51Boston Massacre
John Adams, who would go on to become the second President, defended in court the soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre, earning acquittals for six of the eight.
52. 10 of first 12 US Presidents were slave owners and the only two who weren't slave owners were the father and son John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
53. The Treaty of Tripoli, submitted By John Adams States "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
54. John Adams defended the Redcoats Involved in the Boston Massacre despite the inclinations of the mob: famously saying, "Prisoners must be judged solely based on the evidence produced against them in court and nothing else."
55. Thomas Jefferson witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in 1789.
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56James Madison
A doctor attempted to use drugs to keep James Madison alive so he could die on the 4th of July. He declined and thus would die six days short of the fourth and would not share the same death date as John Adams (1826), Thomas Jefferson (1826) and James Monroe (1831) who all died on July 4.
57. In 1962, President Kennedy invited 49 Nobel Laureates for dinner at the White House. Kennedy remarked, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
58. Thomas Jefferson argued that because no generation has a right to bind subsequent generations, the Constitution should expire every 19 years.
59. Thomas Jefferson proposed in 1784 to end slavery in all the territories, but his bill lost in Congress by one vote.
60. Thomas Jefferson tried for years to send a giant stuffed moose to a French count to counter claims that the North American climate made all animals (including people) weak and feeble.
61Jesus
Jefferson had his own version of the Bible that omitted the parts of the bible that were "contrary to reason" including the resurrection and other miracles. He was only interested in the moral teachings of Jesus and nothing more.
62. Thomas Jefferson proposed a bill that punished male rapists with castration.
63. In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson had written,"We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable." It was Benjamin Franklin who changed "sacred" to "self-evident" to champion rationality as opposed to religious providence.
64. Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair and sat on the first one while writing much of the Declaration of Independence.
65. In addition to being fluent in English, Greek, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish, Thomas Jefferson also studied Arabic, Gaelic, and Welsh, and remains the most multilingual President of the United States.
66Jefferson's Bible
Thomas Jefferson created his own Bible, 46 pages long, using a razor he cut and pasted selected verses. It excluded angels, references to the Trinity, and all miracles by Jesus including the resurrection.
67. Thomas Jefferson conducted the first legitimate archaeological dig in history and proved that the massive burial mounds were created by Native Americans, not the "lost race" of white people previously thought.
68. 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.
69. 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.
70. 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."
71Mt. Kosciuszko
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.
72. 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.
73. Thomas Jefferson believed blacks were inherently inferior to whites but were superior in musical ability.
74. Thomas Jefferson included a paragraph in the Declaration of Independence condemning the King of Great Britain for slavery, but it was ultimately deleted.
75. 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.”
