US Presidents: All

George Washington

1789 -1797; no party; the Whiskey Rebellion; Jay's Treaty (created favorable trade relations with Britain); home = Mount Vernon

John Adams

1797-1801; Federalist; XYZ affair; passed the Alien and Sedition Acts; appointed John Marshall (Federalist) as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and numerous Federalist "midnight judges", 1st Vice President

James Madison

1809-1817; Democratic-Republican; War of 1812; let the charter of the First Bank of the United States expire, later chartered the 2nd Bank of the United States; home was Monpelier (in Virginia)

Thomas Jefferson

1801-1809; Democratic-Republican; Marbury v. Madison case; the Louisiana Purchase; Louis and Clark expedition; the Embargo Act; ending of the international slave trade to the US; establishment of West Point; home = Monticello (in Virginia); 1st Secretary of State; 2nd Vice President

James Monroe

1817 - 1825; Democratic-Republican; "The Era of Good Feelings"; the Missouri Compromise; the Monroe Doctrine; the acquisition of Florida from Spain; internal improvements such as the Cumberland Road

John Quincy Adams

1825-1829; Democratic-Republican; controversially chosen President by the House of Representatives; the creation of the Tariff of 1828 (known as the "Tariff of Abominations"); supported Alexander Hamilton's American system (tarriffs, national bank, and internal improvements); served in the House after being Presidents

Andrew Jackson

1829-1837; Democrat; nicknamed "Old Hickory"; general in the War of 1812; opposed the 2nd Bank of the United States; the Nullification Crisis caused by the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832; Indian removal; first attempt to assassinate a president; home = The Hermitage

Martin Van Buren

1837-1841; Democrat; notable events include the Panic of 1837 and the famous "Trail of Tears"; 1st president born in "The United States"

William Henry Harrison

1841; Whig; former general; his presidency was the shortest in American History (31 days); ran on the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," he became the first president to die in office

John Tyler

1841-1845; became president when William Henry Harrison died in 1841; elected VP as Whig but acted more like a Democrat; known as "His Accidency," was the first president that the House tried to impeach, and he annexed Texas at the end of his term

James K. Polk

1845-1849; Democrat; president during the Mexican-American War, created the Department of the Interior

Zachary Taylor

1849 -1850; Whig; "Old Rough-and-Ready"; Mexican-American War general; presidency dominated by the issue of the expansion of slavery; he died in 1850; replaced by VP Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore

1850-1853; Became president when Zachary Taylor died; Whig; the Compromise of 1850; tried to end Japanese isolation from trade with the US

Franklin Pierce

1853-1857; Democrat; the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which led to "Bleeding Kansas") and the Gadsden Purchase

James Buchanan

1857-1861; Democrat; notable events during his presidency include Dred Scott v. Sanford case; the Panic of 1857, and the first shots of the Civil War fired at Fort Sumter; only president from Pennsylvania; only unmarried/ bachelor president

Abraham Lincoln

1861-1865; Republican; led the country during the Civil War; issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, famous for his 2nd Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address, tragically assassinated by John Wilkes Booth after the end of the war in Ford's Theater

Andrew Johnson

1865-1869; became president after Lincoln's assassination; Democrat; president during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, for which he advocated forgiveness and speed instead of strictness and revenge; impeached by the House, controlled by Radical Republicans; acquitted by only one vote

Ulysses S. Grant

1869 - 1877; Republican; although his administration was plagued with scandal (for example the Whiskey Ring), he was largely not responsible; the Panic of 1873; continued Reconstruction

Rutherford B. Hayes

1877-81; Republican; election was controversial; ended Reconstruction and enforcement of African American civil rights

James Garfield

1881; Republican; president for only 4 months before being assassinated by Charles Guiteau; promoted civil service reform

Chester A. Arthur

1881-1885; president after Garfield's assassination; Republican; signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act into law, constructed a new steel navy ("Father of the Steel Navy")

Grover Cleveland

1885-1889 and 1893-1897; Democrat; first president to serve two non-consecutive terms; used his presidential veto power more than any president up to that time, argued for a gold standard for US currency, president during the Panic of 1893 and during the Pullman Strike; the only president to get married in the White House

Benjamin Harrison

1889-1893; Republican; signed the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (which was not really enforced until Teddy Roosevelt came along); more states admitted during his presidency than any other except Washington's

William McKinley

1897-1901; Republican; president during the Spanish-American War, he annexed Hawaii and put US currency on the Gold Standard; assassinated by Leon Czolgosz

Theodore Roosevelt

1901-1909; became president after McKinley's assassination; Republican; former Rough Rider; a "trust buster,"; Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, first president to be seen publicly riding in an automobile

