The "true" biographies of the giants of thought are much more amusing...
Hans Christian Andersen — Danish writer and poet, international author famous fairy tales for children and adults: "The Ugly Duckling", "The King's New Dress", "Shadow", "The Princess and the Pea".
* Hans Christian Andersen wrote many poems, plays and novels, but went down in history primarily as a great storyteller. But few people know that this talented writer could not write almost a single word correctly, and the editors simply clutched their heads when he brought them his manuscripts. Andersen until the end of his days wrote with terrible grammatical and spelling errors. Punctuation marks were especially difficult, and Andersen spent a lot of money on girls who rewrote his fairy tales before taking them to the publisher.
* Andersen had no children of his own. He willingly told stories to strangers, but he did not tolerate them sitting on his lap. Shortly before his death - and he lived for 70 years - Hans Christian asked the composer Hartmann to compose a march to his funeral. And adjust the rhythm to the children's step, as the children will participate in the ceremony.
* He was not afraid to injure the child's psyche, hating a happy ending and leaving us sad, and sometimes gloomy tales. The only work that, as he admitted, touched him himself, was The Little Mermaid.
Soviet censors tried to select for Soviet collections only those fairy tales where happy end and it was not about spiritual things. In fact, almost half of Andersen's fairy tales end rather sadly: the Ballerina and the Tin Soldier burn together in the fire, the Little Mermaid says goodbye to life in order to gain an immortal soul.
Few people remember how the fairy tale "Ole Lukoye" ends. And all because in the Soviet version of the tale, brother Ole-Lukoye, the wizard on horseback, is not called by his own name - Death. In the full version of the tale, death is shown as something natural, fearless and even pleasant for those who behaved well. That is why the hero of the fairy tale, the boy Hjalmar, says: “I am not afraid of death.”
To understand these and many other fairy tales, which are now being published in large numbers, one will need not only to look into the Holy Scriptures, but, perhaps, into the soul of the storyteller himself.
* Andersen explained the meaning of his "Ugly Duckling" differently than we are used to.
“You can grow up in a poultry house, the main thing is that you hatched from a swan egg. If you turned out to be the son of a drake, then from an ugly duckling you turned into just an ugly duck, no matter how kind you are! Here is the unexpected moral of the story. The writer was sure that his father was King Christian the Eighth, who, being a prince, allowed himself numerous novels.
From a relationship with a noble girl, Eliza Ahlefeld-Laurvig, a boy was allegedly born, who was given to the family of a shoemaker and a laundress. During a trip to Rome, the Danish princess Charlotte-Frederika did tell Andersen that he was the king's illegitimate son. Apparently, she just laughed at the poor dreamer. However, when the impoverished writer unexpectedly received an annual royal stipend at 33, he became even more convinced that "his father does not forget him."
* Fairy tale G.Kh. Andersen's "The King's New Dress" was placed in the first primer by L.N. Tolstoy.
* "To live is to travel." - uh Andersen's phrase has now been adopted by thousands of travel agencies. The storyteller was obsessed with movement, in total he made 29 great journeys, which at that time seemed almost unbelievable. On trips, he showed himself to be a brave and hardy person, rode horseback and swam well.
* Hans Christian Andersen was angry when he was called a children's storyteller and said that he wrote fairy tales for both children and adults. For the same reason, he ordered that there should not be a single child on his monument, where the storyteller was originally supposed to be surrounded by children.
By the way, Andersen has a fairy tale about Isaac Newton.
* Hans Christian Andersen was a great coward. It is difficult to say what Andersen was not afraid of and what he did not suffer from. He was a terrible alarmist. The slightest scratch brought him to a fit of horror, and the names of diseases caused shivers. He shied away from dogs, was afraid of strangers. Robbery seemed to him at every step, and the habit of saving made him constantly tormented by the question of whether he overpaid for the purchase.
