List of Presidents of the United States



Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. As chief of the executive branch and head of the federal government as a whole, the presidency is the highest political office in the United States by influence and recognition. The president is also the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is indirectly elected to a four-year term by an Electoral College (or by the House of Representatives should the Electoral College fail to award an absolute majority of votes to any person). Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Furthermore, no person who served more than two years of a term - to which someone else was elected - may be elected more than once. Upon the death, resignation, or removal from office of an incumbent president, the Vice President assumes the office.

About the list
This list includes only those persons who were sworn into office as president following the ratification of the United States Constitution, which took effect on March 4, 1789. For American leaders before this ratification, see President of the Continental Congress. The list does not include any Acting Presidents under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

There have been forty-three people sworn into office, and forty-four presidencies, as Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted chronologically as both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president. 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), one resigned (Richard Nixon ), and four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln , James A. Garfield , William McKinley   , and John F. Kennedy). The first president was George Washington, who was inaugurated in 1789 after a unanimous Electoral College vote. William Henry Harrison spent the shortest time in office at 31 days in 1841. At over twelve years, Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the longest time in office, and is the only president to serve more than two terms; he died shortly into his fourth term in 1945. The current president is Barack Obama; he assumed the office on January 20, 2009, and is the first president of African-American descent. He is also the first president born outside the contiguous United States, having been born in Hawaii.

List of presidents

 * Parties

Living former presidents
, there are four living former presidents of the United States. The most recent death of a former president was that of Gerald Ford (1974–1977), on December 26, 2006. The most recently serving former president to die was Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), on June 5, 2004.

Links

 * Whitehouse.gov: The Presidents
 * American Presidents – History Channel
 * American Presidents: Life Portraits
 * The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies –Grand Valley State University
 * POTUS: Presidents of the United States – Internet Public Library
 * Periodic Table of US Presidents