- Kochab /ˈkoʊkæb/, Bayer designation Beta Ursae Minoris (β Ursae Minoris, abbreviated β UMi, Beta UMi), is the brightest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper asterism (which is part of the constellation of Ursa Minor)), and only slightly fainter than Polaris, the northern pole star and brightest star in Ursa Minor. Kochab is 16 degrees from Polaris and has an apparent visual magnitude of 2.08. The distance to this star from the Sun can be deduced from the parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, yielding a value of 130.9 light-years (40.1 parsecs).
- James Buchanan (allthetropes.org)
James Buchanan was the only President to never marry (his niece fulfilled the duties of First Lady). He was engaged to a woman at one point, but they broke up and she died (likely suicide) shortly after. Although each of the three previous Presidents had played a part in creating the circumstances that led to the Civil War (Zachary Taylor’s belligerent approach to the slave states got things off on the wrong foot, Millard Fillmore created an ultimately ill-advised compromise agreement, and Franklin Pierce proceeded to piss off the slave states by breaking the terms of said agreement), the final, fatal lurch towards the conflict happened on Buchanan’s watch.