Who were the first 8 Presidents of the U.S.?

In the name of Denying Ignorance I am curious as to how many of you can answer this without Googling it.

I bet none, prove me wrong!

Now here's a link but be HONEST in your responses whether you knew or not and then ask yourselves why wasn't I taught this in school?

First 8 Presidents

I am not smarter than a fifth grader.

I had to cheat.

Ive got washington, adams, jefferson, adams....and now im blanking....

madison, monroe, jackson.....im almost there.....

Washington was number one,
then Senior Adams next came on.
Jefferson was number 3,
then Madison the fourth, you see.
Monroe the 5th just here came in,
when sixth John Adams came again.
Seventh Andrew Jackson's name,
and Eighth recalls VanBuren's fame...

no lie, my 5th grade teacher had a poem that named them ALL, up through Carter, when I was a 5th grader. We all knew it.


edit to delete a random, misplaced "r"

[edit on 9-12-2008 by tjack]

is van buren #8? I'm not sure, but im pretty sure my other 7 are right.

depends what you mean by u.s.

do you mean constitutional us or the pre-constitution us?


did i spoil your fun?

I know that George Washington's Brother was the Uncle of Our Country


...thank you Carlin

thats a pretty cool link you provided OP. I'm canadian so i dont know very much about American history. We covered it a little bit in highschool, but that was a very long time ago. Good read, I always assumed Washington was the first president as thats what ive always been told by my american friends.

Cool read.

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monoroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Filmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, about here is where I get all screwed up and anything more I'd have to look it up.

We had a song in elementary school that was catchy enough to stay with me going on three decades now.

Oh, got a little more, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush.

Holy s@#$ is that all of them!!??

I was trying to remember and kept running the song over in my head. I always jumped to Kennedy from Coolidge but when thinking "who am I missing?" the rest in between fell in to place.

I need to write a thank you letter to that teacher.

[edit on 9-12-2008 by thisguyrighthere]

so basically this thread is purely about symantics? Because, while you may call that person a president, he was not a president of the united states under constitutional law, which really means that the term president doesnt apply. He was appointed by congress.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Did it go anything like the one I mentioned above? It's awesome that you remember that far into it!

Originally posted by tjack
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

Did it go anything like the one I mentioned above? It's awesome that you remember that far into it!

Well, it was a song more than a poem. It used last names only except for the most recent presidents where it went something like "George Bush is our President for (enter number of years here)"

Interesting link...while not exactly true, it's a good way to uncover more of US history. To quote Snopes,

Claiming that John Hanson was the first President of the United States doesn't help to preserve the memory of his real accomplishments — it merely perpetuates historical misinformation for trivia's sake.

At least it's a nice way to learn about some of the 'founding fathers' that don't usually spring to mind. (Assuming people take the names and read up on 'em.)

Originally posted by tjack
Washington was number one,
then Senior Adams next came on.
Jefferson was number 3,
then Madison the fourth, you see.
Monroe the 5th just here came in,
when sixth John Adams came again.
Seventh Andrew Jackson's name,
and Eighth recalls VanBuren's fame...

no lie, my 5th grade teacher had a poem that named them ALL, up through Carter, when I was a 5th grader. We all knew it.


edit to delete a random, misplaced "r"

[edit on 9-12-2008 by tjack]

ditto. i know those are the constitutional pres's.

I only know 3 of the 8 before washington....
John Hanson was first
Richard Henry Lee (ancestor of mine)
John Hancock

those are the 3/8 that i know. Thanks to my father for explaining it to me.

Originally posted by theindependentjournal
In the name of Denying Ignorance I am curious as to how many of you can answer this without Googling it.


First 8 Presidents

Can you? Did you? That is know the answer before googling it.

I don't care what snopes says, and if theys ay it's not true then snopes will no longer be used by me as a fact checker, I will be left with urbanlegend.com.

There were 8 Presidents of the united States of America before Washington. They were one year terms and under the articles of confederation, which was the ORIGINAL document that made us the united States of America.

The Constitution made it a 4 year term and for the one saying they were appointed by congress riddle me this one, WHEN IN AMERICA'S HISTORY DID THE PEOPLE ELECT THE PRESIDENT? They are still elected by the congress today, so your point is lost on me.

The one that said pre-constitution or post had it right though, GOOD CALL! The united States of America was in full effect prior to the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation made us the U.S..

The question still remain why didn't we get taught this in school, they were called Presidents of the United States of America. And you thought you knew our history...

reply to post by theindependentjournal


simple. they arent real presidents.

they served pre-constitution. they served during the articles of confederation. so technically they were president of a different america. they had a different system of government and everything.

so they are presidents just not constitutional presidents.

reply to post by theindependentjournal


The eight Presidents before Washington were President of the thirteen colonies, which is also before the British recognition of North American Independence from their rule.

The United States of America was not real until after the Revolution...making Washington the first President of the United States of America.

It's a semantic technicality...

reply to post by N. Tesla


I asked the simple question... Who were the first 8 Presidents of the United States?

That answer is and will always be the 8 before Washington. The question was not who were the first 8 presidents under the constitution so I was looking for a specific answer. This still holds my point, why are we not taught about these 8 at any time in school? Why do we focus on Washington and call him the father of the U.S.?

Just points to ponder, and a great piece of trivia for your friends, NONE OF THEM WILL GET IT...