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George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is a retired American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A Republican, he had previously served as the 43rd vice president of the United States (1981-1989), a congressman, an ambassador, and director of Central Intelligence. He is the oldest living former president and vice president. He is also the last living former president who is a veteran of World War II.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States (1963-1969), a position he assumed after his service as the 37th vice president (1961-1963). Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, served as a United States representative from 1937 to 1949 and as a United States senator from 1949 to 1961, including six years as Senate majority leader, two as Senate minority leader, and two as Senate majority whip.

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., July 14, 1913-December 26, 2006), was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and was the 40th vice president of the United States, serving from 1973 to 1974 under President Richard Nixon. He was the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, after Spiro Agnew resigned.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 - January 17, 1893) was the 19th President of the United States (1877 - 1881). As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Franklin Delano (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. A Democrat, he won a record four elections and served from March 1933 to his death in April 1945. He was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 28, 1969) was the thirty-fourth president of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942-43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944-45 from the Western Front.

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) was the thirtieth president of the United States (1923-1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His response to the Boston police strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963), commonly known as Jack Kennedy or by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. This undelivered speech was due to be given on November 22, 1963, to the annual meeting of the Dallas Citizens Council at the Dallas Trade Mart.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) was the thirty-first president of the United States (1929-1933). Hoover, born to a Quaker family, was a professional mining engineer. He achieved American and international prominence in humanitarian relief efforts in war-time Belgium and served as head of the U.S. Food Administration during World War I.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote this message on January 3, 1919. Both by its character and the circumstances of its publication, it's considered his final message to the American people. He sent it to the president of the American Defense Society, and it was read at a great mass meeting under the auspices of that organization in the Hippodrome in New York, on the evening of January 5. It was published on the morning of January 6, the day of his death.

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) was the thirty-third president of the United States (1945-53). As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman assumed the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman the Allies successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) was the twenty-seventh president of the United States (1909-1913) and later the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921-1930). He is the only person to have served in both of these offices. Riding a wave of popular support for fellow Republican Roosevelt, Taft won an easy victory in his 1908 bid for the presidency.

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) was the twenty-ninth president of the United States (1921-23), a Republican from Ohio who served in the Ohio Senate and then in the United States Senate, where he played a minor role.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) was the twenty-eighth president of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, and leader of the progressive movement. Wilson induced a conservative Democratic Congress to pass a progressive legislative agenda, unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. This included the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act, and an income tax.

McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals. As an innovator of American interventionism and pro-business sentiment, McKinley's presidency is generally considered above average, though his universally positive public perception was soon overshadowed by Roosevelt.

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 - June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States; as such, he is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. He was the winner of the popular vote for president three times - in 1884, 1888, and 1892 - and was one of the two Democrats (alongside Woodrow Wilson) elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.

During the American Civil War, he served the Union for most of the war as a colonel and on February 14, 1865 was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from January 23, 1865. Afterwards, he unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of Indiana but was later elected to the U.S. Senate by the Indiana legislature.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the eleven states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time.

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 - November 18, 1886) was the 21st President of the United States (1881-85); he succeeded James Garfield upon the latter's assassination. At the outset, Arthur struggled to overcome his reputation, stemming from his beginnings in politics as a politician from the New York City Republican political machine. He succeeded by embracing the cause of civil service reform.

His inability to calm tensions over slavery kept the country on the path to the American Civil War. Genial and well-spoken, Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. His polarizing actions in championing and signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act failed to stem intersectional conflict, setting the stage for Southern secession, and leaving him widely regarded as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.