My favorite presidential oddity involves Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Less than 2 years before his father's assassination, Robert fell onto a train track from a platform in Jersey City with a train barreling down on him. His life was saved when a brave man was able to pull him onto the platform just before the train roared by. The hero was Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth.

Also, Robert Todd was to accompany his parents to the theatre on the night Lincoln was assassinated, but at the last minute, declined the invitation and stayed home. He was invited to be with President Garfield at the D.C. train station in 1881 when Garfield was shot. McKinley had also invited him to be with him in Buffalo on the day he was assassinated. While present, Robert Todd didn't witness these shootings. He was present for the attempted assassination of Mayor Gaynor in New York in 1910, and rushed to his aid.

Robert Todd died in 1926. Otherwise, he surely would have been in Dallas on November 22, 1963.