Presidential Trivia
Someone sent me some trivia questions about US presidents. While I know a few of them right off the bat, I thought perhaps others would like to take a crack at them first.
1. From time to time, a president is succeeded by someone older than him. But only once in history have we had a succession of three presidents, A - B - C, where C was older than B who was older than A. Who were the three?
(I mean, older in actuality, not just "older at the time of office." For example, G.W. Bush was born before Bill Clinton.)
2. What president lived the longest after his presidency ended?
3. Who were the youngest person to be president while in office, the oldest in office, the youngest at his death, and the oldest at his death?
4. How many presidents were descended from English monarchs?
posted by LAGuy @ 3:29 AM
8 Comments:
Herbert Hoover lived quite a while after he left office.
Oldest in office has to be Reagan, but if John McCain wins two terms, he'll break the record.
Answers:
1.
A. Theodore Roosevelt, born 10/27/1858, president from 1901 to 1909.
B. William Howard Taft, born 9/15/1857, president 1909 to 1913.
C. Woodrow Wilson, born 12/28/1856, president 1913 to 1921.
Taft was a year older than TR, and Wilson was a year older than Taft. So they were almost the same age. Thus, for twenty years, the president pretty much aged with the calendar: the president was 42 years old in 1901, and 53 years old in 1911, and 64 years old in 1921.
2.
Herbert Hoover: 31 years 7 months as an ex-president. He left the White House in March 1933, and died in October 1964 at age 90.
Gerald Ford is next, with 29 years 11 months.
Even if you include living ex-presidents, Hoover wins. Jimmy Carter will beat Hoover's record if he is still alive in August 2012. He'll be 88 years old then.
3.
Youngest in office: Teddy Roosevelt, 42 years 10 months old. Many people think it was Kennedy, but he was 43 years 7 months old. Kennedy was the youngest _elected_ president, because TR was elected vice-president and became president when McKinley was shot.
Oldest in office: Reagan, who left office at 77 years 11 months.
Youngest at his death: Kennedy, died at 46 years 5 months.
Oldest at his death: Gerald Ford, died at 93 years 5 months. This is older than any other president has ever been. Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush will both turn 93 in 2017.
Of course, Ford also served as Vice President. And while he's the longest-living president, he's only the third longest-living VP! He was outlived by John Nance Garner (died just before his 99th birthday) and Levi P. Morton (died on his 96th birthday).
4.
Eighteen presidents are descended from English kings. Plus, Rutherford Hayes was descended from David I of Scotland, but not from any English monarchs. The complete list is in this Wikipedia article.
If you look at all the relationships in this article, it appears that one could draw a single family tree that connected the vast majority of the U.S. presidents, by blood or by marriage.
While we're at it, Larry mentions John Nance Garner as the longest living Prez or Veep. What is Garner most famous for. (This may sounds like a judgment call, but I'd say it's not even close.)
LA Guy asked: "What is Garner most famous for?"
I may have found the answer online: "In the DC Comics Elseworlds title Superman: War of the Worlds, John Nance Garner is elected President of the United States after Roosevelt is killed by the Martians."
?
John Nance Garner served at the highest levels of government for many years, but today is almost solely remembered as the man who declared the Vice Presidency was "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
In Joseph Ellis' "Founding Brothers," he quotes John Nance Garner as saying it isn't worth a bucket "of warm spit" [if possible, even more unsettling]-That may just be a weird Bowdlerization but I've heard it both ways.
He said "piss" though it was widely reported as "spit." In a time of privies and spittoons, the former was considered more unsettling.
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