Honoring all our Presidents

            Today, we are ‘celebrating’ Presidents Day, so designated as the third Monday each February. All Government offices including schools and the U.S. Postal service are closed, commercial businesses have special ‘Presidents Day Sales’ all over the country and for a lot of people it is nothing more than part of a three-day weekend and very few people take off some time to even think about Presidents, past and present.  We think that is just not right and we therefore dedicate this article to those individuals who held this highest office in America. But instead of listing them all here or writing about them, how about a bit of Presidential trivia? Questions and answers to facts and statistics about these men. (Sorry, ladies, but so far they were all men). You might find it interesting to test your memory going back to earlier years in school or you might even learn things out for the first time. Here it goes with the questions; you will see the answers below:

1. Since only 43 men have held the office of President since 1789, starting with George Washington, how come Barack Obama is listed as the 44^th President?
2. Did any Presidents sign the Declaration of Independence and if so, can you name them?
3. Did any Presidents sign the Constitution of the United States and if so, who were they?
4. How many Presidents died in office and can you name them?
5. How many Presidents were assassinated while serving and who were they?
6. Can you name the person who resigned as President and when did that happen?
7. Whose Presidency was the longest and whose was the shortest?
8. Where there any ‘double’ Presidencies in families such as father-son or else?
9. On what day of the year was most Inaugurations held?
10. How many men were elected twice or more times to the office of President?
11. Since when are Inaugurations held on January 20?
12. How many Democrats and Republicans held the office of President?

 Here are the answers: 

1. Grover Cleveland is counted twice as the 22^nd and 24^th President since he did not serve consecutive terms; he was elected in 1885 and again in 1893 while President Benjamin Harrison served in between from 1889 to 1893.
2. Yes, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence,
3. Yes, George Washington and James Monroe were original signers the Constitution of the United States,
4. Four Presidents died in office:  William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Warren Harding (1923) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945),
5. Four Presidents were assassinated while in office: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F. Kennedy (1963),
6. Richard Nixon resigned the office of the Presidency in 1974,
7. The longest Presidency was the one of Franklin D. Roosevelt who served from 1933 until his death in April 1945, in all more than twelve years, he is the only President to have been elected more than two times; the shortest Presidency was the one of William Henry Harrison who died after just thirty days in office,
8. Yes, John (#2) and John Quincy Adams (#6) and George H.W. Bush (#41) and George W. Bush (#43) were related as father and son, while William Henry Harrison (#9) was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison (#23), Theodor Roosevelt (#26) was the fifth cousin of Franklin Roosevelt (#32),
9.  March 4,
10. There were fourteen men who were elected twice or more times to the office of President,
11. Since the Inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 and ever since then,
12. There were a total of fifteen Democrats and eighteen Republicans elected as Presidents. This does not include some earlier Presidents who are considered Democratic-Republicans and others who had either no party affiliation (George Washington) or were Federalist (John Adams) or members of the Whig party in the 19^th century.