QUIZ: How Well Do You Know Your U.S. Presidents?

From the silly to the scandalous, see how well-versed you are in the antics of our 44 commanders in chief.

1. 1. Which president was so tiny, he probably could have shopped at a sample sale?

   1. Via: Getty Images James Garfield
   2. Via: Getty Images James Madison

   James Madison

   Via: images.fineartamerica.com

   James Madison (1751–1836) was a munchkin of a president at 5’4”, and only 100 lbs.

2. 2. Which president was a phone-rejecting Luddite?

   1. Via: Reuters Calvin Coolidge
   2. Warren Harding

   Calvin Coolidge

   President Coolidge (1872–1933) famously refused to use the telephone for presidential business. The first telephone was installed by Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 — 46 years before President Coolidge took office. Talk about a slow adopter!

3. 3. Which president served the shortest term in office?

   1. Via: Getty Images James A. Garfield
   2. Via: Getty Images William Henry Harrison

   William Henry Harrison

   Via: cornelluniversitylibrary

   William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) was America’s ninth president for a measly 31 days before succumbing to pneumonia. James A. Garfield comes in at a close second for shortest term served in the White House. President Garfield was assassinated just 199 days into his presidency by Charles Guiteau, who felt cheated out of an appointment as American consul general to Paris.

4. 4. Which president was ousted from his own bedroom by the entourage of a visiting prince?

   1. Via: Getty Images James Buchanan
   2. Via: Getty Images Millard Fillmore

   James Buchanan

   Via: americangallery.wordpress.com

   According to White House lore, the Prince of Wales brought such an enormous entourage with him from Great Britain when visiting the White House in 1860 that President Buchanan (1791–1868) slept in the hallway to accommodate them. How gracious!

5. 5. Which president was a Yellowstone park ranger and a fashion model prior to his stint as president?

   1. Via: theordinarypolitical.files.wordpress.com Gerald Ford
   2. Via: rschaefer710.wordpress.com Lyndon B. Johnson

   Gerald Ford

   Via: tommcmahon.net

   Not only did 38th President Gerald Ford (1913–2006) work as a Yellowstone park ranger during the summer of 1936, but he also struck some sassy poses for Cosmo and Look in the 1940s. Who knew he was such a rustic charmer?

6. 6. Which president's father gave his own son a lackluster recommendation to accompany his college application?

   1. Richard Nixon
   2. Via: facebook.com John F. Kennedy

   John F. Kennedy

   Via: jfklibrary.org

   When JFK applied to his father’s alma mater, Harvard University, his dad Joseph wrote to the dean that “Jack has a very brilliant mind for the things in which he is interested, but is careless and lacks application in those in which he is not interested. This is, of course, a bad fault.” Even with mediocre test scores, JFK matriculated and graduated cum laude.

7. 7. Which president owned two pet dogs unimaginatively named Him and Her?

   1. Via: terrierman.com Lyndon B. Johnson
   2. Via: reagan.utexas.edu Ronald Reagan

   Lyndon B. Johnson

   Via: 2neatmagazines.com

   Lyndon B. Johnson owned five pet dogs over the course of his presidency, but beagles Him and Her were by far the most famous. He often took them for a stroll while chatting with the press corps on the White House lawn.

8. 8. Which president enjoyed the bizarre ritual of having his head rubbed with Vaseline while eating breakfast in bed?

   1. Calvin Coolidge
   2. Via: Getty Images Dwight D. Eisenhower

   Calvin Coolidge

   Via: immigratingtousa.wordpress.com

   President Coolidge (1872–1933) was a peculiar man. In addition to this odd affinity for oily head-rubbing, Pres. Coolidge also had a mechanical horse installed in the White House to keep his horseback-riding skills sharp.

9. 9. Who was this hunky commander in chief who died of alcoholism?

