Here’s a fact that doesn’t make it into most history classes: one president kept a pet alligator in the White House bathroom. Another kept a raccoon that was originally meant for Thanksgiving dinner. And two presidents who signed the same famous document died on the exact same day, fifty years later.
At Who Smarted, we’ve spent thousands of hours figuring out what makes kids lean in and actually want to learn. Presidents are some of the richest territory out there, because the real stories are almost always stranger than what ends up in textbooks.
These 75 presidents trivia questions are organized from easy warm-ups to genuine brain-benders. Use them for Presidents Day, a road trip, a classroom game, or just to be the most interesting person at dinner.
Easy Presidents Trivia for Kids
Start here. These are the warm-up questions, perfect for younger kids or anyone just getting into presidential history.
1. Who was the first president of the United States?
Answer: George Washington
Why it matters: Washington was so popular after the Revolutionary War that some people wanted to make him king. He turned it down. Twice.
2. Which president is on the penny?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln
Why it matters: Lincoln was the first president ever placed on a U.S. coin, added to the penny in 1909 on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
3. Which president is on the $1 bill?
Answer: George Washington
Why it matters: Washington also appears on the quarter, making him the most featured president on American currency.
4. Where does the president live while in office?
Answer: The White House, in Washington, D.C.
Why it matters: The White House has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 floors. It also has a movie theater and a bowling alley inside.
5. Which president freed enslaved people in the United States?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln, with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
6. How many years is one presidential term?
Answer: 4 years
Why it matters: Presidents can serve a maximum of two terms. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to serve more, winning four elections before a law was passed to limit future presidents to two.
7. Which famous stuffed animal toy was named after a president?
Answer: The Teddy Bear, named after President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt
Why it matters: In 1902, Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear that had been tied to a tree during a hunting trip. A toy maker saw a cartoon about it and named his stuffed bear “Teddy’s Bear.”
8. How many presidents are carved into Mount Rushmore?
Answer: 4
Why it matters: They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum chose them to represent the birth, growth, development, and preservation of the United States.
9. Which president had a stuffed animal named after him?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt (the Teddy Bear)
Why it matters: Same as question 7, but worth knowing both ways around.
10. What document did America’s founders sign to declare independence from Britain?
Answer: The Declaration of Independence, in 1776
Why it matters: Two future presidents signed it: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both men died on the exact same day, exactly 50 years later.
11. Which president is on the quarter?
Answer: George Washington
Why it matters: Washington has appeared on the quarter since 1932.
12. What is the name of the president’s official country retreat in Maryland?
Answer: Camp David
Why it matters: Franklin D. Roosevelt originally called it “Shangri-La.” President Eisenhower renamed it after his grandson David.
13. Which president had the nickname “Honest Abe”?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln
Why it matters: Lincoln earned this nickname as a young man in Illinois, where he reportedly walked miles to return a few extra pennies he had accidentally overcharged a customer.
14. Which president’s face is on the $5 bill?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln
Why it matters: Lincoln appears on both the penny and the $5 bill, more currency than any other president.
15. What city is the White House located in?
Answer: Washington, D.C.
Why it matters: Washington, D.C. is not part of any U.S. state. It is a federal district created specifically to serve as the nation’s capital.
16. How many U.S. presidents have there been?
Answer: 47 (as of 2025)
Why it matters: Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted as both the 22nd and 24th president, so only 46 people have actually held the office.
17. Which president was the first to appear on television?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the 1939 World’s Fair
Why it matters: FDR’s appearance was broadcast to a small number of TV sets in New York. Regular television broadcasting didn’t begin until 1941.
18. Which famous dog belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt?
Answer: Fala, a Scottish Terrier
Why it matters: Fala was so famous he received his own fan mail, and there is a statue of him beside FDR’s memorial in Washington, D.C.
19. Which president was also a famous peanut farmer?
Answer: Jimmy Carter
Why it matters: Carter grew up on a peanut farm in Plains, Georgia, and returned to farming after his presidency.
