Thomas Jefferson

Happy Birthday, Tom! Jefferson was considered exceptionally tall for his time--about 6 feet 3. Throughout most of his adult years, he suffered from excruciating migraine headaches that often kept him in bed for weeks at a time.
Congress appointed a committee of five, with Jefferson as chairman, to write the Declaration of Independence. But the other four begged off and persuaded young Thomas to tackle the job by himself. And at the time, Jefferson's wife was ill, and he wanted to go back home. But he felt duty-bound and remained in Philadelphia to write a document which would be a cornerstone in the hard struggle for freedom. Thomas sweltered and scribbled away for 17 days and nights in June of 1776 in a tiny upstairs sitting room on the second floor of a house near what is now Independence Hall. He didn't have a spacious handsome desk stacked with reference materials and an imposing array of books. On the contrary, he worked hunched over a tiny folding table barely big enough to hold his sheet of paper and ink stand.
Thanks, Tom.