Presidential Trivia Questions to Share with Your Class, Family, or Friends!
In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Why not take a few minutes to share these trivia questions with your family, class, or group of young people and see what they know?!
This Week's Trivia Questions
- Who was the only presidential candidate to ever be elected by a unanimous vote?
- Which president considered himself to have been a "sissy" as a child, having said, "If there was any danger of getting into a fight, I always ran?"
- Which president was the first one to throw the first pitch in a major league baseball game?
A perfect resource for discovering more about America's presidents is the NCBLA's interdisciplinary anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, and it's coordinating educational website OurWhiteHouse.org! An incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, Our White House offers a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House.
Answers and Information for Learning MORE!
- George Washington. When it came time for the newly born United States to elect its first president, everyone knew George Washington was the best man for the job. Not only had Washington led the Continental Army to victory in our fight for independence from the British, he had also presided over the Constitutional Convention that gave birth to our new democratic government. Washington had proven himself to be not only a strong leader, but a national hero. No campaign was needed to convince anyone. Washington therefore ran unopposed and was subsequently elected unanimously–not once, but twice in 1789 and 1792. To learn more, click here to read "Persuading the People: Presidential Campaigns" on OurWhiteHouse.org.
- Harry Truman. Truman's poor vision and glasses prevented him from playing sports. His mother forbade him from roughhousing, so he spent most of his free time playing the piano and reading history books. Truman experienced his first combat when he fought in World War I. There he impressed many with his courage and his ability to lead. He called upon these strengths in 1945, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, and Truman was thrust into the presidency. To learn more about our president's imperfections, click here to read "Presidents Are People Too!" by Heather Lang on OurWhiteHouse.org.
- William Howard Taft. Taft threw the first pitch at a game in Washington's American League Park on April 14, 1910. To learn more about presidents' connections to baseball, read "The First Pitch" by Stephanie True Peters and illustrated by Matt Tavares in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.
Our White House is available in both hardcover and paperback from Candlewick Press. Ask for it at a library or bookstore near you!
And be sure to check out the companion educational website, www.OurWhiteHouse.org, which provides expanded book content that includes additional articles, resources, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics as well exclusive resources and articles regarding the presidency, presidential campaigns, and presidential elections.
