Wikipedia

Draft:List of United States vice presidential firsts

This list lists achievements and distinctions of various vice presidents of the United States. It includes distinctions achieved in their earlier lives and post-vice-presidencies. However, vice presidents who went on to be President will not have achievements or firsts garnered during their presidencies listed.

John Adams (1789–1797)

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Adams, pictured in his older years, lived to the age of 90.

Further information: John Adams

  • First vice president of the United States.[a][1]
  • First vice president to later become president.
  • First vice president to be a part of a political party.
  • First Federalist vice president.
  • First vice president to have a direct relative become President.[b]
  • First Unitarian vice president.
  • First Congregationalist vice president.
  • First vice president who had never served in the military.[2]
  • First vice president from Massachusetts.[3]
  • First vice president to serve more than one term.
  • First vice president to live to the age of 90.

Thomas Jefferson (1797–1801)

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Further information: Thomas Jefferson

Aaron Burr (1801–1805)

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In an 1804 duel, Aaron Burr, sitting Vice President, mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury.

Further information: Aaron Burr

George Clinton (1805–1812)

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Further information: George Clinton

Elbridge Gerry (1813–1814)

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Further information: Elbridge Gerry

Daniel D. Tompkins (1817–1825)

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Further information: Daniel D. Tompkins

  • First vice president to serve two full four-year terms of office.
  • First Freemason vice president to serve under a president who was also a Freemason.

John C. Calhoun (1825–1832)

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Further information: John C. Calhoun

Martin Van Buren (1833–1837)

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Further information: Martin Van Buren

  • First Democrat vice president.
  • First vice president to be a non-native speaker of English.[h]

Richard M. Johnson (1837–1841)

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Further information: Richard M. Johnson

John Tyler (1841–1841)

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Further information: John Tyler

George M. Dallas (1845–1849)

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Further information: George M. Dallas

  • First vice president from Pennsylvania.
  • First vice president to have been a mayor.[i]
  • First vice president to become an ambassador after their vice presidency.

Millard Fillmore (1849–1850)

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Further information: Millard Fillmore

William R. King (1853–1853)

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Further information: William R. King

John C. Breckinridge (1857–1861)

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Further information: John C. Breckinridge

Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865)

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Further information: Hannibal Hamlin

  • First vice president from Maine.[l]
  • First Republican vice president.[12]
  • First vice president to be widowed and remarry prior to their vice presidency.

Andrew Johnson (1865–1865)

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Further information: Andrew Johnson

Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873)

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Hon. Schuyler Colfax (center), as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Further information: Schuyler Colfax

Henry Wilson (1873–1875)

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Further information: Henry Wilson

William A. Wheeler (1877–1881)

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Further information: William A. Wheeler

Chester A. Arthur (1881–1881)

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Further information: Chester A. Arthur

  • First vice president born in Vermont.

Thomas A. Hendricks (1885–1885)

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Further information: Thomas A. Hendricks

  • First vice president born in Ohio.

Levi P. Morton (1889–1893)

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Further information: Levi P. Morton

  • First vice president to become a state governor after their vice presidency.[o]
  • First vice president to be alive in the 20th century.

Adlai Stevenson I (1893–1897)

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Further information: Adlai Stevenson I

Garret Hobart (1897–1899)

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Further information: Garret Hobart

Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1901)

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Further information: Theodore Roosevelt

  • First vice president to succeed to the presidency and later win election to the presidency in his own right.[13]
  • First vice president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[p][14]

Charles W. Fairbanks (1905–1909)

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Further information: Charles W. Fairbanks

  • First vice president to serve a complete term without casting any tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate.

James S. Sherman (1909–1912)

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Further information: James S. Sherman

  • First vice president to fly in an airplane.[15]
  • First vice president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.[15]

Thomas R. Marshall (1913–1921)

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Further information: Thomas R. Marshall

  • First vice president born in Indiana.
  • First vice president to preside over cabinet meetings.

Calvin Coolidge (1921–1923)

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Further information: Calvin Coolidge

Charles G. Dawes (1925–1929)

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Further information: Charles G. Dawes

Charles Curtis (1929–1933)

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Portrait of Charles Curtis, first vice president of color, a member of the Kaw Nation.

