50 Secrets, Stories, and Facts from the White House

- Sponsored Links -

1 White House Chief Calligrapher

White House Chief Calligrapher

The White House employs a Chief Calligrapher, who writes invitations by hand for dinners, greetings, and proclamations. This position earns an annual salary of $109,200 (as of 2020).


2. In 1891, the White House had electricity installed for the first time. President Benjamin Harrison and his wife, fearing electrocution, refused to touch the light switches. As a result, the White House staff had to follow them around, turning the lights on and off as needed.


3. In 1814, British soldiers invading Washington, DC, arrived at the White House and found food, wine, and lavish dinner preparations that Dolley Madison had organized before fleeing. The soldiers enjoyed the meal and drank the wine before burning down the house.


4. In 1978, President Carter supervised the installation of the first computers in the White House, including a Hewlett-Packard HP 3000, a water-cooled IBM laser printer, and a Xerox Alto desktop computer for the Oval Office. However, President Reagan removed the Xerox Alto in 1981.


5. Contaminated water may have caused the deaths of as many as three U.S. presidents and even Abraham Lincoln’s son. Before 1850, the White House had no sewage system, allowing a field of human waste, known as “night soil,” to flow into the water supply.


6 Kennedy’s Nobel Laureates Dinner

Kennedy’s Nobel Laureates Dinner

In 1962, President Kennedy hosted a dinner for 49 Nobel Laureates at the White House. During the event, he remarked, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”


7. President Nixon ordered the Secret Service agents at the White House to wear elaborate uniforms similar to those of palace guards in other countries. Introduced in 1970, the uniforms were widely disliked, including by the Secret Service agents themselves, and were eventually sold to an Iowa marching band.


8. The White House has military social aides whose duties include escorting dignitaries, dancing with guests, and engaging in small talk with attendees who might need company.


9. The White House underwent a complete gutting and steel beam reinforcement in 1949-50. According to the Public Buildings Administration commissioner, the building was only standing “by force of habit.”


10. The White House under Franklin D. Roosevelt served notoriously poor-quality meals, as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt aimed to set an example during the Great Depression by serving economical meals made from scraps.


- Sponsored Links -

11 Cleveland’s Unique White House Wedding

Cleveland’s Unique White House Wedding

Grover Cleveland holds the distinction of being the only president to marry while serving in the White House. In 1886, at 49, he married a 21-year-old woman for whom he had once been the legal guardian. John Philip Sousa provided the wedding music.


12. President Andrew Jackson once held an open house party at the White House, where he served a 1,400-pound block of Cheddar cheese. It was eaten up in just 2 hours, but its smell reportedly lingered in the White House for weeks.


13. A White House fountain commemorates Major Archibald Butt and artist Francis Millet, close friends and housemates in Washington, D.C., who tragically died together on the Titanic.


14. During the Truman-era reconstruction of the White House, the administration authorized a souvenir program allowing the public to purchase old pieces of the building, such as timbers, bricks, stones, and paneling. The demand exceeded expectations, with revenue surpassing expenses by $10,000.


15. The first Soviet citizen to visit the White House was Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a female World War II sniper with 309 confirmed kills, one of which was a rival sniper she dueled with over three days.


- Sponsored Links -

16 White House Background Check Question

White House Background Check Question

The White House background check for potential employees includes a question asking if the applicant has ever been “suspected” of breaking the law.


17. In 1974, a U.S. soldier stole a helicopter and flew it to the White House in Washington, D.C. The Executive Protective Service shot and injured him as he hovered above the south grounds, forcing him to land. He received only a one-year prison sentence and $2,400 in fines.


18. Under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, the White House built a vinyl record collection of over 2,000 donated albums. This time capsule of 1970s music trends includes artists like Pat Boone, Barry Manilow, John Denver, the Beatles, Isaac Hayes, The Clash, and Elvis Costello.


19. American musician Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane received an invitation to a White House tea party in 1969 and planned to spike President Nixon’s tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. White House security thwarted her plan.


20. Many famous people have claimed to see Abraham Lincoln’s ghost in the White House, including Winston Churchill, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, First Lady Grace Coolidge, and Theodore Roosevelt.


