2nd Semester PQ's: 25-45

Presidential Facts

Historical, Political, and Fun Facts


Helpful Link for Presidential Questionnaires (PQ's)

https://millercenter.org/president

William McKinley #25

1. Last president to be in the Civil War

2. This president was assassinated

3. President during the first Boston Marathon

4. 1st President to ride in an automobile

5. 1st to have his Inauguration filmed

6. Placed the US on the Gold Standard

7. Annexed Hawaii

8. Governor of Ohio

9. Picture is on the $500 bill

10. Owned a parrot named “Washington Post”

11. Went to war against Spain after the USS Maine sunk in Cuba

12. “Open Door Policy”

Theodore Roosevelt #26

1. Ended the 1902 Coal Strike

2. Vice President of McKinley

3. At 43, was the youngest President

4. 1st President to leave the US and go to Panama

5. Resigned from Asst. Sec. of the Navy & formed Rough Riders

6. Author, explorer, solider during the Spanish American War

7. Against big business and a trust breaker

8. Strongly supported the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

9. Signed Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food & Drug Act

10. Received Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Russian Japanese War

11. Setup National Parks

12. Foreign Policy “Speak Softly and carry a Big Stick”

13. Teddy Bear

William Howard Taft #27

1. 10th Chief Justice

2. Weight up to 350 lbs

3. Got stuck in a white house tub

4. US Secretary of War under #26

5. Proposed the 16th Amendment

6. Last President to have a presidential photo with facial hair

7. Started the first White House Ball tradition

8. Send two naval war ships to Nicaragua

9. First to throw out the inaugural baseball pitch

10. First Governor of the Philippines

11. Had a cow at the White House

12. Passed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act

13. Used to be a news reporter

14. Billy Possums

15. Established US Postal saving system

“Thomas” Woodrow Wilson #28

  1. Governor of New Jersey
  2. Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for writting the 14 Points Plan which included the League of Nations
  3. Panama Canal was completed
  4. 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, Amendments passed
  5. WWI 1914-1918
  6. Franz Ferdinand assassinated & Sinking of Lusitania
  7. First President while president to visit Europe
  8. Made first presidential address broadcasted on the radio
  9. Had open communications with China on trade
  10. Enacted the Federal Trade Commission
  11. On the $100,000
  12. Wife assumed some presidential duties after a stroke
  13. Professor & president at Princeton University

Warren G. Harding #29

1. Former Senator & Lieutenant Governor of Ohio

2. Fought for the fair treatment of African Americans

3. Had dog named “Laddyboy” & a squirrel named Pete

4. Started child welfare programs

5. Owned & Operated the Marion Daily Star

6. Signed Sheppard Towner Act

7. Nickname was “Winnie”

8. Against the League of Nations

9. Had a daughter with a mistress

10. Had a heart attack while golfing in San Francisco (17th hole)

11. Very popular before a suspicious death

12. After death, blamed for political scandals (Teapot Dome)

13. Signed the Emergency Quota Act

14. Campaign slogan was “Return to Normalcy”

15. First president to visit Alaska

16. He pardoned Eugene V. Debs

"John" Calvin Coolidge #30

1. Governor of Massachusetts

2. Scopes Trial

3. Signed the Immigration Act of 1924

4. Nick name was “Red” & "Silent Cal"

5. Signed the Dawes Land Act

6. First name is John, dropped in college

7. Had a terrier named “Peter Pan”, a raccoon, lion cubs, & a wallaby

8. Son died at 16 from blood poisoning due to a tennis blister

9. President when the first airplane flew over the North Pole

10. Ended the Boston Police Strike when Gov. of Massachusetts

11. Signed the Isle of Pines over to Cuba

12. First president to give the State of the Union on the Radio

13. Signed the Indian Citizen Act

14. Only president to have father swear him in as president


Herbert Hoover #31

1. President during the Great Depression

2. 1st President born west of Mississippi

3. Head of FDA & Secretary of Commerce

4. Had two Alligators

5. Starred in first television broadcast in history

6. Was an orphan at 9 years old

7. Made prison reform a priority

8. Hosted first ever white house conference of child health

9. Al Capone Convicted

10. Made the “Star Spangled Banner” our national anthem

11. Black Tuesday: October 29, 1929

12. Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic Ocean

13. 1st Academy Awards, VA Established

14. “Happy days are around the corner”, “We are turning the corner”