In addition, Andersen surprised those around him with pyrophobia: he was terribly afraid of dying in a fire, therefore, when he traveled, he always took a rope with him, hoping to escape with its help in case of a fire.
He dined only "on the side", for years keeping a list of "eaten" to come to them in turn.
In nightmares, he imagined that he would be buried alive, and asked his friends that in any case one of the arteries should be cut before he was placed in a coffin. When he was sick, he often left a note on the table near the bed. It was written: "It only seems that I died."
Andersen's eternal suffering was a toothache. Losing another tooth, he was upset, and saying goodbye to the last one at the age of 68, he said that now he would not be able to write fairy tales.
* On the love front, Hans Christian Andersen became famous as a "platonic lover". “I am still innocent, but my blood burns,” Andersen wrote at 29. It seems that Hans Christian did not bother to extinguish this fire.
He promised to marry his first girlfriend when he started earning fifteen hundred riksdaler a year. At 35, his annual income was already higher, but he never married. Although by the end of his life his fortune had grown to half a million dollars (by today's standards), and the apartment in Copenhagen cost no less than 300 thousand.
All Andersen's "great loves" remained platonic. For two years he went to Sweden to the singer Jenny Lindt (she was nicknamed the nightingale for her beautiful voice), showered with flowers and poems, but was rejected. But the readers got a fairy tale about a wonderful songbird.
The second half of Andersen's life was accompanied by young friends on his travels, but there is no open evidence of the close relationship of friends.
* Hans Christian Andersen had A.S.'s autograph. Pushkin
* The most famous Danish writer of all time is Hans Christian Andersen.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe — German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist.
* Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a multi-talented person: he not only created literary masterpieces, but also directed the local theater and held Scientific research(he, in particular, was the founder of morphology, and his scientific works on plants outstripped the brilliant discoveries of Darwin).
He was also familiar with anatomy, he undertook empirical research in this area and discovered one previously unfamiliar bone - in the middle human face- premaxillary bone (Sutura incisiva Goethei).
Goethe also knew how to paint: "Historical View of Heidelberg Palace from the Stückgarten", Germany, watercolor by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1815.
* Goethe devoted entire volumes to describing his romantic feelings. He often fell into strange love triangles with antipodean women: one is sweet and meek, the second is mature and experienced. His novels rarely ran smoothly.
One biographer points out that in his youth, Goethe probably had problems with premature ejaculation, and for this reason he had practically no sexual relations until he was 39 years old. There is no direct evidence for this, but there is a good deal of documentary evidence that Goethe was indeed easily aroused by even the most ordinary physical contact. A kiss could bring him into a state of ecstasy. Many of the women whom Goethe loved were beyond his reach. Some of them were the wives of his friends.
* After 18 years of acquaintance, on October 14, 1806, Goethe legalized relations with Christiane Vulpius (died in 1816). Johann Wolfgang Goethe and his wife Christiane had five children. Children born after the eldest son Augustus did not survive: one child was stillborn, the rest died within a few days or weeks. August had three children: Walter Wolfgang, Wolfgang Maximilian and Alma. Augustus died two years before the death of his father in Rome. His wife Ottilie Goethe gave birth after the death of her husband from another man to a daughter, Anna Sibylla, who died a year later. The children of Augustus and Ottilie did not marry, so the Goethe lineage ended in a straight line in 1885 - there were no direct descendants
* When Goethe was 74 years old, he proposed to Ulrike von Leventzow, who was not yet 20 years old and whom he himself called "daughter". Ulrika refused his offer
* The poet worked on Faust almost all his life. The idea came to him when he was a little over twenty years old. Finished the tragedy a few months before his death and bequeathed to publish it after his death
* Goethe was born a sickly child and throughout his life was often and seriously ill. In his pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, he abstained from "pleasurable poisons" such as tobacco and coffee, he swam in cold water, danced enthusiastically, traveled and rode a horse.
