There's nothing trivial about the U.S. presidency.

• Author: Lederer, Richard
• Position: U.S. History

WHAT TWO presidents died on the very same day? Our second and third commanders in chief, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, political rivals, then friends, both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

As Jefferson lay weak in his home in Monticello, Va., on the evening of July 3, he whispered, "Is this the Fourth?" To quiet the former president, his young lawyer-friend, Nicholas Trist, answered, "Yes." Jefferson fell asleep with a smile. His heart continued to beat until the bells and fireworks of the Fourth rang out as the nation celebrated its birth.

At dawn of that same day, Adams was expiring in his home in Quincy, Mass. A servant asked the fading Adams, "Do you know what day it is?" "Oh yes," responded the lion in winter. "It is the glorious Fourth of July." He then lapsed into a stupor but awakened in the afternoon and sighed feebly, "Thomas Jefferson survives." He ceased to breathe around sunset, about six hours after Jefferson. James Monroe also died on July 4, five years later, and Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872.

The more we delve into the lives of our American presidents, the more we see patterns that connect their feats, fates, families, and foibles:

* The ancestry of all 42 presidents through George W. Bush has been limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof--Dutch, English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh.

* The most common religious affiliation has been Episcopalian (12), with Presbyterian (eight) second. Four presidents--Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Rutherford B. Hayes had no declared religion. Could they have been elected today?

* Twenty-two presidents have been lawyers, the first being Adams and the most recent Bill Clinton.

* Twenty-two presidents have served as governors, the first being Jefferson (Virginia) and the most recent Bush (Texas).

* Fifteen presidents have been senators, the first being Monroe (Virginia) and the most recent Richard Nixon (California).

* No American president has grown up as an only child. All have had at least one full sibling, except for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, and Clinton, who had half siblings. Twenty-three have been first-born males, while six have been the youngest child in their family.

* Six had no children, the last one being Warren G. Harding, who married a divorcee five years his senior in 1891. The marriage lasted 32 years but produced no offspring. The other childless presidents: James Buchanan, James Polk, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, and George Washington. That Washington was childless helped ensure that the presidency would not become a blood-heir monarchy.

* Only five presidents had brown eyes--John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur in the 19th century and Lyndon Johnson and Nixon in the 20th century. A surprising 38 presidents had blue, hazel, or gray eyes.

* Virginia is the birth state with the greatest number of our presidents, including seven of the first 12--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor, as well as Woodrow Wilson.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

* Ohio is known as the "Mother of Presidents" because eight came from that state--William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield (that's three in a row), Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Harding.

* Harvard University boasts the most presidents as alumni (six)--John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Bush (business school). Yale University is a close second, with five presidents as alumni--Taft, Gerald Ford (law school), George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

* Presidents' Day is the official designation of a Federal holiday that is celebrated on the third Monday of February. The original celebration was in honor of Washington, whose actual birthday was Feb. 22. Lincoln, who was born Feb. 12, was added to the mix and, in the late 1980s, Presidents' Day (note the apostrophe after the s to indicate that more than one are being celebrated) became the official name of the holiday.

* In 1916, Pres. Wilson issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide observance of Flag Day on June 14. It was not until 1949 that Congress made this day a permanent observance by resolving that "the fourteenth day of June of each year is hereby designated as Flag Day." The measure was signed into law by Harry Truman.

* On Nov. 26, 1789, Pres. Washington established the first national celebration of Thanksgiving. In 1863, Pres. Lincoln, hoping to unite a sundered nation, issued a proclamation declaring Thanksgiving to be a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. He did this at the urging of Sarah Josepha Hale, the poet and editor who wrote the children's rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Franklin D. Roosevelt moved turkey day up a week to the third Thursday in November--to give Americans more time for Christmas shopping. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of each November, where it remains. Pres. Truman established the tradition of granting a presidential pardon to a Thanksgiving turkey, who then is retired--alive and gobbling--to a petting farm.

* The placing of a decorated Christmas tree in the White House began in 1889 on Christmas morning during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. In 1913, Pres. Wilson asked for a community Christmas tree to be placed at the Capitol so that a tree-fighting ceremony could be recognized as a national event.

* Pres. Hayes and his wife Lucy conducted the first Easter egg roll on the White House lawn.

* Four pairs of presidents defeated each other in successive elections: John Adams won out over Jefferson in 1796; Jefferson defeated Adams in 1800. John Quincy Adams was selected over Andrew Jackson in 1824; Jackson beat out Adams in 1828. Martin Van Buren defeated William Henry Harrison in 1836; Harrison outpolled Van Buren in 1840. Benjamin Harrison edged Grover Cleveland in 1888. Cleveland upended Harrison in 1892.

* Four individuals won the presidency but lost the popular vote: Jackson won the popular vote but lost the election to John Quincy Adams (1824). Old Hickory then was joined in the history books by Samuel J. Tilden in 1876 (lost to Hayes); Grover Cleveland in 1888 (lost to Benjamin Harrison); and Al Gore in 2000 (lost to George W. Bush).

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

* Only 13 presidents have served at least two terms, including five of the first seven and three of the last four.

* John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams are the only two presidents among our first...