October 4, 2018 (Thursday)
A couple of months ago I came to the conclusion that as a citizen of the United States I ought to be able to name the presidents. So I set about memorizing the list of 45. I’m doing pretty well on my project. I think I can now name them all and the years in which they served. I discovered that when I reached Herbert Hoover in 1929, it was clear sailing, because all the rest of the presidents were in office during my lifetime and I seem to able to recall them.
Nine men did not serve out their terms of office: four died of illness, four were assassinated, and one resigned. Two presidents have been impeached by the House, but neither was convicted by the Senate. Nine vice presidents have become president and served out the terms of those they replaced. Four of them then ran for president on their own and succeeded. One of them (Teddy Roosevelt) later ran again but lost to Taft (in 1909). Fourteen presidents had experience as a vice president. (I am also trying to memorize the vice presidents).
Two pairs of presidents were father and son. One president served two terms separated by a term served by someone else. He (Grover Cleveland) is always listed as two presidents in official lists. The only president elected to four terms was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 22nd Amendment now limits consecutive terms to two.
In a list of presidents and their vice-presidents, I discovered that some years were without both offices being filled. Then I found out by reading further that the Constitution did not provide for succession to the office of Vice-President until 1947. Revised in 2006, the law now provides a plan to replace the vice president if he leaves office before his term expires. The same 1947 law clarifies the presidential succession issue. The 25th amendment provides a method to fill a vice president vacancy. Click here to read the Constitution.
Here is a list of our presidents, listed in order of service in groups of five:
1789-1825 /// George Washington (1789), John Adams (1797), Thomas Jefferson (1801), James Madison (1809), James Monroe (1817)
1825-1845 /// John Quincy Adams (1825), Andrew Jackson (1829), Martin Van Buren (1837), William Henry Harrison (1841), John Tyler (1841)
1845-1861 /// James K. Polk (1845), Zachary Taylor (1849), Millard Fillmore (1850), Franklin Pierce (1853), James Buchanan (1857)
1861-1881 /// Abraham Lincoln (1861), Andrew Johnson (1865), Ulysses S. Grant (1869), Rutherford B. Hayes (1877), James A. Garfield (1881)
1881-1901 /// Chester Arthur (1881), Grover Cleveland (1885), Benjamin Harrison (1889), Grover Cleveland (1893), William McKinley (1897)
1901-1929 /// Theodore Roosevelt (1901), William Howard Taft (1909), Woodrow Wilson (1913), Warren G. Harding (1921), Calvin Coolidge (1923)
1929-1963 /// Herbert Hoover (1929), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933), Harry S. Truman (1945), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953), John F. Kennedy (1961)
1963-1989 /// Lyndon B. Johnson (1963), Richard Nixon (1969), Gerald Ford (1974), Jimmy Carter (1977), Ronald Reagan (1981)
1989-Present /// George H. W. Bush (1989), Bill Clinton (1993), George W. Bush (2001), Barrack Obama (2009), Donald Trump (2017)
The “whiz kids” who can spout lists with no trouble rely on gimmicks, or tricks. One such trick is to number the rooms in your house, then go to each room and look at the furniture. Remember that much right away. Most people can do that. You need 45 pieces of furniture because there are 45 presidents. With the list go to room one, and select the furniture. If the first piece is a table, picture in your mind a guy washing the desk (that pic should bring to mind WASHINGton). Do this with 45 pieces of furniture. The sillier and crazier the image the more likely you will be able to remember it. Once you have these permanent fixtures in your mind, you can create lists of all kinds using the same nutty method.Click here to read an article explaining the memory system.
Click here for pictures of our founding documents (Consititution, Declaration of Independence and others).
Click here for list of presidents, first ladies and vice presidents, with links to images.