Totally Trivial Tuesday

This is the start of a new series. Today - trivia about the presidents of the United States.

I have 14 questions for you - then a paragraph of information, then the answers.

Have fun!

14 Trivia questions about the president of the United States

1. Not counting middle names, which president had the shortest name?

2. Which had the longest name?

3. Which president was the first one born in the USA? (as opposed to colonies?)

4. Which president was the first one born in a hospital?

5. Which president got the most votes, total? (questions 5-10 are only for 1824 onwards - prior to that, the popular vote was not tallied)

6. Which president got the fewest votes, total?

7. Which president got the highest percentage of the vote?

8. Who got the smallest percentage?

9. Four presidents lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College. Who are they?

10. What was the closest election in terms of popular vote percentage?

11. Of major party nominees, John McCain was the most recent not born in the 50 states - he was born in Panama. Who was the last major party nominee not born in the actual 50 states?

12. Who was the tallest president?

13. Who was the shortest?

14. We all know FDR served longer than anyone else, but who served the shortest amount of time?

Some information about the presidency of the United States

The president of the United States is, arguably, the most powerful person in the world. There have been 44 different presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. All 44 were men. 43 were white (all but Obama), 43 were Protestant (all but Kennedy). The president is also commander in chief of the armed forces. The president is the head of the executive branch; the other two branches are the legislative (Congress - composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives) and the judiciary (with the supreme court at the top). The residence of the presidents is the White House, but it was not finished until 1800, and the first residents were John Adams and his wife Abigail.

Answers to Presidential trivia questions

1. There are a bunch with 9 letters:

a. John Adams

b. John Quincy Adams

c. John Tyler

d. James Polk

e. George HW Bush

f. George W Bush

2. Theodore Roosevelt - 17 letters

3. Martin van Buren - born December 5, 1782, was the first born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence; John Tyler, born March 29 1790, was first born after 1789.

4. Jimmy Carter, who was born Oct 1, 1924. Earlier presidents were mostly born at home.

5. Barack Obama got 69,460,098

6. John Quincy Adams got 113,122 - by far the fewest. Next fewest was Andrew Jackson with 642,553

7. Lyndon Johnson, running in 1964, got 61.1% to Goldwater's 22.6%; others who got more than 60% are Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 vs. Alf Landon, Richard Nixon in 1972 vs. George McGovern, and Warren Harding in 1920 against James Cox. The biggest winning margin was Harding over Cox - Harding got 60.3% to Cox' 26.2%

8. John Quincy Adams got 30.9% and won in 1824. He lost the popular vote to Andrew Jackson, but won in the electoral college. The only other winner to get less than 40% was Abraham Lincoln, who got 39.8% in a four person race. Stephen Douglas got 29.5%, John Breckinridge got 18.1%, and John Bell got 12.6%

9. John Q. Adams ran 10.4% behind Andrew Jackson in 1924; Rutherford Hayes ran 3.1% behind Samuel Tilden in 1876; Benjamin Harrison was 0.8% behind Grover Cleveland in 1888; and, the only recent case, George W. Bush was 0.5% behind Al Gore in 2000.

10. James Garfield won by 0.02% over Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880. That was just 1,898 votes.

11. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona before it became a state; he was born in 1909, Arizona became a state in 1912

12. Abraham Lincoln was 6'4"; next is Lyndon Johnson at 6'3 ½"

13. James Madison was 5'4". Contrary to myth, the shorter man often wins.... The taller man won 53% of the time, the shorter one 39%, and otherwise the two were the same height

14. William Henry Harrison served 1 month

Coming up on Totally Trivial Tuesday

Totally Trivial Tuesdays will be weekly, and I take requests! Coming in future weeks:

States

Countries

US Cities

World Cities

Animals

Fish and sea creatures

Your requests welcome, but, please, not sports or show biz.

Sources:

Wikipedia list of presidents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States

On Carter: USA presidents http://www.usa-presidents.info/carter.htm

and various other wikipedia pages