15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


21 First Televised White House Tour

First Televised White House Tour

In 1952, President Truman hosted the first televised tour of the White House. He shared its history, paused by paintings and furniture to tell stories, and even played the Steinway piano in the East Room.


22. President Lyndon B. Johnson was known for wandering through the White House to turn off lights in seemingly empty rooms, often surprising people still working there. This habit earned him the nickname “Light Bulb Johnson.”


23. Former First Lady Helen Herron Taft required that all White House waiters have a full head of hair, banning any bald-headed butlers from the dining room.


24. The White House held its first 4th of July celebration in 1801, inviting Cherokee chiefs and including a cockfighting event as part of the festivities.


25. In 2013, under the Obama administration, the White House raised the number of required signatures for a petition to receive a response from 25,000 to 100,000 after a petition to build an American Death Star garnered enough signatures.


Sign up to our Newsletter & get

FREE!! 1000 Facts E-BOOK

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

- Sponsored Links -

1 COMMENT

  1. RE: Fact #35 (Taft’s Oversized Bathtub Myth) – Being 6’3″, I totally get the struggle of baths being too small. It’s either your legs in or your upper body, never both. So frustrating!

    12
  2. RE: Fact #14 (White House Souvenir Sales) – I bet a lot of people have stumbled upon a random floorboard or chunk of plaster in their grandma’s house and thought, “What in the world is this?” right before chucking it in the trash.

    13
  3. RE: Fact #4 (First Computers in White House) – Reagan took the solar panels off the White House. Some people just hate clean energy, I guess.

    15
    • So, there’s this thing about Reagan taking off the solar panels on the White House. Turns out, that’s not true. They took them down because the roof needed work. Some people say they didn’t actually rip them out, just took them off for the roof work. But then, someone from the White House said it wouldn’t be a good idea to put them back on because it would be too expensive.

      7
      • I could be misremembering, but I always thought Reagan took them down for maintenance, but never put them back up because they were more about show than actual use.

        0
  4. RE: Fact #46 (Reagan’s E.T. “Truth” Remark) – I don’t think he was just letting something slip. He cracked a joke, but there wasn’t even a hint of a smile, you know, no twinkle in his eye. Everyone laughed, but being kind of a UFO nut, I hoped there was something more to it. But I guess he was just trying to be funny.

    15
  5. RE: Fact #47 (Dickens’ Unanswered White House Visit) – Way back when, you could just walk into the White House, no problem. DC was way smaller and people didn’t travel there as much. I’m not sure exactly when that changed, but I’ve read about people coming and going in the 1800s without anyone worrying.

    Now, of course, it’s different. There’s a giant fence and security’s a big deal, so it’s not possible anymore.

    25
    • It’s weird, I don’t remember when they changed that. It was after James Garfield got shot at a train station, for basically no reason, by, like, the worst assassin ever.

      12
  6. RE: Fact #26 (Blind Workers’ White House Pens) – I thought this was going to be a gripe about how the US takes advantage of disabled workers overseas, but I’m happy to be wrong. That’s a pretty cool law, and a pretty cool pen.

    21
  7. RE: Fact #41 (Foreign Flags Flown Over White House) – For all the jokes Americans make about France, they actually have a pretty close relationship.

    25
  8. RE: Fact #3 (British Invaders’ White House Feast) – The day after the attack started, a crazy thunderstorm came in and put out most of the fires. It even spun off a tornado that ripped through the capital, tossing around two cannons and killing some British soldiers.

    18
  9. RE: Fact #24 (First July 4th White House Event) – Chief Hung Like Horse of the Cherokee won the first cockfighting contest easily.

    25
  10. RE: Fact #22 (“Light Bulb Johnson” Turns Off Lights) – Was he also the one with the large penis that he would show off? I think he also has those recordings of phone calls where he talks about “finger f@&$ing” and his “bunghole”

    8
      • That shower was awesome! Seriously, amazing water pressure and extra sprayers, the whole nine yards. Apparently nobody told Nixon about it, and he got blasted out of the shower the first time he used it.

        13
  11. RE: Fact #10 (Roosevelt’s Depression-Era Meals) – There’s no reason food made from leftovers has to be bad, right? I basically grew up eating leftovers.

