Legacy of the Strange

It’s another “Super” Tuesday, and a big one for the Democrats (d’uh). This year the party will have a historic first for a candidate, a new and different look for the whole country. Whatever happens, it’s gonna be kind of weird at first. In light of that, I thought I’d take a look back at some other weird-o’s who actually made it to the presidency, and share a little trivia, with the hopes of giving a little advice to the potential candidate to help them round off that shinny new persona they’ve spent all these months perfecting.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go:

James Monroe, 5th President: 1817-1825
first president to ride a steamboat.

William McKinley, 25th President: 1897-1901
First president to ride in a car.

William H. Taft, 27th President: 1909-1913
First president to own a car.

Harry S. Truman, 33rd President: 1945-1953
-first president to travel underwater in a submarine.
-first president to give a speech on television.
-used to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning to practice the piano for two hours.

Richard Nixon, 37th President: 1969-1974
talked to astronauts on the moon from the White House by radio-telephone on July 21, 1969.

Oh, The Things You Will See:

James Madison, 4th President: 1809-1817
first president to wear trousers rather than knee breeches.

John Quincy Adams, 6th President: 1825-1829
regularly swam nude in the Potomac River. The first American professional journalist, Anne Royall, knew of Adams’ 5:00 a.m. swims. After being refused interviews with Adams many times, she went to the river, gathered his clothes and sat on them until she had her interview. Before this, no female had interviewed a president.

Warren G. Harding, 29th President: 1921-1923
largest feet of any president. He wore size 14 shoes.

Millard Fillmore, 13th President: 1850-1853
Fillmore and his cabinet helped fight the Library Congress fire of 1851.

James Buchanan, 15th President: 1857-1861
When England’s Prince of Wales visited the White House in 1860, so many guests accompanied him that Buchanan had to sleep in the hall.

But don’t worry my dear candidates, if this stuff just isn’t enough to secure your name in the history books, here are some footsteps you can follow which have established what I call,

The Legacy of the Super Weird:

William Henry Harrison, 9th President: 1841-1841
Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address, and was the first president to die in office, about 32 days after elected. On March 4, he gave a 105 minute speech and did not wear an overcoat or hat. He developed pneumonia and died in the White House exactly one month after giving his speech, on April 4.

Zachary Taylor, 12th President: 1849-1850
Zachary Taylor received his nomination for presidency late because he refused all postage due correspondences.

Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President: 1877-1881
banished liquor and wine from the White House.

Grover Cleveland, 22nd President: 1885-1889
personally answered the White House phone.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President: 1923-1929
refused to use the telephone while in office.

Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President: 1889-1893
Benjamin Harrison was the first president to use electricity in the White House. After he got an electrical shock, his family often refused to touch the light switches and sometimes would go to bed with the lights on.

source: US Department of the Interior