Impress friends with executive-level trivia

President trivia

For more presidential trivia, go to the National Parks Service Web site at http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/ pres/trivia.htm

Today is Presidents Day.

In case you don’t have the day off (like most people) or you just don’t feel in the patriotic mood, here are a list of random presidential facts that might get you humming “Hail to the Chief.”

¢ John Quincy Adams regularly swam nude in the Potomac River.

¢ The term “OK” is credited to Martin Van Buren, who was raised in Kinderhook, N.Y. He became known as “Old Kinderhook,” and eventually the term “OK” stuck.

¢ William Henry Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address (105 minutes) but had the shortest presidency (32 days).

¢ Ulysses S. Grant finished his memoirs a few weeks before his death. The book earned $450,000 (a huge sum at the time) for his family.

¢ James A. Garfield was the last of seven presidents to be born in a log cabin.

¢ Benjamin Harrison was the first president to use electricity in the White House.

¢ William McKinley was the first president to ride in an automobile.

¢ Woodrow Wilson allowed a flock of sheep to be raised on the White House lawn during his presidency, with wool proceeds doing to the Red Cross during World War I.

¢ Warren Harding was the first president to speak over the radio. He also had the largest feet of any president at size 14.

¢ Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president whose mother was eligible to vote for him.

¢ Harry Truman woke at 5 a.m. to practice piano for two hours.

¢ Dwight Eisenhower was injured trying to tackle Olympic, NFL and Haskell Indian Nations University star Jim Thorpe while playing football at West Point.