87 Powerful Facts About The Presidents of United States of America – Part 1

American Revolutionary War hero, Polish General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. After the war, before returning to Europe, he left Thomas Jefferson his will, dedicating his pay and estate to buy the freedom of black slaves and educate them for independent life and work. The will was never executed.

77. In 1989, a bottle, also from Thomas Jefferson's collection, was valued at an astronomical $500,000 by its owner, William Sokolin. When Sokolin took the wine with him to a Margaux dinner at the Four Season Hotel, a waiter knocked the bottle over, breaking it. Insurers paid out $225,000.

78. Thomas Jefferson once said that "If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable."

79. The highest mountain in Australia is named after the Polish national hero, Tadeusz Kościuszko, who was also a military leader in the American Revolutionary War, and personal friend of Thomas Jefferson.

80. Thomas Jefferson built a clock on the outside wall of his house with only an hour hand, as he believed an hour hand would be accurate enough for his slaves.

Thomas Jefferson believed blacks were inherently inferior to whites but were superior in musical ability.

82. Thomas Jefferson included a paragraph in the Declaration of Independence condemning the King of Great Britain for slavery, but it was ultimately deleted.

83. When Martha Washington recalled the two saddest days of her life the first was December 14, 1799, when her husband died. The second was in January 1801, when Thomas Jefferson visited Mt Vernon. "Next to the loss of her husband" Jefferson’s visit was the “most painful occurrence of her life.”

84. Thomas Jefferson believed Lewis and Clark would encounter Woolly Mammoths, mountains of salt, and a race of Welsh-speaking Indians along their journey west.

85. Thomas Jefferson's tombstone lists some of his greatest accomplishments but leaves out the fact that he was the President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson sometimes greeted guests at the White House in slippers and "slovenly" attire for egalitarian effect and was mistaken by one Senator for a servant.

87. A church group once presented Thomas Jefferson with a 4-foot-wide, 1,230-lb wheel of cheese to thank him for championing religious liberty. He had a policy against accepting gifts and paid $200 for it.