Happy Presidents' Day to all you in the US! Hopefully you too have a lazily happy day (if not we are sorry, please try to keep up) to absorb some awesomely bearded factoids about our nation's presidents and their facial fuzz goodness (or lack there of)...
FACT: Before Abraham Lincoln (who had to be convinced by an 11 year old Grace Bell, FYI), no President had a beard (discounting Martin Van Buren who had a set of very large mutton-chops). So let's give good ol Abe the kudos he deserves for signaling the shift (however brief), and throw in some wishful thinking for George Washington as well (read: A Beard That Should Have Been: George Washington), after all, we get the day off mostly because of these two:
cool FACT: after Lincoln and all the way through William Howard Taft, every President except Andrew Johnson and William McKinley (of note: assassinated on September 6, 1901 in NY) had either a beard or a mustache...
sad FACT: no President has worn a full beard since Benjamin Harrison (who took office in 1889), and no President has worn any facial hair at all since William H. Taft (who's term ended in March of 1913)... told you this was sad, nearly a century without facial hair in the Oval Office...
summary FACT: Only five (5) US Presidents in total sported full beards. A glaring trivia question within this is that two (2) of these five were also assassinated (a horrifying 40%). Obviously, we do not blame the beards, and hope neither John Wilkes Booth nor Charles J. Guiteau did either. Regardless, our top Federally Bearded Idols of all time are:
There, now don't you feel more educated? And yes, you're welcome for getting the brown Trivial Pursuit piece on the first try next time... we aim to please, and we can also dream...
For more information about the beards, staches, and goatees of our elected (or not) leaders, visit Nicholas Whyte's all inclusive page: http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/presbeards.htm