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About This Quiz
The president of the United States gets to know things the rest of us don't. National security secrets, launch codes, diplomatic plans, and maneuvers, plus some stuff the rest of us have probably never even imagined. Being at the top of the ladder does have some perks. On the other hand, past presidents have also managed to hold a lot of things back from the rest of the country, either out of embarrassment, strategy, or something else.
And hey, everyone has secrets, right? But when it's the person you elected to run the country, to represent you and have your best interests at heart in all things they do, it can get a little nerve-wracking to discover they've been keeping a few things on the down-low, like affairs, health scares or just peculiar personal habits. Some of these secrets weren't made public until years after the president that kept them left office, making it even more bizarre.
If you want to know what secrets the walls of the White House have been keeping all these years or if you think you have a good idea about the things presidents have kept away from the public, pledge your allegiance to this quiz and see for yourself!
She was already married.
Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donelson in 1791. Unfortunately for the happy couple, Donelson was still married to her first husband, Lewis Robards, making Jackson's marriage invalid.
She was 40 years older than him.
She wasn't American.
She hated Jackson.
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They never did.
Congress was not aware that the National Security Agency was even a thing when President Truman created it. Its existence can be traced to a memo he wrote at the bottom of a larger document. It was quite a while before Congress was even aware of the agency's existence.
One hour
One day
Seven years
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The White House china
Warren Harding was apparently not the sort of man who would turn down a game of cards, and word is he got in so bad during one game that he actually ended up losing the White House china to an opponent.
Lincoln's hat
Washington's teeth
Vermont
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Jimmy Carter
When he was still the governor of Georgia back in 1973, Jimmy Carter filed a report about seeing an unidentified flying object in the skies above a Lions Club meeting he was attending in 1969. He says about a dozen other people witnessed the white, glowing object turn blue, then red, then back to white.
Gerald Ford
Ronald Reagan
Lyndon Johnson
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James K. Polk
William Rufus King
William Rufus King was VP under Franklin Pierce and lived with James Buchanan for years. Though we'll never know for sure today, it was a common belief at the time that the two men were a couple, and many historians believe Buchanan was gay.
Franklin Pierce
Millard Fillmore
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Playboy
Cosmopolitan
Long before he became President, Gerald Ford worked as a male model and even had a cover of Cosmo under his belt. This wasn't something he advertised when he was in office, but he was featured on a 1942 issue in his Navy uniform.
Elle
Better Homes and Gardens
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Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Electricity was installed in the White House in 1891 when Benjamin Harrison was president. Despite allowing the installation to occur, Harrison reportedly never touched any of the switches as he was afraid of what might happen if he did.
William Mckinley
Chester A. Arthur
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He had people spy on his brother.
Nixon was a very mistrustful man, and that extended to even his own family. His younger brother, Donald Nixon, had some financial issues that concerned Richard, so President Nixon hired people to keep an eye on his brother and his business dealings.
His brother was a spy.
He was paying his brother under the table.
His brother was illegitimate.
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He was shot.
He contracted malaria.
He moved back to his own house.
He had a stroke.
Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke while he was serving as president but refused to leave the office. The extent of his condition wasn't known until about two years later, and word is his wife actually made most of the decisions for the latter part of his presidency.
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John Tyler
Martin Van Buren
Franklin Roosevelt
John Quincy Adams
As weird as it sounds, John Quincy Adams believed the world was hollow thanks to a man named John Cleves Symmes, Jr. Adams approved the Symmes expedition to the center of the earth and was hoping to meet a race of subterranean beings.
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Milk
Oatmeal
Petroleum jelly
Believing it was healthy and improved his overall well-being, President Coolidge was known to have petroleum jelly massaged into his scalp while he ate breakfast in bed. Odds are he didn't share this at too many state dinners.
Mud
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John F. Kennedy
These days JFK is remembered as a youthful president, but he suffered from a series of health concerns for much of his life. Even before he had become president, he had undergone four back surgeries and was often in severe pain.
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Dwight Eisenhower
George Bush
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Bats
Blood
Despite being so closely associated with the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was apparently quite afraid of the sight of blood. And while many people are averse to blood, Grant hated it so much, the word is he demanded any meat he eats be grilled thoroughly so he wouldn't have to see it at all.
The dark
Fire
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A bowling alley
A bathtub
William Taft was a man who liked a bath and had a bathtub installed on the USS North Carolina for his visit to the Panama Canal. This wasn't just a tub, though, as it weighed one ton and was massive. As an aside, you may have heard Taft once got stuck in a bathtub. That story isn't true.
A bar
A waterbed
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Calvin Coolidge
Harry Truman
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover and his wife apparently hated seeing staff and servants around the White House. Staff would literally duck behind shrubs or hide in closets so that Hoover wouldn't see them at work.
Grover Cleveland
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Swim
John Quincy Adams was known to be an early riser, as in 4 a.m. early. He wanted to start his day refreshed so he'd often head down to the Potomac River, disrobe, and then go for a swim.
Run
Garden
Cook
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One
Two
Three
Four
The last rites are a Catholic ritual performed when someone dies. JFK received the last rites on four separate occasions before he actually died in 1963. Kennedy had a very rough life and had nearly died from scarlet fever, then later during the war, then twice from Addison's disease.
