It shouldn’t be all that surprising to hear that United States Presidents #11 to #20 often don’t get the same amount of attention (with the notable exception of #16 Abraham Lincoln) as most of the first 10 do. After all, presidents 11 to 20 were able to ride (for the most part) on the foundations built by their predecessors and, as a result, have retreated into obscurity behind the shadows of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers. Yet, if we take only so much as a cursory glance at the lives of the presidents who governed the country through the mid to late 19th century, we can see that they hardly led dull existences. Here are 10 fast facts over U.S. Presidents 11 to 20.

11. James Polk.

Fact: James Polk's photograph, seen below, is the oldest surviving photograph of an American President. The picture was taken in 1849.

12. Zachary Taylor.

Fact: Taylor, a war hero and opponent of slavery, died suddenly of an apparent bacterial infection (perhaps cholera) only 16 months in office, shocking the nation. Before becoming president, he had never served in public office.

13. Millard Fillmore.

Fact: The White House's own website calls Fillmore "uninspiring," which gives one an idea of just how unpopular he was when he left office (in his only presidential election he carried one state, Maryland, and around 22 percent of the popular vote). Certainly, his opposition to Abraham Lincoln on the Civil War hasn't done his image any favors.

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14. Franklin Pierce.

Fact: Pierce was an alcoholic and is -- perhaps, even more than Fillmore -- considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. However, he was the first president to put a Christmas tree in the White House, and after leaving office he devoted almost all of his time to helping his wife cope with the premature deaths of their three sons.

15. James Buchanan.

Fact: Yet another one of the all-time worst U.S. Presidents, Buchanan is widely seen today as an ineffective and indecisive president, which certainly helped to stoke the fires of the imminent Civil War. He was also the only U.S. President to have never married (his niece played the role of First Lady).

16. Abraham Lincoln.

Fact: Lincoln once used his height (6 feet 4 inches) to his advantage in restoring order at one of his early political events: when someone was causing a disruption during a speech, Lincoln stepped down from his podium and physically grabbed the disruptor by "his neck and the seat of his pants" and literally threw him out.

17. Andrew Johnson.

Fact: Andrew Johnson taught himself to read, having never been to school. Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped history from calling him one of the worst presidents in history (and was even impeached), as many historians acknowledge he completely mishandled the Reconstruction phase after the Civil War. However, during Johnson's time as President, his Secretary of State purchased Alaska which, though ridiculed at the time as a terrible purchase, paid off later when oil was discovered there.

18. Ulysses S. Grant.

Fact: Many who worked for Grant during his presidency were corrupt and stealing from the government, thus embroiling Grant's presidency in scandal. Grant was also invited to go to Ford's Theater on the night President Lincoln was assassinated, but turned it down (a decision he said he later regretted).

19. Rutherford B. Hayes.

Fact: Hayes was the first president to kick off the now-annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. He also won one of the closest elections in history, losing the popular vote, but wining the electoral vote which caused many to claim he won by fraud, earning him the nickname "His Fraudulence."

20. James Garfield.

Fact: Garfield never intended to run for president, yet was elected anyway (Garfield had no interest in running and didn't put his name down for consideration during the Republican nomination convention, yet the delegates there voted for him, anyway). Garfield could also write with both of his hands; sometimes he'd write in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other.