# Presidents with historic birth timing **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 27, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131 "2014-04-27T20:02:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/1 "2014-04-27T20:02:44Z")
I know that JFK being the 1st President born in the 20th c. and Clinton being the 1st Boomer were considered big deals. But were Van Buren (1st after Independence) and Harding (1st Post-Civil War) similarly noted? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/2 "2014-04-27T23:33:33Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I know that JFK being the 1st President born in the 20th c. and Clinton being the 1st Boomer were considered big deals. But were Van Buren (1st after Independence) and Harding (1st Post-Civil War) similarly noted? I’d heard about Van Buren. There’s also geography. Lincoln was the first President born outside the thirteen original states (in Kentucky). Hoover was the first President born west of the Mississippi (in Iowa). Nixon was the first President born on the west coast (in California). And Obama was the first President born outside the continental United States (in Hawaii). ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/3 "2014-04-27T23:38:04Z")
Andrew Jackson, I believe, was the first President who wasn’t a Founding Father - a fact that was seen as a big deal at the time. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/4 "2014-04-28T04:28:53Z")
Not really the OP, but it tickles me that when the segregationists were making their stand in the 60’s, the first black President had already been born. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/5 "2014-04-28T04:41:37Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Andrew Jackson, I believe, was the first President who wasn’t a Founding Father - a fact that was seen as a big deal at the time. John Quincy Adams preceded Jackson and I don’t think anyone considered him a Founding Father. He was literally part of the next generation. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/6 "2014-04-28T14:27:33Z")
Yeah, but I seem to remember that Jackson was noted because prior to that all presidents were either from Virginia or named Adams. Wonky, but true. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/7 "2014-04-28T14:53:13Z")
Obama is also the first born in the space age. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/8 "2014-04-28T17:11:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And Obama was the first President born outside the continental United States (in Hawaii). > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Obama is also the first born in the space age. Yet oddly we don’t hear about these. It’s almost as if there was some other first associated with him that crowds these out. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/9 "2014-04-28T18:18:40Z")
I recall that Carter was the first president born in a hospital. ETA: I doubted myself, but Wikipedia confirms. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/10 "2014-04-28T19:38:23Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Yet oddly we don’t hear about these. It’s almost as if there was some other first associated with him that crowds these out. 😃 Hmmm… Left handed? No, plenty of those. Tall? No, no…plenty of presidents over six foot tall. I give up. What? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/11 "2014-04-28T19:46:16Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Yet oddly we don’t hear about these. It’s almost as if there was some other first associated with him that crowds these out. 😃 First president of Middle Eastern descent? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/12 "2014-04-30T13:34:53Z")
First with a reliable midrange jumper? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/13 "2014-05-04T01:36:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > John Quincy Adams preceded Jackson and I don’t think anyone considered him a Founding Father. Michele Bachmann does. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/14 "2014-05-04T02:54:45Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Yet oddly we don’t hear about these. It’s almost as if there was some other first associated with him that crowds these out. 😃 You don’t have to tiptoe around the obvious like this. We all know he has big ears. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/15 "2014-05-04T02:56:09Z")
One unusual piece of Presidential birth trivia: no President has been an only child. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/16 "2014-05-06T19:21:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > One unusual piece of Presidential birth trivia: no President has been an only child. I hadn’t known that. One thing I’ve never seen remarked on, but I’ve long been aware of: seven consecutive Presidents, from JFK to GHWB, were born in the rather compact interval from 1908 to 1924. And the third President after GHWB was born in 1961. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/17 "2014-05-06T19:31:53Z")
And all three major-party candidates in 1992 were left-handed: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. GHWB and Martin Van Buren remain the only VPs elected directly to the Presidency, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/18 "2014-05-06T19:56:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > And all three major-party candidates in 1992 were left-handed: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. In recent years, lefthandedness seems to have become more the rule than the exception among major Presidential candidates. > [@](#): > > GHWB and Martin Van Buren remain the only VPs elected directly to the Presidency, I believe. Can’t forget Al Gore, whatever the Supreme Court may have said. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/19 "2014-05-06T20:09:11Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > In recent years, lefthandedness seems to have become more the rule than the exception among major Presidential candidates… Yes, including the incumbent. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/20 "2014-05-06T22:21:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > John Quincy Adams preceded Jackson and I don’t think anyone considered him a Founding Father. He was literally part of the next generation. He was pretty close. The Revolutionary War ran from 1775 to 1783. Q accompanied his father when he was an envoy to France (1778-1779) and then to the Netherlands (1780-1782). That was from the time he was 11 until he was 15, or it would have been. He had been acting as a clerk for his father and at 14 he was sent as secretary to the envoy to Russia for three years. He wasn’t a leader during the Revolution, but he was working for the government during that time. He had a great facility for learning languages that was put to work in the fledgling country’s interest. Although George Washington didn’t appoint him minister to the Netherlands until 1793 (26), he was something of a prodogy intellectually and was willing to work hard, so even though he was young, he moved among the founding fathers during the revolution and the creation of the new government. He was working with them rather than just visiting daddy’s office. He was Adams 1.2 rather than Adams 2.0, and he was part of the group. Jackson was clearly not part of the group. You could have a technical discussion on whether Q was or wasn’t a founder. With Jackson there was no doubt. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131.md?page=2)