    13
  12. RE: Fact #45 (Harding’s Prohibition-Era White House Bar) – So, alcohol was off-limits during Prohibition, right? People could still buy it before it became illegal, so they had their stash. But after that, you were stuck with what you had unless you could get some on the sly.

    Or maybe my history class was off-base.

    15
    • I get what you’re saying, but it’s kind of messed up to have huge parties and drink up while making it super hard for others to do the same thing legally.

      14
  13. RE: Fact #20 (Lincoln’s Ghost Haunts White House) – Churchill never actually said he saw a ghost. A reporter made up that whole thing, and Churchill never confirmed it.

    21
  14. RE: Fact #37 (John Quincy Adams’s Pool Table) – It was a big deal to have a pool table in the White House, but owning a person wasn’t.

    21
  15. RE: Fact #23 (Bald Butlers Banned by Mrs. Taft) – Nellie Taft, President Taft’s wife, had this weird thing about bald guys, she really didn’t like them.

    17
  16. RE: Fact #41 (Foreign Flags Flown Over White House) – They burned the whole place down. Those darn redcoats, they forgot the British flag.

    10
  17. RE: Fact #36 (Roosevelt’s White House Boxing Matches) – Roosevelt was such a fighter, they had to catch him napping to take him!

    4
  18. RE: Fact #42 (Carter’s Solar Panels Removed by Reagan) – So, George W. Bush put them back, but they were only on the White House grounds. Not on the roof itself, like some people thought. It was a nice thing to do for clean energy, but not quite as big of a deal as it first seemed.

    9
    • Think about it: retractable solar panels on the White House roof. You push a button, and they pop up or down. It saves the President time, plus it’s a security thing, too. Imagine a panel zooming across the roof, stopping anyone trying to get in.

      8
  19. RE: Fact #7 (Nixon’s Palace Guard Uniforms) – But, let’s just say, nobody was a big fan of the new uniforms. People were saying stuff like, “They look like extras from a Lithuanian movie,” or “Late Weimar Republic,” or even “Nazi uniforms.” Some thought they looked like “a palace guard of toy soldiers,” and others were wondering if they’d be “goose-stepping.” A few said they “fall somewhere between early high school band and late palace guard,” and some even compared them to “old-time movie ushers.” A Chicago Tribune columnist named Walter Trohan complained they were a “frank borrowing from decadent European monarchies, which is abhorrent to this country’s democratic tradition.”

    The president, who was already being teased in the press for adopting the costumes of a “banana republic,” finally gave up and recalled the uniforms. They ended up being given to a marching band in an Iowa high school.

    13
  20. RE: Fact #8 (Military Social Aides at White House) – So, there are these three social aides who handle presidential visits. You’ve got the “whispering aide” who tells the president the visitor’s name, then the “introducing aide” who actually introduces them, and finally the “pulling off aide” who basically nudges the visitor away when the president’s done chatting. I found each description funnier than the last!

    16
  21. RE: Fact #2 (Harrison’s Fear of Electric Light) – You’d think after seeing them do it so many times, they’d be used to it by now.

    14
  22. RE: Fact #20 (Lincoln’s Ghost Haunts White House) – So this is from the source-

    You know, one of the coolest stories is about Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. She was staying at the White House in 1942 when she heard footsteps outside her bedroom and someone knocked on the door. She opened it and there was Lincoln, all dressed up in his fancy coat and hat!

    Winston Churchill was a big fan of late nights and hot baths. He loved to relax with a Scotch and a cigar. One time, he was in the bath, just chillin’, when he got out and went to the next room. He was shocked to see Lincoln standing by the fireplace, leaning on the mantle. Churchill, being the quick wit that he was, just took his cigar out of his mouth, tapped it off, and said “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” Lincoln smiled like he was about to laugh and then disappeared. Churchill was pretty embarrassed.

    President Johnson was having a rough time, apparently. He supposedly saw Lincoln’s ghost and asked him how he dealt with an unpopular war. Lincoln supposedly told him “don’t go to the theater.”

