In the midst of the election season the tensions are running high and candidates are being put to the test with their knowledge of U.S. history, geography and trivia. There have been some embarrassing gaffes from both sides; Obama's Auschwitz/Buchenwald confusion and McCain's reference to an imaginary Iraq/Pakistan border to name but a couple. But how much does the average person know about the U.

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Meanwhile, in the spirit of the season, here are some interesting tidbits about some past U.S. presidents...

-6th President John Quincy Adams (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829), customarily took a nude early morning swim in the Potomac River.

-8th President Martin Van Buren (March 4, 1837 – March 4,1841) was the first President born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776 making him the first President born a U.S. citizen. Van Buren was delivered on December 5, 1782.

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-16th President Abraham Lincoln (March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865) was the tallest President. He stood 6 feet, 4 inches (193 centimeters) tall.

-20th President James A. Garfield (March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881) was able to write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other

-22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland (March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897) (March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889) discovered a malignant cancer on the roof of his mouth in 1893 against the backdrop of a market crisis involving free silver coinage. To avoid further market panic, he and his doctors snuck aboard a cruise boat and performed surgery to remove the growth. The public were told that he was on a fishing trip and first discovered the truth in 1917.

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-26th President Theodore Roosevelt (September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909) gave the teddy bear its name. On a hunting trip to Mississippi, a number of Roosevelt's aides chased an American Black Bear until it was exhausted before clubbing it and tying it to a willow tree so that the president could make a kill on what had so far been an unsuccessful hunt. The president refused to kill the old bear for sport, ordering that it be put down to end its suffering. The anecdote inspired a cartoon that was run in numerous papers of Roosevelt sparing a cute, large-headed bear cub. A New York shopkeeper, Morris Michtom, saw the cartoons and came upon the idea of selling toy bears under the name "Teddy's Bear". The rest is history.

-29th President Warren Gamaliel Harding (March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923), who became infamous for his White House poker games where the whiskey flowed freely despite Prohibition and for his keen interest in burlesque, also died under mysterious circumstances against the backdrop of a scandal. Harding's administration was accused of transferring naval oil reserves in Wyoming into private hands in return for bribes in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal. After returning from holiday in Alaska as news of the disgrace was breaking out, Harding developed fatigue, symptoms of food poisoning and pneumonia before dying suddenly. Some speculate that he was poisoned by his wife.

-35th President John F. Kennedy (January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963) gave a speech in West Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War with the Soviet Union that emphasized the importance of the "free world" fighting the "Communist world". In an attempt to communicate with the Berliners in German, Kennedy's speech included the phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner," or "I am a Berliner." While his audience understood his meaning, that West Berlin represented the beginning of the free world, Kennedy had actually said something along the lines of "I am a popular local pastry product." By including the article "ein" before "Berliner" Kennedy introduced himself as a jam filled cake nicknamed 'the Berliner'.

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-40th President Ronald Reagan was the oldest elected president at 69 years old.

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Sources used for this article:

www.wikipedia.org

www.nationalgeographic.com

www.theodoreroosevelt.org

www.thewashingtonpost.com

www.potus.com