U.S. Presidents has over 4,400 clues and 285 Final Jeopardy appearances, the highest FJ count of any topic. The category covers not just the presidents themselves but their vice presidents, first ladies, elections, nicknames, homes, libraries, and the web of trivia that connects them.
The most frequently tested presidents, combining all name variants, are Theodore Roosevelt (~155 clues), Truman (~113), Wilson (~111), Lincoln (~107), Nixon (~105), Jefferson (~101), Reagan (~94), JFK (~92), FDR (~87), and Eisenhower (~86). But the topic's real depth lies in its cross-cutting categories: Vice Presidents (263 clues), Presidential Nicknames (170), Quotes (76), Relatives & First Ladies (120), Presidential Firsts (49), and Elections (73).
Clue patterns: Lower-value clues ask you to identify a president by a well-known description or nickname. Higher-value clues test specific facts, vice presidents, pre-presidency careers, election opponents, family details, and exact quotes. Daily Doubles favor obscure VPs and "before he was president" angles. Final Jeopardy loves statistical firsts/lasts ("the only president who..."), pairs of presidents sharing a trait, and election trivia.
Stumper patterns: Formal full names trip contestants up badly, "Dwight David Eisenhower" has a 22% correct rate vs. "Eisenhower" at near 100%. Lesser-known presidents like James Garfield (20%) and Warren G. Harding (44%) are reliable stumpers. Vice presidents like Alben Barkley (33%) and Hannibal Hamlin (56%) cause trouble. The lesson: if you know the obscure VPs and the middle names, you'll clean up where others stumble.
The letter rule: The consonant H begins the last names of five presidents (Harrison x2, Hayes, Harding, Hoover), more than any other letter. Among vowels, only A and E begin presidential last names (Adams x2, Arthur, Eisenhower). The first name shared by the most presidents is James (Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, Carter).
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the unanimous choice of the Electoral College, served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He is the only president who never lived in the District of Columbia; the capital moved there in 1800, after he left office. He was also the first president to preside over fourteen states, as Vermont joined the Union during his term. His half-brother Lawrence served in the British navy under Admiral Edward Vernon, whose name inspired the family estate: Mount Vernon.
Washington set precedents that defined the office. He added the words "So help me God" to the presidential oath, words not found in the Constitution. He established the two-term tradition that held until FDR. He took his oath of office in New York, making him one of three presidents (along with Chester Arthur and Theodore Roosevelt) inaugurated in that state.
John Adams, the first vice president to become president, served a single term from 1797 to 1801 before losing reelection to Thomas Jefferson. He and his son John Quincy Adams were the first two presidents to serve just one term each, and of the first seven presidents, only the two Adamses failed to win reelection. Adams was born in the same Massachusetts county that would produce four presidents across three centuries.
Adams and Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Adams's last words are reported to have been "Thomas Jefferson survives," though Jefferson had in fact died a few hours earlier.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, served as the third president from 1801 to 1809; the first to serve eight full years and the first inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Before the presidency, he served as governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state under Washington, and vice president under Adams, making him the only incumbent VP to defeat a sitting president in a presidential election. He was also the only VP elected to and serving two full terms as president.
Jefferson's Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia, is one of the most visited presidential homes. His personal library, sold to Congress after the British burned the Capitol in 1814, formed the foundation of the Library of Congress. The Time Almanac notes that while official records list only children from his 1772 marriage to Martha Wayles Skelton, DNA evidence supports additional descendants. He and James Madison were the first two consecutive presidents from the same state (Virginia).
James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," served as the fourth president from 1809 to 1817. He is the last surviving signer of the Constitution and the only president to ask Congress to declare war on Great Britain (the War of 1812). Before the presidency, he served eight years each as a member of the House, secretary of state, and president. His estate, Montpelier, shares its name with the capital of Vermont, both names appearing in Jeopardy clues.
Watch out: Madison has a surprisingly high stumper rate (57%) for a Founding Father. Clues often test his role as "Father of the Constitution" or his connection to the War of 1812, not just identification.
