Presidential Firsts Trivia

By Paula Green

Welcome to our 21st year in the 21st century! This month we celebrate firsts and commemorate President’s Day (February 15), and we will focus on presidential firsts. George Washington, whose birthday was February 22, was our first commander-inchief. Washington was the first president to win the election unanimously since no candidates opposed him in 1789.

Our second president, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, were the first to reside in the White House, and they moved in on November 1, 1800. Their son, John Quincy Adams, who served as our sixth president was the first to marry a woman (Louisa) born outside the United States. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington on March 4, 1801.

Our fifth president, James Monroe was the first senator to be elected president. Martin Van Buren was the first man born a U.S. citizen to hold presidential office. The seven previous presidents were born before 1776, and were colonial subjects of Great Britain.

Zachary Taylor was the first commander-in-chief to have held no prior elected office. Abraham Lincoln was the first to be photographed at his inauguration on March 4, 1861, in Washington D.C.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first sitting president to take a trip abroad when he and his wife went to Panama to check out construction on the Panama Canal in 1906. A month later, he became the first president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His distant cousin Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to appear on television. FDR was also the first president to nominate a woman to a cabinet position.

John Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic president. Barack Obama was the first black president. Ronald Reagan was the first president to wear contact lenses. He also was the first and only president to have headed a union - the Screen Actors’ Guild from 1947 to 1952.

Richard Nixon was the first president to resign. Our 40th president, Gerald Ford, succeeded to the presidency on President Richard Nixon’s resignation, under the process of the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Ford became the country’s first and only chief executive who had not been elected president or vice president.

In 1849, our 11th President, James Polk, finished his office term at noon on Sunday, March 4. The president-elect Zachary Taylor a devout Christian, refused to take office or be sworn in on a Sunday, the Sabbath Day. David Atchison became interim President for a 24-hour

period, even though he was never elected to the office.

Since we have looked at “Presidential Firsts” let’s now delve into this initial commander-in-chief query, get set to don those thinking caps, because it’s time to get a little trivial.

1. Who was the first president not to have been a founding father?

2. Three presidents died on July 4 – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson (both 1826), and James Madison (1831). Who was our first and only president to be born on the 4th of July?

3. Who was the first president to die in office?

4. Which president was the first to be born in a hospital?

5. Name the first president to ride in an airplane and submarine.

6. He was the first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms?

7. This U.S. president was our first and only bachelor to hold office.

8. He served as our first Republican president.

9. Name the first president to serve who was in his 70s when he took office.

10. Who was the first president to have women vote for him?

11. He was our first left-handed president and the first to use air conditioning.

12. Who was the first president to also serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?

13. Which commander-in-chief was our first divorced president?

14. He was the first president to have a Ph.D.

15. Name the first U.S. president to be born in the 20th century.

Sources: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/ ten-facts-about-washingtons-presidency/, https://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/ World/Which-US-President-Was-First-To--381343.html, https://www.rd.com/ list/surprising-presidential-firsts/, https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/lifestyle/2020/09/20/ask-jerry-trivia-quiz-of-presidential-firsts/114089828/, https:// www.britannica.com/quiz/us-presidential-firsts, https://kidsdiscover.com/quickreads/theodore-roosevelts-amazing-list-firsts/, https://timeline.com/us-presidentfirsts-e90bbfc72743