10 August: Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover, the 31st US President was born on this date in 1874. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in West Branch, Iowa, the first President to be born west of the Mississippi River. In fact, he didn't cross east of the river until he was 22. His father was a blacksmith named Jesse Clark Hoover. The family were Quakers. Jesse died of a heart attack when Herbert was 6, and his mother died from pneumonia and typhoid fever three years later, leaving him an orphan at the age of 9. He and his siblings were cared for by various relatives.
2. He left school at 15 and got a job as an office boy while attending college classes in the evenings. In 1891, he enrolled at the then brand new Stanford University – he was one of the inaugural class. This was despite failing the entrance exam. He made up for the failure by being so super keen that he impressed the admissions professor sufficiently that he was offered a place anyway, albeit conditionally. Hoover had so little money that he had to live in the barracks for the builders who were building the university.
3. He met his wife, Lou Henry, at Stanford. Like him, she was studying geology.
4. When he graduated, he took an engineering job with the British mining firm of Bewick, Moreing and Company. This position had him travelling all over the world, locating lucrative mineral deposits. By the time he was 27, he'd become a partner in the firm. “If a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, he is not worth much,” he said.
5. One of the places his travels took him was China. He was there with his wife when the Boxer Rebellion happened and the compound they lived on was under siege during the fighting. Both Herbert and Lou could speak Chinese, which came in useful later when he was president. If he wanted to have a private conversation with his wife, they would do so in Chinese.
6. During and after the first world war, Hoover became known as a humanitarian. He was involved in an effort to get 120,000 American tourists stranded in Europe at the outbreak of World War I back home safely; the US government put him in charge of getting food to Belgium, which was neutral. He went on to take charge of the American Relief Administration, which delivered food to tens of millions of people in more than 20 countries, including the Soviet Union where more than 15 million people benefited every day. When accused of helping communists, he replied, “Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!” Hoover was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize. When he became president, he donated his presidential salary to charity.
7. This work made him so popular that in 1920, both the Republican and Democratic parties wanted him as their candidate for president. However, he didn't run until 1928, when he won by a landslide for the Republicans. His campaign slogan was “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” He also took his dog, King Tut, with him on the campaign trail to boost his appeal even more.
8. However, it was during his term that the great depression hit. Despite his warnings against speculative investing and his efforts to improve things, he lost popularity and lost by a landslide to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
9. He was one of the first people ever to appear on TV. As secretary of commerce under President Calvin Coolidge, his voice and image were transmitted live in the first American demonstration of television.
10. There is a sport named after him. While he was president the White House physician decided he needed to keep fit and developed a game for Hoover and his staff to play in the grounds each morning. The game involved two teams of two to four players throwing a 6lb ball over an 8 foot net. It was similar to tennis but as the ball was thrown rather than hit with a racquet, it was a faster and more vigorous game and better exercise. A reporter dubbed the game "Hooverball" and the name stuck. A national Hooverball championship is held in Hoover’s birthplace of West Branch, Iowa, each year.

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