When Samuel Huntington used the word “democracy” in a debate, Thomas Heyward, Jr., held him down and washed his mouth out with soap.

Robert Morris bankrolled the Revolution in exchange for exclusive toy marketing rights, but his investment came to nothing when his workshop failed to come up with a practical injection-molding process.

John Hancock earned Fs in penmanship for most of his grammar-school career.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in hudibrastics.

Samuel Adams refused to supply the Continental Congress with beer unless the phrase “the pursuit of porter” was added to the Declaration. They drank madeira instead.