James Monroe, the fifth president (1817–1825), presided over the "Era of Good Feelings" and is the only 19th-century president to serve two complete terms with the same VP (Daniel Tompkins). He is the only president to have held two different cabinet posts (Secretary of State and Secretary of War, simultaneously under Madison). His resume also included senator, minister to France, England, and Spain, and governor of Virginia.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president (1825–1829), was the first president to use a middle name and the son of the second president. His wife, Louisa Catherine Adams, born in London, was the only foreign-born First Lady. After losing reelection to Andrew Jackson, he returned to Congress; one of only two presidents elected to Congress after leaving the White House (the other being Andrew Johnson). He was the first president whose father also signed the Declaration of Independence (alongside William Henry Harrison, whose father was another signer).
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president (1829–1837), was the first president born in a log cabin and the first born outside Virginia or Massachusetts, in the backwoods of the Carolinas in 1767, with both North and South Carolina claiming him. Captured as a fourteen-year-old soldier during the Revolutionary War in 1781, he is the only president who was ever a prisoner of war. He was also the only president who fought in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Known as "Old Hickory" for his toughness, Jackson earned the nickname "The Hero of New Orleans" for his decisive victory in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, where he enlisted the help of pirate Jean Lafitte. As Tennessee's first congressman, he later became the state's first representative in the U.S. House before rising to the presidency. Political cartoonists called him "King Andrew" for his aggressive use of executive power. In 1833 he forced the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States, and in 1832 he vetoed the recharter of the Second Bank.
Jackson married Rachel Robards in 1791, only to discover some two years later that her divorce from her first husband was not yet final; so he married her again in 1794. The smear tactics of the 1828 campaign, which attacked Rachel's honor, drove her to her grave just weeks after the election. Emily Tennessee Donelson, his niece, served as White House hostess in her absence. On January 8, 1835, Jackson became the only president to pay off the national debt. His home, The Hermitage, near Nashville, includes a mansion and a Presbyterian church. In Florida, the exterior of the governor's mansion is modeled after it.
Martin Van Buren, the eighth president (1829–1837), holds several unique distinctions. He was the first president born an American citizen rather than a British subject. Though born in the United States, he was the only president who spoke English as a second language; his first language was Dutch, reflecting his New York Dutch heritage. He was the first president not of British descent. George H.W. Bush in 1988 was the first sitting VP elected to the presidency since Van Buren 152 years before. He later ran on a third-party ticket (the Free Soil Party), one of three presidents to do so (along with Teddy Roosevelt and Millard Fillmore).
William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, delivered the longest inaugural address in history; so long and given in such cold weather that he caught pneumonia and died just thirty-one days later, making his the shortest presidency. He was the first man to receive a million votes for president. His father, Benjamin Harrison V, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Harrison used more words in his one inaugural address than FDR used in all four of his. He and James Garfield are the only two presidents whose terms both began and ended within a single calendar year.
John Tyler (16 clues): The tenth president (1841–1845), Tyler was the first VP to succeed to the presidency upon a president's death. He served as VP for the shortest time, just one month. He was the first VP to cast zero tiebreaking votes as president of the Senate. Tyler was both widowed and remarried while in office (one of only two presidents to do so, along with Woodrow Wilson). He never had a vice president; one of four presidents who served without one (Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur).
James K. Polk (8+ clues · 63% correct): The eleventh president (1845–1849) is a reliable stumper. His mother was a descendant of Scottish Protestant reformer John Knox, giving him the middle name Knox. His last name has only four letters; one of just four presidents (along with Taft, Ford, and Bush) with four-letter surnames.
Zachary Taylor (~23 clues · 64% correct): The twelfth president (1849–1850) died in office after only sixteen months. A career military officer, he was one of four men to serve as president without having been elected to another public office (along with Grant, Eisenhower, and Hoover). He and William Henry Harrison are the only two Whig presidents who died in office, and one of them offered Daniel Webster the VP slot, Webster declined both times.
Millard Fillmore (6+ clues · 100% correct): The thirteenth president (1850–1853), the second man to succeed without election. He is the only president whose first and last names contain the same pair of double letters (LL). He later ran unsuccessfully on the Know-Nothing ticket; one of three presidents to run on a third-party ticket after serving. He and John Tyler were the only two Whig presidents who did not die in office.
Franklin Pierce (6+ clues · 100% correct): The fourteenth president (1853–1857). A Democrat from New Hampshire, he is one of the least-tested presidents but reliably a gimme when he appears.
