Happy Presidents' Day!

In celebration of Presidents' Day, I've decided to find some fun facts about the past (and present) leaders of our country. Here's some funny ones.

Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding while driving a horse and buggy in Washington, DC. He had to pay a fine of $20.00 and walk back to the White House. Busted!

Andrew Jackson ran a lady over while he was speeding to get somewhere in his horse and carriage! The charges were later dropped. (Note: he was also the one who killed a man in a duel, on accident, I'm sure...)

Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford are two presidents who loved to golf, but spectators had to watch carefully because Gerald Ford was known for conking people on the head with his wild shots. Heads up! :D

It was during Benjamin Harrison's presidency that electric lights were installed in the White House, but he was so afraid of getting shocked by the light switches that he refused to go near them! He had the White House staff go around turning the lights on and off for him.

Licoln was the tallest president at 6' 4", Madison was the shortest at 5' 4", (Madison weighed only about 100 lbs!)

John Tyler loved children, he had 15 of them! Wow, can you say full house?!

Rutherford B. Hayes was the first President to use a phone - his phone number was 1.
*Dials 1 in 1880..."Hello, this is Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States of America, how may I help you?" Hey mom, wanna come talk to the president?*

Chester Arthur owned 80 pairs of pants, and changed them several times a day! Wow!

Warren Harding once gambled away a whole set of White House china, using only one deck of cards, yikes!

Thomas Jefferson spoke quite a few languages. Not only did he master English (of course), but he also learned Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian, French and more than twelve Native American dialects. Approximately 18 altogether. Wow, that's making my brain hurt! :D

And while we're on the subject of multi-lingual conversations, Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou, learned Chinese so well that they often spoke it around the White House to protect themselves from eavesdropping.

George H. Bush was the first president to refuse publicly to eat broccoli! He announced at a farmer's convention that he didn't like eating broccoli. Farmers got mad and began sending truckloads of broccoli to the White House. His wife, Barbara, accepted the broccoli, but Bush said, "I am President of the United States and I don't have to eat it." Wish I could say that to my mom! :D

Another thing he did. After telling the press he was an expert in hand gestures, George Bush gave the "V-for-Victory" sign as he drove in his armored limousine past demonstrators in Canberra, Australia's capital in January 1992. In Australia, holding up two fingers to form a "V" has the same meaning as the middle-finger gesture in the United States. *GASP* The Australian demonstrators were very mad, and they signaled in the same manner back at the U.S. President. He later apologized.

In high school, Bill Clinton played saxophone in a jazz trio. The three musicians wore dark glasses on stage and they called themselves "Three Blind Mice"

Richard Milhous Nixon and William Jefferson Clinton are the only two presidents whose have the letters that make up the word "criminal" in them! Ooh!!!

And last but not least, never touch George W. Bush's collection of over 250 signed baseballs, or else! He is also the first president to have had twins.

So there you have it, we've had presidents who were scared of light switches, loved to golf, loved wearing 80 different pairs of pants, hated broccoli, ran people over, spoke Chinese, and gambled...Some of our presidents are very weird. Oh well, let's celebrate them, quirks and all! Happy Presidents' Day!

Here's some cool links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Presidential_pets
Birds, cats, dogs, horses, even tigers and alligators, you bet they've lived in the White House at sometime or another!

http://www.littleknownfactsshow.com/presidents.html
The best site I've seen with fun facts about our presidents!

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4670
This one's good too