Quiz Time: Volume 1

Each month, The POTUS Notice features a pop quiz and chance to be randomly selected as a winner. You don’t even need to know the right answer to qualify. Here’s a compilation of questions from the past year. Scroll waaay down to see the supporting art, if applicable.

• Which future president had a bounty on his head — of 2,000 beavers?

  William Henry Harrison

• Which two presidents were connected by marriage after their relatives met at one of their inaugurations?

  Nixon and Eisenhower. Nixon’s daughter Julie and Eisenhower’s grandson David met at Eisenhower’s second inauguration when they were both 8 years old. “Geographical coincidence” brought them together again in college.

• Grant's birth name was Hiram. Which president's birth name was Leslie?

  Gerald Ford

• Which president used to conduct meetings while going to the bathroom?

  Lyndon B. Johnson

• Which president banned Christmas trees in the White House?

  Teddy Roosevelt. But also, not really. Scroll down for details.

• Which president signed legislation making New Year's Day a federal holiday?

  President Grant

  (Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day, too.)

• Herbert Hoover and Al Smith were the first Quaker vs. Catholic presidential election. Who were the candidates in the second?

  Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy

• Which First Lady banned facial hair for all men working in the White House (except one!)?

  Nelly Taft

• Which president escaped indentured servitude?

  Andrew Johnson

• Which president wanted to expand slavery: southern slaveholder Zachary Taylor or New Yorker Millard Fillmore?

  Millard Fillmore

  (See also: Millard Fillmore was a trash president. Change my mind.)

• What bill did Thomas Jefferson sign to allow the U.S. to trade with countries other than England and France?

  The Non-Intercourse Act

  (See also: Things that sound dirty, but aren’t)

• Which First Lady was so sickly during a long trip that a coffin was secretly aboard the presidential train?

  Florence Harding

• Which one of President Wilson's First Ladies was an avid golfer?

  Edith Wilson

• James Monroe met his wife while best man at whose wedding?

  Stay tuned to the next issue of The POTUS Notice to find out! Or reach out if you know the answer.

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William Henry Harrison had a bounty of 2,000 beavers on his head.

And that’s not even the weirdest William Henry Harrison fact. His son John’s* grave was robbed. John’s naked body was discovered hanging in a medical school. The story is bananas, but it’s true. I can’t do it justice in this space. Listen to episode 72** of Cutting Class: The Harrison Family Horror Show if you want the full, grisly, inappropriate-for-children story.

*John was (obviously!) the son of a president — but he was also the father of another. Benjamin Harrison. He’s the only guy with that distinction.

** I’m not just recommending this episode because they gave me a couple of pretty cool shout outs.***

*** Ok, maybe I am little bit.

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Gerald Ford’s birth name was Leslie

Leslie King, Sr. insisted his son be named after him. He was a monster. Less than a year into their marriage (and with a 16-day old baby, our future president!), Ford’s mom Dorothy escaped from her husband after he threatened her and her mother with a butcher knife.

She called her son “Junie” until she remarried — then Junie Ford — then Jerry Ford — then Gerald R. Ford, Jr. (even though he was never formally adopted). When he was 21, he officially changed his name to Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.

Of all of our presidents and vice presidents, Ford is the only one who was recruited to play for the NFL and a Cosmo cover model.

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LBJ used to hold meetings in the can. While he was going to the bathroom. #2.

He also peed on a Secret Service agent who was blocking him from the view of a crowd. Like, peed on him on purpose. Which is fine. Because that was his “prerogative.”

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Teddy Roosevelt banned Christmas trees in the White House.

… is what I had heard. But not because he was a scrooge. I thought it was because of conservation. But then when I researched the details, I found a helpful (but disappointing) Mental Floss article that squashed that idea.

It’s possible with six kids and all of the chaos that accompanied them, there wasn’t enough room for a tree. Or maybe it just wasn’t part of their family’s Christmas tradition.

Archie snuck one in though.

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When President Hoover ran for office, it was the first presidential election pitting a Quaker against a Catholic.

Both Hoover and Al Smith tried to keep religion out of it, but they failed. Prohibition was a huge issue. Smith was opposed to it — you gotta have your wine for mass, right? (Yes… this was a real campaign button. I’m not clever enough to make this up.)

The second Quaker vs. Catholic election was Nixon vs. Kennedy.

I didn’t make up either of these campaign slogans. But I did giggle at both of them.

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Nellie Taft decided she wanted all of the men working in the White House to be clean shaven.

The mustachioed President Taft seemed exempt from this rule.

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Florence Harding was so sickly during a long trip that a coffin was secretly aboard the presidential train.

Not even President Harding knew about the coffin. In a weird twist of fate, he ended up in the coffin instead.

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So?

How’d you do? Comment below and to share your score.

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