Further information: Charles Curtis

John Nance Garner (1933–1941)

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Further information: John Nance Garner

  • First vice president from Texas.
  • First vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt.[q]
  • First vice president to take the oath of office in the same ceremony as the president.[21]
  • First vice president inaugurated on January 20th.[22]

Henry A. Wallace (1941–1945)

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Further information: Henry A. Wallace

  • First vice president from Iowa.
  • First vice president to travel abroad.[13]
  • First vice president to head a government agency.[r][23]

Harry S. Truman (1945–1945)

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Further information: Harry S. Truman

Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953)

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Further information: Alben W. Barkley

Richard Nixon (1953–1961)

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Further information: Richard Nixon

  • First Quaker vice president.
  • First vice president from California.
  • First vice president from west of the Rocky Mountains.
  • First vice president born in the 20th century.[27]
  • First non-incumbent vice president to be elected president.[28]
  • First vice president to have served in World War II.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1961–1963)

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Further information: Lyndon B. Johnson

Hubert Humphrey (1965–1969)

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Further information: Hubert Humphrey

Spiro Agnew (1969–1973)

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Further information: Spiro Agnew

  • First vice president from Maryland.
  • First vice president to resign as a result of a scandal.[31]

Gerald Ford (1973–1974)

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Further information: Gerald Ford

Nelson Rockefeller (1974–1977)

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Further information: Nelson Rockefeller

Walter Mondale (1977–1981)

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Further information: Walter Mondale

George H. W. Bush (1981–1989)

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George H. W. Bush served as acting president during Ronald Reagan's colon cancer surgery in 1985, the first to do so.

Further information: George H. W. Bush

Dan Quayle (1989–1993)

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Further information: Dan Quayle

Al Gore (1993–2001)

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Further information: Al Gore

Dick Cheney (2001–2009)

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Further information: Dick Cheney

Joe Biden (2009–2017)

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Further information: Joe Biden

Mike Pence (2017–2021)

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Further information: Mike Pence

Kamala Harris (2021–)

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Further information: Kamala Harris

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ As Adams was the first vice president, every thing he did or could possibly be described as would be a vice presidential first. In service of limiting his section, only noteworthy firsts will be listed.
  2. ^ Adams' eldest son, John Quincy Adams, was the 6th President of the United States.
  3. ^ Thomas Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican, while President John Adams was a Federalist. This is because they were the only two candidates for President in the 1796 election, and neither had running mates. While John Adams and George Washington did not belong to the same party, this is only because George Washington did not belong to any party; Thomas Jefferson was the first vice president to have a president with a differing party.
  4. ^ Jefferson served as Governor of Virginia from June 2, 1779 to June 3, 1781.
  5. ^ Burr served as Attorney General of New York from September 29, 1789 to November 8, 1791.
  6. ^ Burr's president, Thomas Jefferson, replaced Burr on his ticket in favor of George Clinton in the election of 1804, which Jefferson and Clinton won.
  7. ^ As his predecessor George Clinton died in office and there were no measures in place at the time for filling the vacancy, Gerry took office following a ten-month period of the position's inoccupancy.
  8. ^ Van Buren was born in New York, but his first language was Dutch.
  9. ^ Dallas served as Mayor of Philadelphia from October 21, 1828 to April 15, 1829.
  10. ^ Fillmore commanded the Union Continentals (New York Guard) post-vice presidency as a Captain (Guard).
  11. ^ Though a Major, he saw no combat.
  12. ^ Hamlin was born in 1809 in what is today Maine, then the District of Maine, part of Massachusetts. Maine gained statehood in 1820.
  13. ^ 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses (1863–1869). Colfax resigned as Speaker the day before his inauguration as Vice President. Garner would become the second vice president to have served as Speaker.
  14. ^ Wheeler served as district attorney of Franklin County, New York from 1846 to 1849. Nearly 30 years later, he would serve as vice president.
  15. ^ Morton served as Governor of New York from January 1, 1895 to December 31, 1896.
  16. ^ Awarded in 1906 for negotiating the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the Russo-Japanese War. "For his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world's great powers, Japan and Russia."
  17. ^ Roosevelt served four terms as president, the most of any president. During this time, he had three vice presidents, the most of any president, the first of which being Garner.
  18. ^ Wallace was appointed chair of the Economic Defense Board in July 1941.
  19. ^ A nickname received from his grandson.
  20. ^ On November 3, 1977, Humphrey became the first person other than the President or a member of the House to address the House in session.
  21. ^ Rockefeller's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, in 1979. The vice president who succeeded him, Mondale, would eventually become the second vice president to be cremated, after his 2021 death.
  22. ^ The Great America Committee was founded by Pence while serving as vice president in 2017.
  23. ^ Harris was Vice President-elect at the time, and named TIME Person of the Year jointly with President-elect Joe Biden, who had previously served as Vice President.
  24. ^ Paired with a wax figure of President Joe Biden, a former vice president. Currently on display at Madame Tussauds New York. Madame Tussauds Washington D.C., a now closed museum, housed wax figures of all former presidents, some of which had also served as vice president.

