Image: Wiki Commons by John Trumbull
About This Quiz
We strongly suggest that you elect to take this U.S. presidents identification quiz. See whether you can ID these commanders in chief in our fact-filled lineup. Don't hesitate to prove once and for all that you paid attention during American History class. No matter where you reside, America's founding fathers are counting on you to score big on this quiz.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you perform this presidential ID feat. The United States president holds office for a term of four years. The lucky leader is the head of the executive branch of the U.S. government and is elected through the Electoral College by the people and for the people. The first person to hold office was George Washington. After him, some folks might recall Thomas Jefferson before they get to Abraham Lincoln. Have you ever wondered why some presidents tend to get more shine in the public sphere than others? On this quiz, all presidents get equal billing.
You are sure to learn something new on our exam. We mention presidential war heroes, inaugural wonders and loads of presidential firsts. You definitely want to take all this in. So scroll on and do your duty!
Gerald Ford
Immediately after graduating Yale Law School, 38th U.S. President Gerald Ford served as legal officer aboard the USS Monterey. Ford would spend 20 months on the ship, participating in actions from 1943 to 1944 such as the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Makin.
Herbert Hoover
Harry S. Truman
John F. Kennedy
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Woodrow Wilson
Donald Trump
President Donald Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York. Queens is one of the city's five boroughs and received its name in 1683 after England seized control of the region from the Dutch. The borough was named in tribute to Catherine of Braganza, queen consort of King Charles II.
William McKinley
Chester A. Arthur
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Andrew Johnson
James Buchanan
Herbert Hoover
Humanitarian Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States. Hoover penned more than 30 books, and he founded the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, a think tank that "seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity."
Millard Fillmore
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Abraham Lincoln
Grover Cleveland
Warren G. Harding
Before and during his presidency, Warren G. Harding kept a mistress named Carrie Fulton Phillips. Harding authored over 100 rather lurid letters addressed to Phillips; many of the preserved letters were written on official Senate stationery.
Theodore Roosevelt
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William Howard Taft
The 27th U.S. President William Howard Taft passed down his political legacy to his son Robert A. Taft, who was a Republican senator from Ohio. Robert's son Robert Jr. held the same post. William Howard Taft III, also a son of Robert A. Taft, was ambassador to Ireland from 1953 to 1957.
Warren G. Harding
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
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Gerald Ford
Millard Fillmore
Richard Nixon
From May 1972 until his death in 1994, Nixon was haunted by the Watergate scandal. Posing as plumbers, campaigners for his re-election campaign bugged Democratic offices in the Watergate Hotel.
Andrew Johnson
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Grover Cleveland
Theodore Roosevelt
Barack Obama
Barak Obama's father, Barak Obama, Sr., was 25 when he met Obama's mother, 18-year-old Ann Dunham, in a Russian-language class. The two married on February 2, 1961 in Maui, Hawaii.
John F. Kennedy
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Buchanan
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland was mayor of Buffalo, New York before becoming the state's governor; then he rose to the nation's highest political office. Cleveland served two terms as U.S. president: from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.
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Chester A. Arthur
Twenty-first U.S. President Chester A. Arthur served from 1881 to 1885. He passed the nation's first immigration legislation which blocked drifters, mentally unstable persons and criminals from immigrating to the United States.
Zachary Taylor
William Henry Harrison
Andrew Jackson
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Rutherford B. Hayes
The hotly contested Bush-Gore election of 2000 was history repeating itself. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the Electoral College vote; however, Hayes did not win the popular vote. The state of Florida determined the election's outcome. Sound familiar?
James Madison
Donald Trump
Grover Cleveland
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Jimmy Carter
Lyndon B. Johnson
Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson maintained a precarious relationship with war during and after his presidency. Johnson lost credibility as a result of the Vietnam War, and in the late '80s biographer Richard Caro unearthed details that disputed Johnson's claim of being a World War II hero.