15. The Hoover Dam, Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge construction started during his presidency

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) #32

1. Governor of New York

2. Dropped out of Law school

3. First to have his own plane

4. Longest sitting president (4 terms), Died at the beginning of 4th term – 82 days

5. In charge of the Manhattan Project

6. Campaign Slogan “Happy days are here again”

7. Responsible for 1st and 2nd New Deal

8. US signed treaty to release Cuba from Platt Amendment

9. Executive order 9066

10. 22 Amendment adopted because of FDR President Term

11. March of Dimes

12. Wore leg braces to stand, rarely seen in his wheelchair

13. Assistant Secretary of the Navy in WWI

14. Married a long distance related cousin

15. Had Polio and was paralyzed as a child

16. Was a stamp collector

17. Lead the US during WWII

18. Delivered weekly “fireside” chats

Harry S. Truman #33

1. Lead the formation of the United Nations & NATO

2. Only President that didn’t go to college in the 1900’s

3. He was in the National Guard in WWI

4. “The Buck stops here” & “I’m just wild about Harry”

5. Berlin Blockage leads to Berlin Airlift

6. Signed Truman Doctrine 1947 to eliminate Communism

7. Jackson county judge in Missouri

8. VP of FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

9. FDR kept him in the dark about war matters

10. Ordered two atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan

11. Passed the National Security Act

12. Germany surrenders 1st, and Japan surrenders 2nd

13. First President to address the NAACP

14. President when Jackie Robinson integrated baseball

15. Had a sword collection

16. Truman Presented Congress the “Fair Deal” 21 Point Plan

17. “S” does not stand for anything

Dwight D. Eisenhower #34

1. Created Dept. of Health, Education, & Welfare

2. Korea armistice 1953

3. Russia test H-bomb & Cold War begins

4. U.S & Japan agree on rearmament

5. France loses first battle in Vietnam

6. 1954 Brown vs Topeka Board of Education

7. Geneva Convention agreement

8. Eisenhower Doctrine

9. Presidential retreat Camp David named after grandson

10. Russia launches “Sputnik” in 1957

11. Nixon & Khrushchev Have “kitchen debate”

12. Soviets shoot down U-2 plane “Francis G. Powers”

13. Supported civil rights- signed acts “57-60”

14. Alaska & Hawaii admitted to Union

15. Autherine Lucy admitted to University of Auburn

16. Elvis Presley waist up is shown ED Sullivan’s show

17. Surgeon general’s 1957 “cigarettes cause cancer”

18. 1st president to ride in a helicopter

19. Signed Federal Aid Highway Act 1956

20. “I like Ike” campaign slogan

21. Did not see active combat

22. Found NASA in 1958

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) #35

1. Created the Peace Corps

2. Invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs fail

3. Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, is the 1st man in space

4. First Freedom Ride

5. Alan Sheppard becomes first American in space

6. East Germany begins Berlin Wall

7. Promised US that man will walk on the moon by 1969

8. John Glenn orbits Earth

9. Cuban Missile Crisis & resolution

10. Nuclear test ban treaty with Soviet Union and U.K.

11. Assassinated in Dallas, TX by Lee Harvey Oswald

12. He was Catholic

13. Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald on television

14. He went to Harvard

15. Served in the US House of Representatives & Senate

16. Went by “Jack”

17. Possibly had an affair with Marilyn Monroe

18. USSC rules segregation in transportation is unconstitutional

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) #36

1. Commander in the Naval Reserve

2. Senate Majority Leader (Democrats)

3. JFK assassinated, LBJ swore in as President

4. Created Medicare & Medicaid

5. France withdraws from NATO

6. The Beatles arrive in NYC

7. 24th & 25th Amendment ratified

8. Jack Ruby convicted of murder

9. Johnson’s Great Society

10. Civil Rights Act of 1964 & Voting Rights Act

11. Watt Riots

12. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

13. Tet Offensive

14. Miranda v. Arizona

15. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, TN

16. Martin Luther King Jr. receives Nobel Peace Prize

17. Malcolm X assassinated

18. Black Panther Party founded

19. Thurgood Marshall becomes Supreme Court justice

Richard Nixon #37

1. Establishes the Postal Service, formally the Post Office

2. Selective Service Reform

3. Tells Latin America to be self-sufficient

4. Wage-Price Control Bill

5. 1st President to go to China & USSR

6. Puts 5 billion in benefits for Social Security

7. Creates the EPA

8. Audited and forced to pay $432,787 in back taxes

9. Increased minimum wage to $2

10. Five point plan in Vietnam

11. Signs Paris Peace Accords officially ending Vietnam War

12. Set up Title IX

13. Signed 26th Amendment

14. Bugged/Wire Tapped White House

15. Watergate scandal

16. US v. Nixon – Ordered to turn over 64 tape to Watergate committee

17. VP Spiro Agnew resigned, replaced by Gerald Ford

18. Articles of Impeachments were filed, but resigned first

19. Enjoyed Football

20. Went to Duke Law

21. Avid Bowler

22. Practicing Quaker

23. Played five (5) instruments

Gerald R. Ford #38

1. VP Agnew & Pres. Nixon resign, Ford becomes #38th

2. Ford grants full pardon for Nixon

3. Whip Inflation Now launched to decrease inflation from 12.2 to 4.8

4. First Lady Betty Ford battles breast cancer

5. First president to visit Japan

6. Saigon falls, America withdraws from Vietnam

7. Highest unemployment since 1941 @ 9.2%

8. Israel agrees to withdraw from Egypt’s Sinai region

9. US bombs communist Cambodia for holding hostages

10. Signs the Helsinki Accords

11. Attempted assassination in SF by “Mason Family”

12. America’s 200th birthday 1776-1976

13. US begins to store up to 500 million barrels of crude oil

14. Concorde makes first supersonic jet flight

15. Puerto Rican statehood proposal denied by Congress

16. 1976 Viking I becomes first to land on Mars

17. Communist Party leader Mao Zedong of China dies

18. Evacuates embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

19. Treaty to limit underground nuclear testing by USSR

20. Birth name was actually Leslie Lynch King Jr.

21. George H.W. Bush becomes director of the CIA

22. Richard Cheney becomes White House Chief of Staff

23. Lt. Commander in the Navy during WWII

24. Undefeated in 13 elections until Carter

25. Star football player at the University of Michigan

26. Earned law degree from Yale

27. Only U.S. President to have been an Eagle Scout

28. Daughter has senior prom at the White House

29. Signs Federal Elections Campaign Act

30. Signs the Freedom of Information Act

31. Signs the Privacy Acts of 1974

32. Signs the Energy Policy Conservation Act

Jimmy Carter #39

1. Pardons all draft evaders from the Vietnam War

2. Emergency Natural Gas Act

3. Opposed the production of the B-1 strategic bomber

4. Supporter of Fundamental Human Rights

5. Invokes the Taft-Hartley Act to end the coal strike

6. Department of Education established

7. Passes Energy & Humphrey-Hawkins employment bills

8. Approves development of the MX missile

9. People's Republic of China granted diplomatic status

10. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

11. Gives “Malaise” & “Crisis of Confidence” Speech

12. Collapses in 10K marathon

13. Lowest Approval ratings of any President since 1945

14. Inflation hit 10% & Interest Rates up to 18%

15. Americans taken hostage in Tehran

16. Issues the Carter Doctrine

17. Camp David Accords: peace treaty between Israel and Egypt

18. Peanut Farmer

19. Boycotts the Summer Olympic in Moscow due to Soviet Afghan War

20. Governor of Georgia

21. Entered Annapolis during World War II

22. Nobel Peace Prize in 2002

23. Served on the USS Seawolf, America's second nuclear submarine

PQ #40 Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981-1989

PQ #40 Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981-1989

Ronald Reagan #40

“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.”

