Five Little-Known "First Times" of US Presidents | CNN

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When the president of the United States does something, no matter how small, people tend to notice.

In 1943, Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to take a flight and while Barack Obama is known for becoming the first African descendant president, in 2014 he also became the first commander-in-chief to write on a line for computer code. , by typing: moveForward (100) ;.

Here are some other "firsts" from US presidents. Let's see if you know them:

First to travel abroad as president of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1901-1909)

Maybe a transatlantic voyage from President John Adams or George Washington?

A 19th century train trip to Canada by Andrew Jackson or Ulysses S. Grant?

Not.

It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that no American president ever set foot abroad while running the country.

In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt boarded the USS Louisiana and traveled to Panama to supervise the construction of the Panama Canal.

Fast forward 111 years, when President Donald Trump visited more than a dozen countries in his first year as president.

First to be president and vice president without being elected

President Gerald Ford never won a presidential election.

Several vice presidents of the United States got the job after the death or resignation of a president, but how many have become vice president and president without earning a single vote at the voting booth?

When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned as a result of a 1973 tax evasion scandal, President Richard Nixon turned to Representative Gerald Ford, R-Michigan, as Agnew's replacement.

A year later, under political pressure from the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned, making Ford the only commander-in-chief, in all history, to serve as president and vice president without being elected to the presidency.

Ford lost in 1976 to Jimmy Carter, in his intention to remain in the White House.

First president to be born as a U.S. citizen

In the time of President Martin Van Buren there was no "birther movement."

There has been a lot of noise in recent years surrounding the US presidency and where a candidate or their parents were born.

That generated the term “birther movement”.

The first American presidents had no choice but to be born as foreign citizens, considering that the United States was not yet a country when they were born.

So who was the first US president to actually be a US citizen? That title goes to Martin Van Buren, eighth US president Born in Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782 Van Buren became the first New York Governor, US Secretary of State and Vice President prior to his election to the White House.

All previous presidents were born as colonialists, which made them citizens of Great Britain.

First to serve non-consecutive terms

Grover Cleveland (1885-889) twenty-second president and twenty-fourth (1893-1897)

Did you think it was Franklin D. Roosevelt? Sorry, that's a mistake.

While Roosevelt is the only president to serve more than two terms (which is no longer allowed, due to the 22nd amendment), he served his full 4 terms in a row.

You have to go back to the 19th century, in the years after the Civil War to find the only president who moved out of the White House, only to come back, a few years later.

Grover Cleveland, former governor of NY, served as the 22nd and 24th president. The only one to serve as commander-in-chief for two consecutive terms.

First to hold regular press conferences

Woodrow Wilson's first presidential press conference was unofficial

Managing the frequencies of the major television networks is still a powerful way for a president to share important messages for the population, even though presidential press conferences actually began decades before television became a household item in the United States. 50s and 60s.

In March 1913, Woodrow Wilson became the first American leader to hold a presidential press conference.

But make no mistake, these were not the conferences we are used to today: without a script, or format or with questions and answers at the moment.

Wilson and the next five US presidents held conferences unofficially, claiming they could correct anything said to the media.

Clearly, they were not broadcast live, not even on the radio.

It was not until January 1955 that President Dwight Eisenhower held the first televised conference, taking a place in the era of official press conferences.

John F. Kennedy held the first televised conference in 1961. Not surprisingly, once the conferences became official in the Eisenhower administration, the frequency dropped dramatically.

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