CHIEF: It’s President’s Day. We’re sure most people can name the first president, but how much do you know about the commanders in chief of the U.S.?
According to Reader’s Digest, here are some presidential firsts that aren’t so well known.
Second president John Adams was the first to live in the White House.
Third president Thomas Jefferson was the first president to shake hands with White House guests, a custom he introduced on July 4, 1801.
William Henry Harrison, ninth leader of the U.S., was the first president to be photographed while in office. The photo itself has been lost, and a copy of it is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The oldest surviving photo of a sitting president is of 11th president, James K. Polk. The sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was photographed, but only after he had left office.
President Polk is on the list for another first — the first president to be elected when he was younger than the age of 50. Polk was 49 when he won the presidential election in 1844. “Unfortunately for him, though, Polk would also be the first president to die before reaching age 60. He would die of cholera only three months after leaving office,” the article read.
Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, was the first to seek re-election, but to lose his party’s nomination. The Democrats instead nominated James Buchanan.
The 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was the first to be born outside the original 13 colonies. He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.
President Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th leader, was the first president to host an Easter egg roll, in April 1878.
James A. Garfield, the 20th president, was the first to be left handed. According to the History Channel, Garfield could write simultaneously with both hands, in two different languages. He was fluent in both Latin and Greek.
Garfield was the last president to be born in a log cabin. A staunch abolitionist, he joined the Union Army at the start of the Civil War and rose through the ranks to become a major general. After that, he served in Congress for 17 years.
Garfield was assassinated after serving only six months as president.
