Obscure American history trivia

This is a new thread, so I'm not gonna hold it up. The answer: There were 11 states when GW took office. When New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, the union now had 9 states, which made the country officially "united." After that, Virginia and New York ratified the constitution, too, making it 11.

Rhode Island and North Carolina didn't join the union officially until after GW's inauguration, the only two of the original 13 that weren't officially part of the U.S. when he took office.

 

Pierce’s story is one of those “holy shit” stories about his son dying in a train accident after the election and before the inauguration.

Pierce and his wife essentially spent his entire term grieving.

 

A personal favorite: who is the only deceased American President not buried with a US flag?

 

John Tyler would be my guess. Buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, which, BTW, is a pretty cool place to visit. Unless you consider Jeff Davis an American president (some do).

 

Correct. He defected to the Confederacy and was elected to its Congress before dying early in the war.
Another Tyler fun fact: he is the only man to have served as president without getting a single vote in a general election.He replaced Harrison and then at the end of the term, neither wanted him as a candidate.

 

Love the idea of this thread

This might be too easy but it is an interesting (albeit sad) factoid. Which president's dog was assassinated and what was the dog's name?

 

Checkers by Alger Hiss?

 

Ha ha! Checkers got such a raw deal

 

I cheated by looking it up. If this is the correct one, the dog appears to have never gone to the White House. Instead, it stayed in the President's hometown with another family during his term in office.

 

You are correct. The president was worried about the dog after people celebrating his electoral win spooked the dog so the president opted to not take him to the White House

 

Aside from generals, how many presidents without prior elective experience ever won a second term?

 

What was the Capital of the US for the shortest amount of time?