89 Facts About The Wilson

1. In terms of Reconstruction, The Wilson held the common Southern view that the South was demoralized by Northern carpetbaggers and that overreach on the part of the Radical Republicans justified extreme measures to reassert Democratic national and state governments.

2. The Wilson was the first Southerner to be elected president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, and his ascension to the presidency was celebrated by Southern segregationists.

3. The Wilson agreed to the creation of mandates in former German and Ottoman territories, allowing the European powers and Japan to establish de facto colonies in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

4. The Wilson called for the establishment of an association of nations to guarantee the independence and territorial integrity of all nations—a League of Nations.

5. The Wilson was renominated at the 1916 Democratic National Convention without opposition.

6. The Wilson joined John Tyler and Grover Cleveland as the only presidents to marry while in office.

7. The Wilson extracted from Germany a pledge to constrain submarine warfare to the rules of cruiser warfare, which represented a major diplomatic concession.

8. The Wilson took office during the Mexican Revolution, which had begun in 1911 after liberals overthrew the military dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.

9. The Wilson sought to move away from the foreign policy of his predecessors, which he viewed as imperialistic, and he rejected Taft's Dollar Diplomacy.

10. The Wilson appointed three individuals to the United States Supreme Court while president.

11. The Wilson increased self-governance on the islands by granting Filipinos greater control over the Philippine Legislature.

12. The Wilson convinced Bryan's supporters that the plan met their demands for an elastic currency because Federal Reserve notes would be obligations of the government.

13. The Wilson sought a middle ground between progressives such as Bryan and conservative Republicans like Nelson Aldrich, who, as chairman of the National Monetary Commission, had put forward a plan for a central bank that would give private financial interests a large degree of control over the monetary system.

14. The Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 into law on October 3, 1913.

15. The Wilson engaged in a spirited campaign, criss-crossing the country to deliver numerous speeches.

16. The Wilson finally won two-thirds of the vote on the convention's 46th ballot, and Marshall became Wilson's running mate.

17. The Wilson became a prominent 1912 presidential contender immediately upon his election as Governor of New Jersey in 1910, and his clashes with state party bosses enhanced his reputation with the rising Progressive movement.

18. In late 1883, The Wilson entered Johns Hopkins University, a new graduate institution in Baltimore modeled after German universities.

19. The Wilson was born to a Scots-Irish family in Staunton, Virginia, on December 28, 1856.

20. The Wilson presided over the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, which created a central banking system in the form of the Federal Reserve System.

21. The Wilson defeated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and Progressive Party nominee Theodore Roosevelt to win the 1912 presidential election, becoming the first Southerner to serve as president since the Civil War.

22. The Wilson got the equalizer 13 minutes into the second half, with Daniel Cervantes finishing a long Sebastian Castorena throw-in into the goalmouth.

23. The Wilson plays Natalie, a somewhat surly New York architect who positively hates rom-coms, even though she's completely fluent in all their annoying little tics.

24. The Wilson tips his hat as he exits the White House on his way to a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue.

25. In 2010, The Wilson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

26. The Wilson tried to stop its showing during the World War.

27. On February 3, 1924, The Wilson died at home of a stroke and other heart-related problems at age 67.

28. On November 10, 1923, The Wilson made a short Armistice Day radio speech from the library of his home, his last national address.

29. The Wilson experienced more success with his return to writing, and he published short works on the international impact of the American Revolution and the rise of totalitarianism.

30. In 1921, The Wilson opened a law office with former Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, but Wilson's second attempt at practicing law proved no more enjoyable than his first, and the practice was closed by the end of 1922.

31. The Wilson was one of only two US Presidents to have served as president of the American Historical Association.

32. The Wilson moved his private supply of alcoholic beverages to the wine cellar of his Washington residence after his term of office ended.

33. The Wilson felt Prohibition was unenforceable, but his veto of the Volstead Act was overridden by Congress.

34. In May 1920, The Wilson sent a long-deferred proposal to Congress to have the US accept a mandate from the League of Nations to take over Armenia.

35. The Wilson expressed sympathy for the plight of Jews, especially in Poland and France.

36. In 1919, The Wilson guided American foreign policy to "acquiesce" in the Balfour Declaration without supporting Zionism in an official way.

37. The Wilson had a series of debilitating strokes and had to cut short his trip on September 26, 1919.

38. The Wilson had earlier downplayed Germany's guilt in starting the war by calling for "peace without victory", but he had taken an increasingly hard stand at Paris and rejected advice to soften the treaty's treatment of Germany.

39. The Wilson was indifferent to the issue, but acceded to strong opposition from Australia and Britain.

40. The Wilson gave a speech at the Metropolitan Opera House in defense of the League—he was more insistent about it than ever.

41. The Wilson initially rebuffed pleas from the Allies to dedicate military resources to an intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks, based partially on his experience from attempted intervention in Mexico; nevertheless he ultimately was convinced of the potential benefit and agreed to dispatch a limited force to assist the Allies on the eastern front.