20. Which president was a movie actor before entering politics?
Answer: Ronald Reagan
Why it matters: Reagan appeared in more than 50 films and hosted a TV show before becoming governor of California and then president.
Medium Presidents Trivia for Kids
You warmed up. Now it gets interesting.
21. Which president was the tallest?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln, at 6 feet 4 inches
Why it matters: Lincoln often kept important papers tucked inside his stovepipe hat. A hat rack made for him still stands in the White House.
22. Which president got stuck in the White House bathtub?
Answer: William Howard Taft
Why it matters: Taft weighed over 300 pounds. After the incident, he had a new bathtub installed that could fit four average-sized adults at once. It weighed over a ton.
23. Which president kept a pet alligator in the White House?
Answer: John Quincy Adams
Why it matters: The alligator was a gift from Marquis de Lafayette of France. Adams kept it in the East Room bathroom and reportedly enjoyed showing it to guests.
24. Who was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms?
Answer: Grover Cleveland, who was both the 22nd and 24th president
Why it matters: Cleveland lost his reelection bid to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, then came back to beat Harrison in 1892.
25. Who was the youngest president to take office?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt, at age 42
Why it matters: Roosevelt became president after William McKinley was assassinated. John F. Kennedy was the youngest to be elected at age 43.
26. Which president sent Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition across America?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
Why it matters: Jefferson had just completed the Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the United States. He sent Lewis and Clark to explore what he had bought. They traveled approximately 7,000 miles over two years.
27. Which two presidents died on the exact same day?
Answer: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both on July 4, 1826
Why it matters: That day was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which both men had signed. Adams’s reported last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives,” not knowing Jefferson had died hours earlier.
28. Which president is credited with bringing French fries to America?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
Why it matters: Jefferson encountered fried potatoes during his time in France and brought the recipe home. He served “potatoes in the French manner” at White House dinners.
29. Which president had 15 children, the most of any president?
Answer: John Tyler
Why it matters: Tyler had 8 children with his first wife and 7 more with his second wife, whom he married when he was 54. His last child was born in 1860.
30. Which president survived an assassination attempt when a folded speech in his pocket slowed a bullet?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912
Why it matters: Roosevelt was shot in the chest before a campaign speech in Milwaukee. The bullet was slowed by his glasses case and a 50-page speech folded in his breast pocket. He finished his 90-minute speech before going to the hospital.
31. Which president created the national park system, protecting hundreds of millions of acres?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
Why it matters: Roosevelt protected roughly 230 million acres, including 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 national forests.
32. What was Abraham Lincoln’s job before he became president?
Answer: Lawyer (he also worked as a store clerk, postmaster, and surveyor)
Why it matters: Lincoln is the only president to have held a patent. He invented a device to lift boats over shallow waterways, though it was never manufactured.
33. Which president was the first to use the telephone to communicate from the White House?
Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1877
Why it matters: The first phone number assigned to the White House was “1.” Alexander Graham Bell himself helped install the line.
34. Which president owned the famous estate called Monticello?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
Why it matters: Jefferson designed Monticello himself and spent 40 years building and rebuilding it. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
35. What is the name of the president’s official aircraft?
Answer: Air Force One
Why it matters: Technically, “Air Force One” is the radio call sign for any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the president. It is not the name of a specific plane.
36. Which president gave the longest inauguration speech in history, and paid for it with his life?
Answer: William Henry Harrison
Why it matters: Harrison gave a nearly two-hour speech in freezing rain with no hat or coat to prove he was tough enough for the job. He developed pneumonia and died 31 days later, serving the shortest presidency in history.
37. Which president was also a licensed bartender?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln
Why it matters: As a young man in New Salem, Illinois, Lincoln co-owned a general store that also sold liquor. He held an official license.
38. Which president’s dog had puppies in the White House?
Answer: Gerald Ford’s golden retriever, Liberty
Why it matters: Liberty gave birth to 9 puppies in the White House in 1975. Ford kept one and named her Misty.
