This week’s article on Tidbits of Shelby County History is going to be different. I thought it would be fun to have a quiz on US Presidents (This is a tough one). I found this information while looking through some old file cabinets. Each President will be the answer to only one question. Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden are not included. 

The museum has so many hidden jewels and I am trying to uncover them. Good luck!!

1.    He served the shortest period of time – one month.

2.    His autobiography is called “Why Not the Best?”

3.    He was the first President born a U.S. citizen, on December 5, 1782.

4.    This President, who fought in the Civil War, was wounded in an assassination attempt, and eventually died from the wound. He served only about 6 ½ months in office.

5.    Warren Harding was survived by his father while James Polk and James Garfield were survived by their mothers. He was the only President survived by both his mother and father.

6.    He was the last President not to attend a college or military academy.

7.    Before assuming office, this President was instrumental in overseeing relief to post-World War I Europe and was the only person to serve as Secretary of Commerce before becoming President.

8.   This President is the only one to have a state named in their honor.

9.   Name the four Presidents who have state capitals named in their honor.

10.  Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederacy, served as Secretary of War in this President’s administration.

11.  Match the President with the event that happened during his administration:
        a. the sinking of the Titanic.
        b. The 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery becomes law.
        c. the battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor, which helps spark the Spanish-American War.
        d. the Alien and Sedition Acts, unpopular laws that include punishment for those who write or speak“with intent to defame” the government, are enacted.
        e. the Scopes “Monkey Trial” which debates the teaching of evolution in public schools, takes place.  
        f.  the Erie Canal opens.
        g. the Wright brothers make the first sustained manned flight.

12.   This President established the policy that any European interference in the American countries would be seen as an unfriendly act.

13.   These four Presidents played football for their colleges.

14.   He was the first to succeed to the presidency on the death of his predecessor, the first to face impeachment hearing, and the first to have no Vice President.

15.   Manifest Destiny, a concept used to justify U.S. territorial gains, was coined during his administration.

16.   He was President during the Teapot Dome scandal.

17.   The wife of this President is the only First Lady to have retained her maiden name.

18.   The only President to have been director of the CIA.

19.   He was the only President buried in New York City, in Riverside Park.

20.   He was President when the Russian Revolution occurred.

21.   Known as Old Rough and Ready, he died in office after serving only sixteen months.

22.   He sent in federal troops to break up the Pullman Strike of 1894.

23.   He was the first to send and receive a transatlantic telegram (he exchanged greetings with England’s Queen Victoria).

24.   He signed into law the Medicare insurance program, among other social programs.

25.   During his administration, he withdrew federal troops from the South, which marked the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War.

26.   He was the last President of the Whig Party, which disintegrated over the slavery issue. He unsuccessfully ran for the Presidency again with the Know-Nothing, or American Party, in 1856.

27.   In 1883, he signed into law the Pendleton Act, which granted federal employment based on merit rather than political affiliation, thus establishing the modern civil service.

28.   He signed into law the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first federal legislation to curb the power of the business monopolies.

29.   This President launched the Good Neighbor Policy, which ended the gunboat diplomacy long practiced by the U.S. as a means of protecting its interests in Latin America.

(Note: The answers will be with next week’s article.)