Key Dates

Both of his paternal grandparents, James Wilson and Annie Mills Wilson, were from Ireland.

Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia on December 28, 1858.

Woodrow Wilson did not learn his letters until he was nine years old and didn't learn to read until he was eleven.

He was a Presbyterian.

He served as Governor of New Jersey before he became president.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920. He was the second president to win the prize.

Woodrow Wilson, 1912.
Library of Congress
(Click for larger image.)

Woodrow was married while he was President. His swife was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.

Wilson was 5' 11" and weighed 185 pounds.

He was one of 15 Presidents who became President without winning the popular vote. He received only 42% of the popular vote.

Woodrow Wilson's Vice President was Thomas R. Marshall (1913-1921).

Though he never met Wilson, Sigmund Freud wrote a psychological study of the president in which he asserted that Wilson unconsciously identified himself with Jesus Christ.

He was the only president with a Ph.D. He graduated from the University of New Jersey which is now called Princeton.

He was a teacher. He later became president of Princeton, making him the first President who had be president of a major university.

During World War I, when the government clamped down on the fledgling radio industry in the interests of security, the U.S. Navy had a corner on radio. In 1919, Wilson became the first U.S. president to make a radio broadcast to when he spoke from a ship to World War I troops aboard other vessels and was it was picked up by some people in America.

Election returns were broadcast for the first time by WWJ of Detroit, MI.

President Wilson was the first president to travel to Europe.

During WWI a flock of sheep was raised on the White House lawn. The wool was used to raise money for the Red Cross.

Partially paralyzed and nearly blind from a massive stroke, Wilson was protected by his wife, Edith, who ran what was called the "Petticoat Government." As the government limped along, she was also called the Iron Queen, the Presidentress, and the Regent.

In 1915, President Wilson designated that Mother's Day would be on the second Sunday in May.

He was the first president to hold regular news briefings. (Press Conferences)

Woodrow was the first President to cross the Atlantic Ocean and/or leave the country while he was in office. He visited Europe to present his "14 Points" to the League of Nations.

Wilson finally died in 1924, a year after his supposedly more vigorous successor, Warren Harding. He is the only president buried in Washington, D.C. He is buried in the National Cathedral. He was 67 years and 37 days old.

His vice president, Thomas Riley Marshall, uttered the immortal words: "What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar."

Quotes from W. Wilson:

The Presidents of the United States. 22 September 2004 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/>

Davis, Gibbs and Ilus. David A. Johnson. Wackiest White House Pets. New York: Scholastic Press, October 2004

James, Barber and Amy Pastan. Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies. New York: DK Publishing, 2002

Harnsberger, Caroline Thomas. Treasury of Presidential Quotations. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964

Kane, Joseph Natan. Facts about the Presidents from Washington to Johnson. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1964.

National Park Service Web Site on Presidential Trivia: http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/pres/trivia.htm.