While staying in a hotel in Havana one evening, Gines Serran-Pagan got the itch to paint. Though he had some paint, he had no canvas. What to do...
Pagan simply removed the mediocre painting which was hanging above his bed and painted over it, imbuing the canvas with a creation of his own.

When the maid observed the switch on the following day, she ran off to bring the concierge in for a look. So taken by Pagan's work was the hotel management that it was soon permanently affixed to the wall - where it still hangs today.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In 1962, when Kennedy was President, he arranged a White House dinner for a group of intellectuals, most of them Nobel Prize winners in their respective fields. He welcomed them with a short speech, during which hem said, "There has never been such a collection of talent and intellect gathered in this room since Thomas Jefferson dined here alone."

Although failing fast, John Adams was determined to survive until the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1826. At dawn on that day he was awakened by his servant, who asked if he knew what day it was. He replied, "Oh, yes, it is the glorious fourth of July. God bless it. God bless you all." He then slipped into a coma. In the afternoon he recovered consciousness briefly to murmur: "Thomas Jefferson lives." These were his last words. Unknown to him, Thomas Jefferson had died that same day.

Mark Twain loved to brag about his hunting and fishing exploits. He once spent three weeks fishing in the Maine woods, regardless of the fact that it was the state's closed season for fishing. Relaxing in the lounge car of the train on his return journey to New York, his catch iced down in the baggage car, he looked for someone to whom he could relate the story of his successful holiday.

The stranger to whom he began to boast of his sizable catch appeared at first unresponsive, then positively grim. "By the way, who are you, sir?" inquired Twain airily. "I'm the state game warden," was the unwelcome response. "Who are you?" Twain nearly swallowed his cigar. "Well, to be perfectly truthful, warden," he said hastily, "I'm the biggest darn* liar in the whole United States."

When Elgin Baylor was the leader of the Los Angeles Lakers, he agreed to take a vote among the players as to whether to buy blue or gold blazers. The vote went for gold, but Baylor ordered blue. When his rival, Bill Russell, heard about it, he asked Baylor to explain. "I told 'em I'd give 'em the vote, I didn't say I'd count it," Baylor replied.