As the country enjoys the annual Presidents Day holiday here’s an amazing video which morphs through the faces of all 43 people who have been sworn into the highest office in the land in under four minutes.
The roll call of great leaders starts with George Washington and goes all the way through to current incumbent Barack Obama.
Although there have been 44 presidencies, only 43 people have been sworn into office as Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted chronologically as both the 22nd and 24th president.
Watch the video after the cut
Of the individuals elected as president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy) and one resigned (Richard Nixon).
George Washington, the first president, was inaugurated in 1789 after a unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
William Henry Harrison spent the shortest time in office with 32 days in 1841.
Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the longest with over twelve years, but died shortly into his fourth term in 1945 and is the only president to have served more than two terms.
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, was the first to be elected by men of all classes in 1828 after most laws barring non-land-owners from voting were repealed.
Warren Harding was the first elected after women gained voting rights in 1920.
Four presidents – John Q. Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush – lost the popular vote but assumed office.
John F. Kennedy has been the only president of Roman Catholic faith, while Barack Obama is the first African American president.
To date there have been 18 Republicans, 16 Democrats and in the early days a smattering of Whigs, Federalists and Democratic-Republicans who have held the position.
As the video morphs through the vintage photographs there are no smiles until Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February in honor of country’s first president.
It is also a state holiday in most states where it is known by a variety of names including Presidents Day and Washington's and Lincoln's Birthday and officially celebrates, depending upon the state, Washington alone, Washington and Lincoln, or some other combination of U.S. presidents.
Some states celebrate Washington and the third president Thomas Jefferson but not Lincoln.
Colloquially, the holiday is widely known as Presidents Day and is often an occasion to celebrate, or at least remember, all presidents and not just George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Both Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays are in February.
In historical rankings of Presidents of the United States both Lincoln and Washington are frequently, but not always, the top two presidents.
Source:Daily Mail
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