On July 4, 2026, the United States celebrated its 250th anniversary, also known as the semiquincentennial (see Dictionary.com for an explanation of the nomenclature). In so doing, the United States continued its tradition of holding national celebrations every 50 years, beginning with the July 4, 1826 American Jubilee. I am on record as being a fan of sharing facts about U.S. presidents. Continuing in that tradition and in the spirit of celebrating America’s 250th, I will share some facts about the five presidents who presided over America’s 50th, 100th, 150th, 200th, and 250th festivities.
For this article, I decided to dig into some facts about the President presiding over each of these five celebrations.
The -Centennial Presidents and Facts About Them
We will examine the Presidents on July 4 of 1826, 1876, 1926, 1976, and 2026. To begin, I prepared a helpful table:
| Anniversary | President | No. | Took Office | DOB | Home State | Political Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1826 | John Quincy Adams | 6 | 1825 | July 11, 1767 | Massachusetts | Democratic-Republican |
| 1876 | Ulysses S. Grant | 18 | 1869 | April 27, 1822 | Illinois | Republican |
| 1926 | Calvin Coolidge | 30 | 1923 | July 4, 1872 | Massachusetts | Republican |
| 1976 | Gerald R. Ford | 38 | 1974 | July 14, 1913 | Michigan | Republican |
| 2026 | Donald J. Trump | 47 | 2024 | June 14, 1946 | Florida | Republican |
The “anniversary” or “-centennial” Presidents, as we shall call them in this article, have some unusual characteristics both individually and as a group.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the first son of a former president to be elected president. His father, John Adams, served as the first Vice President of the United States from 1790-97 and the second President of the United States from 1797-1801. J.Q. Adams, who had perhaps the most varied pre-presidential political experience of any of the 45 men to hold the highest office, served as Minister to Prussia under his father. The elder John Adams famously died at his home in Massachusetts on July 4, 1826, while his son was presiding over festivities in Washington D.C. as President. J.Q. Adams would be the last son of a former President to become President until George W. Bush won the 2000 Presidential election, 176 years after Adams’ victory in 1824, and took office on January 20, 2001.
Adams and Bush had another point of commonality. 1824 was the first Presidential Election where there was a meaningful popular vote, and it was the first of five where the candidate with the most votes nationally was not elected. Andrew Jackson had the most votes, but no candidate secured the requisite half of the Electoral College votes, and John Quincy Adams, who had the second most votes and was second in the Electoral College, was elected by the U.S. House of Representatives . In 2000, George W. Bush was not only the second son of a President to be elected, but also the fourth individual to win a Presidential election without having at least a plurality of all votes cast. Of course, Adams was handily defeated in a rematch against Jackson in 1828 while Bush improved on his 2000 performance in securing re-election in 2004. Trump 45 is also on the split “popular” vote-Electoral College list, although Trump 47 is not.
At the time of his election, John Quincy Adams was the third consecutive President to be elected while serving as Secretary of State (one can fairly argue John Quincy Adams is better known for some of his accomplishments as Secretary of State – namely authoring The Monroe Doctrine – than as President). James Madison was elected while serving as Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson (who had himself served as the first Secretary of State under Washington), and James Monroe was elected while serving as Secretary of State under Madison. Little did we know that Adams would be, to date, the last incumbent Secretary of State (or person whose most-recent position was Secretary of State) to be elected President. The only subsequent Secretary of State to become President was James Buchanan, but his stint as head of the State Department occurred from 1845-49, and he was elected President in 1856 (taking office in March 1857) after a stint as Minister to the United Kingdom.
Ulysses Grant
Grant was the second president to be elected without having previously held political office, with the first being Zachary Taylor (1845-47). Grant, like Taylor, rose to national prominence as a General, but in Grant’s case for his extraordinary leadership of the Union Army in bringing the Civil War to a successful conclusion. Generals becoming Presidents was not uncommon in the early Republic: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor all preceding Grant. Many of Grant’s successors would also have notable military experience. But Grant can lay claim to being the first graduate of West Point to become President, and he would be the sole West Point President until Dwight Eisenhower was elected in 1952 (taking office in January 1953).
