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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting bits of information “turn-up.”
In the spirit of our cool Ex-Presidents Quiz from earlier this week, today I typed in “the only president ever to,” unearthing the following (click on Presidents’ names for link to Web sites):
- Reagan was the only president to be a head of a labor union (Screen Actors Guild), was the only president to be wounded and survive an assassination attempt, and was the only president to have ever worn a NAZI uniform. (He wore it as an actor in a movie.)
- Clinton, the only President ever to be elected twice without ever receiving 50% of the popular vote… Bill Clinton was the first and only president to have been a Rhodes Scholar.
- Grover Cleveland: 22nd and 24th president of the United States (1885–89 and 1893–97) and the only president ever to serve two discontinuous terms.
- Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), seventeenth president of the United States, was the only president ever to be impeached.
- Cleveland was the only President ever to be married in the White House
- Lincoln was the only President ever to obtain a patent. In 1849 he invented a complicated device for lifting ships over dangerous shoals by means of “buoyant air chambers.” Much to Lincoln’s disappointment, U.S. Patent No. 6,469 was never put into practical use
- Nixon is the only president ever to resign from office.
- The only president ever to be censured was Andrew Jackson in 1834. The Senate voted 26-20 to censure Jackson in his second term after he refused to turn over a document related to his decision to remove federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. Three years later, with its balance of power reversed, the Senate voted to expunge the censure text from the record.
- During his boyhood [Gerald Ford] joined the Boy Scouts, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout–the only president ever to hold that distinction.
Actually Andrew Johnson is not the only president to have been impeached. Bill Clinton was also impeached. To be impeached is not to be removed from office. To be impeached is to have formal charges brought against a person in public office by a legislative body for things done while the accused was in office. You can be impeached, then acquitted, as both Johnson and Clinton were.
posted by BravesDawg on 10-2-2007 at 5:52 am
Also, it says Andrew Johnson was president from 1808-1875. That seems like a long term.
posted by Karen on 10-2-2007 at 7:18 am
BravesDawg is correct. Bill Clinton was impeached. Impeachment is similar to a Grand Jury returning a True Bill. Doesn’t mean you’re guilty, just that the matter at hand needs to be reviewed by a Jury of your Peers. Neither were convicted…
posted by Doc on 10-2-2007 at 7:25 am
Teddy Roosevelt also survived an assassination attempt … in 1912. The incident makes TR the only *former* president ever to be wounded by an assassin.
posted by Aaron on 10-2-2007 at 7:59 am
I think (1808-1875) refers to birth and death of Johnson, not time served. Just looking after my boy David, whose Tuesday Turnips rock!
posted by CassiusClay on 10-2-2007 at 8:43 am
ha! thanks Cassius. thing about these turnips is: i don’t write the copy. the info is always lifted right off the web sites that “turnip.” which is part of the fun of the feature as i see it… distinguishing fact from fiction.
anyway, glad you like the turnip! happy tuesday.
posted by David on 10-2-2007 at 10:18 am
Andrew Jackson’s censure is a point of concern in the third season of the West Wing… Making Jed Bartlet the second (albeit fictional) President served by Congress in such a way.
posted by Nathan on 10-2-2007 at 12:27 pm
Actually Ronald Reagan was also wounded by a would be assasin’s bullet.
posted by Andrew on 10-8-2007 at 3:18 pm
These turnips is spiled!
westploakes@180com.net is not spiled!
Poke a stick in some doo doo.
Smell it.
It’s organic!
posted by Jesse Grunion on 11-30-2007 at 10:10 am