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John II was king of France during one of the nation's wars with England.

He was captured by the English in 1356 at the Battle of Poitiers. Since he was a king, the English didn't want to keep him in jail, they wanted to exchange him for money.

They released him when he promised he would either raise the money they wanted as his ransom or go back to jail. John wasn't a very popular king, and he wasn't able to raise the money. Read more »

President John Quincy Adams, president from 1825 to 1829, got caught nude.

He was an early riser. He was often up at 4 AM while it was still dark outside. He did this so he would have the time to write in his personal diary.

However, on the mornings when it was very warm, the president liked nothing better than to stroll down to the Potomac River and go skinny dipping, and swim without his clothes. He'd hide his things behind an old tree and take a nice refreshing swim. Read more »

His name was Robert Todd Lincoln. He was the oldest son of Abraham Lincoln, and he thought he was a jinx.

He had the terrible bad luck to be present at the assassinations of three US presidents. Young Lincoln was away at college during most of the years his father was president. He returned to Washington, D. C., on April 14, 1865.

That evening, his father was shot by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of a play at a theater not far from the White House. Robert Todd Lincoln stayed with his father until he died the following morning. He then went with his mother to live in Chicago. Read more »

There are a lot of crazy automobile drivers in this world, but it is the Japanese who take the cake.

They have more accidents than anybody else, based on the size of their population. Not many people get killed in these accidents. Not many people even get injured.

They just keep bumping into one another, making little dents in their cars. When it comes to the most dangerous drivers, the Canadians seem to take all the terrible honors. Read more »

President Reagan liked to take a few weeks off to spend time at his ranch in California, but he worked at being president even while he is there.

President Eisenhower loved to play golf and could be found on the golf course two or three times a week.

But the man who liked to escape from the White House the most was President Calvin Coolidge, who was in office form 1923 to 1929. Coolidge loved to travel and often "took off" to the Black Hills of South Dakota or to Swampscott, Massachusetts. Read more »

Do you hear a lot of griping and complaining around you?

Are your friends always saying this is wrong, that is terrible, and that other thing ought to be changed?

Well, if you hear a lot of that here in the US, you ought to hear what's going on in Italy and Japan. More people are unhappy about their lives in those two countries than in any of the other industrial democracies.

A poll recently showed that a high proportion of people in those countries said they were not only unhappy now, but expected to be just as miserable in five years. Read more »

Men with four-inch fingernails?

During the late 1800s and even during the early 1900s, it was the custom among the ruling classes and the very wealthy of China for men to allow one fingernail to grow to a length of four or five inches.

Because such a fingernail could not possibly remain on the hand of someone who worked with his or her hands, it was a symbol of wealth. Of course, even if its owner didn't dig ditches, such a long fingernail could easily become split or broken. Read more »

It was President Lyndon B. Johnson. He served marvelous steaks, baked potatoes, corn pudding, and pecan pie.

President Johnson was a very good and fast walker. Because he didn't like to waste time, he often called press conferences at the last minute and had the reporters ask questions while he was taking one of his long walks.

The reporters called these sessions "walkie talkies." Johnson was also an excellent dancer, and it was something he loved to do. One time, at a White House party, he waltzed fifty ladies in a row around the East Room. Read more »

Humpback Whales are indeed social animals among humans. They are easily approachable, curious, and display many behaviors such as breaching the water. This makes the animal ideal for whale watching.

The humpback whales that come to the ocean waters off the Hawaiian Islands swim alongside people and have never been known to harm anyone.

They seem to be just as curious about people as people are about them. They will swim very close, just an arm's length away, and remain there for quite a while. In fact, many whales swim this way for a good half hour. Read more »

Long before Grover Cleveland became president, he was a sheriff in Erie County, New York.

As a law officer, one of his duties was to be in charge of hangings. While he was a sheriff, he had to hang two criminals. Cleveland was always a very busy man.

In the course of three and a half years, he was the mayor of Buffalo, New York, and governor of the state of New York. In 1885, he became president. He is the only man in history to have served two terms as president that didn't run one after the other. Read more »