American politician William Rufus King was BOTD in 1786. Born in North Carolina to a wealthy family, he studied at the University of North Carolina and practiced as a lawyer. Elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1807, he was elected to the US Congress in 1811, at the time one of the youngest Congressmen to take office. After working as a diplomat in Russia and Italy, he returned to the United States, amassing a large cotton plantation and becoming one of North Carolina’s largest slaveowners. Re-elected as a Senator in 1819, he served as President pro tempore of the Senate, and later was appointed Minister to France. A lifelong bachelor, he had a long and extraordinarily intimate friendship with President James Buchanan, with whom he lived for 14 years. Mockingly referred to as “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy” and “Siamese twins” by their detractors, biographers and historians are generally agreed that their relationship had a romantic dimension, though debates still rage over whether they were lovers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, King adopted an aggressive pro-slavery agenda, helping draft the Comprise Agreement of 1850, allowing Southern States to retain their slaveholding interests. Seriously ill with tuberculosis, he travelled to Cuba to regain his health, taking his oath of office in Matanzas. He returned to North Carolina but was too sick to carry out his new role, dying a month later aged 67.