FIRSTS: With the recent unveiling of this year’s Christmas decorations at the White House, we’re thinking presidential. We’ve put together a list of some presidential firsts.

Second President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the White House. Or, as it was known then, the Executive Mansion. President Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1901 giving it the name, “The White House.”

The first U.S. president born an American citizen was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president, who was born in 1782. The seven presidents before him were born as British subjects before the United States declared independence. 

John Quincy Adams, the 6th president, was the first U.S. president to be photographed, with a daguerreotype portrait taken in March 1843, after his time in office. Although a photograph of William Henry Harrison, 9th president, was taken during his presidency in 1841, that image is now lost, making John Quincy Adams the first president with a surviving photograph.

When Abraham Lincoln, 16th president, was born in February 1809, America had 17 states, but every president before him had been born in one of the 13 original colonies. Lincoln was born in Kentucky (in a log cabin, no less), which had joined the Union in 1792. 

Andrew Johnson became the president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865. As the 17th president, Johnson’s term lasted from 1865 to 1869, and he is known for being the first president to be impeached, though he was acquitted by the Senate.

The first left-handed president was James A. Garfield, the 20th U.S. President. He was also known for being ambidextrous and could write in both Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right simultaneously. 

More to come.