Here is an excerpt from an article featured at the MoneyWise website that caught my eye. To read the complete article and check out others, please click here.
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There’s a lot about U.S. presidents that you don’t learn in the history books.
Here are [five of] 24 surprising facts that will have you rethinking your perceptions of American history.
Credit for Lincoln Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
24. Abraham Lincoln was a wrestler.
Which president do you think belongs in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (NWHOF)? While your first instinct might be to think about modern-day presidents, the NWHOF actually gave Abraham Lincoln the award in 1992.
Lincoln practiced wrestling throughout his youth and won nearly every wrestling match in twelve years.
While he didn’t practice wrestling as we know it today, Lincoln was so formidable that he threw hijackers off a river barge and defeated one of his region’s toughest wrestlers. The NWHOF honored him with the Outstanding American award nearly two centuries later.
23. Jimmy Carter saw a UFO.
In 1973, Jimmy Carter filed a report with the International UFO Bureau. He claimed that while he was waiting outside with a group of other people, he saw a large, color-changing shape in the sky.
The shape hovered in the sky, then sped away and disappeared.
While he claimed that he would release government information about UFOs during his presidential campaign, History.com notes that he changed his mind after he won the election due to national security risks.
22. Richard Nixon went on a poker spree.
If Richard Nixon wasn’t a great poker player, he might have never become one of the United States’ most controversial politicians.
When Nixon was stationed on Green Island in the Navy, he won thousands of dollars in poker games. According to History.com, one of his fellow Navy soldiers claimed that he “never saw him lose.”
When Nixon came back, he didn’t squander his winnings. Instead, he used this money to fund his first campaign, which earned him a California congressional seat. The exact amount of his winnings is unclear, but Nixon allegedly told his family that he won about $8,000 (over $60,000 today) from card games.
21. Harry S. Truman had no middle name.
The “S” is an important part of Harry S. Truman’s name, but what does it stand for? Surprisingly, it doesn’t stand for anything.
When Truman was born, the National Archives reports that his parents couldn’t decide on a middle name. Unfortunately, most people didn’t realize that, leading to confusion about Truman’s middle name for the rest of his life.
While his middle name was technically just “S,” Truman always added a period after the letter. Popular guesses about his middle name included “Shippe,” “Solomon” or “Simpson.”
In fact, the Chief Justice who gave him the oath of office read his name as “Harry Shipp Truman.”
20. George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth.
One of the most enduring American myths is the belief that George Washington had wooden teeth.
While it’s true that he wore dentures, according to the Washington Papers, they were actually made from human teeth and other materials. Historical records have suggested that Washington’s dentist Dr. Jean Le Mayeur crafted the dentures for him.
At the time, dentists didn’t have access to porcelain and resin, which they use to make false teeth today. Dr. Mayeur took out advertisements in the newspaper asking people to sell their front teeth so he could make dentures. What would you think if you saw an ad like that in the paper today?
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Here is a direct link to the complete article.