Free I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know by Editors Of Reader's Digest, Patricia Halbert Page A

too much of it. Coolidge didn’t try to stop the risk-taking; he believed it wasn’t the president’s job to try to control the stock market.
PRESIDENTIAL FIRST
Calvin Coolidge was the first president to be sworn in on the radio in 1925.
----
FUN FACT
Calvin Coolidge’s real name is John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. He dropped the name John after he graduated from college.
----

A Happy White House
    The Coolidges held lots of parties in the White House. As quiet and reserved as President Coolidge was, his wife, Grace, was talkative and bubbly. She called herself the “national hugger.” Trained in sign language and lip reading to communicate with the deaf, she was a personal friend of Helen Keller.
    Coolidge slept more than any president, about ten hours a day, including afternoon naps. But many think he was also asleep at the switch and believe his passive approach to being president set the stage for the economic disaster that followed his time in office. He decided not to run for re-election, simply saying, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.”
     

31st President ~ 1929–1933
    HERBERT HOOVER
    Chief
----

“Children are our most valuable natural resource.”
Born
August 10, 1874 West Branch, Iowa
Political Party
Republican
Vice President
Charles Curtis
First Lady
Lou
Children
Herbert and Allan
Pets
Patrick, an Irish wolfhound; Sonnie and Big Ben, fox terriers; Yukon, an Eskimo dog; two alligators that wandered around the White House
----

A Happy and Sad Childhood
    When Herbert Hoover was born, his father, the village blacksmith, had such high hopes for him that he marched through town announcing, “We have another General Grant in our house!”
    “Bert” Hoover grew up in Iowa, where he learned how to trap rabbits and catch fish. When he was six, his father died and his mother died four years later. Orphaned, Bert was separated from his brother and sister and sent to live with an uncle in Oregon.

A Rich Geologist
    Hoover went to Stanford, a new college in California, and studied geology and mining. Before long, he was a self-made millionaire, traveling all over the world. He helped evacuate Americans from Europe before World War I broke out and took charge of food rationing in the United States during the war.

Difficult Times
    Hoover was very popular when he ran for president and won easily. But a few months later, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Banks failed, businesses were ruined, people lost their jobs, and everyone blamed Hoover. After a while he gave banks and businesses loans, but refused to give money directly to unemployed and homeless people, which made him seem uncaring about the suffering caused by the depression.
PRESIDENTIAL FIRST
Herbert Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi River.
----
FUN FACT
When President Hoover and his wife wanted privacy, they would speak Chinese to each other so the White House staff couldn’t understand them.
----
    None of what he tried to do improved the economy and by the time his term was ending, 14 million people were without work. Many lived in shacks and tent villages called “Hoovervilles” in extreme poverty. Hitchhikers held signs that read: “If you don’t give me a ride, I’ll vote for Hoover.” He was not re-elected.

Helping Others
    Although history says Hoover was not a good president, he was a great humanitarian. After World War II, he helped get food to war-torn Europe. For 25 years he ran the Boys Clubs of America, because he always had special concern for “the boys of the city streets.”
     

32nd President ~ 1933–1945
    FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
    FDR
----

“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
Born
January 30, 1882 Hyde Park, New York
Political Party
Democrat
Vice Presidents
John N. Garner Henry A. Wallace Harry S. Truman
First Lady
Anna Eleanor
Children
Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin, John, and a son who died young
Pets
Fala, a Scottish terrier, and other