Thomas Jefferson
George Washington
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George W. Bush
Cartoonists agree that George W. Bush's eyes are a definite draw. At the start of Bush's term in 2001, artist John Kascht offered professional insight concerning Bush's orbs to "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution": "His eyes are so close together I stopped fighting it ... and just gave him one eye."
Andrew Jackson
Zachary Taylor
Franklin Pierce
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Gerald Ford
Calvin Coolidge
Theodore Roosevelt
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson didn't learn to read until he was a teenager. He began his political career at 21, starting out as an alderman, then mayor to Congressman and governor of Tennessee. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln chose Johnson to be his running mate.
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Calvin Coolidge
John F. Kennedy
The maiden voyage for the USS John F. Kennedy, named for the 35th U.S. president, was to the Middle East. USS Kennedy's aircraft attacked Iraqi forces on January 16, 1991, kicking off Operation Desert Storm.
William Howard Taft
Grover Cleveland
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Woodrow Wilson
Herbert Hoover
Harry S. Truman
James Buchanan
The 15th president of the United States was known as "Old Buck." James Buchanan was a lawyer from Pennsylvania who served one term as president from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan's bachelor status was the subject of much discussion during his 1856 candidacy and subsequent presidency.
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Richard Nixon
Barack Obama
Millard Fillmore
In 1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore took over as U.S. president when Zachary Taylor died. Fillmore was responsible for signing into law the Fugitive Slave Act, which permitted the return of slaves who had escaped to Northern states.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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James K. Polk
James K. Polk's presidency secured the territories of present-day Texas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, parts of Colorado, and Nevada. Polk was known to keep his wine cellar in the White House well-supplied.
Warren G. Harding
Theodore Roosevelt
Benjamin Harrison
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Chester A. Arthur
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower can board 5,000 sailors at a time. The aircraft carrier has a 1,092-foot deck, has a displacement of 100,000 tons, contains 29,000 light fixtures and costs $160 million annually to operate.
Woodrow Wilson
Donald Trump
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John F. Kennedy
Herbert Hoover
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison was inaugurated on March 4, 1841 and gave the longest inaugural address (8,445 words) in history. Harrison delivered the address without wearing a coat or covering his head. The ninth president died of pneumonia one month later.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Bill Clinton
Major bombing incidents materialized during the Clinton Administration. On February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed, killing six people. One hundred sixty-eight people died when the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed on April 19, 1995.
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Buchanan
John Tyler
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Millard Fillmore
James A. Garfield
James Monroe
Fifth U.S President James Monroe was the first president to hold his inauguration outdoors, and he was the first to travel by steamboat as president. Monroe was inaugurated on March 4, 1817.
Grover Cleveland
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Harry S. Truman
Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the nuclear bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the close of World War II in 1945. The bombs were intended to target mostly enemy noncombatants, of which over 100,000 perished.
Theodore Roosevelt
Gerald Ford
Bill Clinton
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George W. Bush
John Tyler
James Monroe
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush served as a Navy pilot during World War II. He was a U.S. congressman, head of the CIA, a diplomat and forty-first president of the United States. He and wife Barbara Bush had been married for 73 years before she passed in April 2018.
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Martin Van Buren
Andrew Johnson
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt lived at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan from his birth until age 14. Roosevelt was the descendant of Dutch merchants who made their wealth in New York. The name Roosevelt means "rose field" in Dutch.
James A. Garfield
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John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the first photographed U.S. president. Adams argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Amistad case, where Spain petitioned for the return of African slaves that the country declared as property. The court sided with Adams and the slaves were allowed to return to Africa.
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Woodrow Wilson
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Calvin Coolidge
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Richard Nixon
Andrew Jackson
President Andrew Jackson served from 1829 to 1837. Jackson is remembered for his disdain for Native Americans, and he signed the "Indian Removal Act" into law in 1830, which caused the Trail of Tears as people who historically lived on the land were forcibly moved west of the Mississippi.
