Presidential puzzlers

1. Who was the youngest president at the time of his inauguration?

a. Bill Clinton

b. John F. Kennedy

c. Theodore Roosevelt

d. Thomas Jefferson

2. Which state has the best and which has the worst record when it comes to choosing who ultimately wins in presidential elections?

a. Alabama

b. Ohio

c. Illinois

d. Mississippi

e. New Mexico

f. Florida

3. Which president is the only one to have run unopposed?

a. Grover Cleveland

b. James Monroe

c. Theodore Roosevelt

d. Martin Van Buren

4. Which of these presidents won with the smallest percentage of votes in the general election?

a. John Quincy Adams

b. Rutherford B. Hayes

c. Herbert Hoover

d. George W. Bush

5. Who was the only president to serve as speaker of the House?

a. Gerald R. Ford

b. John F. Kennedy

c. James K. Polk

d. Harry S. Truman

6. Who was the only president to serve on the Supreme Court?

a. Andrew Jackson

b. Andrew Johnson

c. Calvin Coolidge

d. William Taft

7. Match the president with the first president for whom he was eligible to vote:

___ Bill Clinton

___ Dwight D. Eisenhower

___ Ulysses S. Grant

___ William Henry Harrison

___ John F. Kennedy

___ Abraham Lincoln

___ Ronald Reagan

___ Martin Van Buren

... first voted for:

a. John Adams

b. Thomas Jefferson (2nd term)

c. Andrew Jackson (2nd term)

d. James K. Polk

e. Woodrow Wilson

f. Franklin D. Roosevelt

g. Franklin D. Roosevelt (3rd term)

h. Richard M. Nixon

8. Only one president was both preceded and succeeded by the same other president. Who was it? Bonus: Who preceded and succeeded him?

9. Put these four pairs of presidents in order, from most closely related to least:

a. John Adams and John Quincy Adams

b. Andrew Johnson and Lyndon B. Johnson

c. James Madison and Zachary Taylor

d. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

10. Which president was born on the Fourth of July?

a. Lyndon B. Johnson

b. Rutherford B. Hayes

c. Woodrow Wilson

d. Calvin Coolidge

11. Which three presidents died on the Fourth of July?

a. Thomas Jefferson

b. James Madison

c. Woodrow Wilson

d. John Adams

e. James Monroe

f. Dwight D. Eisenhower

12. Who was the only president to be sworn into office by a woman?

a. John F. Kennedy

b. Lyndon B. Johnson

c. Richard M. Nixon

d. Gerald R. Ford

13. Who is the only president buried in Washington?

a. John F. Kennedy

b. Franklin D. Roosevelt

c. Harry S. Truman

d. George Washington

e. Woodrow Wilson

14. In which cities other than Washington have presidents been inaugurated?

a. Buffalo, N.Y.

b. Dallas

c. New York

d. Philadelphia

e. Plymouth, Vt.

15. Which president’s vice president was sworn into office in Cuba?

a. Theodore Roosevelt

b. James Monroe

c. Franklin Pierce

d. Andrew Jackson

16. Which president was a POW?

a. Ulysses S. Grant

b. George H.W. Bush

c. George Washington

d. Andrew Jackson

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ANSWERS:

1, c. Theodore Roosevelt. He was two months shy of his 43rd birthday when William McKinley died, elevating Roosevelt, then vice president, to the presidency. (Kennedy was the youngest elected president, but he was 43 years, 236 days old when he was inaugurated.)

2, e & a. New Mexico has the best record. Since statehood in 1912, it has voted for the winner in 22 of 24 elections. Worst: Alabama, which selected the winner in only 24 of the 46 elections in which its citizens have participated.

3, b. James Monroe. A Republican, Monroe practiced unity politics through his first term and had no challenger when he ran for reelection in 1820.

4, a. In 1824, John Quincy Adams received only 30% of the popular vote and 32% of the electoral vote. (George W. Bush won with 47.87% of the popular vote in 2000; Al Gore lost with 48.38%.) Because no candidate had a majority in the four-way 1824 race, the House of Representatives was forced to choose, and it opted for Adams.

5, c. James K. Polk. (Gerald R. Ford was House minority leader when Richard M. Nixon chose him to be vice president.)

6, d. William Taft.

7:

h - Bill Clinton

e - Dwight D. Eisenhower

d - Ulysses S. Grant

a - William Henry Harrison

g - John F. Kennedy

c - Abraham Lincoln

f - Ronald Reagan

b - Martin Van Buren

8. Benjamin Harrison. Bonus: Grover Cleveland

9, a, c, d, b. John Adams was John Quincy Adams’ father. James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were fifth cousins. Andrew Johnson and Lyndon B. Johnson were unrelated.

10, d. Calvin Coolidge. Born July 4, 1872.

11, a,d,& e. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. James Monroe died on July 4, 1831.

12, b. Lyndon B. Johnson. Following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One by federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes.

13, e. Woodrow Wilson. He is buried in the National Cathedral.

14. All of them. New York and Philadelphia served as the capital before Washington. The others were the sites where vice presidents were sworn in on the deaths of various presidents.

15, c. Franklin Pierce. His running mate, Sen. William Rufus DeVane King of Alabama, suffered from tuberculosis when he was elected vice president in 1852. After the election, he went to Cuba, hoping the change of climate would help. A special act of Congress allowed him to take the oath of office on foreign soil, on March 24, 1853 (three weeks after inauguration day). King returned to Alabama in early April but died within days, on April 18, 1853, at 67. He was the only national officeholder to be sworn in on foreign soil, and the only one to never serve in the capital.

16, d. Andrew Jackson. He was a 14-year-old messenger during the Revolutionary War when he was captured by the British and held for two weeks.