Family Life

02.15.10 | FL News Team

In observance of the President's Day holiday, here are some facts about our nation's presidents that you may or may not have known.

 -- While Barack Obama is our 44th president, there have actually been only 43 presidents: Grover Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.

 -- Eight presidents were actually born British Subjects: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison.

 -- Did you know that nine of our presidents never attended college? They were George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland and Harry Truman.

 -- Q: What is the most common religious affiliation among presidents?

A: Episcopalian followed by Presbyterian.

 -- Q: Who were the oldest and youngest men to be elected president?

A: The oldest president inaugurated was Ronald Reagan at age 69. The youngest was John F. Kennedy at age 43. Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president -- he was 42 when he succeeded William McKinley, who had been assassinated.

 -- The tallest president was Abraham Lincoln at 6'4". At 5'4", James Madison was the shortest.

 -- Vice-presidents were originally the presidential candidates receiving the second-largest number of electoral votes. The Twelfth Amendment, passed in 1804, changed the system so that the electoral college voted separately for president and vice president. The presidential candidate, however, gradually gained power over the nominating convention to choose his own running mate.

 -- The term "First Lady" was first used in 1877 in reference to Lucy Ware Webb Hayes. Most First Ladies, including Jackie Kennedy, are said to have hated the label.

 -- James Buchanan was the only "single" president never to get married while in office. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives, two of which -- John Tyler and Thomas Woodrow Wilson -- remarried while serving in the White House. Ronald Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children while John Tyler -- father of fifteen -- had the most.