Martha Washington was the first, First Lady of the USA. She inherited 80 slaves after her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, died when she was 25. The family estate was 27 square miles (70 km2) of plantations, and 285 enslaved men, women, and children. She inherited a third and the remaining two thirds was held in trust for when the eldest male child became an adult. The son, Jacky Custis died of camp fever during the revolutionary war. President George Washington (1789 - 1797), who married her when she was 27, became the legal manager of the estate and greatly increased the acreage and number of slaves.

Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams (1797 - 1801), was the second First Lady, and the first to reside in the White House, which when she moved into it, was surrounded by forests, as the new capital city had yet to be built. Prior to this, the capital had been Philadelphia and New York.

Melania Trump will not be the first ever First Lady born outside the USA, Louisa Adams, wife of President John Quincy Adams (1825 - 1829) was born in London, in 1825. She was the daughter of an English woman, and an American merchant father. However, she will be the first woman to be from a non English speaking country, with no family connections to the USA.

Anna Harrison, wife of President William Harrison (1841), is the oldest woman to have became First Lady, and was 65 years old at the time of inaugaration. The second oldest was Barbara Bush, wife of President George H.W Bush (1989 - 1993), who was 63 when she moved into the White House.

Not all First Ladies have been wives of the President. Martha Jefferson Randolph was the daughter of President Thomas Jefferson (1801 - 1809), Angelica van Buren was the daughter in law of President Martin Van Buren (1837 - 1841) and Harriet Lane was the niece of President James Buchanan (1857 - 1861).

Mary Todd Lincoln was holding her husband's hand when he was shot in the back of the head whilst watching a play, by Shakespearean actor and Confederate supporter, John Wilkes Booth. President Abraham Lincoln (1861 - 1865) died hours later.

Jane Pierce , wife of President Franklin Pierce (1853 - 1857), lost all three of her sons when they were still just children. The first, Franklin, lived only 2 days, the second, Franklin, died of epidemic Typhus aged 4, and her last son, Benjamin, was killed aged 12, just 2 months before the inaugaration, in a train crash, in 1853.

Lou Henry Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover (1929 - 1933), was the only first lady to speak an Asian language. She could speak Chinese, after traveling there with her husband, who was a mining engineer in his earlier years.

Bess Truman, wife of President Harry Truman (1945 - 1953), is currently the longest lived First Lady, she died when she was 97 years and 8 months.

Before Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama (2008 - 2016), the 43 First Ladies of America were all of northern European ancestry, with the just about all of them being of British Isles heritage.