Facts You Probably don’t Need
- When William King, Vice President under Franklin Pierce, was sworn into office, he was not in Washington D.C. Rather, he took the oath of office in Cuba where he was dying of tuberculosis where it was hoped that the climate would save him. He died 45 days later.
- Schuyler Colfax (VP under Grant) and John Nance Garner (VP under FDR) are the only two people to have served as both Vice President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
- Ulysses Grant/Schuyler Colfax and Bill Clinton/Al Gore are the only two winning President/Vice President tickets with two candidates under 50 years old.
- Although George Washington had no children of his own, his nephew, Bushrod Washington, went on to become a Supreme Court Justice of the United States where he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall.
- The full name of Lafayette, the French general famous for his role in the American Revolution, was Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.
- To this day, FDR remains the only vice-presidential candidate on a previously losing ticket to later become president. He was James Cox’s running mate in 1920, losing to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