James Buchanan (~22 clues · 100% correct): The fifteenth president (1857–1861) was the last unmarried man elected president. As a senator, he shared lodgings with future VP William Rufus Devane King, a detail Jeopardy has tested. He and Grover Cleveland are the only two Democrats elected president between 1856 and FDR in 1932.
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president (1861–1865), was the first Republican to win the presidency and the first president assassinated. Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, he was the first president born outside the original thirteen states. At six feet four inches, he remains the tallest president, and the first to wear a beard, reportedly inspired by a letter from eleven-year-old Grace Bedell, who urged him to grow one in October 1860. In the 1860 election, more Americans voted against him than for him.
Before the presidency, Lincoln served as postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, practiced law with partners Stephen T. Logan and William H. Herndon, and served briefly in Congress (where he attended Zachary Taylor's inaugural ball). He declined the offer to be governor of Oregon Territory. In the Black Hawk War, he saw no fighting. His first and last names (Abraham and Lincoln) mean "Father of Many Nations" and "Of the Lake Colony."
Lincoln's most famous words are woven through Jeopardy: "With malice toward none, with charity for all" (Second Inaugural Address), "A house divided against itself cannot stand," and his letter to Horace Greeley declaring "my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union." When accused of being two-faced in a debate, he reportedly replied, "If I had two faces, would I be wearing this one?" The night of his assassination on April 14, 1865 (just five days after the surrender at Appomattox) he had a Confederate $5 bill and a pocketknife in his pockets. Edwin Stanton's eulogy: "Now he belongs to the ages."
Lincoln married Mary Todd, about whom he joked that one "d" was enough for God but it took two for Todd. His dog Fido became the first presidential dog to be photographed. His mother, Nancy Hanks, may have been born out of wedlock. He may have suffered from Marfan syndrome. The Capitol dome was incomplete at his first inauguration. Five ex-presidents (the most ever) were alive when he took office.
Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president (1865–1869), assumed office after Lincoln's assassination and remains the only president to serve in the Senate after leaving the White House. Of his twenty-one regular vetoes, fifteen were overridden by Congress, a record of executive-legislative conflict. He is one of four presidents who never had a vice president. Both his and Harry Truman's first proclamations, issued in April eighty years apart, declared national days of mourning. He was one of five presidents never elected president (along with Tyler, Fillmore, Arthur, and Ford). Together with Lincoln, they are the only two men who served as president representing the Union Party.
Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth president (1869–1877), was the commanding general of the Union Army and the second president to wear a beard (after Lincoln). He entered West Point in 1839 and, according to his son Fred, first tried smoking because it was against the rules. Had he lived in ancient Greece, his name would have been Odysseus; the Greek equivalent of Ulysses. Seven presidents were born in Ohio, beginning with Grant. His second administration was scandal-ridden, yet he was almost nominated for an unprecedented third term.
Grant was one of four men who served as president without having been elected to another public office. He and Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield were three successive presidents who were all Republicans, born in Ohio, and generals in the Union Army. Of nine presidents with a beard or mustache, Grover Cleveland is the only Democrat; Grant was one of the eight Republicans.
Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth president (1877–1881), won the most disputed election in American history; the Compromise of 1877 gave him the presidency by a single electoral vote despite losing the popular vote, earning him the derisive nickname "Rutherfraud." He was the second of three successive Ohio-born Republican Union generals to serve as president.
James A. Garfield, the twentieth president, served the second-shortest presidency after William Henry Harrison, both terms began and ended within a single calendar year (1881). Shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881, he lingered for months before dying on September 19. He was a Civil War general and the last man to go directly from the House of Representatives to the presidency. His mother Eliza was the first mother to attend her son's inauguration. He named his dog "Veto." Garfield and McKinley are the only two assassinated presidents whose killers were executed.
Watch out: At 20% correct, Garfield is the hardest president to identify. Clues often test his direct House-to-presidency path, his brief tenure, or the fact that he and William Henry Harrison are the only two whose presidencies fit within one calendar year.
Chester A. Arthur, the twenty-first president (1881–1885), succeeded Garfield and was the last president who never had a vice president. He took the oath of office in New York, one of three presidents inaugurated there. He is a gimme at 100% correct, but rarely tested.
