I Used to Know That_ Stuff You Forgot From School - Caroline Taggart [32]
Thomas Jefferson (1801-09): credited with drafting the Declaration of Independence and something of a polymath, with an interest in architecture, science, and gardening, to name but a few. Lived for 17 years after ceasing to be president and became a respected elder statesman.
James Madison (1809-17): “the father of the Constitution,” having played a major role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
James Monroe (1817-25): promulgator of the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that “the European powers could no longer colonize or interfere with the American continents.”
John Quincy Adams (1825-29): the son of John Adams. Secretary of State under Monroe, he may actually have written the Monroe Doctrine. Also an antislavery campaigner.
Abraham Lincoln (R, 1861-65): really was born in a log cabin. Gained national stature from his stance against slavery. His election to the presidency caused the Southern states to secede from the Union, thus beginning the Civil War. His famous Gettysburg Address—“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty…”—further expressed his antislavery views, as did his campaign for reelection in 1864. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth five days after the surrender of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, which effectively ended the Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant (R, 1869-77): the leader of the Union army during the Civil War; presided over the reconstruction of the South.
James Garfield (R, 1881): assassinated by a disgruntled office-seeker after only four months in office.
William McKinley (R, 1897-1901): president during the Spanish-American War that saw the United States acquire Cuba and the Philippines. Assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo.
Theodore Roosevelt (R, 1901-09): one of four U.S. presidents to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize (for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War). Expansionist policies included promoting the growth of the U.S. Navy and the building of the Panama Canal. A great advocate of the United States, entering the First World War.
Woodrow Wilson (D, 1913-21): avoided joining the war for several years, but in the end was forced “to make the world safe for democracy.” His Fourteen-Point plan to prevent future wars formed the basis of the League of Nations (the forerunner of the United Nations).
Warren Harding (R, 1921-23): campaigned on the issue of opposing U.S. membership of the League of Nations during Wilson’s tenure; died in office under mysterious circumstances.
Calvin Coolidge (R, 1923-29): notoriously taciturn president whose economic policies were blamed for the 1929 Wall Street crash. Apparently, a woman who sat next to him at a dinner party bet him that she would get at least three words out of him in the course of the evening. “You lose” was the president’s reply—and she did; he didn’t say another word for the rest of the night.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D, 1933-45): the longest-serving president in U.S. history. Stricken with polio and confined to a wheelchair throughout his presidency, he came to power at the height of the Great Depression and instituted the New Deal for economic recovery. He was president during most of World War II and died in office three weeks before Germany surrendered. His wife, Eleanor, was a noted diplomat and political adviser.
Harry S Truman (D, 1945-53): Roosevelt’s vice president, who succeeded him in the last months of World War II and was responsible for the decision to drop atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Also popularized the expression “The buck stops here.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (R, 1953-61): Nicknamed Ike, he was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces during the 1944 Normandy landing. His presidency coincided with the height of the Cold War and the birth of the civil rights movement.
John F. Kennedy (D, 1961-63): the first Catholic to be elected president. He and his glamorous wife, Jackie, changed