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US Presidents in Order Quiz

  • Put in order
  • Classic
  • 6 rounds
  • About 2 min
  • Up to 3 stars

This presidents in order quiz gives you four US presidents per round and asks you to line them up by when they first took office, earliest first. Rounds cover the founding years, the 1800s, the world wars and the modern era, so you'll meet famous faces and a few you may only half remember. A good feel for American history beats memorizing every inauguration date.

How to keep the presidents straight

The United States has sworn in a new president every few years since 1789, and the order is easier to learn than it looks. Historians often group presidents into eras: the founders and their immediate successors, the decades leading up to the Civil War, the Gilded Age after Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the world wars, the Cold War and the years since. If you can place a president in the right era, you're most of the way there.

Anchor events help too. Ask yourself which crisis or big change a president is linked with, such as a war, a depression, westward expansion or the space race, then place that event on your mental timeline. Inauguration Day is another handy clue. For most of the nation's history, terms began on March 4; the 20th Amendment, ratified in 1933, moved the start to January 20 beginning in 1937, which is why modern terms begin in the middle of winter.

Terms usually run four years, but deaths in office, a resignation and long re-election streaks all change the rhythm, so the gaps in each round vary. Spot the biggest jumps first, then sort out the closer calls.

US Presidents in Order questions and answers

Show all 6 questions with answers (spoilers!)
  1. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: George Washington (1789), then Abraham Lincoln (1861), then Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933), then John F. Kennedy (1961)

    John F. Kennedy, sworn in at 43, was the youngest person ever elected president.

  2. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: Thomas Jefferson (1801), then Andrew Jackson (1829), then Ulysses S. Grant (1869), then Theodore Roosevelt (1901)

    Theodore Roosevelt was just 42 when he took office in 1901, making him the youngest president in history.

  3. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953), then Richard Nixon (1969), then Ronald Reagan (1981), then Bill Clinton (1993)

    Richard Nixon served as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice president for eight years before winning the top job himself.

  4. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: Woodrow Wilson (1913), then Herbert Hoover (1929), then Harry S. Truman (1945), then Lyndon B. Johnson (1963)

    Herbert Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi River, in West Branch, Iowa.

  5. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: John Adams (1797), then James Madison (1809), then James Monroe (1817), then John Quincy Adams (1825)

    John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the first father and son to both serve as president.

  6. Order by when they took office, earliest first

    Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes (1877), then Benjamin Harrison (1889), then William McKinley (1897), then William Howard Taft (1909)

    Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison.

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