1930 Lyndon B. Johnson graduated from Southwest Texas Teachers College.

1937 Lyndon Johnson is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1941 Johnson serves in the U.S. Navy during WW II.

1948 Johnson is elected to the U.S. Senate.

1960 Johnson is elected Vice President.

1963 Lyndon B. Johnson is elected Vice President under Kennedy.

1963 Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes President when Kennedy is assassinated.

1964 The Civil Rights Act is passed.

1965 Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery takes place.

1968 More than 500,000 U.S. were fighting in Vietnam.

1968 Martin Luther King is assassinated.

1973 Lyndon B. Johnson dies.

Lyndon Baines Johnson
1963 - 1969
36th President

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1908.

President Johnson was one of two Presidents born in Texas.

At fifteen he ran away from home and traveled to California where he worked as a grape picker and auto mechanic.

Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alra "Lady Bird" Taylor when she was 21. They were married on November 17, 1934 in San Antonio, Texas. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines.

Lyndon Johnson was in the military during WWII. He was awarded the Silver Star by General MacArthur after Johnson's plane was attacked by Japanese airplanes.

Lyndon was a teacher before he entered politics.

He was Vice President under John F. Kennedy. He became President when Kennedy was assassinated.

Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One
following the assassination of John Kennedy, Dallas, Texas,
November 22, 1963.
Credit: Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Lyndon Baines Johnson was the first President sworn in by a woman. He was sworn in by Federal District Judge Sarah Hughes. Also, he was the first President to be sworn in on an airplane. The plane was not in flight.

Lyndon Johnson did not have a Vice President during his first term. Hubert Humphrey (1965-1969) was Vice President during his second term.

President Johnson was 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 210 when he became President.

In 1964, he ran against Barry Goldwater. During the campaign the Democrats ran a TV ad showing a girl picking petals off of a daisy and counting. When she reached 10 her voice was replaced by a man counting down to zero. Then they showed a mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb. The ad only ran once, but was shown on the news and hurt Goldwater's chance to become President.

Lyndon Baines Johnson went without a Vice President until he was elected for his own term in 1964.

Lyndon Baines Johnson used to go through the White House at night turning lights off that were not needed. He did not want to waste the taxpayers money.

LBJ loved to give gifts. In his first year as President he spent over 3 times as much as his predecessor on gifts. He particularly liked giving electric toothbrushes. "I give these toothbrushes to friends," he explained, "for then I know that from now until the end of their days they will think of me the first thing in the morning and the last at night." His biographer Doris Kearns received more than 12 from Johnson in 10 years.

He was notorious for taking guests on 90-mph rides around his 415-acre LBJ Ranch in Texas in his Lincoln.

Lyndon would sometimes lift up shirt and show people his scars from surgery.

After his heart attack, an aide inquired if he should cancel Johnson order for two suits. He had ordered a brown and a blue suit. His reply was, "Let them go ahead with the blue one. We can use that no matter what happens.

He had tow beagles for pets. Their names were Him and Her. Criticized by the press for picking up one of the beagles by its ears.

During Lyndon Johnson's term the US was involved in the Vietnam War and in the war in the Dominican Republic in 1965.

Lyndon Johnson was the first president to name a black person to his Cabinet.

Lyndon Baines Johnson died on January 22, 1973. He is buried in a family plot near Johnson City, Texas.

Quotes:

"Strike down ignorance, poverty, and disease, and Communism without its allies will wither and die." May 4, 1961.

Quick Facts

36 President
1963-1969

Born: Stonewall, TX., Aug. 27, 1908

Inaugurated as President:
First Term: Nov. 22, 1963
Second Term: Jan. 20, 1965

Party: Democratic

Died: San Antonio, TX, Jan. 22, 1973, age 64.

References:

• The Presidents of the United States. 22 September 2004
• Davis, Gibbs and Ilus. David A. Johnson. Wackiest White House Pets. New York: Scholastic Press, October 2004
• James, Barber and Amy Pastan. Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies. New York: DK Publishing, 2002
• Harnsberger, Caroline Thomas. Treasury of Presidential Quotations. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964
• Kane, Joseph Natan. Facts about the Presidents from Washington to Johnson. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1964.
• National Park Service Web Site on Presidential Trivia: http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/pres/trivia.htm.

Additional Sources:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents
http://www.historyplace.com/specials/portraits/presidents/index.html
www.freep.com
http://www.umkc.edu/imc/prestriv.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/4062/trivia.html
http://www.freep.com/news/inaug/trivia/index.htm
http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/

If you have comments or corrections, please send them to jim@anewadventure.org.