39. Which president introduced the first bathtub to the White House?
Answer: Millard Fillmore, in 1850
Why it matters: Before Fillmore, presidents bathed in portable tubs or at public facilities. The White House didn’t have running water until Andrew Jackson’s presidency in the 1830s.
40. Which president had the motto “speak softly and carry a big stick”?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
Why it matters: Roosevelt used the phrase to describe his approach to foreign policy: negotiate calmly but back up your words with real power.
Hard Presidents Trivia for Kids
These are the questions that separate serious presidential trivia fans from everyone else. No shame in needing a hint.
41. Which president liked to swim in the Potomac River every morning before breakfast, sometimes without clothes?
Answer: John Quincy Adams
Why it matters: A journalist named Anne Royall once sat on his clothes at the riverbank until he agreed to give her an interview, reportedly making her the first woman to interview a sitting president.
42. What was the most profitable crop grown at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate?
Answer: Hemp (also wheat and products from his fishery)
Why it matters: Washington was one of the largest hemp producers in Virginia. At the time, hemp was grown for rope, cloth, and paper. Washington also distilled whiskey, making his distillery one of the largest in the new country.
43. Which president invented the swivel chair?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
Why it matters: Jefferson designed a swivel chair based on a Windsor chair and used it while writing the Declaration of Independence. A reproduction sits at Monticello today.
44. Which president was never elected to either the presidency or the vice presidency, yet still became president?
Answer: Gerald Ford
Why it matters: Ford was appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned, then became president when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. He is the only person to have held the nation’s two highest offices without winning a national election.
45. Two presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Name one of them.
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt (1906) or Barack Obama (2009)
Why it matters: Roosevelt won for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Obama won in his first year as president, before completing major diplomatic initiatives.
46. Which president is the only one to have served as both president and chief justice of the Supreme Court?
Answer: William Howard Taft
Why it matters: After losing his reelection bid in 1912, Taft became Chief Justice in 1921. He reportedly said the Supreme Court job was what he had always wanted more than the presidency.
47. Which president was the first to be born in a hospital?
Answer: Jimmy Carter, born in 1924
Why it matters: All previous presidents were born at home. Carter was born in the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia.
48. What was the name of Thomas Jefferson’s pet mockingbird?
Answer: Dick
Why it matters: Jefferson adored the bird and let it fly freely inside the White House. Dick would perch on Jefferson’s shoulder, eat from his lips, and follow him up the stairs to his room each evening.
49. Which president’s parrot had to be removed from the president’s own funeral for bad behavior?
Answer: Andrew Jackson’s parrot, Poll
Why it matters: Poll had picked up Jackson’s colorful vocabulary over many years together. At Jackson’s funeral, the parrot reportedly caused such a scene with its language that it had to be removed from the service.
50. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. Who was the second?
Answer: James A. Garfield, in 1881
Why it matters: Garfield was shot at a Washington train station and survived for 79 days before dying. Some historians believe his doctors, who repeatedly probed the wound with unwashed hands, caused more damage than the bullet itself.
51. Which president reportedly kept a pet badger named Josiah who bit visitors’ ankles?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
Why it matters: A girl gave Roosevelt the badger during a campaign stop in Kansas. Josiah moved into the White House and apparently had strong opinions about guests.
52. Calvin Coolidge received a raccoon as a gift intended for Thanksgiving dinner. What did he name her?
Answer: Rebecca
Why it matters: Coolidge kept Rebecca as a pet, built her a special house, and walked her on a leash around the White House grounds. She became one of the most famous White House pets in history.
53. Theodore Roosevelt’s children once snuck their pony, Algonquin, into the White House. How?
Answer: In the elevator
Why it matters: Their brother Archie was sick upstairs and missed the pony. His siblings decided the fastest solution was to bring the pony to him.
54. George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon overlooks which river?
Answer: The Potomac River
Why it matters: Washington chose the site partly for its strategic view up and down the river. The estate still attracts more than a million visitors per year.
