One of the least-remembered US Presidents…

One of the least-remembered US Presidents, Millard Fillmore, was effectively sold as a child by his destitute father into a kind of indentured servitude (bordering on child slavery). He eventually bought himself from his master for $30 and walked 100 miles to his home at age 14.

The US were working on a nuclear cruise missile capable…

The US were working on a nuclear cruise missile capable of staying multiple YEARS in the air by pushing air through an open nuclear reactor, heating said air, meanwhile spewing radioactivity everywhere, they even had a working engine, but they abandoned it, deeming it too provocative.