Grover Cleveland, the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president, is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889, 1893–1897), making Benjamin Harrison the only president preceded and succeeded by the same man. Cleveland was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War and the last unmarried man elected president (he married during his first term). In 1895, he became the first president to appear on moving film, signed a bill that was captured on camera. Of nine presidents with a beard or mustache, he is the only Democrat.
Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson are the only two Democrats elected between Buchanan (1856) and FDR (1932). Cleveland and Jimmy Carter are the only two Democratic presidents defeated for reelection since the Civil War. Cleveland and FDR are the only two men who were president ten years to the day after their first inauguration. He served during the 49th, 50th, 53rd, and 54th Congresses (skipping the 51st and 52nd during Harrison's term).
Watch out: At 63% correct, Cleveland is a frequent stumper despite his fame. Clues often test his non-consecutive terms, his status as first post-Civil War Democrat, or the "only" statistics he accumulates.
Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president (1889–1893), was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison; the only president preceded and succeeded by the same man (Cleveland). He praised Lincoln while speaking in Illinois. His father, like William Henry Harrison's father, signed the Declaration of Independence.
William McKinley, the twenty-fifth president (1897–1901), was the first president elected in an Olympic year (1896). In that year's "Cross of Gold" election, he was the GOP nominee who backed the gold standard against William Jennings Bryan. He was assassinated in 1901; he and Garfield are the only two assassinated presidents whose killers were sentenced to death and executed. He was the last to preside over the admission of a new state before Eisenhower (Alaska and Hawaii).
Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president (1901–1909), is the most frequently tested president on Jeopardy!. He was the first VP to succeed to the presidency and then win election in his own right as a Republican (Coolidge later did the same). Only fifty years old when he left office, he was the nation's youngest ex-president. He was the first president to ride in an automobile and an airplane.
Roosevelt's writings include The Naval War of 1812 and The Deer Family. His 1913 autobiography contains the advice: "Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly." In the 1912 election, running on the Bull Moose Progressive ticket after failing to win the Republican nomination; he was shot in the chest before a campaign speech but delivered it anyway, declaring "it takes more than that to kill a bull moose." He received the most electoral votes of any third-party candidate in the 20th century. His campaign slogans included "The Moose Is Loose" and "Ready for Teddy Again."
Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War, making him one of two men to serve as VP and also win a Nobel Prize (the other being Charles Dawes). He appeared on the GOP national ticket multiple times and was the adventurous outdoorsman who inspired the teddy bear.
William Howard Taft, the twenty-seventh president (1909–1913), holds the unfortunate distinction of the worst showing by an incumbent; he finished third in the 1912 election with just eight electoral votes, behind Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose ticket. He was the last sitting president to run for reelection and finish third. Before Eisenhower, Taft was the last president to preside over the admission of a new state (New Mexico and Arizona in 1912). He later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; the only person to lead both the executive and judicial branches.
Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth president (1913–1921), was the last Democratic president to serve two complete terms until... himself (no Democrat matched this until after FDR's amendments). He was the first president to cross the Atlantic while in office, traveling to the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. His second inauguration marked the first time women officially participated in the inaugural parade. He arranged the first film showing in the White House, screening D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. On February 5, 1924, he became the only president buried in Washington, D.C. (at the National Cathedral).
Wilson was both widowed and remarried while in office; one of only two presidents to do so (along with John Tyler). Only three presidents married while in office: Tyler was the first and Wilson the last. In 1912, Arizona and New Mexico cast their first-ever electoral votes, both for Wilson.
Warren G. Harding, the twenty-ninth president (1921–1923), won the 1920 election in which both he and his opponent were from Ohio and were wealthy newspaper publishers. He was one of only two presidents outlived by their fathers (the other being JFK). He died in office in 1923, succeeded by Calvin Coolidge. He was one of two men elected president while serving as a U.S. senator (the other being JFK). He is one of four presidents who married divorced women (along with Reagan, Jackson, and Ford).
Watch out: At 44% correct, Harding is one of the hardest presidents to identify. Clues test his newspaper background, his Ohio origins, and his death in office.
Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president (1923–1929), was sworn in twice as president within two years, first by his father (a notary public) in Plymouth, Vermont, upon Harding's death, and later by a former U.S. president (retired Chief Justice Taft administered a formal oath). "Silent Cal" was inaugurated in 1925 on a Bible open to the opening line of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word." He and Theodore Roosevelt are the only two GOP vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency and were later elected in their own right.
Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president (1929–1933), was one of four men who served as president without having been elected to another public office. When he and his wife Lou didn't want to be understood by those around them, they spoke to each other in Chinese, both had lived in China during the Boxer Rebellion. From March 4, 1933, to January 20, 1953, he was the only living former president. He said, "Victory over Depression will be... by the resolution of our people to fight their own battles."
Hoover's birthplace in West Branch, Iowa is one of the most depicted presidential birthplaces. He and Gerald Ford are the only two 20th-century presidents to live at least thirty years past the day they entered office (besides Carter). The 1952 election was the first since Hoover's time when there was no sitting president or VP on the national ballot.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second president (1933–1945), was the only president elected four times and the last who did not serve in the armed forces before assuming office. His second inauguration was the first held on January 20th (the 20th Amendment having moved Inauguration Day from March 4th), and his last inauguration on March 4, 1933, made him the last president to take the oath on that date. His first ancestor to come to America was a Huguenot, Philippe de la Noye, in 1621.
FDR's three vice presidents were John Nance Garner, Henry Wallace (who also served as Agriculture Secretary and Commerce Secretary), and Harry Truman. He was elected to his second term with 523 electoral votes; the greatest number in any election. He was the first Democrat to die in office. In 1943 he became the first sitting president since Lincoln to visit an actual theater of war. One of his five sons was born in New Brunswick, Canada. His presidential plane was called the "Sacred Cow" (Truman's was "Independence," Eisenhower's "Columbine," and from JFK onward, "Air Force One").
He announced: "The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed..." wait, that was Truman on the atomic bomb. FDR's last will named the Warm Springs Foundation as beneficiary of insurance policies totaling $560,000.
Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president (1945–1953), was the last president who was not a college graduate, though he graduated from high school in 1901. He was the first president to deliver the State of the Union on television and announced the atomic bomb with the words: "The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East." He was the last president to have a Secretary of War and the first to have a Secretary of Defense (when the department was reorganized in 1947).
Truman served the longest of any president who served more than four years but less than two full terms: seven years, nine months, and eight days. He and Herbert Hoover, under an act passed in 1958, became the first two former presidents eligible for a pension. He and Eisenhower were the only two presidents who served in the military during World War I. His presidential plane was called "Independence."
He and Bill Clinton are the last two presidents to have only one child. He was one of five 20th-century presidents who were former U.S. senators. Both his and Andrew Johnson's first proclamations, issued in April eighty years apart, declared national days of mourning for their assassinated predecessors.
Dwight David Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth president (1953–1961), was the last president born in the nineteenth century (1890). He was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, and one of four presidents who served without previously holding elected office. In his first term, he held the first press conference shown on television. Prior to Ronald Reagan, he was the only president to serve past the age of seventy. He and William Howard Taft were the first and last presidents to preside over exactly forty-eight states.
Both of his sons were given the middle name Doud, their mother Mamie's maiden name. His grandson David Eisenhower married Julie Nixon, making David the grandson of one president and son-in-law of another. Eisenhower was one of five presidents who played football for their college teams (along with Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan). His presidential plane was "Columbine."
Watch out: "Dwight David Eisenhower" as a formal full name has only a 22% correct rate; one of the biggest stumpers. Contestants know "Eisenhower" and "Ike" but freeze on the full name.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president (1961–1963), was the first Navy veteran to become president and the only president awarded the Purple Heart. His middle name, Fitzgerald (ten letters) is the longest of any president's. He graduated sixty-fourth out of 112 in his high school class but was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." Before George W. Bush, he was the last president to have both parents attend his inauguration. He was the first candidate to receive Hawaii's electoral vote.
Kennedy kept a personally significant coconut shell on his White House desk, a relic from his PT-109 survival in the Solomon Islands. He and his VP Lyndon Johnson were the first winning presidential ticket of two sitting U.S. senators. He and Harding are the only two men elected president while serving as a senator, and both were outlived by their fathers. He and Garfield are the two presidents who died at the youngest ages, eighty-two years apart. In 2013, Obama was sworn in on two Bibles, Lincoln's and one belonging to Martin Luther King Jr. At JFK's funeral and those of LBJ and Eisenhower, the riderless horse was named "Black Jack."