55. Which president gave a 90-minute speech immediately after being shot in the chest?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
Why it matters: Same as question 30, but asked from the other direction. The answer is always Roosevelt, because Roosevelt was extraordinary. The speech reportedly began with the line: “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
Presidential Pets Trivia
Every single U.S. president has had a pet in the White House except for three: James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump. The rest brought everything from goats to bears to actual alligators.
56. Which president kept alligators in the White House bathroom?
Answer: John Quincy Adams. They were a gift from Marquis de Lafayette of France.
57. What was Theodore Roosevelt’s pet badger’s name?
Answer: Josiah. The badger regularly bit visitors to the White House.
58. Which president’s raccoon was originally sent to the White House to be served at Thanksgiving dinner?
Answer: Calvin Coolidge. The raccoon’s name was Rebecca. She survived.
59. What breed was FDR’s famous dog Fala?
Answer: Scottish Terrier. Fala received fan mail and starred in a wartime documentary film.
60. Which president had a goat named His Whiskers that his grandchildren rode around the White House lawn?
Answer: Benjamin Harrison.
61. How did Theodore Roosevelt’s children sneak their pony into the White House?
Answer: In the elevator, to cheer up their sick brother Archie.
62. Which president kept a mockingbird named Dick who perched on his shoulder at meals?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson.
63. Andrew Jackson’s parrot had to be removed from his funeral. Why?
Answer: The parrot, named Poll, had learned Jackson’s habit of swearing and would not stop during the service.
64. Calvin Coolidge also received pygmy hippopotamuses as a gift. What did he name one?
Answer: Billy. The hippo was eventually donated to the National Zoo.
65. Which president’s dog gave birth to 9 puppies in the White House?
Answer: Gerald Ford’s golden retriever, Liberty, in 1975.
White House Trivia for Kids
The White House has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a tennis court, a jogging track, and a chocolate shop. Here’s what most people don’t know about it.
66. How many rooms are in the White House?
Answer: 132 rooms across 6 floors, including 35 bathrooms and 28 fireplaces.
67. Who was the first president to live in the White House?
Answer: John Adams, who moved in on November 1, 1800.
Why it matters: George Washington never lived there. He picked the location and oversaw construction, but the building was not finished until after he left office.
68. Which president made the name “White House” official?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt, in 1901. Before that, it was called the Executive Mansion or the President’s House.
69. The White House was burned by troops from which country in 1814?
Answer: Britain, during the War of 1812.
Why it matters: First Lady Dolley Madison famously saved a portrait of George Washington and important documents before fleeing. The building was rebuilt and painted white, which is how it got its name.
70. Which president had a bowling alley built in the White House?
Answer: Richard Nixon, in 1969. A previous one had existed under Harry Truman.
71. What is the name of the famous garden next to the White House?
Answer: The Rose Garden. Jacqueline Kennedy redesigned it in 1962. It is used for press conferences, bill signings, and ceremonies.
72. True or false: The White House has its own movie theater.
Answer: True. Franklin D. Roosevelt had it installed in 1942. He watched films there regularly.
73. How many gallons of paint does it take to paint the outside of the White House?
Answer: About 570 gallons. The exterior is repainted every few years.
74. What happened to the White House lights during World War II?
Answer: All exterior lights were turned off as a security measure starting in December 1941. Anti-aircraft guns were installed on the roof and secret tunnels were built underneath.
75. Which president installed the first bathtub in the White House?
Answer: Millard Fillmore, in 1850. Before that, presidents made do with portable tubs or public facilities.
One More Reason These Facts Matter
The best presidents trivia is not about memorizing who served 14th or what year someone was born. It is about the stories underneath the facts: the alligator in the bathroom, the raccoon who dodged Thanksgiving, the two men who signed the same document and died fifty years apart on the same day.
At Who Smarted, we have spent thousands of hours figuring out what makes kids lean in and want to learn more. Our podcast covered how George Washington basically invented the American lawn, the full story of Lewis and Clark’s 7,000-mile journey that Thomas Jefferson set in motion, and hundreds of other topics that turn “I don’t like history” into “wait, tell me more.”
Presidents are some of the richest territory out there. The textbook version leaves out all the good parts. These questions are the good parts.
