White House Weirdness Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Buchanan

Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (1830-1903) was the niece of bachelor James Buchanan and served as his First Lady from 1857 to 1861. Harriet was the daughter of Elliot Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane (James' sister). By the time Harriet was 11 years old she was an orphan and James, her favorite uncle, was appointed her legal guardian while he was still a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania. Buchanan went on to be appointed Secretary of State and later elected President; he chose the popular Miss Lane to act as First Lady.

She played the part very well, despite the tensions that enveloped the country at the time. Seven states had seceded by the time Buchanan left office.

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant

Did you get tricked into thinking it was a modern president driving a car? Nope! Apparently Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant) loved to speed through the city in his horse and buggy. On one such day, he was pulled over by policeman William West, who had just witnessed a serious accident caused by a driver and his speeding horse the day before.

When West recognized the person he had pulled over as President Grant, he let him go with Grant's promise that it would not happen again. The very next day Grant was again pulled over for speeding by West, only this time he was arrested, fined and his vehicle was impounded. Grant took it well and the two later became friends.

Answer: Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was the 28th President of the United States and was, in fact, the first Democratic president since Andrew Jackson to be elected to two consecutive terms in office, i.e., March 4, 1913 to March 4, 1921. While he was president, World War I broke out (1914) but Wilson adopted a policy of neutrality and won reelection in 1916 with the slogan "He kept us out of war".

While he was in office, the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote; in 1918 he issued the "Fourteen Points" outlining his principles for peace, and in 1919 campaigned for the 'League of Nations'. Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

On February 14,, 1884, Teddy Roosevelt came home to find that his mother, Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt had died from typhoid fever; she was also the paternal grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt. Within 11 hours, Teddy's wife of 4 years, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, passed away from a severe kidney ailment known as Bright's disease (nephritis), which had gone undiagnosed due to her pregnancy. Alice had delivered a baby girl, Alice Lee Roosevelt, two days earlier on February 12th. On 2/14/1884 TR wrote an 'X' on that page of his journal; underneath the X was written "The light has gone out of my life".

He remarried in 1886 and became president in 1901 after McKinley's death.

Answer: Andrew Jackson and Rutherford B. Hayes

I thought this question was extremely difficult. If you got it right, you are either very smart, very lucky or both! The first 'posthumously born' president was Andrew Jackson who was born just 3 weeks after his father, Andrew Jackson Sr., was killed in a lumber accident in February 1767.

In the next century, Rutherford B. Hayes' father, Rutherford Hayes Jr., was killed on July 20, 1822, 10 weeks before the future POTUS ("Dark-Horse President") was born. Of the other choices: Harrison died in office; Polk was the eldest of 10 kids; Adams and Jefferson died the same day; Ford's parents divorced in 1913; Taylor was "Old Rough and Ready", but their parents were all alive at their births.

Answer: Lyndon Baines Johnson

Did you guess it was the president from the South? If so, you are correct! Before he had the soda fountain put in, LBJ felt he was too important to call or use the intercom or walk out of his office to summon his military aide to get him a drink, so he had a special Fresca button installed. I guess, in the long run, the fountain might have saved some time even though it was probably not cost efficient.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Fresca was first introduced in the United States in 1966; if you happened to know that piece of trivia, then you could have ruled out President Eisenhower. I guess this was just a part of LBJ's plan for his "Great Society".

Answer: Grover Cleveland

It was the summer of 1893 when Stephen Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th president, disappeared for 4 days (aboard a yacht) in order to secretly have a malignant tumor in his jaw removed. It was the beginning of Cleveland's second term in office and he did not want to alarm the public since, in those days, cancer was usually fatal so he swore his doctors to secrecy.

He was afraid if the news got out, it would cause the bottom to fall out of the Stock Market and create utter financial chaos. His secret was kept for weeks while he recuperated and for decades afterward.

A prosthetic was inserted, but his original tumor can still be viewed at the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania.

Answer: Julia Tyler

So here's what happened... John Tyler married his first wife, Leticia Christian Tyler, in 1813 and they had eight children. Tyler became president in 1841 after the sudden death of William Henry Harrison. He became a widower in 1842; two years later, Tyler (now 54) married 21 year old Julia Gardiner Tyler who, at that time, became the youngest First Lady in history.

In fact, it was Julia who started the tradition of playing "Hail to the Chief" at the president's entry to every official event. John and Julia had seven more children together. With 15 children, Tyler still holds the record for the most (legitimate) offspring sired by a president.

Answer: Richard Nixon

Does this seem as weird to you as it does to me? I guess Richard Nixon either wore Thelma "Pat" Ryan down or everyone else stopped dating her; they were married in 1940. Nixon became the 37th President of the United States from January 20, 1969 until August 9, 1974 when he became the first president to resign from office. On a positive note, at least he didn't resign while Spiro Agnew (remember him?) was still Vice-President.

He also ended the Vietnam War, stopped the draft, established relations with China, enforced desegregation and presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing.

He was later pardoned by President Ford and died in 1994 at the age of 81.

Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, serving from March 1933 until April of 1945 when her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died. She was a diplomat and an activist, wrote a syndicated newspaper column called "My Day" from 1935 to 1962, and basically changed the function of the First Lady from simply being a hostess for her husband to being to being a political partner to the president. Even after Franklin's death, she urged the U.S. to support the United Nations and was one if its first delegates.

She chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights and, in 1999, she was ranked as one of the most admired people of the 20th Century.