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US Presidents
US Presidents by major events
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Gained national recognition after he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention; served as the U.S. Senator for Illinois; first African American president of the United States. | Barack Obama |
| President during the September 11th terrorist attacks; led the United States into war against Iraq; before becoming president he was managing partner and part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team | Geroge W. Bush |
| passed NAFTA trade agreement; popularity was uneven and his second term was marred by scandal | Bill Clinton |
| President when Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended; led the U.S. in the Gulf War against Iraq; was the first sitting Vice President to be elected President since Martin Van Buren. | George H.W. Bush |
| Credited with reviving national pride after the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s; only President to survive after being wounded by a would-be assassin. | Ronald Reagan |
| Had success promoting Middle East peace; soaring oil prices, high inflation, and the Iran hostage crisis made him look weak and ineffectual; after term, traveled the world doing charity work | Jimmy Carter |
| became Vice President the former Vice President resigned in disgrace, and President after the President resigned; pardon of Nixon was unpopular, probably costing him reelection; only President never elected President or Vice President. | Gerald Ford |
| Improved relations with the Soviet Union and China and wound down the Vietnam War; Watergate scandal forced him to resign; only U.S. President in history to resign his office | Richard Nixon |
| Passed sweeping antipoverty and civil rights programs; involved the U.S. in the unpopular Vietnam War; was sworn into office on an airplane | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| President during the Cuban Missile Crisis; assassinated in the third year of his term; only Roman Catholic President | John F. Kennedy |
| Helped end the Korean War and steered a moderate course during the Cold War; one of America's most famous soldiers | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Made the fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. World War II ended days later. Led the U.S. during the Korean War; had a plaque that said "The Buck Stops Here." | Harry S. Truman |
| Led the nation during the Great Depression and to victory in World War II; greatly expanded the size and role of the federal government through his New Deal social programs; only President elected four times | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Stock market crashed a few months into his term; organized relief efforts in Europe after both World Wars. | Herbert Hoover |
| Marked by economic prosperity; ignored signs that the stock market was likely to collapse | Calvin Coolidge |
| Died in office, just as massive corruption in the Teapot Dome scandal was about to become public; regarded as the worst President; his election was the first in which women voted. | Warren G. Harding |
| Led the U.S. into the war and drafted the peace plan that ended it; fought to create the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations; first President to hold a news conference. | Woodrow Wilson |
| Continued many of his predecessor's policies; alienated the progressive wing of his party and lost reelection; only President who became a Supreme Court Justice | William Howard Taft |
| One of the most activist Presidents; accomplishments included the building of the Panama Canal, cracking down on business monopolies, and creating many national parks; first President to visit a foreign country while in office | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Led the U.S. during the Spanish-American War; only moments after handing a girl his "lucky" red carnation, he was assassinated. | William McKinley |
| Caught between reformers who were fighting the spoils system and those who wanted to continue it, and was defeated after one term; grandson of another president | Benjamin Harrison |
| Only President to be elected to two non consecutive terms; expanded the Civil Service and ended wasteful government programs | Grover Cleveland |
| Unknown before being elected, but surprised people by being honest and responsible; helped create the Civil Service; as a lawyer, he defended a black woman who had been abused on a streetcar and won | Chester A. Arthur |
| Set out to reform the "spoils system" by which politicians gave their friends low-level political offices; was assassinated by a disappointed office seeker; first left-handed President. | James A. Garfield |
| One of only three Presidents to lose the popular vote but win the office; won the election by one electoral vote; his wife, Lucy, was the first First Lady to graduate from college. | Rutherford B. Hayes |
| Top Union military hero of the Civil War | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Found himself in bitter battles with Congress over Reconstruction; was impeached and tried by the Senate, but was acquitted by one vote; only southern senator to stay loyal to the Union. | Andrew Johnson |
| Led the Union into the Civil War to preserve the nation and end slavery; assassinated just five days after the Confederate armies surrendered; polls show that he is the most admired President. | Abraham Lincoln |
| Only bachelor to ever serve in the White House; tried in vain to find a compromise to keep the South from seceding from the Union | James Buchanan |
| Wife hated Washington, D.C., so much, that she fainted when she found out he had been nominated for President; supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act | Franklin Pierce |
| Approved the Compromise of 1850, allowing slavery in the South; ran for President on the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party ticket. | Millard Fillmore |
| Won fame as a general in the Mexican War; soldiers called him "Old Rough and Ready" | Zachary Taylor |
| Only President to have served as Speaker of the House; first "dark horse" or little-known nominee to become President; presided over the Mexican War, which added Texas, California, and other territory to the U.S. | James K. Polk |
| Had 15 children, more than any President; was expected to be a passive "acting President" while he finished his predecessor's term but he refused to be passive; first President to be threatened with impeachment | John Tyler |
| Delivered a marathon inaugural speech during which he caught a cold; died a month later; first President to die in office and served the briefest term. | William Henry Harrison |
| First President to be born an American citizen, rather than a British subject; presidency was marred by an economic depression that led to bank failures and food riots | Martin Van Buren |
| First President to ride on a train; though he was a rich planter, he was considered the common people's friend; dubbed "Old Hickory" because he was so tough | Andrew Jackson |
| Son of a former president; accused of winning the White House through corruption; plagued by accusations of misdeeds throughout his presidency; served nine terms in the House of Representatives, until his death in 1848. | John Quincy Adams |
| Lived out his retirement in poverty; term is called the "Era of Good Feeling" because there was little partisan fighting; formulated a famous doctrine, which declared the Americas off-limits to European meddling. | James Monroe |
| Father of the Bill of Rights; presided over the War of 1812 with Britain, during which the White House was burned. | James Madison |
| Wrote the Declaration of Independence, founded the University of Virginia, and was an architect, a farmer, and a scientist; approved the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which nearly doubled the size of the U.S. | Thomas Jefferson |
| First President to live in the White House | John Adams |
| Shaped the chief executive's duties. He refused to run for a third term. | George Washington |
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