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge is the only President to have been born on Independence Day, on July 4, 1872 to be precise. He was exactly four years old when Grant presided over America’s centennial and 54 years old when he served as President for America’s 150th. Related: See my article on President birthday facts.
Coolidge ascended to the Presidency upon the death of Warren Harding on August 2, 1923, under whom Coolidge served as Vice President. He finished out Harding’s term and then won his own term in 1924, which covered America’s 150th.
If you are looking for more Coolidge facts, I will note that I have written enough about the 30th President for us to already have a Calvin Coolidge tag here on site.
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford was the only person to become President without having been elected President or Vice President. Then-President Richard Nixon nominated Ford, who had been serving as a U.S. Representative from Michigan, as Vice President to replace Spiro Agnew after the latter resigned from office. Ford was confirmed by the Senate and took office on December 6, 1973. Less than one year later, he took the oath of office as President on August 9, 1974, after Nixon resigned. Preparations for the bicentennial had begun in the Nixon Administration before Ford took office.
Ford is the only President to call Michigan his home state.
Gerald Ford was without a doubt the most accomplished athlete to serve as President, achieving prominence as a center and linebacker for the University of Michigan from 1932-34.
Ford is the only President to have changed his first, middle, and last name from his birth name. He was born Leslie King Jr. but as a teenager changed his name to Gerald Rudolph Ford, which was the name of his stepfather.
Grant and Coolidge
Hiram Ulysses Grant and John Calvin Coolidge are two of just a handful of Presidents to be known by their middle names instead of their first names. I discussed their stories in an earlier article.
It occurred to me from finding a source for Ford (note I knew the Ford name-change without the source) that I omitted discussing Dwight David Eisenhower, born David Dwight Eisenhower, in my Presidential middle names article. Perhaps an additional article is in order.
Donald Trump
President Trump is one of only two Presidents to serve non-consecutive terms – with the other being the 22nd and 24th President, Grover Cleveland (preceding and succeeding Benjamin Harrison, who was the subject of one of my earlier July 4 articles) – having previously served as the 45th President from 2017-2021 before being elected for a second non-consecutive term in 2024 and serving as the 47th President from January 20, 2025 to the present. Had President Trump 45 won re-election in 2020, he would have missed presiding over the semiquincentennial.
Trump 45 was the third oldest individual to be elected President and Trump 47 is the oldest – with the 46th President, Joe Biden, slotted in between. President Trump became the second President to reach the age of 80 while in office on June 14, 2026, following Mr. Biden. For a bonus fun fact: Messers Trump and Biden are now currently older than the 43rd President, Bill Clinton, who was first elected in 1992 (albeit President Trump is just over two months older than Clinton, who was born on August 19, 1946, and less than one month older than George W. Bush, who just barely missed Independence Day with his July 6, 1946 birthday).
While President Trump was a resident of New York when he won his first term in 2016, he was a resident of Florida when he won his second term in 2024, which made him the first individual to win the Presidency as a resident of Florida (he was the first nominee from Florida in 2020).
Facts Related to the -centennial Celebrations
Presidents Trump and Grant are the only second-term Presidents to preside over a -centennial celebration, albeit President Trump is a very unconventional second-term President. The other three were serving first terms, although Coolidge had served part of his predecessor Warren Harding’s term before winning in 2024, and Gerald Ford was serving the better half of what had started as Richard Nixon’s second term. Of the non-second term anniversary Presidents, Adams and Ford were defeated in the following elections (Adams handily, Ford very narrowly) while Coolidge, who would have been eligible to run in 1928 even under the current rules set forth by the Twenty-second Amendment because he had served less than half of Harding’s first term (contrast with Ford, who would not have been eligible to run in 1980 had he won in 1976 because he had served more than half of Nixon’s second term), declined to seek re-election. Coolidge would have almost certainly won had he not declined to run in 1928, supported by the fact that his Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, won a landslide victory (referenced in my history of The Governor Alfred E. Smith fireboat). Although Grant did not run for what would have at the time been an unprecedented third term (he did unsuccessfully seek a third non-consecutive third term in 1880), the office of the Presidency stayed with his Republican Party by the narrowest of margins (a single Electoral vote after a lengthy dispute) with the controversial victory of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.
