By Stephanie Buck and Meagan Day

This two-year garbage fire of an election has overflowed with firsts. The obvious: Hillary Clinton is the first woman nominated for president by a major political party and would be the first female president if elected. Donald Trump is the first U.S. presidential nominee to be caught on tape saying he “grabs women by the pussy.”

Heady times.

What the 2016 election needs is some perspective, or some escapism, depending how many times you’ve smashed your head against a desk today.

Each president has brought his own first to the office, and they’re not always the ones you might expect. Well, the first one is:

1. George Washington (1789–1797): First straight, male, white president

(Youtube)

Washington set a real, lasting trend with this one.

2. John Adams (1797–1801): First to marry a relative

(HBO)

Abigail Smith was Adams’ wife, confidant, political advisor and third cousin. The second POTUS was the first to keep it in the family — and, unfortunately, not the last. (Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t have to change her last name when she got married—let that sink in.)

3. Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809): First to shake hands with guests

(Wikimedia)

In order to avoid physical contact, George Washington bowed to guests and they would bow in return. Adams continued the tradition. Jefferson eliminated that formality by shaking hands, a tradition which exists to this day.

4. James Madison (1809–1817): First mini president

(Wikimedia)

“Great geniuses have the shortest biographies,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Madison, a brilliant statesman who stood at 5'4", demonstrates that sometimes they also have the shortest physical stature.

5. James Monroe (1817–1825): First senator to be elected president

Statue of Monroe at the College of William and Mary. (Flickr)

Monroe was elected senator of the First United States Congress in 1790. All previous presidents had been elected from cabinet positions.

6. John Quincy Adams (1825–1829): First abolitionist president

(Wikimedia)

Talk about being on the right side of history. One disgruntled slave-owner called Quincy Adams “the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed.”

7. Andrew Jackson (1829–1837): First president to kill someone in a duel

(Library of Congress)

In May of 1906, Jackson killed rival horse breeder Charles Dickinson in a duel, after the latter accused him of cheating on a horse bet and insulted Jackson’s wife. Jackson was shot in the chest during the duel but managed a fatal return shot nonetheless. Talk about presidential…

8. Martin Van Buren (1837–1841): First to be born a citizen of the U.S.

(Wikimedia)

You heard that right — none of the early presidents was born in the United States of America. If Donald Trump had been around to angrily demand their birth certificates, he would have found that every president before Van Buren was born a colonial subject of Great Britain.

9. William Henry Harrison (1829–1937): First to have his photograph taken while in office

(Wikimedia)

Harrison delivered his outdoor inaugural address on March 4, 1841. After exiting the stage, he posed for a daguerrotype portrait; however, the print has since been lost to history (the above portrait was taken later).

10. John Tyler (1841–1845): First veep to take office because of a president’s death

(Library of Congress)

Tyler had been vice president for thirty days when his predecessor, Harrison, died of pneumonia—reportedly hastened by the aforementioned outdoor inaugural address. From then on, his detractors dubbed Tyler “His Accidency.”

11. James Polk (1845–1849): First to be elected before age 50

(Library of Congress)

All previous presidents had been older when inaugurated, the oldest being William Henry Harrison at 68 years. The oldest ever elected would be Ronald Reagan at 69; the youngest was Teddy Roosevelt, at 42.

12. Zachary Taylor (1849–1850): First to have held no prior elected office

(Wikimedia)

Taylor had spent 40 years in the military before ascending to the presidency. During that time, he’d never even voted. Outgoing president James Polk called him “without political information” and “wholly unqualified for the station.” He died from a digestive ailment before he could prove Polk wrong — or right.

13. Millard Fillmore (1850–1853): First to establish a White House library

(Library of Congress)

Fillmore installed the first permanent White House library. Previous presidents had brought their own libraries, which they removed once their terms were complete. Fillmore was also the first president to carry a dictionary with him at all times. Fun at parties, no doubt.

14. Franklin Pierce (1853–1857): First to be denied renomination by his party

(Library of Congress)

American historians often rank Pierce’s presidency as one of the worst, if not the worst. His 11-year-old son died just days before he took office, and his wife refused to come to D.C. with him, so he hit the bottle as the country erupted in pre-Civil War conflict. The Democratic party took a hard pass on renominating him.

15. James Buchanan (1857–1861): First and only president to be a bachelor

(Library of Congress)

A lifelong bachelor—niece Harriet Lane served as First Lady—Buchanan shared a home with Alabama Senator and former Vice President William Rufus King. Peers joked at their relationship, calling them “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy.”

16. Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865): First to pardon a turkey

(Flickr)

The annual presidential turkey pardoning wouldn’t become a tradition until the mid 20th century, but Lincoln was the first to do it. His son Tad had a pet turkey that he led around on a leash — weird kid, that Tad. When it came time to eat the turkey, Tad pleaded for clemency, and the Great Emancipator complied.

17. Andrew Johnson (1865–1869): First to be impeached

(Library of Congress)

Ascending to the presidency after Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson was impeached on February 24, 1868. Among the offenses was his removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, thought to be a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson was acquitted.

18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1977): First to see the Pacific Ocean

California became a state in 1850, and Grant was the first (future) president to lay eyes on it, in 1852. “Many of the real scenes in early California life exceed in strangeness and interest any of the mere products of the brain of the novelist,” he wrote. He described, for instance, cracks in the streets of San Francisco into which gold miners would fall and drown in the Bay.

19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881): First to allow women to argue before the Supreme Court

(Flickr)

After attorney Belva Ann Lockwood petitioned Congress to allow women to present cases to the Supreme Court, Hayes signed the bill. He’s also the first president whose wife graduated from college.

20. James Abram Garfield (1881): First to use air conditioning

(Wikimedia)

The assassination of Garfield was a bad thing. But something good came out of it: during the 11 weeks he lay injured and dying, doctors rigged up a system to keep him cool. The box consisting of ice, wet cloth and a fan, was a direct predecessor of the modern air conditioning unit.

21. Chester Alan Arthur (1881–1885): First to be accused of being born outside the U.S.

(Flickr)

Early birthers claimed Arthur was not, in fact, born in Vermont but rather in Canada, which would have made him ineligible for office.

22. Grover Cleveland (1885–1889): First to decorate his tree with electric Christmas lights

(Library of Congress)

In 1894, most of the country still nestled wax candles into their Christmas tree branches — pretty, but risky. Cleveland was a trendsetter, though, and at the behest of his daughters he got ahold of some newfangled electric Christmas lights.

23. Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893): First billion-dollar budget

(Library of Congress)

During Harrison’s administration, Congress appropriated $1 billion in annual spending for the first time. In particular, the 1890 Dependent and Disability Pension Act, which provided pensions for wounded veterans, increased pension spending from $81 million to $135 million.

24. Grover Cleveland, again (1893–1897): First (and only) to be elected to non-consecutive terms

(Wikimedia)

25. William McKinley (1897–1901): First to campaign by telephone

(Library of Congress)

During a presidential campaign run from his home in Canton, Ohio, McKinley communicated with donors and executives via telephone and telegraph. It wasn’t exactly a modern phone-banking operation but a notable leg-up nonetheless.

26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909): First to ride in a submarine and airplane

(Library of Congress)

The first Roosevelt got all the good advancements in transportation technology. In addition to being the first to ride in a submarine and an airplane, he was the first president to make a public appearance in an automobile.

27. William Howard Taft (1909–1913): First (and only) president to serve on the Supreme Court

(Library of Congress)

The only person to hold both offices, Taft became the tenth chief justice after leaving the White House. In fact, he preferred law to politics.

28. Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921): First president to visit Europe while in office

(Wikimedia)

Pretty incredible that visiting Europe was not a thing presidents did until the early 20th century. Wilson’s first trip was great at first, but soured when he found out that the France had denied aid to a war-torn region and then given him a tour in a bid for American aid.

29. Warren G. Harding (1921–1923): First president to have women vote for him

(Library of Congress)

A firm supporter of women’s suffrage, Harding found favor in the first presidential election in which all women had the right to vote. The total number of votes cast increased from 18.5 million in 1916 to 26.8 million in 1920.

30. Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929): First to claim Native American ancestry

(Library of Congress)

Was Coolidge our first multiracial president? He sure thought so. Like more and more white Americans, he claimed Indian blood in his family tree. Whether he was correct or not, he ended up signing the Indian Citizen Act in 1924, granting all Native Americans U.S. citizenship.

31. Herbert Hoover (1929–1933): First to give all of his federal paychecks to charity

(Library of Congress)

Already a wealthy man, Hoover donated his $75,000 annual salary to charity. He had pledged to never accept money for public service so he could never be accused of corruption. John F. Kennedy was the only other president to donate his salary.

32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945): First to appear on television

(Library of Congress)

The elder Roosevelt may have snagged all the good transportation innovations, but his distant cousin FDR ended up with a big one: television. In 1939, he appeared on TV at the opening ceremony of the New York World’s Fair. Only a handful of people who owned televisions in the New York area saw the broadcast, however.

