Curated playlist
19th-century presidents of the United States
- Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln is the only U.S. president to hold a patent. In 1849 he patented a way to lift riverboats.
- William McKinleyWilliam McKinley won the presidency in 1896 campaigning from his front porch. Crowds came by train to Canton, Ohio.
- Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
- Ulysses S. GrantIn 1859, Ulysses S. Grant freed an enslaved man worth at least $1,000 that he desperately needed.
- Benjamin HarrisonBenjamin Harrison beat Grover Cleveland, then lost the White House back to him.
- Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes won the presidency by one electoral vote, 185 to 184.
- James A. GarfieldJames A. Garfield won his party's nomination after arriving to nominate someone else.
- Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was slashed with a sword as a boy for refusing to polish a British officer's boots.
- Chester A. ArthurChester Alan Arthur became the 21st president of the United States at 2:15 in the morning on the 20th of September 1881. He took the oath inside his own house on Lexington Avenue in New York City, from a judge named John R. Brady. The news…
- John AdamsJohn Adams died on the 4th of July 1826. Exactly fifty years earlier, Congress had approved the Declaration of Independence, and Adams had been among those who made that vote happen. He was the second president of the United States,…
- Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson kept his presidency by a single Senate vote in May 1868. The Senate fell one vote short of removing him.
- James BuchananPresident James Buchanan learned the Dred Scott ruling before the public did. A Supreme Court justice leaked it to him.