   Via: whitehouseresearch.org
   1. James K. Polk
   2. Franklin Pierce
   3. Millard Fillmore
   4. John Tyler
   Franklin Pierce

   Poor President Pierce (1804–1869), of New Hampshire, grew wildly unpopular after lending support to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, arguing that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery. Despite serving a disappointing single term and dying young due to alcoholism, Franklin was at least a pretty foxy failure of a president, no?

10. 10. Which president could speed-read at a rate of 2,000 words per minute?

    1. Via: PAM PRICE/AFP / Getty Images Bill Clinton
    2. Via: AP Jimmy Carter

    Jimmy Carter

    Via: Getty Images

    Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, along with about 30 White House staff members, enrolled in an evening speed-reading course offered to them by the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics company. His impressive rate of 2,000 words per minute presumably helped him keep pace with the 300 pages of material that crossed his desk every day.

11. 11. Which president was fined $20 for a speeding ticket while in office?

    1. Via: Getty Images Ulysses S. Grant
    2. Via: Getty Images Chester A. Arthur

    Ulysses S. Grant

    Via: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.02645

    Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), 18th president and famous Civil War general, was fined $20 (the equivalent of about $380 in today’s currency) for speeding on his horse and buggy in Washington. He then allegedly was forced to walk home. No special treatment, even for a war hero!

12. 12. Which of these scoundrels was arrested while in office?

    1. Via: hdl.loc.gov Franklin Pierce
    2. Via: hdl.loc.gov William McKinley

    Franklin Pierce

    Via: hdl.loc.gov

    Franklin Pierce (1804–1869) was arrested during his first year in office for running over an old woman on horseback. He was let off the hook due to insufficient evidence, but met with both political controversy and personal tragedy throughout adulthood.

13. 13. Which president was the first to attend a major league baseball game?

    1. Via: hdl.loc.gov James K. Polk
    2. Via: hdl.loc.gov Benjamin Harrison

    Benjamin Harrison

    Via: www1.coe.neu.edu

    On June 6, 1892, President Harrison (1833–1901) became the first presidential spectator at a major league baseball game. It wasn’t until 1910, however, that President Howard Taft began the tradition of having the sitting president throw the first pitch of each season.

14. 14. Who was the only president to be elected to two nonconsecutive terms?

    1. Via: hdl.loc.gov Grover Cleveland
    2. Via: hdl.loc.gov Rutherford B. Hayes

    Grover Cleveland

    Via: commons.wikimedia.org

    President Cleveland (1837–1908) was both the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. After winning the popular vote in 1888 but losing to Benjamin Harrison in the electoral college, he was renominated in 1892 and won fair and square.

15. 15. Which president was the first to own an automobile while in office?

    1. Via: commons.wikimedia.org William McKinley
    2. Via: Underwood And Underwood/Underwood And Underwood/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images / Getty Images Theodore Roosevelt

    Theodore Roosevelt

    Via: hdl.loc.gov

    While William McKinley (1843–1901) was the first president to ride in an automobile while in office, Teddy Roosevelt (1858–1919) was the first acting president in possession of a White House vehicle (a Stanley Steamer). Teddy Roosevelt supposedly still preferred to ride horses, and the White House stables were only replaced with an automobile fleet during William Howard Taft’s presidency.

16. 16. Which president frequently went skinny-dipping in the Potomac before work?

    1. Via: hdl.loc.gov John Quincy Adams
    2. Via: hdl.loc.gov James Monroe

    John Quincy Adams

    Via: moocowfanclub.com

    Sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) wasn’t the only president who enjoyed the occasional birthday-suit swim. The White House has a salacious history of presidential nude swimming, which includes LBJ, Jimmy Carter, FDR, Theodore Roosevelt, and JFK. Legend holds that female journalist Anne Royall squatted on John Quincy Adams’ clothing on the shore until he answered all her questions. What a way to get caught with your pants down…or off altogether.

QUIZ: How Well Do You Know Your U.S. Presidents?

1. Via: jpmoore
   Are you a presidential trivia wiz? Happy President’s Day!

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