Alternate Presidents 4 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

Johnson became president following the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He took the Oath of Office on board Air Force One just before it left Dallas heading to Washington. Johnson introduced the "Great Society" legislation which aimed, among other things, to improve education and healthcare for poor communities and to eliminate racial injustice.

He passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which had been originally proposed by President Kennedy, and in 1967 he appointed a civil rights lawyer called Thurgood Marshall as the first African-American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

His presidency was however overshadowed by the escalation of the Vietnam war.

Answer: Zachary Taylor

He spent the greater part of his career as a soldier, rising to the rank of major general. He was a southern slave owner but did not advocate its expansion and was the first Whig president. He died just 16 months into his presidency, the second president to die in office of natural causes.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

He was greatly interested in the navy and wrote a book titled "The Naval War of 1812" in 1882. In 1884, he suffered an incredible misfortune when both his mother and first wife died on the same day. He became Assistant Secretary to the Navy in 1897 and in 1898 he helped create the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry in response to the Spanish-American war.

It became known as the Rough Riders. After gaining national fame for his exploits in Cuba during the war, he returned to New York where he was elected Governor.

He then became vice-president to President McKinley who was assassinated, leading to Roosevelt becoming president in 1901.

Answer: Herbert Hoover

Hoover became president in March, 1929. Before the end of that year, the Wall Street Crash had happened. It is inconceivable that his policies alone could have had such a traumatic effect on the economy in such a short time. His predecessors must have contributed to the situation.

He attempted to get the country out of depression by starting major works such as the Hoover Dam in order to boost American jobs, but the benefits were not readily apparent by the next presidential election. He was soundly defeated by Franklin Roosevelt.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Undoubtedly one of the greatest presidents in American history. He ran for president in 1860 and won the battle for the northern states easily but lost the southern states, which was hardly surprising given that he fought the election on an anti-slavery platform.

He had however taken 180 electoral votes to his opponents 123 and was therefore elected president. Before he had even taken office, seven states had left the union. Within weeks of taking office, Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked by Confederate forces and the Civil War was under way.

The Confederacy surrendered to General Grant in April 1865 and Lincoln was assassinated six days later. A monument to him in Washington was dedicated to his memory in 1922.

Answer: Grover Cleveland

Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Presidents who serve consecutive terms do not get a second number. Cleveland's two terms were interrupted by President Benjamin Harrison's administration. He was a bachelor when he took office in 1885 but married his friend's daughter, Frances Folsom, in 1886.

They were married in the Blue Room at the White House. She was only 21 years old and is the youngest First Lady in history.

Answer: Harry Truman

He was the third and last of Franklin Roosevelt's Vice Presidents. When Roosevelt was preparing to run for his fourth term, he knew he may not live to the end of it and Vice President Wallace was ditched in favour of Truman. He became president just three months after taking office when Roosevelt died.

The World War was drawing to a close and Germany surrendered a few weeks later. The war against Japan however was expected to go on for up to another year. Truman did not initially know about the atomic bomb that was being developed but after it was successfully tested in July 1945, he decided to use it if Japan did not immediately surrender.

The rest, you may say, is history. Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, the first on the city of Hiroshima and three days later on the city of Nagasaki. Japan was forced to surrender almost immediately. Truman was convinced that the bombings had saved many thousands of lives on both sides even taking into account the terrible loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Answer: James Garfield

Garfield was a long-serving member of Congress before becoming president. He was a member for 18 years from 1863. In 1880, he was elected to the senate and then became the Republican candidate for president later in the year. He duly won and took office in March 1881.

He was assassinated 200 days later, becoming the shortest serving president with the exception of William Henry Harrison. His assassin, Charles Guiteau, was a preacher and lawyer who believed Garfield had been elected as a direct result of a minor speech he had made, and when he was denied a Federal job he resolved to kill Garfield.

Answer: Andrew Jackson

He was well known for having a bad temper. In 1804, he believed his wife's honour had been impugned and killed a man in a duel. He became famous during the War of 1812, winning an important battle against the British at New Orleans. He lost the 1824 presidential election to John Quincy Adams.

In a re-match he crushed Adams in the 1828 election. He was incensed when his wife Rachel was accused of bigamy during the campaign. Unfortunately, the claim was actually correct. When she married Jackson in 1791 she thought her first husband had divorced her.

A friend of his, who owned a newspaper, had even printed a story to that effect but he had in fact not done so. The divorce was not finalised until 1794. Her marriage to Jackson was therefore invalid because she was still legally married to her first husband at the time.

She died before he was inaugurated and never became First Lady.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

He married a widow, Martha Skelton in 1772, and they were very happy together, having six children. Martha died in 1782. In 1776, the Continental Congress created a committee (including Jefferson) for the purpose of drafting a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was asked to actually create this first draft which he did in just 17 days.

In 1785, he became Minister to France, and in 1787 asked that his youngest daughter and a slave to look after her, join him in Paris. By chance, the slave sent was called Sally Hemings, who was Martha's half sister, both being daughters of John Wayles. Sally later had six children and until 2000 arguments raged as to whether Jefferson was the father. DNA tests on were carried out in 1998 on descendants of Jefferson's uncle and Sally Heming's son Eston.

The results, published in 2000 came to the conclusion that it was highly likely that Jefferson was Eston's father and probably also all of Sally's other children. He was the nation's 2nd vice president and 3rd president.