Richard Nixon is the only U.S. president born on the West Coast.

Famous Figures

O n January 9, 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon was born on his parents' citrus farm in Yorba Linda, California, a location that became notable when, in 1968, he became the first — and to date, only — U.S. president born on the West Coast of the United States.

Considering that a total of 45 people have served in the nation's highest office, it may seem odd that just one has come from the contiguous West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Then again, the United States is a country that began on the Eastern Seaboard and expanded westward, with California, Oregon, and Washington among the later entries to the nation, in 1850, 1859, and 1889, respectively.

In fact, it took until 1860 for Americans to elect the first president from somewhere besides the original 13 states: Kentucky-born Abraham Lincoln. The tide has tilted toward the Pacific in more recent decades, with eight of the past 16 presidents coming from states west of the Mississippi River. Still, a disproportionate overall share hail from traditional eastern strongholds, with 28 presidents born in the original 13 states and another seven in Ohio.

Despite Nixon's rare geographic origins for a president, he isn't the only one with ties to the western reaches of the country. Barack Obama was born and spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, before becoming a state and U.S. senator from Illinois. Herbert Hoover was born in Iowa but was sent to live with an uncle in Oregon at age 11, before attending Stanford University in California. And Ronald Reagan grew up in Illinois prior to establishing a Hollywood career and eventually becoming governor of the Golden State.

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By the Numbers

U.S. presidents born in Virginia

Percentage of the U.S. population living in the West in 2024

23.5%

Did you know?

One U.S. vice president won a Nobel Peace Prize and co-wrote a No. 1 pop song.

If the vice presidency is sometimes derided as a position of surprisingly minimal importance, then Charles G. Dawes, vice president to Calvin Coolidge, at least managed his most noteworthy accomplishments in other arenas. A prominent businessman, Dawes was tasked with devising a system to stabilize German reparations in the aftermath of World War I, for which he earned a Nobel Peace Prize during his tenure as VP. The financial guru was also a talented self-taught musician who had composed the instrumental "Melody in A Major" in 1911. Forty years later, songwriter Carl Sigman added lyrics to Dawes' wistful melody and retitled the song "It's All in the Game." Although multiple artists recorded the tune that year, a revamped version by Tommy Edwards shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958, making Dawes the rare individual to be recognized for both solving an international crisis and implanting an earworm in the heads of the masses.