Offbeat Presidential Firsts and Onlies Quiz

Answer: James A. Garfield

James Garfield also has the distinction of being the only president before the 20th century to be left-handed. In truth, he was ambidextrous, and could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other -- simultaneously! Hoover, Truman, and Ford were also southpaws, as were Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the elder).

Garfield was also the first POTUS to die before age 50 and the second to be assassinated, by Charles J. Guiteau in 1881 in Washington, D.C. It took 11 agonizing weeks for him to die of sepsis; yet he was made comfortable part of time, as in his sickroom was installed one of the first successful air-conditioning units in the whole of the USA.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

In 1800, the 'New England Palladium' wrote, "Should the infidel Jefferson be elected to the Presidency, the seal of death is that moment set on our holy religion, our churches will be prostrated, and some infamous 'prostitute', under the title of Goddess of Reason, will preside in the sanctuaries now devoted to the worship of the most High". Federalists also called him a "howling atheist" and an infidel. Following such calumny during his presidential campaign Jefferson became increasingly reluctant to publicly share his religious opinions.

This we know: Whilst Thomas Jefferson was certainly unorthodox in his beliefs, better to call him a Unitarian than an atheist, and he called himself a Deist (which denotes belief in God). Jefferson opposed Calvinism, Trinitarianism, and Platonic elements in Christianity. (For example, Plato influenced St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.) Jefferson questioned the miracles of Jesus, yet he accepted Christ's moral teachings, and he believed in divine intervention (Providence) and in an afterlife.

Some of Jefferson's expressed beliefs may have fueled his enemies' slander. Jefferson insisted on the famous "wall of separation between Church and State" to prevent religious tyranny of the very kind from which many settlers of the New World had fled. He reserved special vitriol for the "Five Points of Calvinism", which he believed to be demonic, and wrote: "It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin."

Answer: He installed the first bathtub in the White House

H.L. Mencken invented the hoax in 1917 for the 'New York Evening Mail', as "a piece of spoofing to relieve the strain of war days". He was aghast at the gullibility of his readers, and that the myth was still being perpetuated decades later. The myth has continued into the 21st century on the misinformation machine that is the World Wide Web.

According to U.S. building historian William Seale, running water had been installed in the White House in 1833, during Andrew Jackson's term, and his bathroom had a shower, a hot tub, and a cold tub. Franklin Pierce was the first to have hot and cold piped into the same tub, in 1853.

Answer: Animal blood

Witness to some of history's goriest battles, Grant abhorred killing animals, and he could not bear the sight of animal blood. Even rare steak sickened him, so he would cook his meat until charred.

Grant was also the first president to have seen the Great Wall of China, to have visited Palestine and Russia, and to have seen the Pacific Ocean. But all these were before he took office; he did not leave the USA while head of state. Teddy Roosevelt was the first sitting POTUS to leave the country, when he visited the Panama Canal in 1906.

U.S. Grant was also the first president born in Ohio, and the first whose parents were both still alive when he took the Oath of Office.

Answer: Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur was the first president born in Vermont. But at the time of his campaign, his detractors accused him of being born in Ireland or Canada! Arthur's father was from Ireland, and his mother from Vermont, and they lived in Quebec for a while before their little future president was born.

Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, was the second president whose birth was questioned, the suggestion being he was born in his father's native land, Kenya. Although "Birthers", white supremacists, and some Republicans took this canard and ran with it, strangely enough it began with Democratic supporters of Hillary Clinton, who started chain e-mails to discredit Obama and boost Clinton's chances of getting her party's nomination in 2008.

Speaking of the 2008 election, some folks argued, with very little news media attention, that John McCain, Obama's Republican opponent, was not a natural-born citizen either. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. The suggestion is that legally he became a U.S. citizen retroactively based on Supreme Court decisions regarding the Naturalization Act of 1795 and the status of the Canal Zone. It's really quite a complicated matter of law, but as McCain lost the election, the question is moot.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

The first Hollywood actor to become president is also the first president to wear contact lenses! Reagan was also the only president to have headed a union, and as he was a professional (B-list) movie star, naturally it was the Screen Actors' Guild, from 1947 to 1952. He is in fact responsible for the residual payment system that has secured a living for so many actors today, even after they stop working.

Reagan was also the first president to have been divorced before taking the Oath of Office, and the first to be named Person of the Year *twice* by 'Time' magazine.

Answer: Woodrow Wilson - first POTUS to ride in an airplane

Actually the first U.S. president to ride in an airplane is Teddy Roosevelt. Now his cousin Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) was the first to do so while still in office, whereas cousin Teddy didn't ride until over a year after his second term ended.

Another interesting fact, is that while Andrew Jackson was the first POTUS to ride on any sort of locomotive train, FDR was the first to ride on a diesel train. And while Teddy was the first U.S. president ever to ride in a car, Warren G. Harding was the first to do so for his inauguration. And William H. Taft was the first to own a car, and to keep one at the White House!

Answer: John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams, sixth president, wrote in his letters that took the Oath of Office on a lawbook rather than on the Bible, so as to swear allegiance to the Constitution. But no official records were kept at the time on the subject, so we have only his word for it.

In fact, it is entirely possible that from John Adams (2nd) to John Tyler (10th), no Bible was used; there is simply no evidence either way. The law does not require the Bible, and the president may bring any book or document he or she wishes to the inauguration (or bring no book at all).

Two months before his inauguration, Franklin Pierce and his wife suffered enormous loss. In a train wreck, their son Benjamin, age 11, was flung from the car and crushed to death before their very eyes. During the ensuing crisis of faith, Pierce affirmed rather than swore the oath, but apparently he used a Bible.

As for *official* records kept by the Architect of the Capitol, Teddy Roosevelt is the first POTUS not to use a Bible, as he was rushed into office following McKinley's assassination.

In 1963 LBJ used a Roman Catholic missal (which is a liturgical text though not the Bible) as it was the only thing handy on Air Force One, during another rushed inauguration following an assassination (JFK's). Lawrence O'Brien, one of Kennedy's aides, did not realize he was handing a missal rather than a Bible to the judge.

Herbert Hoover used a Bible at his inauguration, but as he was the first Quaker to be president, he did not swear, but rather affirmed, like Pierce. But the second Quaker, Richard M. Nixon, swore the oath.

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

Federal Judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes (1896-1985) swore in Lyndon B. Johnson as the 36th POTUS aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy died of bullet wounds in 1963, in accordance with the rules of succession (which state that the vice president shall replace the president in the event of the latter's death). LBJ was in Dallas at the time the shots were fired, but Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood was able to protect him. Johnson chose Hughes for the Oath as she was an old friend whom he had earlier persuaded Attorney General Robert Kennedy to appoint as a judge despite her age (she was 65), and she was working in Texas. Ordinarily the Chief Justice of the United States does the honors, but time was of the essence.

Calvin Coolidge was the only president to have been sworn in by his father, a Vermont justice-of-the-peace (it was also urgent; President Harding had died).

Answer: Andrew Jackson

Thirteen-year-old Andrew Jackson and his brother worked as couriers for the local militia during the Revolution when the British took them prisoner (and nearly starved them to death). When Jackson refused to clean a British officer's boots, the man slashed Jackson's head and hand and scarred him for life. Jackson and his brother contracted smallpox besides.

Did you pick Washington? When Lt. Col. Washington surrendered Fort Necessity at the start of the French and Indian War, in 1754, to Louis Coulon de Villiers, the terms allowed retreat, and no prisoners were taken. Yet some sources erroneously list Washington as the first POTUS to have been a POW, so be careful when reading history on the Internet. (Thanks to Fifiona81 for her help with this question.)