1. Frees hostages in Iran after 444 days

2. Increases military spending

3. Shot in the chest by John Warnock Hinckley Jr., who was trying to impress Jodie Foster.

4. Reagan has surgery & VP Bush is President for 8 hours

5. Signs a tax cuts into law

6. Sandra Day O’Connor: first woman on Supreme Court

7. Ends PATCO air traffic controller strike

8. Military buildup of B-1 bomber and MX missiles

9. Sanctions on Poland for imposing martial law.

10. Delivers “New Federalism” State of the Union

11. Social Security reform becomes law

12. First U.S. President to address the England’s Parliament

13. Nancy Reagan launches the D.A.R.E. program

14. 1983 Signs Gas tax increase of 5 cents per gallon into law

15. Suicide bombers attack marine barracks in Lebanon

16. Strategic Defense Initiative Program aka Star Wars

17. Invasion of Grenada

18. Signs scientific and cultural exchange accords with China


19. Sanctions on South Africa for imposing martial law

20. Farm credit crisis on a loan-guarantee program

21. Embargo on Nicaragua, violating international law

22. Iran Contra Hearings & Tower Commission

23. Reagan signs a revision of the tax code into law

24. “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” speech

25. Anthony Scalia is nominated for the Supreme Court

26. Reagan visits Soviet Union for the first time.

27. Democrats control Senate and House late in presidency

28. Loved Jelly Beans

29. Reagan prohibits abortion assistance with federal funds

30. Saved 77 lives as a life guard

31. Starred in 53 films/television shows

32. PAM/AM Flight 103 & Libya

33. Nickname “Dutch” “Gipper” “The Great Communicator”

34. Lieutenant in the Army in WWII, had poor eyesight

35. Once a member of the Democratic Party

36. Governor of California until 1975

37. Reaganomics

38. Alzheimer’s Disease

George H.W. Bush #41

1. Signs Bank Bail-Out Plan

2. Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban

3. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

4. Tiananmen Square Massacre

5. Berlin Wall Falls & German States Reunite

6. Manuel A. Noriega captured in Panama Invasion

7. USSR agrees to reduce nuclear stockpiles

8. Breaks campaign promise “ No new Taxes”

9. Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA

10. Iraq Invades Kuwait, leading to Persian Gulf War

11. Immigration Act of 1990

12. 1-16-91 - Persian Gulf War Begins

13. Desert Storm to Desert Shield

14. Ground Troops Begin Operations – Last 72 hours

15. Bush and Yeltsin: Officially declare the end of the Cold War

16. 12/31/1991: Soviet Union Dissolves

17. Clarence Thomas nominated as Supreme Court Justice

18. Rodney King Riots & Supplemental Appropriations Act

19. Unemployment reached 7.8 percent, highest since 1984.

20. Youngest Lt. WWII Navy pilot – flew 58 missions

21. Played baseball at Yale University

22. 2nd President to father another US President (W)

23. Went Skydiving at 75,80,85, & 90

24. Does not like broccoli

25. Meet Babe Ruth 9 months before he died

26. Made his money from oil in Texas

William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton #42

  1. Janet Reno becomes female US Attorney General
  2. Family Medical Leave Act
  3. World Trade Center bombed in 1993
  4. Waco, Texas
  5. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
  6. Ruth Bader Ginsburg appoint to Supreme Court
  7. American forces ambushed in Somalia (Black Hawk Down)
  8. Brady Act – first five day wait for handguns
  9. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
  10. START I signed eliminates more than 9,000 warheads
  11. Oklahoma City bombed
  12. U.S. grants full diplomatic recognition to Vietnam
  13. Dayton Peace Accords Reached
  14. Whitewater fraud trail
  15. UN bans all nuclear weapons testing
  16. Madeline Albright becomes first woman Secretary of State
  17. Paula Jones & Monica Lewinsky
  18. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
  19. House of Representatives votes to impeach Clinton
  20. Embassies bombed in Kenya, Tanzania
  21. First summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin
  22. Enjoys playing the saxophone
  23. Governor of Arkansas
  24. Allergic to Chocolate and Milk
  25. Winner of two Grammy’s for narrating books
  26. Loved Jalapeno Cheeseburgers until heart bypass surgery

