New York's oldest library can finally fill a gap left on its shelves two centuries ago when George Washington borrowed a book and failed to bring it back. The first US president took "The Law of Nations" by Emer de Vattel from the New York Society Library on October 5, 1789 and, like many a less illustrious borrower, didn ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A library book borrowed by the first U.S. president, George Washington, has been returned to a New York City's oldest library, 221 years late. Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan. The library said in ...

The White House says Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau is being transferred to a Philadelphia hospital for further observation and examination after suffering a mild stroke. Beau Biden, who is Delaware's attorney general, was scheduled to be moved Tuesday afternoon from Delaware to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He was said to be in stable condition and alert ...

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - When historian Michael F. Holt was asked to write a book on Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, he admits he had little interest in the Democrat who ran the country from 1853 to 1857. But Holt, a leading historian of 19th century U.S. politics and author of six books, said he was ...

A renowned debating society at Britain's Cambridge University said Monday it would offer pole dancing tuition to members, in a building more used to the presence of international statesmen. The Cambridge Union Society said female students would be offered lessons in the sensuous dance more often associated with strip clubs than the historic chambers of one of the world ...

TIRANA (Reuters) - The small Albanian town of Fushe-Kruje plans to erect a statue of former U.S. President George W. Bush to commemorate his June 2007 visit, when he was feted as a hero in an outpouring of love for America. Mayor Ismet Mavriqi said seven Albanian sculptors had entered the competition for the statue he plans to unveil in ...

"Woodrow Wilson" (Knopf, 704 pages, $35), By John Milton Cooper Jr.: Soon after he was elected president in 1912, Woodrow Wilson told a former colleague at Princeton University that all of his preparation for office was in the domestic sphere and it would be "an irony of ...

US President Barack Obama doesn't think racism is an "overriding issue" in criticism of his polices, according to TV interviews to be broadcast Sunday as part of a media blitz pushing the White House's health care reform. "Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are. That's not ...

There are now four living former U.S. presidents: Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. There are also four living former U.S. vice presidents (who never became president): Walter Mondale, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney. Oddly enough, each of the living former vice presidents severed under one of the respective living ...

States that have or plan to trade statues of notable natives in the U.S. Capitol for figures they feel better represent their history. Kansas and California have new statues in place. _ ALABAMA Who's in: Helen Keller, advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. Will be unveiled Oct 7. Who's out: Jabez Lamar ...