Presidential Notes

1) George Washington (April 30, 1789 to March 3, 1797)

Federalist from VA.

General, Surveyor, Presided over Constitutional Convention

Important Events: French Revolution

Vice President: John Adams

2) John Adams 1797-1801

Federalist, MA

VP: Thomas Jefferson

Ambassador to G. Britain, VP.

Almost went to war with France.

Died July 4, 1826, just after TJ.

3) Thomas Jefferson, (1801-1809)

Democratic-Republican from VA

VP: Aaron Burr

Wrote Declaration of Independence, Gov. of VA., Secretary of State.

Marbury vs. Madison, Outlawed slave trade. Embargo Act of 1807. Louisiana Purchase, 1803.

4) James Madison: 1809-1817

Democratic-Republican, VA

George Clinton (VP)

Father of the Constitution. House member, Sect'y of State.

War of 1812 against British.

5) James Monroe, VA

1817-1825

Democratic-Republican

• Secretary of State, 1811-17 (under Madison)
• Secretary of War, 1814-15
• Florida ceded by Spain 1818
• 1820 The Missouri Compromise, forbade slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude.
• On December 2, Monroe Doctrine delivered to Congress: "Europe stay out of W. Hemisphere"

7) Andrew Jackson

• Member of U.S. HR, 1796-97
• US Senator, 1797-98
• Justice on TN Supreme Court, 1798-1804
• Gov. of the FL Territory, 1821
• US Senator, 1823-25

16) Abraham Lincoln

Republican (started in 1854) FROM
Illinois

Defeated, Bell, Breckenridge, and Douglas in 1860.

VP: Hannibal Hamlin, A. Johnson.
The Civil War, 1861-1865. Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, gave the Gettysburg Address, 2nd Inaugural Address. Assassinated.

17) Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869.
Democrat. TN.

Not elected to the presidency.

First impeached president.
Reconstruction (after Civil War) 1865-1877. Black men get suffrage.

Got Alaska from Russia 1867.

18) Ulysses S. Grant (1869 - 1877)
Republican, OH.

General of Union Forces in Civil War.
Battle of Little Bighorn (Indian Wars)

Presidency marked by scandal and corruption.

Died of throat cancer, 1885.

19) Rutherford B. Hayes: 1877 to 1881, Ohio

Republican

• Member of U.S. HR 1865-67
• Gov. of OH, 1868-72, 1876-77

Elected by a joint commission 8-7
"minority president"

Ended Reconstruction and withdrew federal troops from the South, 1877

(22nd and 24th) Grover Cleveland

1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897 (NJ/NY)

• Mayor of Buffalo, NY, 1882
• Gov. of NY, 1883-85

Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor.
• Labor violence during his term.

26) Theodore Roosevelt

• Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1895-97
• Gov. of NY, 1898-1900
• Vice President, 1901

"The Square Deal"

• Began building the Panama Canal
• Signed laws controlling meat production and consumer safety

28) Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921

Democrat from VA.

Gov. of NJ

World War I :1917-1918

Federal Reserve and FTC
Died from stroke. Wife Edith managed all affairs (1st unelected woman president)

32) Franklin D. Roosevelt: 1933-1945 D-NY

Paralyzed with Polio at age 39
Only pres. to be elected 4 times

Great Depression (1929-1939)

The New Deal was his program.

World War II (1939-1945) US enters in 1941.

Social security tax was passed.

33) Harry S Truman (April 12, 1945 to 1953)

Democratic- MO

• United States Senator, 1935-45
• Vice President, 1945 (under F.D. Roosevelt)
• He made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the end of World War II.
• The Korean War. 1950-1953.

34) Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953 - 1961 Republican-PA

General, C-in-C of Allied forces in Europe during WW2

• To enforce integration, he ordered the National Guard to escort students into the Little Rock High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Creation of NASA. 
• Cold War: Conflict between US & USSR

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Democratic-MA

VP: Lyndon B. Johnson

• Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1947-53
• United States Senator, 1953-61

• Soviets built the Berlin Wall. 1961
• Cuban missile crisis. 1962
• "And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.."

36) Lyndon Baines Johnson D-TX

VP: Hubert H. Humphrey (1965-69)

• US HR, 1937-49
• US Senator, 1949-61 (Majority leader)
• Vice President, 1961-63 (under Kennedy)

• The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and Medicare were signed into law.
  • "The Great Society,"
• Nation-wide anti-war protests against the Vietnam war.
  • During his term, Martin Luther King (4/4/68) and Robert F. Kennedy (6/5/68) were assassinated.

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  37) Richard Milhous Nixon R-CA

  1969 to August 9, 1974
  • U.S. House member, 1947-51
  • US Senator, 1951-53
  • Vice President, 1953-61 (under Eisenhower)

  Ran for Pres: 1960, lost to JFK

  Won 1968, 1972.

  The SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreement (with the Soviet Union).

  • During his term, Nixon went to both China and the Soviet Union. (Detente: a warming of relations with Communist countries)
  • He is the only president to have resigned.

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  38) Gerald Rudolph Ford (R-MI)

  (August 9, 1974 -1977)
  • U.S. HR 1949-73(Minority Leader)
  • Vice President, 1973-74 (under Nixon)

   

  Led the evacuation of Americans from Vietnam.

  Fought inflation (rise in prices).

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  39) James Earl Carter, Jr. D-GA

  1977 to 1981
  • Governor of Georgia, 1971-75

Panama Canal treaties and the Camp David Accord (Middle East: Egypt and Israel) were signed.

During his presidency, 50 Americans were taken hostage by Iran and freed the day that his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated

40) Ronald Wilson Reagan (R-CA)

Gov, of CA-1966-74

He sent United States soldiers into Grenada and commanded soldiers out of Lebanon.

Supported budget cuts to make govt. smaller.

Built up American armed forces esp SDI ("Star Wars")

41) George Herbert Walker Bush R-TX (1989 to 1993)

• Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1967-71
• U.S. Ambassador to the UN, 1971-72
• Director of the CIA, 1976-77
• Vice President, 1981-89 (under Reagan)
• He presided over the American invasion of Panama.
• Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait.
• was president during the "fall of communism."
  

   

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42) William Jefferson Clinton D-AR

1993 to 2001

• Al Gore: VP

  Arkansas Attorney General, 1976-78

  Governor of Arkansas, 1978-80, 1982-92

He was the second president to be impeached, and was acquitted by vote counts of: Article 1 - Yea 45; Nay 55 Article 2 - Yea 50; Nay 50

During his term, the federal budget was balanced.

1995: OK City Bombing

Kosovo Crisis: War against Yugoslavia

43) George W. Bush (R- TX)

2001-Present

Vice President: Richard Cheney

Bush was governor of Texas 1994-2001.

Key Events: Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center (NY) and The Pentagon near Washington, DC.

War on Terror and against Afghanistan.

War against Iraq.