US History - Presidents - Lincoln to Present

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

16th PRESIDENT: 1861 to 1865 (Republican) Between when he is elected (Nov) and when he is inaugurated (March), seven southern states secede from the Union. He led the United States through the Civil War, and was assassinated one month into his second term, and six days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee's confederate troops, effectively ending the war. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, is passed by congress 6 days before his death.

GERALD FORD

38th PRESIDENT:1974 to 1977 (Republican) Took office following the resignation of President Nixon. He became the first unelected president in the nation's history. He had been appointed vice president less than a year earlier by President Nixon. He was not elected to another term, but he is credited with helping to restore public confidence in government after the disillusionment of the Watergate Scandal.

ANDREW JOHNSON

17th PRESIDENT: 1865 to 1869 (Democrat) As Vice President, he assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He is the first American president to be impeached, although he was not removed from office. He did not run for a second presidential term.

ULYSSES GRANT

18th PRESIDENT: 1869 to 1877 (Republican) Following his success as a Union military commander in the American Civil War, this man would go on to two terms as President. He worked to stabilize the nation during the turbulent Reconstruction period that followed while enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence.

RUTHERFORD HAYES

19th PRESIDENT: 1877 to 1881 (Republican) Beneficiary of the most fiercely disputed election in American history. The popular vote had him losing by 300,000 votes, but he won the electoral college by one vote. He had announced in advance that he would serve only one term.

JAMES GARFIELD

20th PRESIDENT: 1881 to 1881 (Republican) Four months after his inauguration, he is shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office-seeker. In September of the same year, he dies from complications of his wounds. He was the second of four United States Presidents who were assassinated.

CHESTER ARTHUR

21st PRESIDENT: 1881 to 1885 (Republican) As Vice President, he becomes president after the assassination of President Garfield. Born in Fairfield, Vermont, he grew up in upstate New York and honed his political skills in New York City. Journalist Alexander McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted... and no one ever retired ... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe." He would serve one term.

GROVER CLEVELAND

22nd PRESIDENT: 1885 to 1889 (Democrat) He was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States; as such, he is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. He was defeated by Benjamin Harrison (although he won the popular vote) after his first term in office.

BENJAMIN HARRISON

23rd PRESIDENT: 1889 to 1893 (Republican) The grandson of the 9th U.S. President, this man received 100,000 fewer popular votes than Grover Cleveland in the election, but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168. He would lose to Cleveland in a bid for his second term.

GROVER CLEVELAND

24th PRESIDENT: 1893 to 1897 (Democrat) He is inaugurated a second time, as the 24th president. He is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.

WILLIAM MCKINLEY

25th PRESIDENT: 1897 to 1901 (Republican) He was assassinated six months into his second term. He led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War and was the last President to have served in the American Civil War.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

26th PRESIDENT: 1901 to 1909 (Republican) As Vice President he becomes President after William McKinley is shot in Buffalo, N.Y. by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley was six months into his second term. This president was noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement. He was a distant cousin of 32nd President, and is the youngest person to have assumed the office of president (42).

WILLIAM TAFT

27th PRESIDENT: 1909 to 1913 (Republican) After his one term as president, he would become the tenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only person to have served in both of these offices. His wife (the first lady) has 80 Japanese cherry trees planted along the banks of the Potomac River.

WOODROW WILSON

28th PRESIDENT: 1913 to 1921 (Democrat) A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served two terms as president. His second term was dominated by American entry into World War I. Towards the end of his second term, he suffered a severe stroke that left his wife largely in control of the White House. For his sponsorship of the League of Nations, he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.

WARREN HARDING

29th PRESIDENT: 1921 to 1923 (Republican) His administration's many scandals scarred his presidential legacy. However, he is also remembered for his fiscal responsibility and endorsement of African-American civil rights. He dies suddenly two years into his first term.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

30th PRESIDENT: 1923 to 1929 (Republican) A Vice President - and Vermonter - he is sworn in as President by the light of a kerosene lamp at his family homestead in Plymouth, VT after the death of President Harding. He is the only president to have been born on Independence Day. He would serve only one more term after finishing Harding's first term but would become associated with the good years of the "roaring 20s."

