Presidents
Andrew Johnson | was impeached by Radical Republicans in Congress during Reconstruction |
James Monroe | Era of Good Feelings; warned Europeans to stay out of the Western Hemisphere |
Thomas Jefferson | purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, believed America’s future was in agriculture |
James K. Polk | annexed Texas, initiated and won the Mexican-American War |
William Henry Harrison | first president to die in office; nicknamed “Tippecanoe”; log cabin campaign |
John Adams | first one-term president; lost favor after the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed |
Franklin Pierce | arranged for the Gadsden Purchase; signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act |
Herbert Hoover | president during the stock market crash of 1929, disbanded the Bonus Army March |
James A. Garfield | was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a self-proclaimed Stalwart Republican and proponent of political machines |
Woodrow Wilson | president during World War 1, proposed the Fourteen Points; last of the progressive presidents |
Theodore Roosevelt | negotiated the Panama Canal Treaty and used “Big Stick Diplomacy” when dealing with foreign powers; “The Rough Rider” |
Andrew Jackson | removed Cherokee tribes from the southeast, ended the National Bank, co-founded the Democrat Party; “Old Hickory” |
John Tyler | nicknamed “His Accidency” after his predecessor died in office; 1st vice president to become president after the death of a sitting president; disowned by his own political party (Whigs) |
Ulysses S. Grant | famed Union general from the Civil War; had a presidency marred with scandals by his cabinet members |
Martin Van Buren | nicknamed “The Little Magician;” president during the Panic of 1837; co-founder of the Democrat Party |
James Madison | president during the War of 1812 |
George Washington | warned of foreign entanglements, sectionalism, and bipartisan politics during his farewell address |
John Quincy Adams | accused of participating in a “Corrupt Bargain” with Henry Clay to become president |
Zachary Taylor | general during the Mexican-American War; nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready” |
Richard Nixon | ended US involvement in Vietnam and resigned before he could be impeached from the Watergate Scandal |
Lyndon B. Johnson | signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964; “The Great Society”; escalated US involvement in Vietnam |
Dwight D. Eisenhower | US general during WWII; escalated Cold War tensions with Mutually Assured Destruction; signed Korean War armistice |
Calvin Coolidge | president during the 1st part of the 1920s; he kept it cool and deregulated business |
William Howard Taft | known for his trust-busting and child labor reforms; one of the progressive presidents; later joined the Supreme Court |
George W. Bush | declared a “War on Terrorism” after 9/11 attacks; oversaw invasion of Iraq |
Ronald Reagan | proponent of the “trickle down” theory; his election marked a surge of conservatism in the US; oversaw end of Cold War |
Jimmy Carter | president during the Iran Hostage Crisis; peanut farmer background; human rights advocate; works with Habitat for Humanity |
Franklin D. Roosevelt | introduced the New Deal programs during the Great Depression; oversaw US involvement in WWII until his death in 1945 |
Chester A. Author | assumed the presidency after the assassination of James Garfield |
Rutherford B. Hayes | became president as a result of the Compromise of 1877 and his promise to end military reconstruction |
Abraham Lincoln | his election led to the secession of the south and the start of the Civil War; was assassinated in April 1865 |
Gerald Ford | was heavily criticized after he pardoned Richard Nixon; |
Bill Clinton | was impeached after news broke out about his sexual misconduct with a former White House aide; played the saxophone |
George H.W. Bush | president when the Soviet Union fell; oversaw the Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein |
Millard Fillmore | became president after the death of Zachary Taylor; oversaw the Compromise of 1850; the last Whig president |
James Buchanan | president when southern states seceded; sent General Lee to end John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry; Dred Scott decision |
Grover Cleveland | only president to serve two non-consecutive terms in office; president during the Gilded Age |
Donald Trump | real-estate business mogul; “fake news”; highest cabinet turnover rate in history; accused of illegal ties to Russia |
Warren G. Harding | Republican president who promised a “return to normalcy” after WWI; died in office |
Harry S. Truman | ended US involvement in WWII and oversaw the beginning of the Cold War; only president to use nuclear weapons in war |
John F. Kennedy | Bay of Pigs invasion; Cuban Missile Crisis; civil rights advocate; assassinated in 1963 |
William McKinley | last of the Gilded Age presidents; oversaw the Spanish-American War and beginning of American imperialism; assassinated |
Benjamin Harrison | president during the Wounded Knee Massacre; oversaw the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the McKinley Tariff |
Barack Obama | the first African-American president; oversaw passage of the Affordable Care Act |