Eliza Johnson (1810-76) was an American first lady (1865-69) and the wife of Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States. Though she supported her husband's political career, she shied away from the public role associated with it, and did not even travel to Washington, D.C. from her home in Tennessee until her husband had been in Congress for nearly 20 years. Her increasingly poor health led her to severely limit her public appearances while her husband was in the White House, though she remained his steadfast supporter throughout his controversial and rocky presidency.
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This Day in History
May 25
Presidential
JFK asks Congress to support the space program, 1961
On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy announces to Congress his goal of sending an American to the moon by the end of the decade and asks for…
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Eliza and Andrew Johnson's wedding service was presided over by Mordecai Lincoln, a distant relative of Johnson's predecessor as U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln.
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