    18
  23. RE: Fact #3 (British Invaders’ White House Feast) – That article was pretty interesting, even if it’s not totally accurate. I loved the part about Britain trying to put the Americans in their place. But honestly, the Americans were the ones who started the whole thing. And the article doesn’t even mention that the British burned Washington because the Americans burned York first.

    17
  24. RE: Fact #9 (White House’s Structural Overhaul) – I was reading about Truman, and apparently he really wanted the White House rebuilt a certain way, even though it made things way harder. He knew everyone would freak out if they tore the whole thing down, so they just gutted the inside while keeping the outside looking the same. It’s kinda ironic because he was all about practicality and money, but I actually think it was the right call.

    12
  25. RE: Fact #16 (White House Background Check Question) – Back in the day, I used to do security checks. The usual questions were, “Ever been convicted of a crime?” and “Ever been charged with a crime?”

    They’d look back 5, 10, 20 years or more, depending on the job. Pretty much everyone you ever knew got interviewed. They’d find out if you had a criminal record, if you’d done anything wrong that slipped under the radar. You never found out what they found. If you lied about something they found, you were out. If you admitted to something they didn’t find, they’d dig deeper. That’s why they’d ask, “Ever been suspected?” It opened up the door to stuff that might not even be on paper.

    It’s all a mind game.

    5
    • My new job had this super thorough background check, it took forever! I was starting to think they’d just ghost me, you know? It took months, and I was totally stressing. Luckily, everything came back clear and I got the job, but there were a couple of weeks where I was just like, “What’s going on?” I swear they must have sent people out to talk to my old neighbors.

      0
  26. RE: Fact #18 (White House Vinyl Record Collection) – Can you imagine Ronald Reagan listening to The Clash?

    And then Nancy’s like, “Honey, play Rock the Casbah again!”

    21
  27. RE: Fact #4 (First Computers in White House) – Those early Xerox computers were pretty rad, you know? My first time using one, a 6085, was back in ’89. It was my first time using a mouse and seeing what I was typing on the screen in real time.

    I am old

    11
  28. RE: Fact #28 (Historic HMS Resolute Desk Gift) – Turns out, there’s a bunch of different desks that presidents can use in the Oval Office. The Resolute’s been around for a while, but they have other options too. The president can pick whichever one they want, sometimes they even choose the same desk as a president they like.

    4
  29. RE: Fact #42 (Carter’s Solar Panels Removed by Reagan) – This story’s always a good one. It’s fun to see if the top comment is going to be a smart takedown of the crazy stuff, or if it’s going to be a pile-on.

    7
  30. RE: Fact #15 (First Soviet White House Visitor) – Pavlichenko got tired of the questions. One reporter even tried to put her down about her uniform skirt, saying it made her look big. Then, in Boston, another one wrote that she “attacked” her breakfast, basically saying American food wasn’t her thing. Pavlichenko finally snapped. She told Time magazine, “I wear my uniform with pride. It’s got the Order of Lenin on it, and it’s been through battles. American women care more about what’s under their uniform than what it stands for.”

    14
  31. RE: Fact #1 (White House Chief Calligrapher) – I mean, how easy would it be to find someone else to do that job? Like, how many people are out there who are really good at calligraphy? And yeah, that’s a decent salary, but not out of this world in D.C.

    9
    • Yeah, the pay might not sound so great when you think about all the late nights and changes. I bet they’re always dealing with last minute stuff, like guests switching up their plans or needing to rewrite things.

      3
  32. RE: Fact #27 (Jackie Kennedy’s Private Visit Return) – That must have been absolutely awful for her. Imagine having to watch that happen to your husband, in front of everyone.

    10
    • She’s definitely interesting. Everyone raved about how gorgeous she was, but I don’t think she was conventionally beautiful. Her way of speaking is really slow and thoughtful. Like someone said on factrepublic, she was kind of a showpiece.

      But then she was right there with the President when he was shot, and she ended up holding some of his brain in her hand! She actually gave it to the doctor. She stayed in that blood-stained suit, so everyone could see what they had done to her husband. She didn’t even cry, and she stayed at the hospital until they finished the autopsy.

      Apparently, there are some reports that say she even said something like, “What are they doing to you?” while they were in the car when he got shot. It makes you think she knew he had enemies and they had talked about “them” before.

