It was 1789 when the first President of the United States was elected. Since that moment the list of American presidents has grown to 46 presidential mandates for 45 different men.
Independence from England had been achieved a few years before and in June 1788 the Constitution of the United States of America was also ratified. Constitution which would then come into force the following year.
The President of the United States, unlike what one might think, is elected indirectly by the people through the Electoral College. This is because the citizens who go to the polls on election day, the famous “election day“, vote for the electors offered by each state. In turn, these electors will cast their vote as representatives of the people in mid-December.
Technically they are called to vote for the presidential candidate who won that state. But sometimes it happens that this does not happen, as in 2016 when there were 6 electors who did not vote as they should have done.
Without going too much into the American electoral mechanism, let’s go back to 1789 and the unanimous election of the first President of the United States, George Washington and all the other 44 presidents who stayed in the White House leading the country after him.
Read also: Who can run for president of the United States? Requirements, role and powers
Table of Contents
The complete list of American presidents
Here follows the list of the presidents who from 1789 until today governed the United States of America:
- George Washington: term 1789-1797
- John Adams: term 1797-1801
- Thomas Jefferson: term 1801-1809
- James Madison: term 1809-1817
- James Monroe: term 1817-1825
- John Quincy Adams: term 1825-1829
- Andrew Jackson: term 1829-1837
- Martin Van Buren: term 1837-1841
- William Henry Harrison: term 1841-1841 (deceased)
- John Tyler: term 1841-1845
- James Knox Polk: tenure 1845-1849
- Zachary Taylor: term 1849-1850 (deceased)
- Millard Fillmore: tenure 1850-1853
- Franklin Pierce: term 1853-1857
- James Buchanan: term 1857-1861
- Abraham Lincoln: term 1861-1865 (deceased)
- Andrew Johnson: term 1865-1869
- Ulysses S. Grant: term 1869-1877
- Rutherford B. Hayses: term 1877-1881
- James A. Garfield: term 1881-1881 (deceased)
- Chester Arthur: term 1881-1885
- Grover Cleveland: term 1885-1889
- Benjamin Harrison: term 1889-1893
- Grover Cleveland: term 1893-1897
- William McKinley: term 1897-1901 (deceased)
- Theodore Roosevelt: term 1901-1909
- William Howard Taft: term 1909-1913
- Woodrow Wilson: term 1913-1921
- Warren G. Harding: term 1921-1923 (deceased)
- Calvin Coolidge: term 1923-1929
- Herbert Hoover: term 1929-1933
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: term 1933-1945 (deceased)
- Harry Truman: term 1945-1953
- Dwight Eisenhower: term 1953-1961
- John F. Kennedy: term 1961-1963 (deceased)
- Lyndon B. Johnson: term 1963-1969
- Richard Nixon: term 1969-1974 (resigned)
- Gerald Ford: term 1974-1977
- Jimmy Carter: term 1977-1981
- Ronald Reagan: term 1981-1989
- George H. W. Bush: term 1989-1993
- Bill Clinton: term 1993-2001
- George W. Bush: term 2001-2009
- Barack Obama: term 2009-2017
- Donald Trump: term 2017-2021
- Joe Biden: 2021 term-incumbent
Read also: Who can run for president of the United States? Requirements, role and powers
Some curiosities about the Presidents of the United States
Over 200 years have passed since the first election, and the list of American presidents is rich in history and curiosity. Let’s look at some of them.
- If you look carefully at the list of presidents you will notice that there is the name of a President that is repeated. We are talking about Democrat Grover Cleveland, elected for the first time in 1885 and re-elected for a second term in 1993. In between, Benjamin Harrison was elected as the 23rd President of the United States. This “interference” means that President Grover must be counted twice unlike what happens with other presidents who spend eight consecutive years in the White House;
- Who had the longest tenure of all? Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But how can presidents not be elected a maximum of two times? Since 1951 it has been officially written into the Constitution. But before that it was just a custom and for this reason FDR was elected 4 times, staying in the White House for 12 years, and dying at the beginning of his fourth term;
- The President who remained in office for the shortest time? William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia 31 days after taking office;
- Four presidents have died of natural causes while in office (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt);
- Four American presidents have been assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy);
- Only one president resigned (Nixon);
- The only president who never supported a party was George Washington.
Read also: How is the American president chosen? Here is how the electoral system works
