Three house before he was killed
John F. Kennedy remarked "Last night would have been a good night to
assassinate a president"
JFK’s favorite poem was Alan
Seeger's "I have a rendezvous with death."
A room on the second floor of the
White House where Lincoln's autopsy and embalming were performed and where
William Henry Harrison died is routinely used as the first families as a
private dining
On his Inauguration Day President
Andrew Jackson was crushed at the White House nearly killed when an out of
control throng of mostly drunk well-wishers. Staffers evacuated Jackson through
a window onto the South Lawn by staffers.
The entire U.S. government was
nearly relocated to Cincinnati Ohio after the White House was burned down by
the British in 1814.
In the 1860s, some people wanted
move the White House to a bluff top Washington's Rock Creek Park.
In the 1940’s, during the Truman
administration, there was movement to turn the White House into a museum.
Truman nixed that idea.
Among the thousands of photos
taken during Franklin D. Roosevelt 12-year presidency, there are only three of
Roosevelt in his wheelchair. The Secret Service was known to smash cameras of
those who tried to take unauthorized photos of FDR.
On November 9, 1863 the actor
John Wilkes Booth was the lead actor in a play at Ford's Theatre. President Abe
Lincoln was sitting at stage level when Booth glared at him enough so that a
woman who was with the president said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he
meant that for you." "Well," Lincoln replied, "he does look
pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?'"
Nancy Reagan was not aware that
Presidents pay for their own food (Except for state dinners) and incidentals
until the chief usher gave her a bill. As expected she threw a fit but she
still had to pay for the food.
Calvin Coolidge, president slept 11 hours a
night plus a day nap during the day. However Coolidge seldom missed an
opportunity to be photographed for the newsreels which were shown in every
movie house in the United States.
The Lincoln Continental limo in
which JFK rode to his death was cleaned, had armor and added to it (It was not
bulletproof when Kennedy used it) and put
back in service and was used by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and
Carter.
George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison cultivated hemp as did most other 1700's farmers.
In the 1790s, the crop was grown mainly for its industrial value as hemp. It
was not until the early 1880s that hemp was smoked for recreational use.
President George W. Bush and playboy founder
Hugh Hefner were ninth cousins.
In 1834, Abe Lincoln ran a saloon and acted as
bartender. He ran for state legislator and won forcing him to give up his
interest in the bar. He sold his share of the bar in 1840.
The S in Harry S Truman's name
did not stand for any name but was a compromise between the names of his
grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.
President Gerald Ford was a male
model for John Robert Powers' agency as a part time gig during college. He
appeared in a 21-picture Stowe, Vt., ski resort feature in Look Magazine in
1940. And two years later posed in his Naval uniform on the cover of
Cosmopolitan. Both times he posed with model Phyllis Brown.
President Calvin Coolidge enjoyed
having petroleum jelly slathered on his head while he ate breakfast in bed. He believed
it was good for his health.
