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This list lists achievements and distinctions of various presidents of the United States. It includes distinctions achieved in their earlier life and post-presidencies. Due to some confusion surrounding sovereignty of nations during presidential visits, only nations that were independent, sovereign, or recognized by the United States during the presidency are listed here as a precedent.


George Washington (1789–1797)

George Washington was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1776, 13 years before becoming president
  • First president of the United States.[1]
  • First president to have been born in the 18th century.[2]
  • First president born in Virginia.[3]
  • First president to be elected to a second term in office.[4]
  • First president to own slaves.[5]
  • First president to be an Episcopalian.[6]
  • First president to be a Freemason.[7]
  • First president to appear on a postage stamp.[1]
  • First president to receive votes from every presidential elector in an election.[a][8]
  • First president to be inaugurated in New York City.[2]
  • First president to fill the entire body of the United States federal judges; including the Supreme Court.[9]
  • First president to deliver a State of the Union address (1790).[10]
  • First president to command a standing field army while in office (during the Whiskey Rebellion).[11]
  • First president who wasn't part of a political party.[12]
  • First president to go uncontested in an election.[13]
  • First president to not have any biological children.[14]
  • First president to be declared an honorary citizen of a foreign country, and an honorary citizen of France.[15]
  • First president to deliver a Farewell Address.[16][17]

John Adams (1797–1801)

John Adams was the first president to live in the White House

Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)

  • First president to have previously been a governor.[h][22]
  • First president to have previously served as secretary of state.[34]
  • First president to have been widowed prior to his inauguration.[i][20]: 147 
  • First president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.[29]
  • First president to have his inaugural speech reprinted in a newspaper.[35]
  • First president whose inauguration was not attended by his immediate predecessor.[j][36]
  • First president to live a full presidential term in the White House.[37]
  • First president to defeat the man (Adams) whom he had previously lost to in a presidential election.[20]: 48 
  • First president who defeated an incumbent president.[20]: 48 
  • First president whose election was decided in the United States House of Representatives.[38]
  • First president to have an inaugural parade; occurred during his second inauguration.[35]
  • First president to cite the doctrine of executive privilege.[39]
  • First president to have a vice president elected under the 12th Amendment.[k][40]
  • First president to expand the country's territory[41][42]
  • First president to have pets at the White House; two grizzly bear cubs and a mockingbird.[43][44]
  • First president to found a university after being in office; the University of Virginia in 1819.[45]
  • First president to serve as rector of the University of Virginia.[46]
  • First president to deliver a State of the Union Address via writing; this practice continued until 1913.[47]

James Madison (1809–1817)

James Monroe (1817–1825)

  • First president to have served in the United States Senate.[52]
  • First president to have a child marry at the White House.[m][53]
  • First president to ride on a steamboat.[54]
  • First president to have held over 50 years of elected public office positions by the end of his presidency[55]
  • First president to have held two cabinet positions at once prior to assuming office[55]
  • First president to have a foreign capital named after him (Monrovia, Liberia)[55]

John Quincy Adams (1825–1829)

Philip Haas took this daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams in 1843.

Andrew Jackson (1829–1837)

Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)

William Henry Harrison (1841)

  • First president elected as a Whig to the presidency.[68]
  • First president to have 10 or more biological children.[w][27]
  • First president from the state of Ohio.
  • First president to be born in the same county as his vice president.[81]
  • First president to give an inaugural address of more than 5,000 words.[82]
  • First president to not issue an executive order[83]
  • First president to die in office.[84]
  • First president to serve less than one full term in office.[85]
  • First president to receive over 1 million votes in a presidential election before assuming office.[86]

John Tyler (1841–1845)

  • First president to ascend to the presidency by the death of his predecessor.[87]
  • First president to have a veto overridden.[30][70]
  • First president to face a vote of impeachment in the House (it was unsuccessful).[88]
  • First president to be widowed while in office[x][89]
  • First president to remarry while in office.[y][54][84]
  • First president to be born after the ratification of the United States Constitution.[90]
  • First president to be expelled from his political party while in office.[91]
  • First U.S. president to be buried under a foreign flag.[z][92]

James K. Polk (1845–1849)

Polk and his cabinet in the White House dining room, 1846. Front row, left to right: John Y. Mason, William L. Marcy, James K. Polk, Robert J. Walker. Back row, left to right: Cave Johnson, George Bancroft. Secretary of State James Buchanan is absent. This was the first photograph taken in the White House, and the first of a presidential Cabinet.[93]

Zachary Taylor (1849–1850)

  • First president who had served in no prior elected office.[100]
  • First president to serve in the Mexican–American War.[3]
  • First president to take office while his party held a minority of seats in the U.S. Senate.[101]
  • First president to win election with his party holding no majority in either house of Congress.[102]
  • First president to win the U.S. presidential election in November.[103]
  • First president to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal more than once.[ae][104]
  • First president to use the term "First Lady".[105]

Millard Fillmore (1850–1853)

  • First president to establish a permanent White House library.[106]
  • First president born in the 1800s.[af][107]
  • First president to leave office while his father was alive.[ag][51]
  • First president to install a kitchen stove in the White House.[108]

Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)

  • First president born in New Hampshire.[109]
  • First president born in the 19th century.
  • First president to install central heating in the White House.[54]
  • First president to deliver his inaugural address from memory.[110]
  • First president who had been elected to actively seek reelection but be defeated for nomination for a second term by his party.[111][112]
  • First president to have a Christmas tree in the White House.[108]
  • First president to keep his original cabinet members for his entire four-year term.[108]
  • First president to have multiple vetoes overridden.[30]

James Buchanan (1857–1861)

  • First president born in Pennsylvania.[113]
  • First president to serve in the military and not become an officer during their service.[ah][114]
  • First president to be a bachelor.[54][84]

Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated.

Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)

  • First president to ascend to the presidency by the assassination of his predecessor.[117]
  • First president to be impeached by the House of Representatives.[118]
  • First president to have members of his own party vote for impeachment.[119]
  • First president to serve in the United States Senate after being president.[118]
  • First president to issue more than twenty vetoes.[30]
  • First president to have more than ten vetoes overridden.[30]

Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)

Ulysses S. Grant, here shortly before his death, was the first president to write a memoir.
  • First president born in Ohio.[3]
  • First president born after the War of 1812.
  • First president to have both parents alive during his presidency[ai][51]
  • First president to veto more than fifty bills.[30]
  • First president to visit Ireland, Egypt, China, and Japan. (In 1878–1879, after leaving the presidency.)[120][121][122]
  • First president to publish his memoirs.[123]
  • First president to issue more than 40 pocket vetoes.[30]
  • First president to issue more than 100 executive orders[124]
  • First president to attend a synagogue service while in office[125]
  • First president to have served in the American Civil War.[126]
  • First president to host an Indian Chief in the White House.[108]
  • First president to approve of and sign in a National Park.[127]
  • First president to set aside federal land for wildlife protection.[127]
  • First president to be placed under arrest.[128]

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881)

James A. Garfield (1881)

  • First president to be elected to the presidency directly from the House of Representatives.[133]
  • First president to be left-handed or ambidextrous.[aj][134]
  • First president to die before reaching the age of 50.[ak][135]
  • First president to have served as a university president.[136][137]
  • First president to deliver a campaign speech in a language other than English.[138]
  • First president who was a mathematician (he proved the Pythagorean theorem).[139][140]

Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)

  • First president born in Vermont.[3]
  • First president to take the oath of office in his own home.[al][141]
  • First president to have an elevator installed in the White House.[129]

Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897)

Grover Cleveland was the first president to serve non-consecutive terms, and the first president to be married (to Frances Folsom) at the White House
  • First president born in New Jersey.[142]
  • First president to get married at the White House.[53]
  • First president to have a child born in the White House.[54][143]
  • First president to serve non-consecutive terms.[84]
  • First president to be filmed.[144]
  • First president to veto more than 100 bills, with over 500, including over 200 pocket vetoes.[30]

Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)

  • First president to be the grandson of another president.[am][145]
  • First president to have a lighted Christmas tree at the White House.[20]: 48 
  • First president to have electric lighting installed in the White House.[129]
  • First president to have his voice recorded.[146]
  • First president to create and designate a United States Prehistoric and Cultural Site.[127]

William McKinley (1897–1901)

Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)

Theodore Roosevelt, shown here sitting in a steam shovel along the Panama Canal route in 1906, was the first president to visit a foreign country while in office.

William Howard Taft (1909–1913)

William Howard Taft was the first president to also serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)

Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)

  • First president born after the Civil War.[be][186]
  • First president to have been a publisher.[186]
  • First president to have been a lieutenant governor.[bf][187]
  • First president to be elected while being a sitting U.S. senator.[bg][95]
  • First president to learn about his victory over the radio.[186]
  • First president to be elected on his birthday.[186]
  • First president elected after women gained the right to vote.[68]
  • First president to ride to and from his inauguration in an automobile.[29]
  • First president to give his inaugural address over an amplified system.[186]
  • First president to own and install a radio in the White House.[186]
  • First president to learn to drive a car.[188]
  • First president to visit Canada while in office.[189]
  • First president to predecease his father.[bh][51]
  • First president to appear on a radio broadcast, over navy radio station NOF in Anacostia, D.C.[190]

Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)

  • First president to have the oath of office administered to him by a parent.[bi][191]
  • First president to be sworn in by a former president.[bj][29]
  • First president to give a radio broadcast from the White House.[70][73]
  • First president to visit Cuba while in office.[192]
  • First president to be a Congregationalist.[193]
  • First president to appear on US coinage while alive and in office.[194]
  • First president to serve as both governor and lieutenant governor of a state.[bk][195]
  • First president to be an honorary member of a Native American tribe.[196]

Herbert Hoover (1929–1933)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)

Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)

John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)

Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson became the first president to be inaugurated on an airplane and the first president to be sworn in by a woman. The inauguration is shown in the photo above.

Richard Nixon (1969–1974)

Gerald Ford (1974–1977)

Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford being sworn in by Warren Burger, was the first man to ascend to the presidency without being elected to either the offices of the president or vice president.

Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)

Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)

Ronald Reagan addressing the UK Parliament on June 8, 1982, the first U.S. president to do so.

George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)

Bill Clinton (1993–2001)

George W. Bush (2001–2009)

Barack Obama (2009–2017)

The official portrait of Barack Obama (2009). Taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Donald Trump (2017–2021)

Donald Trump shaking hands with the supreme leader of North Korea on June 12, 2018, the first U.S. president to do so.

Joe Biden (2021–)

Biden receiving the Medal of Freedom on January 12, 2017, four years prior to his inauguration in 2021, the first U.S. president to do so.

Cabinet

Other appointments

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links