George Washington

o George Washington’s hair was all real and dark…before he powdered it.

o By Congressional order, no one will ever rank higher than he in the U.S. military.

o Washington made a pretty hefty salary …but he still had cash-flow problems. He actually had to borrow money to attend his own first inauguration.

o He was one of the sickliest U.S. presidents in history.

o He never chopped down that cherry tree.

o He was an inveterate letter-writer.

o Although “the father of his nation,” he was never a parent of children.

o He was a dog lover.

o The troops he led lost more battles than they won.

o He didn’t have wooden teeth.

o Washington is the only president to actually go into battle while serving as president.

o He fell in love with his best friend’s wife.

o He owned a whiskey distillery.

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Abraham Lincoln

o At 6 foot, 4 inches, Lincoln was the tallest U.S.  president.

o Lincoln was the first president to be born outside of the original thirteen colonies.

o He was the first president to be photographed at his inauguration. John Wilkes Booth (his assassin) can be seen standing close to Lincoln in the picture.

o There are no direct descendants of Abraham Lincoln even though he had four sons.

o During the Civil War, telegraph wires were strung to follow the action on the battlefield. But there was no telegraph office in the White House, so Lincoln went across the street to the War Department to get the news.

o The contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night of the assassination weren’t revealed until February 12, 1976. They contained two pairs of spectacles, a chamois lens cleaner, an ivory and silver pocketknife, a large white Irish linen handkerchief, slightly used, with “A. Lincoln” embroidered in red, a gold quartz watch fob without a watch, a new silk-lined, leather wallet containing a pencil, a Confederate five-dollar bill, and news clippings of unrest in the Confederate Army, emancipation in Missouri, the Union party platform of 1864, and an article on the presidency by John Bright.

o Lincoln was the only president to receive a patent, for a device for lifting boats over shoals.

o His son, Robert, who was in Washington when his father was killed, was also on the scene when President Garfield was shot in 1881, and when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

o Lincoln and his wife held séances in the White House. They had a great interest in psychic phenomena.

o He was the first president to wear a beard.

o Lincoln had the largest shoe size documented. He wore a size 14!