PRESIDENTS

1. PRESIDENTS Elementary/Middle Division February 27, 2011

2. Presidents ROUND

3. #1 (6 points) Before I became president, I was a member of the General Court of a northern state. I was elected to the Northampton City Council. I was named city solicitor. I served as Hampshire County clerk of courts, governor, and vice president. (4 points) My vice president was Charles Dawes (pictured). My Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew W. Mellon of Pennsylvania. I signed a Tax Reduction Revenue Act that favored the wealthy. Congress passed the Veterans Bonus Bill over my veto. That led to the Bonus March after my successor took over the White House. (2 points) I was the first president to have his inauguration broadcast nationally by radio. It was also the first time a former president administered the oath of office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I was known for not saying very much. One saying I am known for is: "The chief business of America is business.”

4. QUESTION 1 # 30 Calvin Coolidge

5. #2 (6 points) My second wife's name was Edith Kermit Carow. I was the first president to ride in an automobile, the first to fly in an airplane, the first to dive in a submarine and the first to travel outside the United States. (4 points)Once, while leaving the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee to give a speech, I was shot in the chest by John Nepomuk Schrank. He opposed my attempt to be reelected president for a second time. I refused to go to the hospital. “I’m going to make that speech if it’s the last thing on earth I do.” (2 points) I was the first American to receive the Nobel Prize. I got it for mediating the treaty of peace between Russia and Japan to end the Russo-Japanese War.

6. QUESTION 2 # 26 Theodore Roosevelt

7. #3 (6 points) I was the first president to have an Inaugural ceremony recorded by talking newsreels. I was also the first Quaker President. My son Alan had pet alligators that wandered around the White House. (4 points) I wrote a book The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson that was published in 1958. This bestselling book was sympathetic to Wilson even though I was not a member of his political party. I served in World War I but criticized Wilson for not compromising with the Senate on the League of Nations. President Wilson disliked me when we crossed paths during World War I. (2 points) I graduated from Stanford with a degree in engineering and then built an international mining empire. I became a millionaire by the age of forty. Just seven months after assuming the presidency, I was stunned as the Great Depression began to turn America into a nation of poorhouses.

8. QUESTION 3 # 31 Herbert Hoover

9. #4 (6 points) I broke precedent by reciting my own prayer after taking the oath, rather than kissing the Bible. I signed a bill that protected the voting rights of African Americans. I sent troops to Arkansas to protect African-American students trying to enroll at a segregated Little Rock high school. (4 points) I signed the act that began the interstate highway system. The idea came to me when, as a Major in the army, I led a military convoy across America to the West Coast. I became convinced that a better federal highway system was needed. (2 points)I appointed John Foster Dulles as my Secretary of State. I was the first president to appoint an African-American to serve as executive assistant to the President. His name was Frederick Marrow. On my deathbed I said these words, "I always loved my wife, I've always loved my children, I've always loved my country."

10. QUESTION 4 # 34 Dwight Eisenhower

11. #5 (6 points) I was the first president to have regular news briefings. On my first term in office, I asked the committee to cancel the Inaugural ball for the first time since 1853. The reason was that the ball had become too expensive. I was from a different political party than my predecessor. (4 points) My second wife's name was Edith. After I suffered a stroke and became paralyzed while campaigning for the League of Nations, Edith made decisions for me. She did so on advice of the doctor, who said that the blood clot in my brain would dissolve if I was spared the task of decision making. (2 points) I nominated the first Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed the nomination of Louis Brandeis (pictured). The early returns on my reelection showed that I had been defeated, and Charles Evans Hughes had been elected president. Many newspapers carried the news of my defeat. When the votes of California were finally counted, Hughes lost the election.

12. QUESTION 5 # 28 Woodrow Wilson

13. #6 (6 points) In my campaign for the presidency, I defeated William Jennings Bryan. During my term in the White House, Congress created the first Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, to make inaugural arrangements. John Hay was my Secretary of State. (4 points)Mine was the first inaugural ceremony recorded by a motion picture. I was also the first president to have a glass-enclosed reviewing stand and the first inauguration at which Congress hosted a luncheon for the president and vice president. (2 points) I was reelected president, but my second term did not last long. I was shot by Leon Czolgosz. He was tried by the Supreme Court and convicted. He was electrocuted at Auburn, N.Y.

