Unusual Strange Facts About US Presidents

Some Unusually Weird but Funny Facts about US Presidents

We often read about these guys on books that praise them for their works and how they lived their lives. Oftentimes, we miss to know about the unusual facts these presidents hide beneath those over flowery authors. Well, on this blog, youll see another picture of these guys.

Enjoy!

In addition to his many other eccentricities, Thomas Jefferson had some unusual pets. Merriwether Lewis and William Clark sent back from the Louisiana purchase some grizzly cubs, and Jefferson was often seen walking them around the grounds of the White House. (Although Herbert Hoover might have bested this: his son had two pet alligators.)
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William Howard Taft, our 27th President, was known as "Big Bill," and for a good reason. He was 6' 2" tall and weighed over 330 pounds. He was so large, in fact, that he once got stuck in the White House bath tub, which had to be replaced with a special oversized version.

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John Tyler, who became president after the death of Harrison, later joined the confederacy and was elected to their house of representatives.
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Warren G. Harding -- considered by many to be one of the worst presidents ever -- was also an avid gambler. He once bet all the White House china on a hand of cards -- and lost. He also gave his dog, Laddie Boy, its own seat at the cabinet table. Somewhat ironically, perhaps, he coined the term "normalcy." - Now, this is definitely a certified weird fact from US Presidents

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Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to run against a woman -- the 1872 nominee of the Equal Rights Party, Victoria Woodhull, a spiritualist, activist, and former prostitute known as "the high priestess of free love."
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In addition to being the first president to be assassinated, Abraham Lincoln had the unusual distinction of being the first president to endure an attempted grave robbing. In 1876, thieves tried to steal his body from its tomb, in the hopes of holding it for ransom. However, they failed to get him out of his casket.
Lincoln was also no fan of women, and the subject of his sexuality is often in dispute. Sufficed to say, his relationship with his wife, Mary Todd, was anything but serene. By all accounts, she was controlling, cruel, and a bit of a shopoholic. Many have speculated that she was manic depressive, or even psychopathic. Lincoln himself once said, "A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know can't hurt me."

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Chester A. Arthur, who became president after the assassination of James Garfield, suffered from Bright's disease -- what modern medicine calls nephritis -- but kept it a secret, and even attempted to gain the nomination for a second term (he died less than two years after leaving office). And he was not the only president to conceal an illness.
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In addition to FDR's well-known secret paralysis, JFK suffered from Addision's disease, a rare endocrine disorder, and has been called by some historians "likely the sickest man ever to hold office."

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Benjamin Harrison, who served as president from 1889-1893, was frightened of the newfangled electricity in the White House. He and his family were afraid to touch the switches for the electric lights, and often had White House staff do it for them.
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And lastly, some presidential firsts: Abraham Lincoln was the first to receive a patent (for a floating drydock);

Millard Fillmore was the first president to have a stepmother;

James K. Polk was the first president to have his swearing-in reported by telegraph;

Hoover was the first to have a telephone on his desk (as well as the first millionaire);

FDR was the first to appear on television,

Truman was the first to ride in a submarine;

and Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital.