Notes from the White House-birthplaces

The US Presidency has run in an unbroken chain since 1789. Here we look at the birthplaces of all the US Presidents from Washington to Biden.

This may be useful for the state codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_and_territory_abbreviations

Note that states joined the US at different times. After the original 13 states, the newcomers joined steadily and the last 5 to join were OK (1907), NM and AZ (1912), AK and HI (1959).

List of PresidentsDownload

Some notes:

Biden was the second President (after Buchanan) to be born in PA state. Buchanan is generally considered to be one of the worst Presidents.

If Trump had suddenly ceased to be President, Mike Pence would have been the first President to be born in Indiana state.

If this eventuality occurs now, Kamala Harris will be the second President born in California and the first from Northern California (Oakland). The only other President born in California is Richard Nixon, in Yorba Linda near Los Angeles.

There are several large states where no President has been born.

By population, these would include Florida (#3), Michigan (10), New Jersey (11), Washington (13) and Arizona (14). At the other end of the scale, #50 (Wyoming) and #48 (Alaska) have had no representatives, although Vermont (#49) does have Calvin Coolidge.

In many cases, a person may have largely grown up in a state which is not the state of his/her birth. This is more likely to happen in the US than India and most European countries.

Notes from the US elections of 2020

If you have not heard of the Curse of Tippecanoe, you can look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe

More details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEqokw0gQLc&ab_channel=Mr.Beat

Also Joe Biden (born 20/11/1942) will be the oldest President (78+) at the time of his inauguration on 20/01/2021. The previous record was 70+ by Donald Trump when he was sworn in on 20/01/2017. Ronald Reagan was 73+ when he was sworn in for the second time on 20/01/1985.

Joe Biden was born before 4 of his predecessors (Clinton, Bush (Jr), Obama and Trump.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter continues his run as the longest-lived President. He crossed 97 on Oct 1, 2021

Joe Biden becomes the second Catholic President after JFK (1961-63).

He emulated Richard Nixon and George Bush (Sr) by being elected Vice-President twice and then becoming President.

He may be the first incoming President to have a railway station named after him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_station_(Delaware)

Along with POTUS and VPOTUS, there are normally FLOTUS and SLOTUS: the First Lady and Second Lady. For the first time there will be a First Gentleman. Douglas Emhoff becomes the first Jewish person to be either President, Vice-president or spouse of either.

Looking more closely as the outgoing and incoming FLOTUSs:

Melania Trump has some claims to fame: “In March 2001 she became a permanent resident of the U.S. She married the businessman, real estate developer and television personality Donald Trump in January 2005, gave birth to their son Barron in March 2006, and obtained U.S. citizenship in July 2006.After Louisa Adams, she is the second First Lady to have been born outside the country (not counting those born in U.S. territory before the country existed), the first one to be a naturalized citizen and the first whose native language is not English.”

As for her successor-she is the first First Lady with Italian ancestry and the first with a PhD. This is the second marriage for both her and her husband.

While there have been several Presidents named John (hence Jack), she is the first Jill among First Ladies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Biden