( CNN ) -- As millions head to the polls Tuesday , history will be made . Either Barack Obama will become the first African-American president , or Sarah Palin will become the first female vice president . The 2008 presidential election will have a historic outcome , whichever ticket wins . But what about all the other history and trivia from the past 219 years ? Check out some tidbits to quench any political junkies ' thirst , impress friends and maybe even win a few bar bets . Election 2008 . • Either John McCain or Obama will be the first incumbent member of Congress to be elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960 . • Either McCain or Obama will become only the third senator to move directly from the U.S. Senate to the White House . The other two senators : Warren G. Harding ( 1920 ) and John F. Kennedy ( 1960 ) . • This year 's contest marks the 25th presidential election without an incumbent president on the ballot . • This is the first election in 24 years without a Bush or a Clinton heading a major party 's presidential ticket . McCain/Obama scenarios . • If McCain wins , he will be the first president from Arizona . • If McCain wins , he will have headed the first successful GOP presidential ticket in 80 years that did not include someone named Bush or Nixon . • If McCain wins , Palin will become the first vice president from Alaska . • If Obama wins , he will be the third president from Illinois . The first two : Abraham Lincoln ( elected in 1860 and 1864 ) and Ulysses S. Grant ( elected in 1868 and 1872 ) . • If Obama wins , he will be the 27th lawyer to become president . Bill Clinton was the last lawyer elected president , and the first was John Adams . • If Obama wins , Joe Biden will become the first vice president from Delaware . Past presidential races . • Nineteen of America 's 43 presidents have been Republicans ; 14 have been Democrats . • The first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln , who was elected in 1860 and 1864 . Andrew Jackson , elected in 1828 and 1832 , was the first presidential candidate to run ( and win ) as a Democrat . • The House has twice decided the presidential election because no candidate received a majority in the Electoral College ( Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and John Quincy Adams in 1824 ) . • The most states ever won by a presidential candidate is 49 . In 1972 , Richard Nixon carried every state except Massachusetts ; in 1984 , Ronald Reagan carried every state except Minnesota . Both lost the District of Columbia . The most states ever won by a Democratic presidential candidate is 46 . In 1936 , Franklin Roosevelt carried 46 of 48 states , failing to capture only Maine and Vermont . • Four presidents have won the presidency while losing the popular vote : John Quincy Adams ( 1824 ) , Rutherford B. Hayes ( 1876 ) , Benjamin Harrison ( 1888 ) and George W. Bush ( 2000 ) . In the House and Senate . • Democrats controlled both houses of Congress from 1955 to 1981 . This 26-year stretch is the longest any single party has controlled both chambers of Congress . ( The GOP took control of the Senate in 1981 . ) • The last time the Democrats won the White House while maintaining control of the House and the Senate was in 1992 . • The last time the Republicans won the White House without electing a majority in either the House or the Senate was in 1988 . • Sixteen women currently serve in the Senate . Three -- Susan Collins , Elizabeth Dole and Mary Landrieu -- are up for re-election this year . Seventy-one women currently serve in the House as voting members . CNN 's Robert Yoon and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report .
If Barack Obama wins , he will become the first African-American president . If McCain wins , McCain will be the nation 's first female vice president . Nineteen of the Nineteen presidents have been African-American ; Nineteen have been Republicans . The most states ever won by a presidential candidate is 49 .