Oliver Stone directed three presidential films totaling only nine letters: Nixon, W, and JFK.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, the thirty-sixth president (1963–1969), was the only president sworn in by a woman (Judge Sarah Hughes, aboard Air Force One). He took the oath on a Catholic missal; it wasn't his. He was sworn in on a Catholic missal not once but took the oath twice within fourteen months. He was the first man in the 20th century to hold all four federally elected offices (Representative, Senator, Vice President, President). He was the president born the earliest in the 20th century and served the shortest time before running for and winning reelection.
LBJ was the most recent Democratic VP to become president. His presidential library, opened in 1971, is the farthest south of any presidential library, and he is buried the farthest south of any president. During his presidency, the Jets beat the heavily favored Colts in Super Bowl III. He and Nixon followed each other as VP and later, in reverse order, as president.
Richard Nixon, the thirty-seventh president (1969–1974), is the only man elected vice president twice and elected president twice. Born the farthest west in the continental U.S. of any president (Yorba Linda, California), he was the first VP born in the 20th century (1913) and the youngest man to take the vice presidency at age thirty-nine. He was the first president to visit all fifty states while in office and the last to appoint a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Warren Burger, then William Rehnquist).
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, becoming an ex-president while flying over a point thirteen miles southwest of Jefferson City, Missouri. He was the last president elected with less than 50% of the popular vote (in 1968). The last time there were no living ex-presidents was during Nixon's tenure. He talked in his farewell of a "new Attorney General" four times, "the end of a long dark night for America," and "a gentle, Quaker mother." He was one of five 20th-century presidents who were former senators.
Nixon and George H.W. Bush are the only two Republicans since 1850 to appear on the national ticket three elections in a row. He, Reagan, and FDR are the only three presidents elected with over 500 electoral votes. He and LBJ followed each other as VP and then, in reverse order, as president.
Gerald Ford, the thirty-eighth president (1974–1977), was the only 20th-century president who never delivered an inaugural address, because he was never elected to either the presidency or vice presidency. He said at his swearing-in: "If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises." He was the only 20th-century president who had previously served as House Minority Leader. He was the first incumbent president to debate his opponent on television. Before Clinton, he was the last president who was a law school graduate.
Ford's last name was changed; he was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. and took his stepfather's name. He and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents whose last names were changed. He was one of five presidents who played football for their college teams. He was one of four 20th-century presidents never to appear on a regular U.S. stamp or coin (along with Nixon, Reagan, and Carter). He and Hoover lived at least thirty years past entering office.
Watch out: Ford has a 67% correct rate: surprisingly tricky for such a well-known president. The stumper clues test his House Minority Leader role, his non-election status, or his debate firsts.
Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth president (1977–1981), holds the record for the longest post-presidency, living decades after leaving office. He was the first president to put solar panels on the White House and the first to publish a novel (about the South). Of presidents who attended a service academy, he is the only one who graduated in the top ten percent (U.S. Naval Academy). He was the last president to enter office with his party controlling both houses of Congress (before later presidents).
Carter held 480 film screenings at the White House; his first was All the President's Men. During his tenure he never threw an opening-day first pitch, though he had done so for the Braves before his presidency. He and Grover Cleveland are the only two Democratic presidents defeated for reelection since the Civil War. His most recent birth date made him the youngest-born living president for much of his post-presidency.
Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president (1981–1989), was elected twice, beating his two opponents by a combined Electoral College tally of 1,014 to 62. His full name (Ronald Wilson Reagan) is notable because his first, middle, and last names each contain the same number of letters (six). He was the president in office the longest under the fifty-star flag. Prior to Reagan, Eisenhower was the only president to serve past age seventy.
In 1940, Reagan attended the premiere of his most famous movie role in South Bend, Indiana (playing George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American). He and his wife Nancy consulted an astrologer. He was one of four presidents who married divorced women. He and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents who served as governors of states west of the Mississippi (California and Arkansas). He was one of five presidents who played college football.
George Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first president (1989–1993), was the only president who previously served as U.S. representative to the United Nations. He was the only sitting VP elected since Van Buren (1836) until he won in 1988. Other than FDR, he was the only man to appear as president or VP on a major party ticket in four straight elections (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992). He was the most recent president who had not previously served as a state governor. Excluding honorary degrees, George W. Bush is the only president with degrees from both Harvard and Yale; but H.W. Bush attended Yale as well.
