Are You Smarter Than Wikipedia?

[That could be an interesting game show. But I think the host would have to be someone like Steve Martin -- Ed.]

My sister and I were having a wide-ranging conversation on Thursday that eventually got around to the topic of Arnold Schwarzenegger and whether he will run for the U.S. Senate. We also touched on the chatter that has come up about amending the U.S. Constitution so that he -- and others like him -- might be able to run for President or Vice President.

As I hope you know, dear reader, the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is presumptively not eligible to be President or Vice President of the United States, due to this provision of the U.S. Constitution:

" No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. "

[Article II, section 1, clause 5]

[Although the Constitution does not state separate qualifications for the office of Vice President, it is widely presumed that they are the same as the qualifications for the office of President.]

So, just curious, we asked ourselves who was the first President to have been born in the United States after the adoption of the Constitution. It's one of the choices below. Can you get it -- without cheating?

"Who was the first President to have been born in the United States after the adoption of the Constitution?"

a) Andrew Jackson [7th President]
b) Martin Van Buren [8th President]
c) William Henry Harrison [9th President]
d) John Tyler [10th President]
e) James K. Polk [11th President]

The answer is after the jump...

Answer: D -- John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790, in Charles City County, Virginia.

Tyler is probably best remembered as the first Vice President to ascend to the Presidency after the death of the sitting President. President William Henry Harrison famously opted to give his inaugural address -- over two hours in length -- and to march in the inaugural parade without a coat in inclimate weather. He subsequently caught pneumonia and died on April 4, 1841. At the time, the Constitution was not clear on all aspects of succession in the case of the death of a President. Vice President Tyler became the "Acting President" on April 4 and then took the oath of office as President on April 6, 1841. Congress then passed a resolution affirming that Tyler was officially the President of the United States. Tyler's unilateral decision to take the oath of office set a precedent that 7 other Vice Presidents followed before the Constitution was amended to make this line of succession Constitutionally "formal".