On this date in 1856, James Buchanan was elected as the 15th US President. 10 facts about him:
He was the last president born in the 18th century, on April 23, 1791.
He was born in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, and for a long time was the only President from Pennsylvania. That changed in 2020 with the election of Joe Biden.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was almost expelled from college after going out drinking with his friends and disturbing the peace and committing acts of vandalism. Perhaps it’s a testament to his skills as a lawyer that he successfully pleaded to be given a second chance and graduated with honours in 1809.
He was short-sighted in one eye and long sighted in the other, and also suffered from a condition called esotropia which made him appear cross-eyed. To hide it, he’d bend his head forward and lean it to one side during social interactions. His opponents ridiculed him for this.
Buchanan was the only US President who never married. Needless to say this led to speculation that he was gay, although he was once engaged to a woman named Anne Colman. She left him after hearing rumours that he’d been seeing other women. Soon afterwards she died of "hysterical convulsions" resulting from an overdose of Laudanum, aged 23. No-one knows if it was accidental, or not. Her father banned Buchanan from attending her funeral and Buchanan said at the time, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." So it may be that he remained a bachelor because he lost the love of his life.
Another theory is that he was asexual as one of his biographers quoted a letter in which he says he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection".
He adopted his orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, and it was she who took on the duties of the First Lady during his presidency.
In 1856, he was listed as one of several possible Democratic candidates. Tensions were brewing in the US at the time, just prior to the Civil War. Buchanan had been out of the country for some time, as Minister to Great Britain. It’s thought the fact that he’d been distanced from the problems at home helped him win the nomination. Also, Millard Fillmore caused the Republican vote to be split.
James Buchanan's nickname was "Old Buck."
He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland.
NEW!!
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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