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George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was quite the grappler in his day though the fine details are sketchy. Unfounded rumors say he only lost one match in 300 while a more accurate representation would be that, by his own admission, he won numerous games before a man named Lorenzo Dow Thompson handed him his first loss.
Donald Trump
Richard Nixon
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James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor
James Madison
James Madison was a much tinier man than most people realize. He was only 5'4" tall, and though his weight, like anyone's, fluctuated throughout his life, the word is he never topped 100lbs.
Millard Fillmore
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James Garfield
Teddy Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Surprisingly, Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested for speeding, which is interesting since Grant lived before the automobile. He was cited for speeding with a horse and carriage and ended up paying a $20 fine, but he skipped out on his court date.
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Barack Obama
Bill Clinton
In 2011, Bill Clinton was being interviewed on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," and the hosts came at him with an impromptu quiz about the cartoon "My Little Pony." Inexplicably, Clinton got all three questions correct. Is he a secret fan? We may never know.
George W. Bush
Donald Trump
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Charlton Heston
Burt Lancaster
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood was a potential running mate for George Bush senior when he was trailing Dukakis back in 1988. The team was desperate, and Eastwood had been a Republican mayor in California for a spell, so he was briefly, but seriously, considered. It was years later when that story came out.
Charles Bronson
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Thomas Jefferson
John Adams once said that he never heard Thomas Jefferson speak more than three sentences together at one time during their tenure together in congress. Jefferson gave two speeches during his presidency, and they were apparently so quiet people had a hard time even hearing them.
Martin Van Buren
James Monroe
James Madison
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Ghost hunting
Embalming
Casting spells
Seances
Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was very much into the supernatural and reportedly held several seances in the White House, some of which Lincoln himself attended. There's no definitive word on whether Lincoln was a believer, though.
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Air Force One
Chelsea Clinton
The nuclear codes
Of all the things a president could lose, the nuclear codes are probably the worst one. For some time during Clinton's presidency, the codes were nowhere to be found, and no one is sure who even lost them. They were, of course, replaced, as is routine, but it was months before anyone even knew they had vanished.
The keys to the White House
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Ivory
Corpse teeth
Wooden teeth are a lot less creepy than the truth in this case. Washington apparently only had one real tooth left in his head. The false teeth he used had been harvested from corpses.
Granite
Chicken bones
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Dancing
James K. Polk's wife Sarah was a devout Presbyterian and banned many things from the White House, including card games, alcohol and dancing. She was known by the nickname "Sahara Sarah" for her dry, dull demeanor.
Prayer
Natural light
Meat
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Stanfield
Sutton
Spencer
It doesn't stand for anything.
Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. His father made a special request that Grant be allowed into Westpoint, and the man who nominated him miswrote Grant's name. He was listed as "Cadet U.S. Grant," which he took to mean Ulysses S. Grant. The name inexplicably stuck, but the S never had a meaning.
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Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
Eisenhower was a big fan of golf and liked to play on the White House grounds. Squirrels kept burying acorns on his putting green, however, and that enraged him. He ordered they be shot on sight, but the Secret Service had to step in because guns were not allowed on the grounds. The squirrels earned a reprieve and were trapped and released.
Herbert Hoover
Teddy Roosevelt
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His widow
His son
His parrot
Andrew Jackson had a pet parrot that needed to be escorted out of the president's funeral. What's the hidden secret here? The parrot was ejected for cursing up a storm. Jackson had apparently taught the bird how to swear, and it let loose such a disruptive string of obscenities they needed to remove it from the funeral.
His dog
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Dancer
Stand-up comedian
In the 1950s, Reagan started losing the acting gigs that had been paying the bills for him. He shifted gears away from film and took a job in Las Vegas as a stand-up comedian for a few weeks in 1954.
Rodeo clown
Baseball player
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Belch
Satan
John Adams was the second president but the first to have pets in the White House, which made his dog Satan the first presidential pet. He also had dogs named Juno and Mark, but that seems somewhat less bizarre. Try to imagine the controversy of a modern president with a dog named Satan.
Mother
Crappy
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He'd greet guests in his pajamas.
Thomas Jefferson was a casual man of leisure and was the sort of person who entertained guests without making a big deal out of it. As such, he was known to greet people in nothing but his pajamas. Not exactly the formal image the office of President usually conveys.
He slept during meetings.
He ate raw meat.
He'd spit on the floors.
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He shot a man in a duel.
He was illiterate.
He wasn't legally elected.
He had an affair.
Thomas Jefferson is widely believed to have had a sustained affair with Sally Hemmings, who had been one of Jefferson's slaves. Moreover, most historians believe he fathered six children with her, as well.
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David Rice Atchison
James K. Polk's presidency ended on Sunday, March 4, 1849. Zachary Taylor didn't want to be signed into office on a Sunday. So for that one day, there was technically no president. Unless you believe David Rice Atchison, who was the head of the senate and believed, with no president or vice president in office, he was effectively president for one day. It's even written on his tombstone, though legally, it was not true.
Gerald M. Neville
Louis Montague
Carroll Shelby
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