49 Fun Facts About Dwight D. Eisenhower

Which number president of the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower?

He served two terms from 1953 to 1961, between Truman and Kennedy.

In which state was Eisenhower born?

The family moved to Abilene, Kansas, when he was two, and he always considered that his hometown.

What were Eisenhower's first two names, in order, at birth?

The order of his first two names was later reversed.

How many sons did Eisenhower's parents Ida and David have?

All the boys were nicknamed Ike; Dwight was "Little Ike" and his brother Edgar "Big Ike".

Which Kansas town did Eisenhower consider his hometown?

He is buried there in the chapel on the grounds of his presidential center.

Which legendary athlete did Eisenhower try to tackle while playing halfback for West Point in 1912?

He later called not making the West Point baseball team one of the greatest disappointments of his life.

What nickname did Eisenhower's West Point cohort of 1915 earn?

Fifty-nine of its members eventually became general officers.

During World War I, what did Eisenhower do instead of being sent to Europe?

He was later threatened with court-martial for publishing radical ideas about fast, offensive tank warfare with George Patton.

Which 1919 Army expedition, in which Eisenhower took part, later shaped his belief in better highways?

Seeing the German autobahn during World War II confirmed the lesson.

Which general did Eisenhower call 'the ablest man I ever knew' after serving under him in Panama?

Conner had him study Clausewitz and recommended him for the Command and General Staff College.

Under which general did Eisenhower serve as assistant military adviser in the Philippines from 1935?

Their philosophical disagreements grew into an antipathy that lasted the rest of their lives.

Eisenhower earned the nickname "Bridge Wizard of Manila" playing cards with which Philippine president?

He kept playing bridge even in the stressful weeks before D-Day.

What was the code name of the November 1942 Allied campaign in North Africa that Eisenhower commanded?

It was planned in underground headquarters inside the Rock of Gibraltar.

Whom did Roosevelt pass over in 1943 when he chose Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe?

Eisenhower then threatened to resign unless Churchill gave him exclusive command of the strategic air forces for Overlord.

On what date did the D-Day landings in Normandy take place?

Many expected victory in Europe by the end of that summer, but Germany held out for almost a year.

To what five-star rank was Eisenhower promoted on December 20, 1944?

It is the equivalent of Field Marshal in most European armies, and Interstate signs still bear the five-star insignia.

Which Ivy League university did Eisenhower serve as president from 1948?

He took up oil painting there after watching an artist paint Mamie's portrait.

What was the title of Eisenhower's 1948 war memoir?

It appeared the same year he became president of Columbia University.

Of which alliance was Eisenhower the first supreme commander, from 1951 to 1952?

He thought the American and Canadian commitments would end after about ten years as it became a truly European alliance.

Which senator's presidential prospects did Eisenhower enter the 1952 race partly to block?

Taft opposed NATO and wanted to undo the New Deal.

What was Eisenhower's simple 1952 campaign slogan?

The strategy was nicknamed K1C2, attacking Truman on Korea, Communism and corruption.

Whom did Eisenhower defeat in both the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections?

The 1952 margin was 442 electoral votes to 89, the first Republican win in 20 years.

Who was Eisenhower's vice president for both terms?

He was chosen partly to appease the Republican Old Guard and to add youth and an anti-communist reputation to the ticket.

Which war ended in an armistice in July 1953, months into Eisenhower's first term?

He had considered using nuclear weapons to end it and may have threatened China to speed the deal.

To which body did Eisenhower deliver his "Atoms for Peace" speech in December 1953?

He argued for using nuclear fission for electricity and medicine rather than an arms race.

Which 1956 law authorised the Interstate System?

Eisenhower justified it as essential to Cold War security; the network is officially named after him.

Which division did Eisenhower send to Little Rock in 1957 to protect nine Black students at Central High?

It was the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops had been used in the South to enforce the Constitution.

Which Arkansas governor's defiance prompted the Little Rock intervention?

Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control to override him.

Which Soviet achievement in 1957 prompted Eisenhower to create NASA?

He also set up ARPA and pushed the National Defense Education Act, yet later called a $40 billion moon race "nuts".

Whom did Eisenhower appoint Chief Justice of the United States in 1953?

The Warren Court went on to deliver Brown v. Board of Education the following year.

Which two states joined the Union during Eisenhower's presidency in 1959?

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3 and Hawaii the 50th on August 21.

During which 1956 confrontation did Eisenhower force Israel, Britain and France to withdraw from Egypt?

He condemned the Soviet invasion of Hungary the same year but took no action.

Which American aircraft's downing over the USSR sank a planned 1960 summit with Khrushchev?

Eisenhower's earlier Open Skies proposal to legitimise such flights had been rejected at Geneva in 1955.

What phrase did Eisenhower coin in his farewell address to warn of undue influence?

Historians call it the most memorable farewell address since Washington's.

Where did Eisenhower suffer the heart attack of September 1955?

His personal physician at first misdiagnosed the symptoms as indigestion.

Why did Eisenhower have his golf balls painted black?

He joined Augusta National in 1948, installed a putting green at Camp David and played even in winter.

Which card game did Eisenhower call his "favorite indoor sport"?

He stopped playing it because opponents resented having to pay their losses; bridge became his lifelong game instead.

Where did Eisenhower live in retirement after leaving the White House?

It adjoined the Civil War battlefield and is now a National Historic Site.

Where did Eisenhower die on March 28, 1969?

He was 78, and his body travelled by funeral train from Washington to Abilene.

In which Iowa town was Mamie Eisenhower born?

She was raised in a wealthy Colorado household and became known as First Lady for her bangs and love of pink.

What was Eisenhower the first president to do on August 26, 1959?

The VC-137A that carried him replaced the Columbine as the presidential aircraft and took the name Air Force One.

Which coin bore Eisenhower's likeness from 1971 to 1978?

Several highways carry his name too, including the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70 west of Denver.

In which church was Eisenhower baptised in 1953, shortly after becoming president?

He described himself in 1948 as one of the most deeply religious men he knew, though unattached to any sect.

Roughly how many press conferences did Eisenhower hold, more than any previous president?

He also brought television into presidential communication in a way his predecessors had not.

What did Eisenhower call his governing philosophy of moderation and cooperation?

He described himself as a progressive conservative: 'be liberal, be human' with people, 'be conservative' with their money.

Which agency, created by Eisenhower in 1958 after Sputnik, eventually built the ARPANET?

The Advanced Research Projects Agency grew out of his Science Advisory Committee; its network became a predecessor of the internet.

Which White House office, borrowed from Army practice, did Eisenhower introduce?

Every president since Lyndon Johnson has filled the post; Ike also began the military's 'up or out' promotion policy.

Where was Eisenhower's headquarters as military governor of the American zone of occupied Germany?

He ordered camera crews to film the concentration camps for the Nuremberg trials and brought in 400,000 tons of food for German civilians.

Which citizen-diplomacy organisation did Eisenhower found in 1956?

Its student ambassador programme still sends American youngsters on educational trips abroad.