Family Life

02.16.09 | FL News Team

Gerald Ford had a dog named Liberty. John Adams was first to live in the White House. Today's the day Americans celebrate their presidents, though the federal government still recognizes it only as Washington's birthday. Most states toss in Lincoln's birthday too, but why stop there?

As long as the kids are stuck at home with no school, there are plenty of places online to educate them about all 43 men who've served in the post. The numbers go up to 44, of course, but that's only because Grover Cleveland gets counted twice, at 22 and 24.

Then again, see for yourself at the revamped White House website, whitehouse.gov, which features a slideshow of all of them. The site displays biographies of them all too, or skip that and head over to the musical version.

At whitehousehistory.org is a podcast of the American presidents, each one given his own rhyme. A sample verse goes, quote, "Thirty-seven, Nixon went far, opening China and the USSR." 

It was the brainchild of Genevieve Madeline Ryan, whose dad asked her to memorize the presidents for father's day one year. The now-19-year-old came up with mnemonic devises for the whole list and the National Symphony Orchestra set it to music. And the presidential pooches can be found at the history site too.

For something a little more abstract, the "New York Times" has an interactive graphic with all the inaugural speeches with their key points in a word cloud.