In honor of Inauguration Day here is a quiz to test your knowledge of first ladies and 19 random facts most of which I had not heard before, some are just crazy. One of those is that Andrew Jackson never went to school! Can you imagine now if our current president had never attended school , that would not fly!
Which first lady said she felt like a "state prisoner" at the presidential mansion?
a) Barbara Bush
b) Martha Washington
c) Anna Harrison
Who taught at a school for the hard of hearing?
a) Lucretia Garfield
b) Martha Jefferson
c) Grace Coolidge
Which first lady was instrumental in the establishment of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution?
a) Sarah Polk
b) Caroline Harrison
c) Rosalynn Carter
Who was the first woman to graduate from Stanford University in geology?
a) Lou Henry Hoover
b) Abigail Fillmore
c) Lady Bird Johnson
Who taught her husband how to write?
a) Mary Todd Lincoln
b) Eliza Johnson
c) Dolley Madison
Answers: B, C, B, A, B
1. In warm weather, 6th president of the United States
John Quincy Adams customarily went skinny-dipping in the Potomac River before dawn.
2. 9th U.S. president
William Henry Harrison was inaugurated on a bitterly cold day and gave the longest inauguration speech ever. The new president promptly caught a cold that soon developed into pneumonia. Harrison died exactly one month into his presidential term, the shortest in U.S. history.
3. John Tyler, 10th U.S. president, fathered 15 children (more than any other president)--8 by his first wife, and 7 by his second wife. Tyler was past his seventieth birthday when his 15th child was born.
4. Sedated only by brandy, 11th president of the United States
James Polk survived gall bladder surgery at the age of 17.
5. 15th U.S. president
James Buchanan is the only unmarried man ever to be elected president. Buchanan was engaged to be married once; however, his fiancée died suddenly after breaking off the engagement, and he remained a bachelor all his life.
6. Often depicted wearing a tall black stovepipe hat, 16th president of the United States
Abraham Lincoln carried letters, bills, and notes in his hat.
7. 17th U.S. president
Andrew Johnson never attended school. His future wife, Eliza McCardle, taught him to write at the age of 17. (Bonus fact about Andrew Johnson: He only wore suits that he custom-tailored himself.)
8. Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, died of throat cancer. During his life, Grant had smoked about 20 cigars per day.
9. Both ambidextrous and multilingual, 20th president of the United States
James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while writing Latin with the other.
10. Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States, underwent a secret operation aboard a yacht to remove his cancerous upper jaw in 1893.
11. The teddy bear derived from 26th U.S. president
Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a bear with her cub while on a hunting trip in Mississippi.
12. William Taft, 27th president of the United States, weighed more than 300 pounds and had a special oversized bathtub installed in the White House.
13. Warren Harding, 29th U.S. president, played poker at least twice a week, and once gambled away an entire set of White House china. His advisors were nicknamed the "Poker Cabinet" because they joined the president in his poker games.
14. Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, had chronic stomach pain and required 10 to 11 hours of sleep and an afternoon nap every day.
15. Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. president, published more than 16 books, including one called
Fishing for Fun-And to Wash Your Soul.
16. 32nd president of the United States
Franklin D. Roosevelt was related, either by blood or by marriage, to 11 former presidents.
17. The letter "S" comprises the full middle name of the 33rd president,
Harry S. Truman. It represents two of his grandfathers, whose names both had "S" in them.
18. Military leader and 34th president of the U.S.
Dwight D. Eisenhower loved to cook; he developed a recipe for vegetable soup that is 894 words long and includes the stems of nasturtium flowers as one of the ingredients.
19. 40th president of the United States
Ronald Reagan broke the so-called "20-year curse," in which every president elected in a year ending in 0 died in office.
This information is from Encarta.
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