William Taft

1909-1913; Republican; "Dollar Diplomacy," proposed the 16th amendment creating a federal income tax (ratified in 1913 as he was leaving office)

Woodrow Wilson

1913-1921; Democrat; president of Princeton University; secured passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act; president during WWI (originally against- "He kept us out of the war"; the Fourteen Points

Warren G. Harding

1921-1923; Republican; campaign slogan was "A Return to Normalcy," the "Ohio gang"; Teapot Dome Scandal; he died in office in 1923

Calvin Coolidge

1923-1929; became president after the death of Harding; Republican; "The Roaring Twenties," laissez faire policies; "The business of America is business."; Kellogg-Briand Pact

Herbert Hoover

1929-1933; Republican; beginning of the Great Depression; Black Tuesday stock market crash; the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; directed aid efforts to Europe after WWI

Franklin Roosevelt

1933-1945; Democrat; Great Depression; "The only thing we have to fear I fear itself."; New Deal programs; tried "court packing"; Lend Lease Act; Pearl Harbor ("a date which will live in infamy"), US enters WWII; died in 1945 while in office; elected to four terms

Harry Truman

1945-1953; became president after death of FDR; Democrat; first and only president to use nuclear weapons; the US joined the United Nations, Truman Doctrine (containment of communism); Marshall Plan; "Fair Deal"; recognized Israel; Berlin airlift; NATO, Korean War (fired Gen Dougals MacArthur); desegregated the armed forces

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1953-1961; Republican; Domino Theory; Cold War deepened; sent US military advisors to Vietnam; president when Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education; and created the Interstate Highway System (for purposes of national defense)

John F. Kennedy

1961-1963; Democrat; "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"; Bay of Pigs invasion; Berlin crisis (Berlin Wall built); Cuban Missile Crisis; established the Peace Corps; "New Frontier," supported civil rights (somewhat reluctantly); the space program; assassintated by Lee Harvey Oswald

Lyndon B. Johnson

1963-1969; became president after Kennedy's assassination; Democrat; signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964; promoted his "Great Society" plan, including the "war on poverty"; Medicare and Medicaid established; Vietnam War; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; Tet Offensive

Richard Nixon

1969-1974; Republican; Vietnam War; advocated "Vietnamization"; bombed Cambodia/Laos; Paris Peace Accords; economy-took US off gold standard; created the Environmental Protection Agency; first moon landing; SALT I and new policy of detente between US and Soviet Union; visited China; Watergate scandal; first and only president to resign

Gerald Ford

1974-1977; became president when Nixon resigned; Republican; pardoned Nixon; "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN); fall of Saigon, evacuation of US troops; only president never elected to be president or vice president; survived several assassination attempts

Jimmy Carter

1977-1981; Democrat; signed Panama Canal treaty; Camp David Accords-negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt; Iran Hostage Crisis; inflation; energy crisis; "malaise" speech criticized Americans for the economy's problems

Ronald Reagan

1981-1989; Republican; supply-side Reagonomics; sent troops to Grenada; "build up to build down" military/ nuclear weapons policies; "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"; Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, a.k.a. "Star Wars"); War on Drugs; Iran-Contra affair; shot but survived in 1981

George H.W. Bush

1989-1993; Republican; American with Disabilities Act; sent troops to Panama to arrest its leader for drug smuggling: Soviet Union collapsed in 1991; Cold War ended; sent troops to fight Sadaam Hussein in the Persian Gulf War; North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Bill Clinton

1992 and 1996; Democrat; Don't Ask Don't Tell policy; presidency marked by scandals: Whitewater controversy, Lewinsky scandal (impeached but acquited); first balanced budget since 1969

George W. Bush

2001-2009; Republican; close, controversial election in 2000 (defeated Al Gore); 9/11 terrorist attacks; invade Afghanistan and Iraq; 2007-great recession (caused by bad mortgages); No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits, Hurricane Katrina disaster

Barack Obama

2009-2017; Democrat; first African-American president; won the Nobel Peace Prize; Obamacare; Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster (Deep Horizon One); huge stimulus package to combat the Great Recession; nuclear arms deal with Iran

Donald Trump

2017-2021 & 2025-present; Republican; "Make America Great Again"; tried to build southern border wall; Abraham Accords; COVID-19; Operation Warp Speed (COVID vaccines); January 6 riots at the US Capitol; impeached and acquitted twice (2020 & 2021); second president to serve non-consecutive terms; shot but survived assassination attempt in 2024

Joe Biden

2021-2025; Democrat; COVID stimulus spending and resultant inflation; Supported Green New Deal; heavily criticized withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan; mental decline led to withdrawal from 2024 election campaign