PRPG:

Memorable Facts About Forgettable Presidents

February 18, 2017

On President’s Day, the focus always seems to center on the major, important, and let’s face it, “best” presidents, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But there have been more than 40 other presidents—so here’s a look at some of the more obscure ones.
White House

William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison didn’t do much of anything noteworthy during his term of office—it was only a month long, because he spent most of it dying of pneumonia (contracted after delivering an extremely long inaugural address in freezing temperatures without wearing a coat). Harrison died just over 30 days into his presidency. That wasn’t enough time for him to move his wife into the White House. It was, however, enough time for him to make sure his pet goat was all set up to graze on the White House lawn.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1876 after the most controversial election of the 19th century—he won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Samuel Tilden. Nevertheless, while opposition to Hayes in the U.S. was strong, he was (and continues to be) beloved…in Paraguay. Hayes took office in 1877, right after the end of the Triple Alliance War, a conflict that devastated large swaths of South America. Argentina attempted to claim a big part of the tiny nation of Paraguay, who objected, and took their land dispute to the U.S. government to decide. (The U.N. was decades away from its creation.) The decision fell on President Hayes, who granted Paraguay the right to keep the land. The Paraguayan town of Villa Hayes was named in his honor.

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft is remembered as the heaviest man to ever serve as president, once famously getting stuck in the White House bathtub. But after he left office in 1913, Taft lost more than 150 pounds. Another post-presidential achievement: He fulfilled his lifelong ambition of becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He’s the only ex-president to move on to that job.

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve two terms non-consecutively (1885-1889, 1893-1897) and the only one who had a bionic jaw. In 1893, Cleveland discovered a lump on his palate, and a doctor diagnosed it as a cancerous tumor. He was wary about news of the president having cancer or needing surgery getting out and causing a panic, so Cleveland had secret surgery onboard a friend’s yacht. Doctors removed a big part of Cleveland’s jaw and replaced it with an artificial one made of rubber.