From hidden talents to bizarre incidents, every occupant of the Oval Office has a story that didn’t always make it into the standard history textbooks.

The Founding Era (1-10)

1. George Washington: He was a passionate spelunker (cave explorer) and loved exploring limestone caverns.
2. John Adams: He and Thomas Jefferson once visited Shakespeare’s home and chipped off a piece of his chair as a souvenir.
3. Thomas Jefferson: He was obsessed with mastodons and kept a collection of prehistoric fossils in the White House.
4. James Madison: At 5’4″ and barely 100 pounds, he was the smallest president in history.
5. James Monroe: He died on July 4th, 1831, making him the third of the first five presidents to die on Independence Day.
6. John Quincy Adams: He enjoyed skinny-dipping in the Potomac River every morning at 5:00 AM.
7. Andrew Jackson: He taught his pet parrot, Poll, how to curse. The parrot had to be removed from Jackson’s funeral because it wouldn’t stop screaming profanities.
8. Martin Van Buren: “Old Kinderhook” is credited with popularizing the term “OK” (O.K. clubs).
9. William Henry Harrison: He gave the longest inauguration speech in history (nearly 2 hours) in a freezing rainstorm; he died 31 days later.
10. John Tyler: He had 15 children, the most of any president. He still has a living grandson today.

Pre-Civil War & Transition (11-20)

1. James K. Polk: He banned dancing, card-playing, and hard liquor from the White House.
2. Zachary Taylor: He never voted in a single election—not even his own—until he ran for president.
3. Millard Fillmore: He refused an honorary degree from Oxford because he felt he hadn’t “achieved enough” and couldn’t read the Latin diploma.
4. Franklin Pierce: He was arrested during his presidency for allegedly running over an elderly woman with his horse (charges were later dropped).
5. James Buchanan: He is the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor.
6. Abraham Lincoln: He is in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. Out of roughly 300 matches, he only lost once.
7. Andrew Johnson: He was a professional tailor who made his own suits even while in the White House.
8. Ulysses S. Grant: He once received a $20 speeding ticket for riding his horse too fast through Washington D.C.
9. Rutherford B. Hayes: He was the first president to use a telephone. His first words into it? “Sarah, is that you?”
10. James A. Garfield: He was ambidextrous and could write in Greek with one hand while writing in Latin with the other.

The Gilded Age & Progressive Era (21-30)

1. Chester A. Arthur: He was a legendary “dandy” who owned 80 pairs of pants and insisted on redecorating the White House before moving in.
2. Grover Cleveland: He is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He also personally performed hangings when he was a sheriff.
3. Benjamin Harrison: He was so terrified of the newly installed electric lights in the White House that he refused to touch the switches.
4. Grover Cleveland: (See #22 – Fact: He underwent secret surgery on a yacht to remove a cancerous tumor from his jaw).
5. William McKinley: He always wore a red carnation for luck. He gave it to a young girl seconds before he was assassinated.
6. Theodore Roosevelt: He was shot in the chest during a speech, but the bullet was slowed by his glasses case. He finished the 90-minute speech before going to the hospital.
7. William Howard Taft: He was the first president to own a presidential car, but he famously got stuck in a White House bathtub.
8. Woodrow Wilson: His face is on the $100,000 bill (which was only used for transactions between Federal Reserve banks).
9. Warren G. Harding: He once gambled away an entire set of White House fine china in a single hand of poker.
10. Calvin Coolidge: He had two pet raccoons named Rebecca and Horace who lived in the White House.

Mid-Century to Cold War (31-40)

1. Herbert Hoover: He and his wife spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese in the White House to keep their conversations private from staff.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: He was a world-class philatelist (stamp collector) with over 1.2 million stamps.
3. Harry S. Truman: The “S” in his name doesn’t stand for anything; it was a compromise between his grandfathers’ names, Shipp and Solomon.
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower: He was the first president to appear on color television.
5. John F. Kennedy: He was the first (and only) president to win a Pulitzer Prize (for Profiles in Courage).
6. Lyndon B. Johnson: He owned an amphibious car and loved to drive guests into a lake while screaming that the brakes had failed.
7. Richard Nixon: He was an expert card player; he used his poker winnings from the Navy to fund his first congressional campaign.
8. Gerald Ford: He worked as a fashion model for Cosmopolitan and Look magazines in the 1940s.
9. Jimmy Carter: He is the first president to have reported a UFO sighting (in 1969).
10. Ronald Reagan: He was known as the “Great Communicator,” but he was also a prolific letter writer, penning over 5,000 letters during his life.

The Modern Era (41-46)

1. George H.W. Bush: He celebrated his 75th, 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays by skydiving.
2. Bill Clinton: He is a two-time Grammy Award winner (Best Spoken Word Album).
3. George W. Bush: He was the head cheerleader during his senior year at Phillips Academy.
4. Barack Obama: He is a dedicated comic book collector (specifically Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian).
5. Donald Trump: He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his role as producer of The Apprentice.
6. Joe Biden: As a child, he overcame a severe stutter by reciting Irish poetry in front of a mirror.