#2 John Adams

1797--1801

--A key founding father, it was Adams who nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the continental army. He also argued for bicameral legislation and a three-way division of powers between an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of government. 

-- Adams was a member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence (along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman). The committee in general--including Jefferson--thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams insisted that Jefferson was the better choice. 

--Adams was the first U.S. vice-president, and found the job "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived".

-- In his final months in office, Adams became the first president to occupy the president's mansion (later known as The White House), though it was still unfinished at the time.

--Sixteen months before Adams' death, his son, John Quincy Adams, became the 6th president of the United States.

--Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the vote to approve the Declaration of Independence.

--While in England in 1786, Adams and Jefferson visited William Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon and chipped off a piece of Shakespeare's chair as a souvenir, bringing about "The Curse of the Bard", which stated that anyone who damaged a piece of Shakespeare's furniture would die exactly 40 years later.