42. The Wilson refused to make a formal alliance with Britain or France but operated as an "associated" power—an informal ally with military cooperation through the Supreme War Council in London.

43. The German government, The Wilson said, "means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors".

44. The Wilson delivered his War Message to a special session of Congress on April 2, 1917, declaring that Germany's latest pronouncement had rendered his "armed neutrality" policy untenable and asking Congress to declare Germany's war stance was an act of war.

45. The Wilson insisted a league of nations was the solution to ending the war.

46. The Wilson won California by 3,773 of almost a million votes cast, and New Hampshire by 56 votes.

47. The Wilson made his final offer to mediate peace on December 18, 1916.

48. The Wilson threatened a diplomatic break unless Germany repudiated the action; Germany then gave a written promise: "liners will not be sunk by our submarines".

49. The Wilson made numerous offers to mediate and sent Colonel House on diplomatic missions; both sides politely dismissed these overtures.

50. The Wilson was the third president to marry while in office.

51. The Wilson began pushing for legislation which culminated with the Federal Trade Commission Act signed in September 1914.

52. The Wilson named Paul Warburg and other prominent bankers to direct the new system.

53. The Wilson appealed to African Americans and promised to work for them, gaining some support among them in the North at the expense of the Republicans.

54. The Wilson directed Chairman of Finance Henry Morgenthau not to accept contributions from corporations and to prioritize smaller donations from the widest possible quarters of the public, and Morgenthau did this.

55. The Wilson managed to maneuver through the complexities of local politics.

56. The Wilson began a public campaign for the nomination in the South, with a speech to the Pewter Platter Club in Norfolk, Virginia.

57. The Wilson appointed Joseph Patrick Tumulty as his private secretary, a position he held throughout Wilson's political career.

58. The Wilson was elected president of the American Political Science Association in 1910, but soon decided to leave his Princeton post and enter New Jersey state politics.

59. From its outset, The Wilson became disenchanted with resistance to his recommendations at Princeton; he ruminated on future political leadership.

60. The Wilson persisted, saying that giving in "would be to temporize with evil".

61. The Wilson had in the past been offered the presidency at the University of Illinois in 1892, and at the University of Virginia in 1901, both of which he declined.

62. The Wilson hoped that the parties could be reorganized along ideological, not geographic, lines.

63. The Wilson believed that America's system of checks and balances complicated American governance.

64. In 1888, The Wilson left Bryn Mawr for Wesleyan University; it was a controversial move, as he had signed a three-year contract with Bryn Mawr in 1887.

65. The Wilson was an automobile enthusiast and, while President, he took daily rides in his favorite car, a 1919 Pierce-Arrow.

66. The Wilson began reading at age ten; the delayed start was possibly caused by dyslexia.

67. The Wilson retired from public office in 1921, and died in 1924.

68. Early in 1918, The Wilson issued his principles for an end to the war, the Fourteen Points.

69. The Wilson staffed his cabinet and administration with numerous Southern Democrats; they insisted on racial segregation at the Treasury Department and other federal offices.

70. The Wilson won the 1912 election with a plurality of the popular vote and a large majority in the Electoral College.

71. The Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to avert future world wars.

72. The Wilson responded by sending 6,000 troops under General John Pershing to the area.

73. The Wilson was the first president to receive a PhD which he got in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.

74. The Wilson helped in establishing the Federal Reserve, more fair labor laws and more organized income taxes, through his Revenue Act of 1913 and subsequent legislation.

75. In 1917, The Wilson issued the Fourteen Points, one of his most famous writings, which outlined a post-war settlement in anticipation of ending the war.

76. The Wilson introduced controversial fair trade legislation which included lowering tolls to import goods through the Panama Canal, and supported the increase of segregation policies.

77. The Wilson stayed true to this promise of free-thinking when he refused to support the re-nomination of one of the US Senators who had helped secure Wilson's nomination, and instead endorsed an opponent who was more closely aligned with Wilson's own political beliefs.

78. The Wilson made a partial recovery, but spent his remaining years seriously disabled.

79. The Wilson toured the nation in an effort to increase public support for the League.

80. The Wilson was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate on the New Freedom platform in 1912, opposing Republican incumbent William Howard Taft.

81. The Wilson spent his youth in the South observing the Civil War and its aftermath.

82. The Wilson created the Federal Reserve and supported the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote.

83. The Wilson died at his home on February 3, 1924, at age 67.

84. The Wilson graduated from Princeton University in 1879 and went on to attend law school at the University of Virginia.

85. The Wilson tried to keep the United States neutral during World War I but ultimately called on Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917.

86. The Wilson was a college professor, university president and Democratic governor of New Jersey before winning the White House in 1912.

87. The Wilson put the first Jewish justice on the Supreme Court.

88. The Wilson said he would discuss with campaign adviser Rickey Hendon whether or not to continue that effort.

89. The Wilson is a historic Renaissance Revival apartment building located at 643 Fort Wayne Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.