boxer Rebellion, a violent uprising of Chinese peasants against Christians and foreigners, in 1900. Years later, the two would speak Mandarin Chinese to each other whenever they didn’t want other people to hear their conversation.
• Richard Nixon’s signature is on the moon, alongside the names of the astronauts of Apollo 11. A plaque left behind on the moon carries the names and signatures of the astronauts and the president, along with a quote that says: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon in July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
• Ronald Reagan spent seven summers as a lifeguard at Lowell Park on Rock River in Dixon, Illinois. He reportedly saved 77 swimmers there in the late 1920s, and a plaque now commemorates his time there.

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Want more in-depth information about the presidents? The World Almanac for Kids features book-length biographies for presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump. 

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