33. Harry S. Truman (1945–1953): First president to have a letter as a middle name

(Library of Congress)

In an effort to appease two different grandfathers, Truman was given only one letter as a middle name; the “S” does not stand for anything. However, using a period after the “S” is proper, according to the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual.

34. Dwight Eisenhower (1953–1961): First president of all fifty states

(Wikimedia)

Hawaii and Alaska weren’t admitted to the union until 1959. Yes, Americans built the A-bomb and invented the first computer before we put fifty stars on our flag. And Eisenhower was first to preside over them all.

35. John F. Kennedy (1961–1963): First to use the Situation Room

Kennedy’s Situation Room in 1962. (Kennedy Library)

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy’s national security advisor McGeorge Bundy created the Situation Room in May 1961. It replaced President Truman’s bowling alley, which Richard Nixon later rebuilt elsewhere in the White House.

36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969): First to be sworn in by a woman

Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One. (Cecil W. Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons)

“I am unabashedly in favor of women,” said LBJ, clearing the lowest possible bar for feminist allyship. While he wasn’t much of an outspoken feminist, he did ask for a woman — federal judge Sarah T. Hughes — to swear him in after Kennedy’s assassination. Some historians believe he selected her because he hadn’t been consulted in her appointment to the bench and wanted to send a signal about his new power.

37. Richard Nixon (1969–1974): First (and only) president to resign

(Youtube)

He insisted he wasn’t a crook. Millions of people—some of them in Congress—weren’t so sure. Nixon absconded from the presidency before official articles of impeachment could be delivered.

38. Gerald Ford (1974–1977): First never elected vice president or president

President and Mrs. Ford Holding Hands While Riding in the President’s Limousine in 1974. (David Hume Kennerly/Wikimedia)

Ford was a popular Republican congressman who was asked to replace Spiro Agnew as Nixon’s vice president when Agnew resigned. Then Nixon himself resigned, making Ford president — even though no one ever voted to let him near the Oval Office. “I have not sought this enormous responsibility,” he told America on his inauguration day, “but I will not shirk it.”

39. James Carter, Jr. (1977–1981): First to be born in a hospital

Jimmy Carter with Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, 1977. (Wikimedia)

Born in 1924, Carter was the first president born in a hospital. Afterward, he was taken back to his house, which lacked electricity or running water. His mother was a nurse.

40. Ronald Reagan (1981–1989): First to break the “Curse of Tippecanoe”

Reagan leaving the hospital with wife Nancy after an assassination attempt.

For 120 years, from William Harrison through JFK, every president elected in a year divisible by 20 died in office. As 1980 approached, it was rumored that the next chief executive was doomed. But Reagan broke the curse by living through two terms, even surviving a gunshot wound from an assassination attempt.

41. George H. W. Bush (1989–1993): First vice president to have served as acting president

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

While Reagan was sedated for eight hours due to colon surgery in 1985, he elected to invoke Section 3 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, a procedure for response to presidential disabilities. Vice President Bush served the time as acting president before his own election to the Oval Office in 1988.

42. Bill Clinton (1993–2001): First to appoint openly gay people to government positions

Gay and lesbian backers of Bill Clinton celebrate the a Clinton victory in West Hollywood in 1992. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

When LBJ’s top aide Walter Jenkins was outed as gay in 1964, he was immediately cut loose, his career over. For his part, Clinton appointed over 150 gays and lesbians. It took a while for the Clintons to come around to supporting marriage equality, but they were at the very least unfazed by gay people’s existence.

43. George W. Bush (2001–2009): First to have both the lowest and highest approval ratings

(Flickr)

President Bush’s approval ratings swung from a post-9/11 high of 90% on Sept. 21, 2001 to a low of 25% on Oct. 31, 2008. (The highest average presidential approval rating was President John F. Kennedy at 70.1%.)

44. Barack Obama (2009–2017): First to sign a law via robot

(White House)

Ever since Woodrow Wilson took that first trip to Europe, presidential travel has been frequent and compulsory. When laws need to get signed, the government pays to fly staff to wherever the president is, documents in tow. In 2011, Obama found away around that inefficient system — he signed a bill by autopen, without even being in the room.

BONUS: David Atchison (March 4, 1849): First president to serve for a day

(Flickr)

Though outgoing president James Polk’s term ended at noon, incoming POTUS and staunch Episcopalian Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday. Atchison was made as Acting President for the day.