By K.P. Sander

“You have only one way to convince others; listen to them.”  –George Washington

Image Courtesy: Omnitrans.org

On Mon., Feb. 16, we celebrated the legacy of all United States Presidents, from the original, George Washington, to the present, Barack Obama.

According to Wikipedia, there have been have been 44 presidencies, but 43 men sworn into office (Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as 22^nd and 24^th presidents).

The youngest president to serve was Theodore Roosevelt, who was sworn in at 42; the oldest was Ronald Regan, who was 69.  The average age of our presidents on inauguration day is 55.

Four of our nation’s presidents died of natural causes while in office (Harrison, Taylor, Harding and F.D. Roosevelt).  William Henry Harrison spent just 32 days in office in 1841, and Franklin D. Roosevelt was not only the longest-serving president at over 12 years, but he was the only president to have served more than two terms.  He died shortly into his fourth term in 1945. A constitutional amendment limited the number of terms to two after Harry Truman in 1953.

17 U.S. presidents have been reelected to a second term in office; three of those men were unable to complete those terms – two due to assassination, and one due to resignation.  Richard Nixon is the only president to have resigned from office.  Overall, four of our nation’s presidents were assassinated:  Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy.

The celebration honoring our U.S. Presidents was originally established to honor George Washington, who at the time was venerated as the most important figure in American history, according to History.com.   In 1879, President Hayes signed the date into law, and it was traditionally celebrated on Feb. 22, Washington’s actual birthday.

The shift from Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day began in the late 1960s, and it officially became known as President’s Day as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act – celebrated on the third Monday each February – passed by Congress in 1971.

Melissa Aguilera contributed to this story.