James Buchanan

THREE DEMOCRATIC presidential candidates are single, as Susan Baer pointed out in this paper recently.They are Jerry Brown, who used to squire pop singer Linda Ronstadt; Sen. Bob Kerrey, who used to squire movie star Debra Winger, and Gov. Doug Wilder, who squires zillionaire socialite Patricia Kluge.Should one become president, he would be the first eligible bachelor to enter the White House since Grover Cleveland in 1884. Cleveland was also elected again later, in 1892, but by then he had wed. Woodrow Wilson was widowed in 1914, re-married in 1915, before being re-elected in 1916.

THE INFORMATION superhighway may be the next objective in American technology, but the first major milestone in that long road was even harder to accomplish -- namely, the trans-Atlantic cable, successfully completed 128 years ago today.Perhaps no technological triumph contributed as much to the easing of diplomatic relations as well as the bridging of the North American and European continents.Unlike the cable between Britain and France, completed in 1845, the trans-Atlantic line illustrated innumerable snafus before its completion; most of all, it illustrated the cooperation of governments and businessmen on both sides of the Atlantic.

FIVE PRESIDENTS were at the dedication of the Reagan Library Monday. They were Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. This is the first time in history that five presidents have ever been together for any purpose.In fact, only rarely have there been five presidents alive at the same time. The last time was 1861-1862, when six -- Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler and Martin Van Buren were alive. That's the record.

Sally Bean learned to read in the same room in which she now supervises teen-age dances.She lingered on the same steps in front of the Stanton Community Center that still draw crowds of children eating ice cream on sunny summer days.For Ms. Bean and many other residents of the Clay Street neighborhood in downtown Annapolis, the worn brick building has been a lifelong focal point.The Stanton Center, with its long and colorful history, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. But the community center actually can trace its roots all the way to 1869, when the property was a primary school, the first public school for blacks in Annapolis after the Civil War.Time after time, the two-story building has languished, then rebounded.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren were secretaries of state who became president. James Buchanan, elected in 1856, was the last.Foreign policy was the most important effort of central government in the republic's infancy, navigating the shoals of international politics to protect the vessel of independence.Diplomatic and military isolation from the rest of the world, coincidental with vigorous commerce, became viable later in the 19th century.

Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden and the Stolen Election of 1876. Roy Morris Jr., Simon & Schuster. 320 pages. $27. Five score years after the birth of the nation, in a fog of contested ballots, racial suspicion and a close popular vote, Republicans stole the presidential election from Democrats. So argues Roy Morris Jr. in Fraud of the Century, a rollicking portrait of electoral chicanery past. Political junkies bored by the present GOP monopoly or just seeking escape from unsettling current events are advised to join Morris in 1876, when "his Fraudulancy, Rutherfraud" B. Hayes triumphed over "Centennial Sam" Tilden to extend post-bellum Republican rule.

In a move that would strengthen its position as the nation's third-biggest tobacco company, B.A.T Industries PLC said yesterday that it had agreed to buy the American Tobacco Co. from American Brands for $1 billion in cash.The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, won applause from Wall Street analysts, who said it made sense not only for the two companies but also for the besieged tobacco industry."For B.A.T, it's an immediate positive impact on earnings," said Roy D. Burry, an analyst for Kidder Peabody & Co. "For American Brands, it's $1 billion for a business that has a declining share of the market, with no chance of turning around."

TOMORROW is John Adams' birthday. Don't expect George Bush to celebrate it. John started a tradition George hates.Our first president, You Know Who, had voluntarily stepped down after serving two terms. This established the no third term tradition. Then John Adams got beat in his bid for re-election. This established the no second term tradition.There have been fewer followers of the George Washington tradition than you might imagine. There was Washington, of course. There was Jefferson. There was James Madison.

Frank Weatherly's 1983 acquisition of a vacant candy factory in downtown Lancaster, Pa., was a purchase negotiated, for the most part, out of necessity. A friend had made him an offer he couldn't refuse on a Baldwin grand concert piano and - in addition to the fact that he always wanted to tackle a home renovation - he would need a place big enough to house his "grand" soon-to-be possession. "I spent an entire day roaming around in [the factory], visualizing what could be done," Weatherly remembered.

Just before the Civil War, Harriet Lane brought grace and style to the White House - and left a major pediatric legacy.Who was the best first lady ever? A poll of academics by the Siena College Research Institute a decade ago concluded it was Eleanor Roosevelt. In his readable and comprehensive 2003 book based in part on the survey (Rating the First Ladies, Citadel Press, 374 pages, $22.95), John B. Roberts II wrote that she set the precedent for a first lady to have her own causes and constituencies - and then after the White House she became a significant influence on national and world affairs in her own right as an advocacy journalist and United Nations delegate.