in fact, the US Congress fell one vote shy of making German the national language.
Alas, my friend, this is but an urban legend...
http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html
(Long article, complete with references to other sources)
Urban Legend: German almost became the official language of the US
"Long before I ever came to the US, I heard the story of how, a long long time ago, the US voted on an official language. In events packed with drama, opinions were split between English and German. It all came down to the final vote: English won - by a single vote, because one German-favoring guy was sitting on the toilet.
Gripping as this story may be, it is not exactly true. As the essay below explains, there was no such vote and therefore no fateful diarrhea."
Quote from the essay, describing the *real* fail-by-one-vote event wrt the language issue:
"On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn failed by one vote."
Sorry to have to disappoint you once again... :-)
Jeroen "Political Observations" van Baardwijk
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