Presidential Trivia Answers (May 3 & 4)

Thanks for playing!

(1) QUESTION: Which President appointed the first female cabinet member?
ANSWER: FDR. Frances Perkins served as Secretary of Labor.

(2) QUESTION: Which two Presidents ran for office, all but unopposed?
ANSWER: George Washington and James Monroe. Washington won the vote of every elector and was elected unanimously. James Monroe won the vote of every elector except one. Legend has it that this elector, William Plumer, wanted to protect Washington’s status as the only unanimously elected President, but that’s not accurate. Plumer genuinely did not want to vote for Monroe, as he described in 1821: “I was obliged from a sense of duty and a regard to my own reputation to withhold my vote from Monroe and Tompkins; from the first because he had discovered a want of foresight and from the second because he had grossly neglected his duty.”

(3) QUESTION: One President wrote an autobiography without mentioning his wife. Which President?
ANSWER: Martin Van Buren. She died young, at age 35, and he never remarried. Was he too sad about it to include her name? He always wore a locket with her picture, so maybe so. UPDATE: A few of you mentioned Theodore Roosevelt because he didn't mention his first wife Alice in his autobiography. Fair point. He did mention his second wife, though. I'll work on my wording for this question next time. :)