References

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  1. ^ "John Adams, Our First Vice President". www.americanacorner.com.
  2. ^ "Military Roots: Presidents who were Veterans". U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.
  3. ^ Eskin, Blake (1998). Book of Political Lists. p. 5.
  4. ^ a b Sirgiovanni, George S. (1994). "Dumping the Vice President: An Historical Overview and Analysis". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 24 (4): 765–782. JSTOR 27551324.
  5. ^ The American Presidency. Encyclopaedia Britannica. January 2017. ISBN 9781625135322.
  6. ^ "John C. Calhoun". etc.usf.edu.
  7. ^ Editors, History com. "John C. Calhoun resigns vice presidency". HISTORY. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ "The Senate Elects a Vice President". senate.gov.
  9. ^ "John Tyler". The White House.
  10. ^ Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865 Volume 1. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1904. pp. 303, 658.
  11. ^ "William Rufus King sworn in as Vice President in Havana, Cuba | House Divided". hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu.
  12. ^ "Grave site of U.S. Vice President Hannibal Hamlin · Mount Hope Cemetery Virtual Tour". mounthopecemetery.omeka.net.
  13. ^ a b c d https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-104sdoc26/pdf/CDOC-104sdoc26.pdf
  14. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1906". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2011-10-06.
  15. ^ a b "James S. Sherman: So Many Firsts... | Politic-Ed". March 28, 2022.
  16. ^ "U.S. Senate: About the Vice President | Historical Overview". www.senate.gov.
  17. ^ a b "Fact check: Charles Curtis holds spot as first person of color as vice president". www.usatoday.com.
  18. ^ "Charles Curtis". www.visittopeka.com.
  19. ^ a b "Charles Curtis: The First and Only Native American Vice President of USA". January 5, 2019.
  20. ^ "Curtis Opens Tenth Olympiad with Over 100,000 Looking Over". The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, NE. July 31, 1932. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Abrupt Transition". National Archives. August 15, 2016.
  22. ^ "Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives". 2000.
  23. ^ Nelson, Michael (May 2015). Guide to the Presidency. Routledge. ISBN 9781135914691.
  24. ^ "The Veep: A great death for Alben Barkley".
  25. ^ https://study.com/learn/lesson/vice-president-alben-w-barkley-facts-biography-quotes.html
  26. ^ https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20010213_RL30842_2a48b07bf01b43a5b1ad5180c5135a295996c049.pdf
  27. ^ Sirgiovanni, George (1988). "The "Van Buren Jinx": Vice Presidents Need Not Beware". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 18 (1): 61–76. JSTOR 27550532 – via JSTOR.
  28. ^ "Vice Presidents who ran for President". CBS News. 3 September 2015.
  29. ^ "Religion and President Johnson". Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. Archived from the original on 2013-11-21.
  30. ^ "'Model' vice-president back from the cold". the Guardian. October 28, 2002.
  31. ^ Editors, History com. "Vice President Agnew resigns". HISTORY. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  32. ^ "Vice presidential haunts". www.chicagotribune.com. 22 September 2002.
  33. ^ "Veep debates: A brief history of memorable moments". www.usatoday.com.
  34. ^ a b Kaplan, Fred (20 April 2021). "The Vice Presidency Was a Joke Before Walter Mondale". Slate.
  35. ^ "Walter Mondale, liberal icon and Carter's vice president, dies at 93". www.pbs.org. 19 April 2021.
  36. ^ Boyd, Gerald M. (July 14, 1985). "Reagan Transfers Power to Bush for 8-Hour Period of 'Incapacity'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019.
  37. ^ American Political Leaders 1789-2009. CQ Press. 22 September 2009. ISBN 9781452267265.
  38. ^ "DenverPost.com - Colorado Politics & Elections". extras.denverpost.com.
  39. ^ "Think you know your election trivia?". CNN. November 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November 6, 2008.
  40. ^ "The First Catholic Vice President?". www.npr.org.
  41. ^ "Hi, folks. Welcome to my Facebook page. It's the first time a Vice President has had one of these". www.facebook.com.
  42. ^ Mahler, Jonathan; Johnson, Dirk (2016-07-20). "Mike Pence's Journey: Catholic Democrat to Evangelical Republican". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  43. ^ "VP Pence Casts Tie-Breaking Vote to Confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary". www.spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte.
  44. ^ "Federal judge becomes first in U.S. history confirmed by tiebreaker in the Senate". www.cbsnews.com. 11 December 2018.
  45. ^ "Pence at March for Life: 'Life is winning again'". www.indystar.com.
  46. ^ "Pence Creates PAC Ahead of 2018, 2020 Elections". www.nbcnews.com. 18 May 2017.
  47. ^ a b c d "The History Behind TIME Choosing President-Elects as Person of the Year". www.time.com. 11 December 2020.
  48. ^ "Douglas Emhoff: Second Gentleman". www.whitehouse.gov.
  49. ^ "Kamala Harris to be first vice president immortalized in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum". www.nbcnews.com. May 2021.
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