16. In 1992, at a state dinner in Japan President George H.W. Bush collapsed and vomited all over the Japanese Prime Minister
There is no denying that the job of the President of the United States is an exhausting and physically demanding role, eventually taking its toll on all involved parties. On January 8, 1992, after having traveled through 16 time zones over the preceding 10 days, the greatly fatigued President George H.W. Bush, ignoring the advice of his doctor, attended a state dinner in his honor at the home of the Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa. At approximately 8:20 pm, in between the second and third courses (raw salmon with caviar and grilled beef with peppery sauce respectively) President Bush suddenly fainted. Slumping sideways, the 67-year-old leader of the free world collapsed into his host and promptly vomited over Miyazawa’s trousers in front of the representatives of 135 nations.
Terrifying those present, with First Lady Barbara Bush rushing to her husband and holding a napkin to his face and an unknown Secret Service agent leaping over the table to catch the falling president, Prime Minister Miyazawa cradled Bush’s head and was lowered unconscious to the floor. Upon waking seconds later, Bush allegedly joked that they should just “roll me under the table until the dinner’s over” and after a few minutes, although worryingly white, Bush regained his feet. Reported as “just the flu”, not a repeat of an atrial fibrillation which struck down the president in May 1991 whilst jogging at Camp David, Japanese television politely declined to release the footage. Today, the only glimpses of the event are visible from snippets of footage acquired by ABC. In an almost inexcusable lapse of judgment, CNN nearly published a hoax story, perpetrated by James Edward Smith, which claimed that he was the president’s physician and that his charge had died.