When donkeys and horses mate, they produce beings called mules — strong four-legged creatures that ate little. Seeing that these mules would be a great asset for young America’s farms, George Washington longed to have donkeys and have them mate with the horses.
But Washington's desire to breed mules hit a stumbling block. America didn't have any good male donkeys (or "jacks," as he called them). The best jacks were in Spain, who wouldn't export them. Washington spent years negotiating with diplomats to change this, and finally, the king agreed [to] ship a couple to him.
This is just one of the anecdotes that Cracked.com has documented at their site. Check out the other anecdotes, which star Henry VIII, Abraham Lincoln, Peter the Great, and Teddy Roosevelt, over at the site.
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