Celebrate President's Day With These Fun Presidential Facts

It’s easy to forget about many of the things that our nation’s presidents have done for our country, and we often forget that our presidents are faced with different challenges and situations on a daily basis. For these reasons, it is with great honor that we celebrate President’s Day on the third Monday in February to honor George Washington’s birthday.

Fun Facts For The Day

This year, President’s Day falls on Feb. 16. All across the nation, from Washington, D.C. to Oakland, people will be celebrating our nation’s history. If you are home with your children in honor of President’s Day, it could be a great educational experience for your children to learn a little more about our nation’s presidents.

Here at Wheels For Wishes, we have put together a list of fun presidential facts that could strike up some interesting conversations in your home!

1. Only one president has ever been unanimously elected: George Washington. Washington also refused to take a salary for his position and took the office without pay.
2. George Washington didn’t have enough money to get his own inauguration, so he borrowed $600 from his neighbor to pay for it.
3. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin, so when John Lloyd Wright invented a new building toy, he named them Lincoln Logs in honor of the 16th president.
4. The popular children’s toy, “Teddy Bears” are also named after a U.S. President, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt. As the story is told, Roosevelt one day refused to shoot a small bear cub, which inspired a toy manufacturer to invent the small stuffed animal and one of the most popular children’s snuggle buddies of all time!
5. Harry S. Truman’s parents couldn’t decide between two middle names, so they decided his middle name would just be “S”! The “S” is in honor of family members of both his mother and his father.
6. Every member of Teddy Roosevelt’s family owned and occasionally used a pair of stilts, from his children to the first lady.
7. Teddy Roosevelt was tough as nails. During a speech in Milwaukee, he was shot in the chest, but continued to deliver his speech with the would-be assassin’s bullet in his chest.
8. The first president to ever talk on the phone was James Abram Garfield, who spoke with the telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Bell was 13 miles away when the phone call was placed.
9. Many believe the term “ok” derives from President Martin Van Buren’s nickname – Old Kinderhook. Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook because he grew up in Kinderhook, N.Y. where “O.K.” clubs were created to support the presidential candidate.
10. All presidents before Martin Van Buren were British subjects.
11. George Washington was the only president who didn’t represent a political party. Washington never even lived in the White House! During his presidency, the White House was located in Philadelphia among a few other cities.
12. Only one president was ever elected to two non-consecutive terms – President Grover Cleveland. He was the 22^nd and 24^th president.
13. The shortest president of the United States, standing just 5-feet 4-inches tall and never weighing more than 100 lbs. was James Madison.
14. Don’t like long speeches? Then you would have loved George Washington. He delivered the shortest inauguration speech on record, at just 133 words and less than two minutes long!
15. On the other side of the spectrum, William Henry Harrison gave the longest inauguration speech in history at 8,578 words long. That speech lasted one hour and 40 minutes and was given during bad weather. A month later Harrison died from pneumonia, making his presidential term the shortest in history!
16. There have been six presidents named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.
17. Three presidents have died July 4: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), and James Monroe (1831). Calvin Coolidge is the only president who was born on the Fourth (1872).
18. James Garfield was ambidextrous. He could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously.
19. While we tend to think of presidents as the most elite Americans, many have humble beginnings. Herbert Hoover was an orphan whose first job was to pick bugs off potato plants. He also worked in a mine before becoming president during one of the most difficult times in US history – The Great Depression.
20. The heaviest U.S. President was William Howard Taft. “Big Bill” would often get stuck in the White House bathtub and would have to be pried out by his advisors.
21. Were you always taught George Washington was the first president of the United States? Some historians might dispute that, claiming that John Hanson was actually the forgotten first president of the United States, since he was the first president named under the Articles of the Confederation.
22. Not every president attended college. In fact, Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman all became president without a college degree. Only Harry Truman became president during the 20th century without a college degree.
23. No president has ever been an only child.
24. The first president to be photographed during his inauguration was Abraham Lincoln. In his inauguration photo, Lincoln is standing near John Wilkes Booth, the man who would eventually assassinate Lincoln.
25. Abraham Lincoln is the tallest US president so far, at 6-foot 4-inches and weighing 180 lbs.

Make A Difference In Our Country Through Car Donation

Our nation’s presidents have had to make difficult decisions for the sake of the country that they love, and each and every president has helped to make a positive impact in some way or another. You can help to make a positive impact on our nation’s children by donating your car, truck, boat, or motorcycle in honor or President’s Day.

Donate your vehicle to Wheels For Wishes, benefiting Make-A-Wish, and help to grant a wish for a local child in your community. You may not be the President of the United States, but you can still be a hero in the life of a local child when you donate a car. To donate, please call 1-855-278-9474 or fill out our online vehicle donation form. Your car donation truly makes a difference in the lives of local children.

Thanks to Make-A-Wish, Wish Kid Sterling wished to be the President of the United States of America, and his wish was granted! Wish Kid Janiya even had a chance to meet President Obama, thanks to Make-A-Wish!

Donate your car to give Wish Kids a chance to meet whoever they may wish – wishes are only limited by a child’s imagination.