George W. Bush #43

1. Contested election: Gore vs Bush, Supreme Court halts recount in 5-4 vote

2. Bird flu scare

3. September 11, Osama bin Laden, and Al-Qaeda

4. Enron files bankruptcy

5. Columbia shuttle explosion, Discovery launches two years later

6. No Child Left Behind

7. Declares war with Iraq

8. Signs over two trillion in tax cuts

9. No weapons of mass destruction of any kind found in Iraq

10. Banning of late term Abortions

11. Massachusetts is first state to approves same-sex marriage

12. Medicare Reform

13. Saddam Hussein was tired and later hung for war crimes

14. Hurricane Katrina

15. Samuel A. Alito appointed to Supreme Court

16. John G. Roberts appointed to Supreme Court

17. US almost adopts amendment banning same sex marriage

18. Halts and vetoes stem cell research

19. Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman Speaker of the House

20. Bush approves 700 mile border fence

21. Virginia Tech massacre killing 32 students

22. Federal takeover of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

23. Signs 700 billion bailout for failing banks

24. Signs 17.4 billion bailout for GM & Chrysler

25. 46th Governor of Texas

26. Avid runner/jogger, 1st president to run a marathon

27. Made his money in oil

28. Once owner of the Texas Rangers MLB Team

29. Held T-Ball games on the White House Lawn

30. Only US President to have an MBA degree

31. Nicknamed the “Vacation President” & “Baseball President”

32. Head cheerleader in high school.

33. Attended Yale University and Harvard Business School

34. Pilot in the Texas Air National Guard

Barack Hussein Obama #44

1. First African American President in U.S. history

2. Signs Fair and Equal Pay laws

3. Overturns Bush (W.) Stem cell research

4. Appoints Justice Sonia Sotomayor

5. Awarded a Nobel Peace Prize

6. Allows people with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States

7. Gives $100 million to Haiti for Earthquake damage

8. Obama Care: Affordable Care Act

9. Volcker Rule: restrict banks from engaging in bad investments

10. Osama Bin Laden killed

11. Increase NASA Budget by $6 billion for space exploration

12. Deepwater Horizon British Petroleum (BP) oil spill

13. Signs Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 for schools

14. Sandy Hook shooting

15. Publicly supports same-sex marriage

16. George Zimmerman & Trayvon Martin case

17. Minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $10.10

18. Russian sanctions for stealing Ukrainian assets

19. Veteran’s Affairs had to wait months for care at VA hospitals

20. Immigration reform

21. Agrees with “bathroom bill” against LGBT discrimination

22. Charleston, South Carolina church shooting

23. Free community college for maintaining a certain GPA

24. Flint, Michigan lead in the water

25. U.S. Supreme Court guarantees a right to same-sex marriage

26. Climate change supporter

27. Deal with Iran: prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons

28. First sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928.

29. Taught constitutional law at the Univ. of Chicago Law School

30. Went to Harvard Law

31. Barack means “one who is blessed” in Swahili

32. He won a Grammy Award in 2006

33. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” allowing gays in the military

34. Slogan “Yes We Can” “Change”

Donald J. Trump #45

1. Signed Executive Orders for Travel Bans

2. Nominates Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

3. Nominates Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

4. Space Force Announced

5. Allegation of collusion w/Russia for meddling in US elections

6. NATO Reforms: Balancing & Buck-passing

7. Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

8. Unemployment dips to 4.5%

9. Border security “Build a wall”

10. First to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, then Vietnam

11. Improves VA & GI Bill Benefits

12. Withdrew from NAFTA

13. Withdrew from Paris Climate Change Accords

14. Fighting ISIS

15. Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

16. Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil drilling

17. Stock Market Record Highs

18. Mueller Report

19. “Make America Great Again”

20. Author “The Art of the Deal”

21. Former owner of USFL (football)

22. The Apprentice & Cameo movie star

23. Realtor: Trump Tower, Trump Golf Resorts

24. Avid Golfer

25. So far, only president not to have a pet

26. Got five draft deferments

27. Divorced twice (Reagan once)

28. Former owner of Ms. Universe, USA, & Teen beauty pageants

29. Deferred all Presidential pay - $400,000 each year

30. Billionaire