At age 70, Donald Trump became the oldest person to ever be inaugurated as U.S. president. Ronald Reagan was 69 when he was inaugurated.
Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to screen an X-rated movie at the White House. It was Midnight Cowboy.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution wasn’t always first. The Bill of Rights approved by Congress in 1789 had 12 amendments, which were then sent to the states for ratification. The first two were never ratified, and therefore what we now call the First Amendment was next in line.
“Lame duck” was first applied to the presidency when Calvin Coolidge was waiting out the end of his term in the winter of 1928-29. However, Abraham Lincoln is thought to have coined the term, in referring to “a senator or representative out of business.”
Andrew Jackson had a parrot (originally a gift for his wife). When he died in 1845, the parrot attended his memorial, and reportedly uttered many cuss words.
This article appears in February 21 • 2020.