What if I told you George Washington was not the first president of the United States?

“Impossible!”  “How can that be?” “History is wrong?!” Well, almost wrong.  George Washington was the first president elected under the Constitution in 1789, but the U.S. had been in existence since the Articles of Confederation were ratified by the 13 original colonies in 1781.

So who led the young country during its first years?  Introducing…John Hanson!  “Who in the world is John Hanson” you ask?  Well, Hanson was a public official from Maryland who was elected by Congress as the first president of the U.S. under the Articles.  Hanson served as president for only one year, and was then replaced.  In fact, there were six more people elected as president before the Constitution was ratified, making Washington the eighth U.S. president.

While Hanson’s story is now largely forgotten, The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer breathes new life into the lost stories of history.  For example, not many know that the U.S. intervened in the Russian Civil War in 1918.  It only lasted two years, and the U.S. quickly forgot about the incident.  Even the use of coffee has an interesting story.  Those Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts coffees everyone gets before their morning classes…that’s right, you can thank Pope Clement VIII.  The Middle East was the first region to begin drinking coffee about six hundred years ago.  By the time it reached Europe around the 1500s, however, the Vatican argued that it was “a satanic concoction of Islamic infidels” and ordered them to be banned.  When the pope tried the drink, however, he gave the bean his blessing.  He supposedly said, “This Satan’s drink is so delicious.  It would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.  We shall fool Satan by baptizing it.”

The book contains 100 stories, all throughout history to present day.  It is surprising to learn how some popular products got their start, and how the smallest details made all the difference in history. Whether the interest is science, military history, art, literature, or none of the above, there is sure to be a quirky story that sparks your interest.