14. QUESTION 6 # 25 William McKinley

15. #7 (6 points) My inauguration took place in the Senate chamber because of a blizzard. It was the first time the First Lady rode with the president in the procession from the Capitol to the White House after the inauguration. I worked as a lawyer, a law professor, and a judge. I was also secretary of war under my presidential predecessor and the first governor of the Philippines. I converted the Philippines from military to civilian rule. (4 points) I was the first president to have a car at the White House and the first to throw out the first ball at the beginning of the major league baseball season. My wife's first name was Helen. (2 points) I easily defeated my opponent for the presidency, William Jennings Bryan. When I left office, I retired from politics to teach law at Yale. I always desired a Supreme Court appointment and I eventually got it.

16. QUESTION 7 # 27 William Howard Taft

17. #8 (6 points) My father was a fourth cousin of a previous president. Before becoming president, I was governor of my native state in the North. My election changed the party in control of the White House. I was a lifelong reader of spy novels. (4 points) Shortly before my inauguration, I barely escaped assassination in Miami. As president, I cut off oil shipments to Japan. I also loaned Great Britain a number of our ships and other weapons of war. (2 points) The term “D Day” became popular while I was president. I was the first president to serve more than eight years in office.

18. QUESTION 8 # 32 Franklin Roosevelt

19. #9 (6 points) Before I entered politics, I was a newspaperman. When I ran for president, reporters decided not to publish bad stories they heard about me because I was “one of the boys.” Those stories finally came to light after my death. I didn’t like being president. While living in the White House, I told a friend, “I’m in jail.” (4 points)I served in the Senate before becoming president. I defeated the Democratic candidate, John Davis, for the White House. My wife was called “The Duchess.” She slipped out of the White House to visit infirm war veterans. She also promoted sports for women, even hosting a women’s tennis match when that was frowned upon. (2 points) My term in office is known mostly for the scandals that took place. These became known after I died. The most famous was the Teapot Dome Scandal.

20. QUESTION 9 # 29 Warren Harding

21. #10 (6 points) I learned to read at home from my mother. I particularly loved to read books about history. At age 39, after failing to find a successful career, I went to law school. This started my political career, which included serving in the U.S. Senate and as Vice President. (4 points) I had the lowest approval ratings of any president up to that point. Even my mother-in-law didn’t think it was worth trying for reelection. But I scored an upset victory over Republican Governor Thomas Dewey of New York. I am the only person from my native state to become president. (2 points) While I was president, the first telecast of the World Series took place. The games were seen in four cities: New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and Schenectady, NY. It was the year that Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the major leagues.

22. QUESTION 10 # 33 Harry Truman

23. #11 (6 points) His previous governmental service included holding offices as governor of his state, state senator, and as assistant secretary of the navy. (4 points) This multi-term President helped restore public confidence and win speedy passage of economic recovery legislation. He created the New Deal coalition within the Democratic Party. (2 points) This President provided aid to Great Britain and the Soviet Union that prevented their defeat at the hands of Adolf Hitler. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, he asked Congress to declare war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.

24. QUESTION 11 # 32 Franklin Roosevelt

25. #12 (6 points) He grew up on a farm and worked as a reporter and publisher. He served as a state Senator and later as a U.S. Senator. As a U.S. Senator, he voted on 2 Amendments to the Constitution: one for prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol and the other establishing a woman’s right to vote. (4 points) As President he was pro-business: high tariffs to protect American industry, tax cuts for corporations, and an end to antitrust enforcement. (2 points) He was the first President to broadcast a radio address. His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, provided $20 million to emergency relief to the Soviet Union to avert a famine, saving as many as 10 million people from starvation. This President died on a trip out West and was succeeded by his Vice President.

26. QUESTION 12 # 29 Warren Harding