The American presidency has put 45 men in power who have been described as everything from noble to despicable. They are known for the wars they fought, the legislation they signed into law, and the scandals they brought to the Oval Office. These interesting photos show US presidents looking cool and doing “non-presidential” things.
There have been 46 presidencies (including the current one, Joe Biden, whose term began in 2021), and 45 different individuals have served as president.
Grover Cleveland was elected to two nonconsecutive terms, and as such is considered the 22nd and 24th president of the United States.
The youngest president was John F. Kennedy at age 43. The oldest is Joe Biden at age 78. The shortest serving president was William Henry Harrison, who died from pneumonia after a month in office.
Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms.
Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.
Four presidents died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon, facing impeachment).
John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his presidency.
President Theodore Roosevelt hunts for bear in Colorado. 1905.
William Howard Taft fishes off Middle Bass Island, Ohio. 1908.
Woodrow Wilson throws out the first ball of the baseball season in Washington, D.C. 1916.
Warren G. Harding at the White House with his dog, Laddie Boy. 1923.
Calvin Coolidge celebrates the 4th of July and his 55th birthday with his wife Grace at a Game Lodge in South Dakota. 1927.
Herbert Hoover stands on board the cruiser USS Salt Lake City. 1931.
Franklin D. Roosevelt disembarks from a seaplane. 1920s.
Harry Truman fishes at Puget Sound. 1945.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill and Gen. Omar Bradley fire carbines during a tour of an army camp in England. 1944.
John F. Kennedy rides a mule during a campaign visit to the stockyards at Sioux City, Iowa. 1960.
Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird sit on a fence at their ranch in Texas. 1963.
Richard Nixon greets Elvis Presley at the White House. 1970.
Gerald Ford does push-ups in the White House. 1975.
Jimmy Carter and an aide hop a fence at LaGuardia airport in New York City. 1976.
Ronald Reagan rides a horse at his California ranch. 1981.
George H.W. Bush fishes in the surf in Florida. 1988. (Photo by Robert Sullivan).
Bill Clinton enjoys some whitewater rafting on the Snake River in Wyoming. 1995. (Photo by Luke Frazza).
George W. Bush hunts doves in Hockley, Texas. 1994. (Photo by Paul Howell).