      So, even though she had this whole showpiece image, she was actually tough as nails. She handled everything after it happened with real strength. And think about it, she had lost her baby just a few months before.

      This woman was no snowflake.

      4
  33. RE: Fact #37 (John Quincy Adams’s Pool Table) – I was digging into my hometown’s history and stumbled on this thing about a Methodist youth club in the 1930s. They banned pool, apparently for moral reasons, but didn’t say why! Weirdly, billiards was totally fine with them.

    3
  34. RE: Fact #16 (White House Background Check Question) – So, elected officials get automatic access to top-secret stuff, right? They don’t have to go through the same security checks everyone else does. That’s the way the system works, but it means we, the voters, are basically responsible for deciding who gets access to our nation’s biggest secrets. So, when we’re picking who to vote for, we should really be asking ourselves some tough questions, like: Are they loyal to the US? Do they have any foreign ties that could put them at risk? Do they have a history of bad judgment or shady financial dealings? These are just some of the things we need to consider, because there’s no way to vet elected officials like they vet everyone else.

    7
  35. RE: Fact #1 (White House Chief Calligrapher) – My old university used to have one of those fancy signature machines. That meant diplomas took forever – like six months! And forget about getting a replacement if you lost yours. They look nice, but the dean’s signature was always a messy scribble that kind of ruined the whole thing.

    12
  36. RE: Fact #34 (Teddy Roosevelt’s Wild Pet Collection) – It’s kinda funny how Trump didn’t have any pets. Every other President since Andrew Johnson has had animals. Clinton had a dog and a cat, but he wasn’t a big fan of them. The only three Presidents to be impeached are Johnson, Clinton, and Trump. So, get yourself a pet, it might save you from getting impeached!

    2
  37. RE: Fact #16 (White House Background Check Question) – It’s way easier to get a job with the government than it is to be elected. Politicians seem to get away with a lot more than normal folks. I mean, how many of them have messed up their resumés or gotten in trouble after they’re in office?

    8
    • Think about it, what if some secret government group could just decide who wins elections? They could just say, “Nah, this guy doesn’t get to be president because we don’t like him,” and that’s it. That wouldn’t be a free country, would it?

      3
  38. RE: Fact #21 (First Televised White House Tour) – He was really proud of his building because he spent ages fixing it up. It was in really bad shape when he moved in. There was even a TV show about it, “The Omnibus,” a while back.

    9
  39. RE: Fact #10 (Roosevelt’s Depression-Era Meals) – That’s real leadership, right? She saw what was happening and didn’t go all fancy on us. Respect.

    5
  40. RE: Fact #11 (Cleveland’s Unique White House Wedding) – Grover Cleveland was the first president to tie the knot at the White House, but he wasn’t the first to get married while in office. That honor goes to John Tyler, who was even older than his bride when they got hitched. Maybe that’s why he’s got a grandson still kicking around.

    5
  41. RE: Fact #25 (White House Petition Signature Increase) – It seems like change really does happen. They can actually decide how much they want to ignore us now.

    11
  42. RE: Fact #44 (Woman Sets Fires in White House) – That definitely wouldn’t happen now. I did the White House tour last year, and security took forever – longer than the tour itself! They’re really strict about what you can bring in, just your tour confirmation.

    8
  43. RE: Fact #17 (Soldier’s Helicopter White House Stunt) – The seventies were totally wild. You had planes getting hijacked all the time, and it was like, “Ugh, here we go again!” because they’d usually just end up in Cuba. Then there was the bombing of the Capitol, and those guys barely got any jail time. They even bombed the Pentagon later on.

    Criminals had it good back then, huh?

    6
  44. RE: Fact #29 (Jackson’s Inaugural Rowdy Crowd) – The main foyer had a huge block of cheese, basically an all-you-can-eat cheese party!

    0
  45. RE: Fact #24 (First July 4th White House Event) – It’s nice to see my family keeping up with tradition at our 4th of July celebrations.

    5
  46. RE: Fact #19 (Grace Slick’s LSD Plot) – She went to college with Nixon’s daughter. The invitation was in her maiden name, sent to everyone in their class, so it took a while for people to realize who she was.

    1

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here