Bill Clinton, the forty-second president (1993–2001), was born in 1946; the same year the Roosevelt dime made its debut. He and Ford are the only two presidents whose last names were changed (Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III). He and Truman are the last two presidents to have only one child. He was one of two presidents who served as governor of a state west of the Mississippi (Arkansas; Reagan governed California).
George W. Bush (10+ clues · 100% correct): The forty-third president (2001–2009). Excluding honorary degrees, the only president with degrees from both Harvard and Yale. The last president to have both parents attend his inauguration before him was JFK.
Barack Obama (10+ clues · 100% correct): The forty-fourth president (2009–2017). The only president since 1900 whose last name contains more vowels than consonants. In 2013 he was sworn in on two Bibles, Lincoln's and Martin Luther King Jr.'s.
Donald Trump: The forty-fifth president (2017–2021). The 2016 election was the most recent where both major candidates were residents of the same state (New York). In 1952, Eisenhower was the last candidate to win without prior elected office, until 2016.
Joe Biden: The forty-sixth president (2021–2025).
Aaron Burr (~24 clues): Jefferson's first VP and the first vice president who did not become president, though he is "famous for other reasons" namely killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. He wrote to his son-in-law: "In New York I am to be disenfranchised and in New Jersey hanged."
Spiro Agnew (~20 clues · 100% correct): Nixon's first VP, who resigned in 1973 over tax evasion charges. He wrote two books: The Canfield Decision and Go Quietly... or Else. A total gimme at 100%.
Hannibal Hamlin (~9 clues · 56% correct): Lincoln's first-term VP and the first Republican vice president. A biography traces his family to a German town made famous in a folk tale about children (Hamelin/Hameln; the Pied Piper).
Watch out: Hamlin is a major stumper at 56%. If the clue mentions Lincoln's first VP or the first Republican VP, the answer is Hamlin.
Alben Barkley (~6 clues · 33% correct): Truman's VP. Another reliable stumper, if the clue asks for Truman's VP, most contestants freeze.
Dan Quayle (~10 clues · 100% correct): George H.W. Bush's VP. A perfect gimme.
Al Gore (~13 clues · 92% correct): Clinton's VP and the most recent presidential candidate to officially declare his opponent the winner.
Hubert Humphrey (~12 clues · 67% correct): LBJ's VP. He and Walter Mondale are the only two VPs who previously represented Minnesota in the Senate. At twenty, Humphrey helped manage his future colleague's 1948 Senate campaign.
Walter Mondale (~10+ clues): Carter's VP. He and Bob Dole are the only two men who lost as both presidential and vice presidential nominees.
Nelson Rockefeller (~5 clues · 100% correct): Ford's VP; the last VP who was not elected but nominated by the president and confirmed by Congress. Also the last VP who did not serve a full four-year term.
John Nance Garner (~5 clues · 60% correct): FDR's first VP, who reportedly said the vice presidency was "not worth a bucket of warm spit."
Henry Wallace: FDR's second VP. He served FDR as Commerce Secretary, Agriculture Secretary, and Vice President, three different cabinet/executive roles.
Memorize these and recognize 52.4% of all U.S. Presidents clues.
