# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**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, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/21 "2014-05-06T22:52:03Z")
All good points, **Yllaria**. See the HBO _John Adams_ series for more on father and son, and their sometimes-fraught relationship. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/22 "2014-05-07T02:50:09Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > 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. Remarkably, this means that the so-called Silent Generation was skipped entirely. Not one president came out of that generation. The U.S. went straight from the Greatest Generation to the Boomers. ---
**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 7, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/23 "2014-05-07T02:53:34Z")
Jimmy Carter got some attention as the first President from the Deep South since the Civil War (Wilson, although born in Virginia, rose to political prominence in New Jersey). ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/24 "2014-05-07T17:28:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > GHWB and Martin Van Buren remain the only VPs elected directly to the Presidency, I believe. This is stretching the topic a little bit, but while the odds of a Veep getting to the Presidency one way or another are pretty decent, the odds against a Veep nominee _on a losing ticket_ doing so are absolutely astronomical. Only two of them in the past 90 years have even become a major-party Presidential nominee (Dole, Mondale) and both of them lost as Presidential candidates. The losing veep candidates back to 1924: Paul Ryan (who could always break the pattern, you never know); Sarah Palin, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Jack Kemp, Dan Quayle, Lloyd Bentsen, Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, Sargent Shriver, Ed Muskie, William Miller, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. , Estes Kefauver, John Sparkman, Earl Warren, John Bricker, Charles McNary, Frank Knox, Charles Curtis, Joseph Taylor Robinson, Charles Bryan. You’ve got to go all the way back to 1920 to find a losing veep candidate who eventually became President: James Cox, who lost to Warren G. Harding, had as his running mate a fellow named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who later went on to win just a few Presidential elections. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/25 "2014-05-11T02:12:24Z")
Both Washington AND Lincoln were born on Presidents Day. I think it had something to do with the Gregorian calendar. ---
**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 11, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/26 "2014-05-11T03:34:42Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > This is stretching the topic a little bit, but while the odds of a Veep getting to the Presidency one way or another are pretty decent, the odds against a Veep nominee _on a losing ticket_ doing so are absolutely astronomical. Only two of them in the past 90 years have even become a major-party Presidential nominee (Dole, Mondale) and both of them lost as Presidential candidates… John Edwards, Joe Lieberman and Dan Quayle also ran in their own right for President and didn’t even make it out of the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/27 "2014-05-11T04:26:34Z")
Edmund Muskie ran for President in 1972 and didn’t make it out of the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/28 "2014-05-11T12:57:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > 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. Wasn’t Nixon VP under Ike? Or by directly do you mean ‘immediately afterwards’? I ask because i first read ‘directly’ as opposed to ‘through appointment after POTUS died/stepped down’. Even so, what about LBJ? ---
**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 11, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/29 "2014-05-11T17:54:21Z")
Yes, I meant “immediately afterwards.” And T.R., Harry Truman and LBJ all became President after the death of a President, and then were elected themselves in their own right in the next election. Different kettle of fish. ---
**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 11, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/30 "2014-05-11T19:10:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > One unusual piece of Presidential birth trivia: no President has been an only child. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > I hadn’t known that. Franklin Roosevelt was a virtual exception on this. He was technically not an only child but, for all practical purposes, he was raised as an only child. His brother James was twenty-eight years older than Franklin and was married and had two children of his own by the time Franklin was born. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/31 "2014-05-11T19:30:17Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Paul Ryan (who could always break the pattern, you never know); Sarah Palin, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Jack Kemp, Dan Quayle, Lloyd Bentsen, Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, Sargent Shriver, Ed Muskie, William Miller, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. , Estes Kefauver, John Sparkman, Earl Warren, John Bricker, Charles McNary, Frank Knox, Charles Curtis, Joseph Taylor Robinson, Charles Bryan. Gotta admit, RT, there’s a few on that list who might have made decent presidents. ---
**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 12, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/32 "2014-05-12T23:42:48Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Remarkably, this means that the so-called Silent Generation was skipped entirely. Not one president came out of that generation. The U.S. went straight from the Greatest Generation to the Boomers. I guess that means that you need to speak up. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/33 "2014-05-13T02:07:43Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Gotta admit, RT, there’s a few on that list who might have made decent presidents. I might prefer Bill Miller’s daughter because she’s funnier. As a journalist you know the value of a funny president. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/34 "2014-09-18T04:01:50Z")
> [@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. He was certainly the first president who was not born to an elite or upper-class family; that was certainly a big deal at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/35 "2014-09-18T13:02:03Z")
> [@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. Who invented the phrase “Founding Fathers”? None other than Warren G Harding, in everybody’s list of Worst Presidents Ever… ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/36 "2014-09-18T18:51:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > 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. Not entirely coincidentally, each of those Presidents served in the US military during WWII (all on active duty, except Carter, who was a Naval Academy Midshipman during the war). Of those, five consecutive Presidents over a 20 year span served as [Naval Officers](http://www.history.navy.mil/Special%20Highlights/Presidents/), Kennedy through Carter (plus GHWB, after Regan, who served stateside in the Army Air Corps). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/37 "2014-09-18T19:36:02Z")
Washington and Lincoln were both born on national holidays, which always struck me as a strange coincidence… ---
**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:** [September 19, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131/38 "2014-09-19T00:09:32Z")
> [@Billdo](#): > > Not entirely coincidentally, each of those Presidents served in the US military during WWII (all on active duty, except Carter, who was a Naval Academy Midshipman during the war). > > Of those, five consecutive Presidents over a 20 year span served as [Naval Officers](http://www.history.navy.mil/Special%20Highlights/Presidents/), Kennedy through Carter (plus GHWB, after Regan, who served stateside in the Army Air Corps). But strangely, while twelve former generals have become President not a single former admiral has ever become president. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-with-historic-birth-timing/687131.md?page=1)