Presidential Firsts Quiz

Test your knowledge of the U.S. presidents

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1. Who was the first president born as a U.S. citizen?

x Martin Van Buren served as the eighth president of the United States. He was born after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. The previous seven U.S. presidents were all born in one of the original 13 colonies, which were under British rule.

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2. Who was the first and only president to win unanimously in the Electoral College?

x George Washington, known as the “father of his country,” won all 69 electoral votes in 1789, and all 132 electoral votes in 1792. In the 20th century, other presidents who won large Electoral College majorities were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, but they did not win unanimously.

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3. Who was the first president to die in office?

x William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia in 1841 after only 32 days in office, making his tenure as commander in chief the shortest. 

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4. Who was the first president to win a Nobel Peace Prize?

x The first U.S. president — as well as the first American — to win a Nobel Peace Prize was Theodore Roosevelt for helping to end the Russo-Japanese War. Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are the other U.S. presidents who won the Nobel Peace Prize, with Carter’s honor taking place after he left office.

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5. Who was the first and only president to earn a Ph.D.?

x Woodrow Wilson earned a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University. Several other presidents have held advanced degrees, including William Howard Taft, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who all received law degrees.

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6. Who was the first president to live in the White House?

x John Adams, the second U.S. president, moved into the White House on November 1, 1800. At that time, the mansion had yet to be completed and was largely unfurnished. Adams lived there less than five months before his term ended and Thomas Jefferson took office in March 1801.

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7. Who was the first president to win without either political or military experience?

x Donald Trump was the first president to attain the Oval Office without experience in the military or political office. Only six presidents came to the White House without having previously served in publicly elected office. Of those, all had military experience except for Trump, including three military generals: Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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8. Who was the first and only president to be sworn in on an airplane?

x Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. After the ceremony, the plane flew from Dallas, Texas, where Kennedy had been shot earlier that day, to Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington, D.C.

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9. Which president was the first to have their inauguration streamed on the internet?

x Bill Clinton’s second inauguration in 1997 was the first to be carried over the internet. The first inauguration broadcast live on radio was Herbert Hoover’s inauguration, and the first shown on television was Harry S. Truman’s.

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10. Which president was the first to receive more than 80 million votes in an election?

x Joe Biden received more than 80 million votes in the 2020 election. More votes were cast in that election than any other in U.S. history. Donald Trump earned the second-most votes of all time in the 2020 election with 74 million Americans casting a ballot for him.

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