HERBERT HOOVER

31st PRESIDENT: 1929 to 1933 (Republican) This president, who had made a small fortune in mining, was the first President to donate his paycheck to charity. He served only one term, due primarily to the feeling by the public that he had failed to prevent the Great Depression from worsening. His support for strong enforcement of prohibition was also a significant factor.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT (FDR)

32nd PRESIDENT: 1933 to 1945 (Democrat) He was elected a record four times, serving as president for 12 years. He was a central figure through the Great Depression and World War II. Known for his "New Deal" recovery plan as well as his polio related paralysis of the lower body, which was hidden and protected by the media throughout his career.

HARRY TRUMAN

33rd PRESIDENT: 1945 to 1953 (Democrat) Having been Vice President for only 3 months, he had scarcely seen President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia when Roosevelt died. He was the last president to not have a college degree. He would run for one more term.

DWIGHT EISENHOWER (IKE)

34th PRESIDENT: 1953 to 1961 (Republican) A two term president, he is forever associated with the prosperity of the 1950s. A five-star Army general and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII, he reluctantly chose Richard Nixon as his Vice President. He was the first "term-limited" president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment. He was a skillful politician, a tough Cold War warrior, and one of America's most misunderstood and unappreciated presidents.

JOHN KENNEDY (JFK)

35th PRESIDENT: 1961 to 1963 (Democrat) He became the youngest man "elected" as president (43), and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office of president. Born into one of America's wealthiest families, he was a Navy hero from WWII. He confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He was assassinated just over 2 1/2 years into his presidency, leaving his legacy as a larger-than-life heroic figure.

LYNDON JOHNSON (LBJ)

36th PRESIDENT: 1963 to 1969 (Democrat) As Vice President, he becomes President after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His legacy is mixed between his domestic successes in civil rights, education, and health, and his failure to lead the nation out of the foreign quagmire of the Vietnam War. He surprised the nation by declining to run for a second full term in office.

RICHARD NIXON

37th PRESIDENT: 1969 to 1974 (Republican) Best remembered as the only president ever to resign from office. He stepped down in 1974, halfway through his second term, rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal. He left the country deeply distrustful of politics and the presidency. His achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union, and eventually withdrawing U.S. troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam.

JIMMY CARTER

39th PRESIDENT: 1977 to 1981 (Democrat) As president, he struggled with a major energy crisis,high inflation, and rising unemployment. In the foreign affairs he helped broker peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict, but was damaged late in his term by a hostage crisis in Iran. He was soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan when he ran for a second term.

RONALD REAGAN

40th PRESIDENT: 1981 to 1989 (Republican) A former actor and California governor, he was a popular two-term president. He cut taxes, increased defense spending, negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War. He survived a 1981 assassination and was the oldest elected president at 69 years old.

GEORGE H. BUSH

41st PRESIDENT: 1989 to 1993 (Republican) He had been a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of the CIA. In the wake of a weak recovery from an economic recession, he lost his bid for a second term to Bill Clinton. Vice President under Ronald Reagan, this president's son would also become president.

BILL CLINTON

42nd PRESIDENT: 1993 to 2001 (Democrat) He entered office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president from the baby boomer generation. He was a Rhodes scholar and the Governor of Arkansas for ten years. He became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected president twice, and presided over a booming economy. In 1998, he was impeached for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during a lawsuit against him. Still, he left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II.

GEORGE W. BUSH

43rd PRESIDENT: 2001 to 2009 (Republican) The oldest son of the 41st U.S. president, this man was once a two-term governor of Texas. He worked in the Texas oil industry and was an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming governor. He narrowly defeated Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 election, winning the electoral vote but losing the popular vote. His time in office was shaped by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the ensuing "war on terrorism." He established the Department of Homeland Security and authorized U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

BARACK OBAMA

44th PRESIDENT: 2009 to 2017 (Democrat) He is the first African American to hold the office of US President. Nine months after his election, he was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. His domestic accomplishments include the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military. In foreign policy, he ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. He was elected to a second term.

Donald Trump

45th President: 2017 to present (Republican)