By a strange coincidence Jefferson and his old rival John Adams both died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1826. On the evening of July 3, Jefferson was in bed, his life ebbing rapidly. "This is the Fourth?" he whispered
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Shortly before he left the White House, Roosevelt, planning a big-game hunting trip to Africa, heard that a famous white hunter was visiting Washington. He invited the man to come along and give him some advice. After a two-hour tête-à-tête the hunter cam
Continue reading >>Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865): On the fatal night, April 14, 1865, Lincoln did not want to go to the theater.
Continue reading >>George Washington (1789-1797): When the Constitutional Convention got around to discussing the power of Congress to raise an army, one of the delegates moved “that the standing army be restricted to five thousand men at any time.”
Continue reading >>It is sometimes hard to discern what Jefferson's humor was like, but there are references to Jefferson's sense of humor from family accounts, from his letters, and from contemporary descriptions.
Continue reading >>As Abraham Lincoln once said, humor is "an emollient" that "saves me much friction and distress." Lincoln reminds us that not all speeches will notch a place in history. The following are some other comments by presidents that have touched the masses, for
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