By Priyanka Deshpande
CNBC-TV18.com
Published November 5, 2024
As Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump vie for the White House, the race edges toward a tight finish. With Americans voting today, November 5, to elect the 47th President, here are some intriguing facts about past presidents and elections:
1. The 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S Grant, was arrested for speeding in his horse[1]drawn carriage in Washington, DC in 1872. He was given a $20 speeding ticket.
2. The tallest US president was Abraham Lincoln at 6 feet 4 inches. The shortest was James Madison at 5 feet 4 inches.
3. George Washington was the only US president who did not represent a political party. He is also the only president ever elected unanimously.
4. In 1845, the US Congress passed a federal law designating the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day, which was after the fall harvest and before winter conditions made travel too difficult.
5. In 1874, political cartoonist Thomas Nash introduced the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey in a satirical cartoon, and these symbols quickly became widely associated with the parties.
6. The White House wasn’t always called the White House. Before 1901, it was known as the President’s Palace, the President’s House, and the Executive Mansion. In 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became president and officially named it the White House.
7. Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the US, was the first president to ride in a car while in office. His cousin and the 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the first to ride in an airplane.
8. The 1920 Presidential election was the first election in American history where women were allowed the right to vote at the federal level.
9. In 1997, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that allowed NASA astronauts to vote from space. That year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space.
10. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to win a major party nomination. The first woman to run for president was Victoria Woodhull, leader of the Suffragette movement in the US, in 1872.