Three of the five anniversary Presidents were born in July. While Coolidge was the only President to have the good fortune of being born on Independence Day, Adams missed the mark by one week and Ford by 10 days. President Trump was born within one month of Independence Day on June 14, 1946. The odd-one-out in the group of anniversary Presidents is Grant, who was born on April 27, 1822. (I will note separately, however, that Grant was born exactly 198 years before I launched The New Leaf Journal, so I like to think he has the second-best birthday of the five.)
Rounding up for Adams and Ford, who were born 7 and 10 days after July 4 respectively, the anniversary Presidents were, at the time of their respective -centennial celebrations, 59 (Adams), 54 (Grant), 54 (Coolidge), 63 (Ford), and 80 (Trump). Adams was nine years older than the republic, and the latter four -centennial Presidents were all alive at the time of the previous -centennial celebration. However, President Trump is the only -centennial President to have been an adult at the the time of the prior celebration, having been 30 when Ford presided over the bicentennial. President Trump is also the only -centennial president to have been born closer to the -centennial celebration 100 years prior to the one he presided over than the one 50 years prior (this would have also been true even if we included Adams, but there was of course no United States on July 4, 1726). President Trump’s June 14, 1946 birthday is just under 20 years after Calvin Coolidge presided over America’s 150th, and just over 30 years before Gerald Ford presided over the 200th. That fact recalls one of my more unique presidential research articles, Biden, Lincoln, and Counting Back From the President’s Birth.
Given that Adams was one week shy of 59 when he presided over the American Jubilee, one may (wrongly) think that he was the last President to have been born before the Declaration. New Leaf Journal readers know better. Adams was the second President, following Jefferson, to be younger than his predecessor – Andrew Jackson had been born on March 15, 1767, approximately four months before Adams. Jackson would not be the last President to be born before the Declaration. William Henry Harrison, who was elected in 1840, 16 years after Adams and 12 after Jackson, was older than both – having been born on February 9, 1773 – and ultimately being the last President to have been born before independence (granting Harrison served just one month before suffering an untimely death from pneumonia).
Things change a bit when we look at Vice Presidents. We must exclude Grant here, for the office of Vice President was vacant during the Centennial (his second-term Vice President, Henry Wilson, died on November 22, 1875). While all five -centennial Presidents were at least 50 at the time of their respective -centennials, John Quincy Adams’ Vice President, James C. Calhoun, was 44 (born March 18, 1782), and the current Vice President, J.D. Vance, is and was 41, turning 42 on August 2 (born August 2, 1984). The other two relevant Presidents went the other direction. Coolidge’s Vice President Charles Curtis was 66 (born January 25, 1860), and Ford’s Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, born July 8, 1908, was just four days short of 66 as of the bicentennial. Calhoun, Vance, and Nixon all feature prominently in my study of the Biggest Age Gaps in U.S. Presidential Election Tickets.
The first four anniversary presidents were from the northern states at the time they were elected, with Adams and Coolidge calling Massachusetts home and Grant and Ford running from Illinois and Michigan respectively. The outlier is President Trump, who is from New York, spent most of his life as a New York resident, and resided in New York when he was first elected in 2016, but now officially resides in Florida.
The four most-recent anniversary presidents have been Republicans. John Quincy Adams was president at an odd time for political parties. The first party system, which featured Democratic-Republicans and Federalists, had collapsed before 1820. In 1828, Adams lost his re-election bid in a re-match against Andrew Jackson, who was running under the banner of what is now the Democratic Party. Adams himself would become a Whig and die a Whig in 1848. The Whigs collapsed in the 1850s, with the bulk of its membership forming the Republican party but some of its members becoming Democrats.
Conclusion
I hope readers enjoyed my very light survey of the Presidents who presided over the -centennials. My purpose here was to pull up some interesting facts about the five Presidents – generally tied to their respective -centennial celebrations – that were already within my ambit of knowledge and/or relevant to my past articles on The New Leaf Journal. We dug up some interesting facts, and I suppose it is possible that some of these facts could make their way into future articles.
