PRESIDENTIAL 2: We promised more details from the National Constitution Center about the American presidents.
Millard Fillmore, 13th president, refused an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Oxford, saying, “No man should accept a degree that he cannot read.”
The degree was written in Latin. Fillmore, a practicing attorney in the area of Buffalo, N.Y., had no formal schooling and could not read the language.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, was the only president to obtain a patent. In 1849, he invented a complicated device for lifting ships over dangerous shoals by means of “buoyant air chambers.” Much to his disappointment, U.S. Patent No. 6,469 was never put into practical use.
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president, was born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but changed his name because he did not like his monogram, HUG.
Rutherford B. Hayes , the 19th president, held the first Easter egg roll on the White House lawn.
James Garfield, the 20th president, was the first presidential candidate to spend more than one million dollars on his campaign.
Chester Arthur, the 21st, was the first president to take the presidential Oath of Office in his own home, located on Lexington Avenue in New York City.
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, was the first president to have electricity in the White House. He once got an electrical shock, leading his family to often refuse to touch the light switches and sometimes leave the lights on at bedtime.
William McKinley, the 25th, was the first president to use campaign buttons.
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th, set what was then the world record for the most handshakes in one day with 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception on January 1, 1907.
Stay tuned for more.
