1John Scott Harrison
The stolen body of U.S. politician John Scott Harrison was discovered at the Ohio Medical College by his son and nephew, who were there looking for the body of their cousin whose grave robbery had been discovered in the cemetery the day before... at John Scott Harrison's burial.
2. Carty Finkbeiner, a former mayor of Toledo once suggested selling houses near the airport to deaf people.
3. Former Alabama state Senator Steve Windom didn't leave his chair during a 12-hour dispute, notably urinating in a jug, because he was afraid the Democrats would steal it.
4. Between 1952-54, Felisa Rincón de Gautier, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico had snow delivered by plane to the city so that the children who had never seen or played in the snow, would be able to do so.
5. A German politician named Peter Gloystein was forced to resign after publicly pouring champagne over a homeless man's head.
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6Duncan Scott
In 1995, a New Mexico state senator named Duncan Scott introduced an amendment that psychologists were required to wear a wizard's hat when they testify in court.
7. On July 10, 1947, Senator Glen Taylor said: “I almost wish that the flying saucers would turn out to be space ships from another planet because the possibility of hostility would unify the people of the earth as nothing else could.”
8. After Congressman John Rankin refused to sit next to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. because of the color of his skin, Powell found every opportunity possible to sit close to the Mississippi Congressman. On one occasion Powell followed him from seat to seat until Rankin had moved five times.
9. Otto von Bismarck once challenged a rival politician to a duel but backed out after learning that his opponent chose to fight with two pork sausages, one infected with roundworm.
10. Senator Strom Thurmond holds the record for the longest Filibuster by a lone senator. He stayed on the Senate floor speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes nonstop in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
11Brian Zimmerman
An 11-year-old boy named Brian Zimmerman was elected as the mayor of Crabb, Texas on the platform that he would work to incorporate the town even though it meant he would lose his seat. He was quoted as saying that “the mayor isn’t there to sit and worry about keeping his job. He’s there to do what’s best for the people."
12. Lithuanian politician Artūras Zuokas won an IG Nobel prize in 2011, for “demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with a tank”. Zuokas had used an armored vehicle to run over an illegally parked car in a Vilnius bike lane.
13. Edward Dickinson Baker was serving as a U.S. Senator when the U.S. Civil War broke out, so re-joined the Army as a colonel. He was killed in battle and he remains the only sitting U.S. senator ever to have been killed in a military engagement.
14. Draco was an Ancient Greek legislator who wrote the first code of law in Athens. Over time his laws were seen as increasingly harsh and punitive, which is why we say a law is “draconian” when the punishment is too extreme for the crime.
15. Senator John Ashcroft is the only Senator to lose re-election to a dead person. His opponent died in a plane crash 2 weeks before the vote and his name was unable to be taken off the ballot.
16Dennis Wardlow
In 1982, Dennis Wardlow, the mayor of Key West, Florida declared war against the United States, surrendered after one minute, and applied for one billion dollars in foreign aid.
17. Dan White, the killer of Harvey Milk and the mayor of San Francisco, was charged with Voluntary Manslaughter rather than murder. The Defense had argued that White's mental state was impaired by depression, as proven by him recently eating sugary foods. This became known as the "Twinkie Defense."
18. US Senator Daniel Webster turned down two offers to be vice president by William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor because he thought the office was a dead-end position. Both these presidents then died in office.
19. Sir Isaac Newton was a member of parliament in the UK, but his only contribution to the debates was to request the window to be closed because of a cold draught.
20. In 1994, United States Senator Howell Heflin accidentally wiped his nose with his wife's panties in front of reporters.
21Hans Steininger
A 16th century small town German Mayor named Hans Steininger died by tripping on his beard. It was over 4.5 feet long and he usually kept it tucked away in a pocket, but during a town fire he forgot to put it in and tripped on in it in the chaos, breaking his neck.
22. Former US Senator Daniel Inouye had his arm blown off in combat while throwing a grenade. He yelled to stay back, snatched the live grenade out of his blown off-hand, then used it and a Thompson sub-machinegun to mow down the remaining Germans. He wasn't awarded the Medal of Honor until the year 2000.
23. British politician Tony Benn met his wife in Oxford in 1949. 9 days later, he proposed to her on a park bench. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their home. They were together for 51 years.
24. The first female state senator to be elected in the United States was Martha Hughes Cannon, who was a Mormon polygamous wife. She ran against and defeated her own husband.
25. Sue Jones-Davies, who portrayed Judith in Monty Python's Life of Brian, later became Mayor of Aberystwyth. She discovered that the town had banned the Life of Brian for 30 years, and her first act was to overturn the ban and stage a screening with Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
