[Extra] Presidential Paper

 History can seem somewhat boring to most students, but they have not been able to experience the fun side of history. Everyone just needs to find the spot in history which interests them. I personally am interested by presidential knowledge, so I am going to share some fun facts about presidents to prove it can be interesting. I had to present a topic in my Human Communications class and I chose presidents. This is a better explanation for that presentation.

Presidents have been known for having weird pets. Back when John Quincy Adams was president, his friend, Marquis de Lafayette, gifted him a pet alligator. Adams did not really know what to do with this present, so he gave the alligator its own bathroom for a bathtub. Adams was known for scaring people by sending them to that bathroom.

Photoshopped picture of John Q. Adams with his alligator.

Andrew Jackson was known for being a pretty vulgar president and not as formal. He swore fairly often, but he also had a pet parrot. Parrots are notorious for repeating what they here and speaking. Yep, you guessed it, Jackson had a swearing parrot as his pet. After Jackson's death, the parrot was brought to the funeral, but the parrot had to be taken away from how vulgar it was being.

Photoshopped picture of Jackson with his swearing parrot

Martin Van Buren was donated two tiger cubs by Kabul al Said, who was the Sultan of Oman. Congress told Van Buren that he should donate it to a zoo because there was no reason for him to have tigers. Van Buren fought to keep them, but the tigers were donated because Congress ruled that it was more of a gift to the United States than a gift to the President.

Martin Van Buren

Calvin Coolidge was a president with many fun pets. They had a lot of dogs, cats, birds, and raccoons.... Yep Coolidge had a raccoon named Rebecca that was cherished by the family. It even ate Thanksgiving dinner with them. For more pets, the family had, a black bear, a kangaroo, twin lion cubs, a small antelope, and ducks.

First Lady Grace Coolidge with their raccoon, Rebecca

Even though it is exciting to see what kind of animals that presidents own, there are plenty of fun facts about the presidents themselves. For example, William Henry Harrison holds the record for giving the longest inaugural address in history. His speech lasted a good 105 minutes. This is quite ironic because he is also the president who holds the record for the shortest term held. He died of pneumonia a month into office.

William Henry Harrison

Theodore Roosevelt holds the record for the most handshakes in one day because it used to be common for presidents to shake hands with people whenever they wanted. It is more of a safety concern nowadays. Roosevelt's distant relative, FDR also holds the record for the most terms held by any president. This record cannot be broken because there is a limit of 10 years, or 2.5 terms held by a law now. At the time, FDR was elected for 4 terms, but he only completed 3. The law was added with the 22nd Amendment which was not in effect during FDR's presidency.

FDR (left) Theodore Roosevelt (right)

William Howard Taft is best known for being a big guy. He is a president just after the "Forgettable Presidents Era." Most people forget about him still, but the main thing he is recognized for is getting stuck in a bathtub. This funny story comes up anytime people think of this historical figure. BUT, it is not actually true.... Taft never actually got stuck in his bathtub, however, he did have a custom built bathtub because of his size. He also is the only president to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

William Howard Taft

Many presidents are known by their full name and middle initial. Whether it's John F. Kennedy or John Q. Adams, middle initials can help a president stick out. Harry S Truman is quite different however. The S does not actually stand for anything. It is just a letter. When giving the oath of office, Chief Justice Harlan Stone mistook the "S" in Truman's name to be his mother's maiden name. Truman made Stone restart the oath of office to get his name correct.

Harry S Truman

James Buchanan, who is my least favorite president, is the only president who never got married. Instead of having a wife to serve as first lady, Buchanan's niece, Harriet Lane, did the job. Woodrow Wilson, is the only president to be buried in Washington D.C.. 

There have been 46 presidents, 45 completed presidencies, and of those 46, 8 have died in office. 4 of those 8 were assassinated and the others died of natural causes. One of the presidents who was assassinated was William McKinley. He was shaking hands with citizens as I mentioned was common earlier. A little girl came up to shake his hand and commented on his lucky flower that he had. She said that she liked it. McKinley decided to give her the "lucky" flower, but the next person in line to shake his hand, shot him.

William McKinley

Andrew Jackson was almost assassinated, but luckily survived. His assassin walked up behind him and shot his gun twice, however, the gun misfired. Jackson, in self defense, attacked his killer with a cain. Jackson repeatedly his the gunman with his cain so much that people had to pull him away. Jackson would have killed him even when his gun was dropped and the man was broken. The man was taken to the hospital to save his life, but then was put on death row as his punishment.

Jackson's attempted assassination

Franklin Pierce is seen as one of the worst presidents, but why is that? Maybe he actually is. Well it may be true, but he was not completely paying attention during his presidency. On the way to his inauguration, his family was riding a train. The train derailed and Pierce and his wife watched one of their sons get decapitated in front of them. This made them extremely depressed for the rest of their lives. It is said that Pierce's wife brought darkness with her everywhere she went. She would normally sit in the dark and cry. Pierce signed the Fugitive Slave Act, but he was endorsed to when he was kind of out of it.

Franklin Pierce

Finally, I want to talk about James A. Garfield. When Garfield was elected, the Republican party was split between the Stalwarts and the Half-breeds. Garfield was a Half-breed. Basically that means that he wanted to reform the system of assigning people in government. Before, the people assigned in the cabinets and as ambassadors were friends of the president or people who donated to their campaign. The Stalwarts wanted to keep that system. Chester A. Arthur was the Vice President chosen because he was a Stalwart and they wanted the votes of both groups.

James A. Garfield

When Garfield won his seat as president, a man named Charles Guiteau wanted to be an ambassador. He had donated to the new president's campaign and thought he deserved a position. After being denied a position, Guiteau went home and claimed the God talked to him. Apparently, God told him that Arthur needs to be the president no matter what. So, after stalking President Garfield, Guiteau went up to him and shot him multiple times. Before shooting him, Guiteau yelled, "This is for the Stalwarts, and this is for Arthur!" Arthur, confused about his name being mentioned, went into hiding while Garfield was taken to the hospital. 

Garfield's assassination

Garfield fell into a coma. The doctors at the time, did not accept germ theory and were not careful about cleaning while doing surgery. They also fed him unhealthy food in his coma because they thought that they should feed him food that a president should eat. Garfield ended up dying of infection from the ignored germs. Doctors and historians today say that Garfield should have survived.