Adams was the first president to wear long pants instead of knee-breeches, which had been the fashion up to that time.

The couple named one of their sons after George Washington, making Adams the only U.S. President to do so.

He is the earliest president of whom we have a photograph. (President Andrew Jackson was photographed in 1844-45; James Buchanan was the first president to be photographed while in office.

He was the first President to give an interview to a woman. Adams had repeatedly refused requests for an interview with Anne Royall, the first female professional journalist in the U.S., so she took a different approach to accomplish her goal. She learned that Adams liked to skinny-dip in the Potomac River almost every morning around 5 AM, so she went to the river, gathered his clothes and sat on them until he answered all of her questions.

While in Russia, Adams and his wife lost an infant daughter, who was born in 1811, to illness.

Adams was the first president to be involved in a railroad accident. He was a passenger on a Camden & Amboy train that derailed in the meadows near Hightstown, New Jersey on November 11, 1833. His coach was the one ahead of the first car to derail. He was uninjured and continued his journey to Washington the following day.

Toilets, a novelty during his term, were given the nickname "Quincy" in honor of the late president. The president was the first to have such a convenience installed in the White House.

The actress Mary Kay Adams is a descendant of John Quincy Adams.

In the film How High, Jamal King and Silas P. Silas dig his remains from his grave and attempt to smoke him to gain knowledge to pass tests, but to no avail.

The "c" in Adams's middle name "Quincy" is properly pronounced with the z sound, not the s sound, just like the city of Quincy, Massachusetts, and Quincy Market in Boston (names derived from the same family).

He is the first of the 8 senators profiled in John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.

His last words were "This is the last of earth. I am content".