| # | Answer | Count | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theodore Roosevelt | 128 | He climbed the Matterhorn, explored Brazil & practiced judo |
| 2 | Richard Nixon | 104 | This 1968 candidate reportedly urged South Vietnam's President Thieu to scuttle possible peace talks |
| 3 | John Fitzgerald Kennedy | 102 | He's the subject of 2003's "An Unfinished Life" |
| 4 | Harry S. Truman | 100 | He owned a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri |
| 5 | Dwight David Eisenhower | 97 | This future 1950s president is scared when Mom uses these three names, especially when followed by "Come here this instant" |
| 6 | Woodrow Wilson | 96 | He died in his sleep on February 3, 1924, 6 months after Warren Harding |
| 7 | Abraham Lincoln | 96 | 1864: "Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream" |
| 8 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | 93 | The 1960s president shudders when Mom uses this full name, followed by, "Turn that chair around right now" |
| 9 | Ronald Reagan | 87 | In 1957 this future president sang, "I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie" to Gisele MacKenzie on her TV show |
| 10 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | 83 | The 1st president to recognize Soviet government of Russia |
| 11 | Gerald Ford | 76 | He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan 13 straight times |
| 12 | Thomas Jefferson | 76 | Chronologically, he was the first who fits the category |
| 13 | Herbert Hoover | 76 | In a 1964 survey, he was named 1 of the 2 greatest engineers in U.S. history |
| 14 | Jimmy Carter | 74 | "I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago" |
| 15 | Ulysses S. Grant | 67 | With 5, this president had more attorneys general in his administration than any other president |
| 16 | Andrew Jackson | 63 | He defeated the Creek in the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend |
| 17 | George Washington | 63 | December 14, 1799 at his home in Virginia |
| 18 | William Howard Taft | 58 | In 1914 this future jurist wrote the book "The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court" |
| 19 | John Adams | 56 | He represented Massachusetts in the First Continental Congress |
| 20 | Martin Van Buren | 53 | He practiced law in Kinderhook, New York |
| 21 | Grover Cleveland | 50 | In the 1870s, while he was the sheriff of Buffalo, he fathered a child with a Mrs. Maria Halpin |
| 22 | Bill Clinton | 48 | Things were good. Economy, strong. His country, at peace. But now Ken Starr was asking Reno for more power... |
| 23 | Calvin Coolidge | 47 | A famous 1924 campaign slogan was "Keep Cool With" this man |
| 24 | William McKinley | 44 | "Theodore Rex" begins with Roosevelt's journey to take the oath after this man's assassination |
| 25 | Warren G. Harding | 44 | He won an election in which both he & his Democratic opponent were from Ohio & both were wealthy newspaper publishers |
| 26 | James Madison | 40 | He was Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state |
| 27 | James Buchanan | 39 | He told Lincoln, "If you are as happy in entering the White House as I feel on returning (home), you are a happy man indeed |
| 28 | William Henry Harrison | 38 | "Old Tippecanoe" |
| 29 | Andrew Johnson | 37 | Alaska |
| 30 | John Quincy Adams | 34 | While his father's last words were "Thomas Jefferson still survives", his last words were "This is the last of earth. I am content" |
| 31 | Zachary Taylor | 29 | He was "Old Rough and Ready", a hero of the Mexican War |
| 32 | George Herbert Walker Bush | 29 | June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts |
| 33 | Benjamin Harrison | 28 | This U.S. president was named for his great-grandfather, a signer of the Declaration of Independence |
| 34 | Aaron Burr | 26 | Woodrow Wilson said this man had enough genius to be immortal & "unschooled passion enough to have made him infamous" |
| 35 | Spiro Agnew | 24 | November 9, 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland |
| 36 | James Garfield | 23 | He lingered for 2 mos. after being shot & might have survived had doctors located a bullet in his back |
| 37 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 22 | RBH |
| 38 | John Tyler | 21 | He was the first U.S. president who never had a vice president |
| 39 | James Monroe | 21 | After being wounded in Revolutionary War battle of Trenton, he probably needed some doctrine |
| 40 | Franklin Pierce | 21 | Pre-Civil War president considered by some to have been the handsomest |
| 41 | Nelson Rockefeller | 20 | This vice president had the same July 8 birthday as his very wealthy grandfather |
| 42 | Hubert Humphrey | 20 | He taught at the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s & then served as mayor of Minneapolis |
| 43 | George Bush | 18 | The last incumbent to be unseated; it was the 10th time it had happened |
| 44 | James K. Polk | 17 | In 1824 Sarah Childress married this future president |
| 45 | Walter Mondale | 16 | January 5, 1928 in Ceylon, Minnesota |
| 46 | Dan Quayle | 14 | February 4, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana |
| 47 | Chester Arthur | 13 | After Garfield's death, he refused to move into the White House until it was redecorated |
| 48 | George W. Bush | 11 | In an Oliver Stone biopic, Toby Jones was Karl Rove & Josh Brolin was this man |
| 49 | Millard Fillmore | 11 | His O-LZT (out-living Zachary Taylor) looms large but I worry about his short pres. career of only 32 months |
| 50 | Virginia | 10 | Like Patrick Henry before him, Tyler was governor of this state |
These appear 8+ times. Memorize these first.
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