A Presidents Day Quiz. Answers. To view the original post on The Water s Edge, click here.

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1 A Presidents Day Quiz Answers To view the original post on The Water s Edge, click here. 1) Who is the only president who grew up as an only child? A: Barack Obama B: James Polk C: Herbert Hoover D: No president has ever been an only child. Answer: D. Al l forty-three presidents have had siblings. 2) Who was the first president to be born a citizen of the United States? A: Martin Van Buren B: George Washington D: John Quincy Adams Answer: A. Washington, Jefferson, and Adams were all born before the United States existed as a country. 3) How many presidents have had blue, hazel or grey eyes? A: 11 B: 26 C: 38 D: All 43 Answer: C. Barack Obama is only our sixth brown-eyed president. The other presidents with brown eyes were John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, sixty-eight percent of the American population has at least some brown in their eyes. 4) Which president was the first to have his mother attend his inauguration? A: William Harrison B: James Garfield C: Andrew Johnson D: Calvin Coolidge Answer: B. Before Eliza Garfield, no mother attended her son s inauguration ceremony either because she was dead or lived too far away. After President Garfield took his oath of office, his first act as president was to lean over and kiss his mother.

2 2 5) Which president changed his first name from Hiram when he was in college? A: Grover Cleveland B: Ulysses S. Grant D: William Clinton Answer: B. Grant s parents named him Hiram Ulysses. The congressman who nominated Grant for his appointment to West Point mistakenly wrote his name as Ulysses S. Grant. (The S. was an abbreviation for Grant s mother s maiden name, Simpson. ) Grant kept the new name, but his fellow cadets called him Sam. Why? Because U.S. stands for Uncle Sam. 6) Who was the only president to be named a sworn enemy of the United States? A: Richard Nixon B: James Madison C: Rutherford Hayes D: John Tyler Answer: D. Tyler joined the Confederacy when the Civil War began and was later elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. When he died in 1862, he was buried in Richmond, Virginia and was considered an enemy of the United States. 7) Who was the only president to be the father-in-law to another president? A: Abraham Lincoln B: Theodore Roosevelt C: Harry Truman D: Zachary Taylor Answer: D. Taylor s son-in-law was Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. 8) Who was the first divorced candidate to be elected president? A: Ronald Reagan B: Franklin Pierce C: James Buchanan D: Gerald Ford Answer: A. Reagan finalized his divorce with Jane Wyman in He subsequently married Nancy Davis Reagan on March 4, ) Which president enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac River? A: William Taft B: John Quincy Adams C: Dwight Eisenhower D: George W. Bush Answer: B. John Quincy Adams liked to bathe nude in the Potomac. His wife considered it altogether ridiculous, but the president enjoyed being naked basking on the bank.

3 3 10) Which president was near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other? A: John F. Kennedy B: Benjamin Harrison C: James Buchanan D: George W. Bush Answer: C. Buchanan s eye problems can t account for why he is universally considered one of America s worst presidents. 11) Who is the only president to have a child born on July 4th? A: John Quincy Adams B: James Madison C: James Carter D: Barack Obama Answer: D. Malia Ann Obama was born on July 4, 1998 in Chicago, Illinois. 12) Who is the only president to receive a speeding ticket while in office? A: Ulysses S. Grant B: William Clinton C: Gerald Ford D: James Carter Answer: A. Grant was caught driving too fast in his horse-drawn carriage down the streets of Washington, DC. 13) Why is the Oval Office oval-shaped? A: Because George Washington wanted it that way. B: Because John Adams wanted it that way. C: Decision by the architect. D: Mistake by the architect. Answer: C. The West Wing of the White House was designed by Nathan Wyeth in 1909, but a fire destroyed it. During FDR s time as president, he asked that the West Wing be renovated and a new Oval Office built; architect Eric Gugler was more than happy to oblige and completed the task in So disregard any article that talks about President Washington or President Lincoln putting his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office. The Oval Office did not exist when they were president. 14) What was the original name for Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland? A: George s Place B: The Eagle s Nest C: Shangri-La D: The Taylor Trailer Answer: C. In 1935, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) began building in an area of the Catoctin Mountains to demonstrate that parks could be created from old agricultural land. Three years later the camp

4 4 opened for federal employees and their families. When FDR was having some health troubles immediately after the United States entered World War I, his doctors urged him to find a place to rest that was a convenient distance away from the capital. FDR originally wanted to go on the presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, but could not because of security reasons. So, FDR chose the WPA work area in the mountains and asked for a construction of a main lodge to resemble his winter vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia. The remodeling cost $25,000. Finally, FDR renamed the area the USS Shangri La to keep the nautical connection he wanted, but also since many of the workers on his yacht worked at the new camp. Roosevelt s first official stay there was a three-day visit starting on July 18, ) Who wrote George Washington s first inaugural address? A: George Washington B: John Adams D: James Madison Answer: D. Washington and Madison would later have a falling out, with Washington leaning more on Alexander Hamilton for advice and Madison siding with Thomas Jefferson. 16) Which president created the Secret Service the same day he was assassinated? A: John F. Kennedy B: James Garfield C: Abraham Lincoln D: William McKinley Answer: C. President Lincoln officially founded the United States Secret Service on April 14, Its original job was to prevent the illegal production, or counterfeiting, of money. The Secret Service began its on July 5, ) Which famous American writer published President Grant s autobiography? A: Walt Whitman B: Mark Twain C: F. Scott Fitzgerald D: E.E. Cummings Answer: B. President Grant wrote a memoir for his family that one of his best friends, Mark Twain, felt should be read by all Americans. 18) President Andrew Jackson established diplomatic relations with what country on his last day in office? A: Canada B: Mexico C: Cuba D: Texas Answer: D. Texas was an independent country from ) Which president is on the $100,000 bill? A: Woodrow Wilson B: Chester Arthur

5 5 C: Harry Truman D: Lyndon Johnson Answer: A. The only $100,000 bills were minted in 1934 and However, they were not for the public s use; indeed, they were illegal to own. The ability to use the bill ended after World War II, and today the largest bill in circulation is $100 bill (with Benjamin Franklin on it). 20) Which president was previously a sheriff and an executioner? A: Gerald Ford B: Grover Cleveland C: Calvin Coolidge D: George H.W. Bush Sources: Answer: B. Erie County, New York elected Grover Cleveland its sheriff in In 1872, Jack Morrissey was sentenced to death for killing his mother. The decision caused such an outpour of sympathy for him that no one thought he should be executed. Cleveland, trusting in the rule of law and feeling that he had the moral obligation to carry out the act as sheriff, ended up doing the deed. After doing the job, Cleveland garnered a reputation for integrity that would see him through his political career and into the White House. Beyer, Rick. The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told. New York: HarperCollins, Couch, Ernie. Presidential Trivia. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill, Kane, Joseph Nathan and Janet Podell. Facts About the Presidents, 8 th ed. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, Lederer, Richard. Presidential Trivia. Layon, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2009.