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Harry S. Truman
Ronald Reagan
For many years after the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency, there have been over 100 dedications honoring the 40th U.S. president. A prominent airport, U.S. Postal Service structures, roads, an aircraft carrier and schools all bear his name.
Herbert Hoover
William Howard Taft
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Theodore Roosevelt
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren is the first president that wasn't born under British authority. Prior to George H. W. Bush, Van Buren was the last incumbent vice president to be elected president of the United States.
Grover Cleveland
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William McKinley
John Tyler
President John Tyler was the 10th president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845. At 63, Tyler, who was born in 1790, fathered son Lyon Gardiner Tyler who then fathered a son in 1928, Harrison Tyler, when he was 75 years old. The former president had a grandson living in the 21st century.
Bill Clinton
Herbert Hoover
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John F. Kennedy
Warren G. Harding
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was to be sworn in as president on March 4, 1849, a Sunday. But Taylor was very religious and did not permit the ceremony to take place on his sabbath day. His diamond-studded 18-karat gold watch was willed to his nephew, who lent the watch to his cousin, infamous outlaw Jesse James.
Ulysses S. Grant
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William Howard Taft
Franklin Pierce
Many historians do not regard 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce very highly. Pierce allegedly worsened North and South relations concerning slavery, and he botched a bid to purchase Cuba from Spain.
Grover Cleveland
Herbert Hoover
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Jimmy Carter
At Jimmy Carter's inaugural address as governor of Georgia, he announced: "The time for segregation is over." Carter's remark would set the tone for his post-Nixon, progressive and anti-establishment style of presidential politics.
Richard Nixon
William McKinley
Abraham Lincoln
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James K. Polk
Martin Van Buren
Thomas Jefferson
Calvin Coolidge
The early morning hours of August 3, 1923, President Warren G. Harding unexpectedly died. Shortly after, then Vice President Calvin Coolidge, a Vermont native, affirmed the oath of office of the President of the United States in his father's farmhouse.
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John Adams
William Henry Harrison
James A. Garfield
Abraham Lincoln
After candidate Abraham Lincoln's fourth debate with Stephen Douglas on September 21, 1858, he retired to the home of a friend. He had already removed boots from his swollen feet when a group arrived to hear more from the candidate. Unable to put his boots back on, he spoke to them in stocking feet.
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Franklin Pierce
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States and American Civil War commander of the Northern forces. For helping to settle a dispute between Britain and Portugal in the 1800s, the Portuguese put up a statue of him in Guinea-Bissau, a former colony of Portugal.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Warren G. Harding
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Herbert Hoover
Harry S. Truman
James A. Garfield
Eliza Ballou Garfield affectionately known as "Grandmother Garfield," was the first mother of a president to reside in the White House. The twentieth U.S. president's affection for his elderly mother was well-known. At his March 4, 1881 inauguration, he kissed her as soon as he became president.
Gerald Ford
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Andrew Johnson
Chester A. Arthur
Benjamin Harrison
In 1853, Benjamin Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott. Harrison's former residence is now a museum at 1230 N. Delaware Street in Indianapolis. The 23rd president was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the nation's ninth U.S. president.
James Buchanan
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Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
William McKinley
William McKinley was a courageous war veteran who in 1861 joined the 23rd Ohio Regiment when the American Civil War broke out, serving for 14 months. McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York at the start of his second term as president.
Jimmy Carter
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Woodrow Wilson
The former home of 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is a presidential museum and national landmark in Washington, D.C. The museum curates a collection of well over 8,000 objects, many from the former president's two terms in office.
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George Washington
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Benjamin Harrison
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio before residing in the White House. Although he used a wheelchair to move about, his administration worked tirelessly to conceal the severity of disability from the public. Journalists close to Roosevelt did not reveal images of his wheelchair.
Theodore Roosevelt
Calvin Coolidge
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