U.S. Presidents

When John Quincy Adams fell for the woman who would become his wife, his mother worried about the effect it might have on his political dreams, while the future bride’s American ex-pat father worried that Yankees made poor husbands. Louisa Catherine Johnson, as she was then ...read more

They may be only 10 percent of the population, but it’s become apparent that left-handers have the edge in at least one prominent area—politics. No fewer than six out of 13 U.S. presidents since World War II have been lefties, helping to fuel speculation that left-handed people ...read more

When presidential candidate and former Vice President Richard Nixon arrived in Miami Beach for the 1968 Republican convention, he was given a hero’s welcome. Before he had even clinched the nomination, he was greeted at the airport by an estimated 700-person crowd, 2,000 balloons ...read more

Film footage from 1935 offers a rare glimpse of President Franklin D. Roosevelt walking, in a show of extreme effort that he went to great lengths to hide from the public eye. Fred Hill of New York was attending the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House with his family on ...read more

Trash-talking your political opponent is an American tradition that began long before the age of Twitter. So is talking trash about your vice president, the president who appointed you, or the president you pardoned. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the most memorable ...read more

Should Andrew Jackson be revered or reviled? The question of how to grapple with the seventh president’s tarnished reputation has persisted since Old Hickory’s lifetime. Known as a strong-willed, argumentative and combative personality, Jackson, who served as president from 1829 ...read more

When dressmaker Abraham Zapruder brought his camera to see President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade pass through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, he could never have suspected that he’d witness an assassination—or that his home movie would become one of the most watched ...read more

As the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Alexander Hamilton built the foundations of the national banking system and wielded more power in the earliest years of American democracy than any other man beside George Washington. Yet unlike Washington, and unlike his longtime ...read more

After his death, the Reverend Billy Graham became just the fourth private citizen in American history to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, a recognition usually reserved for elected officials and military leaders. As spiritual counsel to a dozen presidents, Graham was ...read more

Sure, Rex Tillerson’s 13-and-a-half-month tenure as Secretary of State was kind of short. But he’s not the first top White House official to be kicked out early, especially in Donald Trump’s administration, which lost National Security Advisor Michael Flynn within the first ...read more

In August 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt issued an order from his summer residence in Oyster Bay, New York, that would soon be the talk of Washington—and the world beyond. Addressing himself to the government printer, Roosevelt decreed that all documents issued by the White ...read more

When China announced that it was abolishing presidential term limits, paving the way for Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely, U.S. media framed it as a dangerous decision. To many Americans, our two-term limit seems necessary and democratic. But for most of the United ...read more

Gifting someone a lock of your hair might seem a bit odd today. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, hair was a perfectly normal keepsake to give to friends, romantic partners, and the relatives in charge of your family’s hair wreath. Hair was also a souvenir you might want from ...read more

Presidential speeches reveal the United States’ challenges, hopes, dreams and temperature of the nation, as much as they do the wisdom and perspective of the leader speaking them. Even in the age of Twitter, the formal, spoken word from the White House carries great weight and ...read more

The Past in Color features the work of colorist Marina Amaral, bringing to life black and white photos with color applied digitally. Farsighted but underrated, John Quincy Adams was a president of firsts. He was the first president not to have been a founding father. The first ...read more

Michael Isikoff was the first reporter to uncover one of the biggest scoops of the 1990s: that the Independent Counsel was investigating President Bill Clinton over his affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Through meticulous reporting with well-placed ...read more

Two weeks into his presidency, The New York Times ran an article detailing how President Donald J. Trump was wandering the halls of the White House in his bathrobe, looking for the light switches. The paper, “in its efforts to cover a presidency that it openly saw as aberrant, ...read more

Donald J. Trump’s presidential physical has many in the nation abuzz about whether all was revealed about our current President’s health. The White House doctor described him as being in great health, but outside experts have questioned that assessment given how high the ...read more