However, despite his early heart attack, lung disease, melancholy and rheumatism, he lived for 82 years. His last words were: "Mehr Licht..." ("More light...")
* At the end of his life, Goethe sent A.S. Pushkin his pen. The golden age of German literature, as it were, symbolically passed on the baton to the golden age of Russian literature.
* Johann Wolfgang Goethe loved violets and studied original way their breeding. So, going for a walk around the outskirts of his native Weimar, he always took with him a bag of seeds of these flowers and sowed them in all suitable places. As a result, even during the life of the poet, the suburbs of Weimar were covered with blooming lawns of violets, which the Germans still call "Goethe's flowers." And German gardeners brought out a huge number of varieties of fragrant violets, named by them in honor of the heroes of Goethe's works.
* Goethe could not stand smoke. He simply fell ill at the sight of a smoker, and in a smoky room nightmares began to torment him, he felt the slightest smell of tobacco! Once he fired his, I must say, negligent cook. In retaliation, the insulted cook, in the absence of her former master, entered his office and smoked a pipe of the strongest tobacco there.
* AT social psychology there is such a thing as the "Werther effect" (or "Werther syndrome") - a massive wave of imitative suicides that occur after suicide, widely covered on television or other media - named after the hero of Goethe's very first work, "The Sorrows of Young Werther"
* By order of the English Admiralty, since 1776, in the production of ropes for the navy, a red thread must be woven into them so that it cannot be removed even from a small piece of rope. Apparently, this measure was intended to reduce the theft of ropes. This is where the expression “pass like a red thread” about the author’s main idea throughout the entire literary work comes from, and Goethe was the first to use it in the novel Kindred Natures.
Gaius Julius Caesar (lat. gaivs ivlivs cæsar) - dictator, orator, emperor, scriptor. One of the greatest and most famous Roman rulers and generals. There is evidence that he knew all his soldiers by sight and by name.
* Julius Caesar was distinguished by a variety of talents. A great politician, a brilliant military leader, an excellent speaker and writer. His books "Notes on the Gallic War" and "Notes on the Civil War" are of historical value, and the book "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", which describes the conquest of Gaul, has long been considered a literary classic.
* Emperor and commander Gaius Julius Caesar was well built and tall. He can rightly be called the first metrosexual in the history of mankind. He looked after his body very carefully, and not only cut and shaved all the hair on his body, but also plucked it, which was not accepted then.
* Caesar wore a laurel wreath, not because he was a great poet, but because he hated his bald head and tried to hide it.
* In his youth, Caesar served his military service in Asia Minor and he also had to fulfill diplomatic missions at the court of the Bithynian king Nicomedes. There was a persistent rumor in Rome, even to a certain extent, the belief that Caesar had entered into a homosexual relationship with Tsar Nicomedes, and, according to some evidence, he openly acted as a cup-bearer at royal feasts. Accusations and ridicule in connection with this episode haunted Caesar until the end of his life. What is worth only the witticism of Curio the Elder, who in some speech called him "the husband of all wives and the wife of all husbands." At the same time, accusations of homosexual debauchery were almost mandatory in ancient invectives.
As for his homosexual behavior in the future, there is no evidence of this. Indeed, despite the fact that, according to the testimony of ancient authors, we are relatively aware of Caesar's numerous romances with women, there is not a single mention of his connections with any man, or even of his favorite boys, although it was considered to have a favorite slave in the order of things for a wealthy Roman and the names of favorites of a number of famous people- a number of sources, especially the letters of Cicero, conveyed to us the smallest everyday details of those years
* Caesar became famous not only for his military and political victories. According to the unanimous testimony of all ancient authors, Caesar was distinguished by sexual promiscuity. The ancient historian Suetonius in the book "The Life of the Twelve Caesars" wrote: "For love pleasures, he, by all accounts, was greedy and wasteful. He was the lover of many noble women - including Postumia, the wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla , the wife of Marcus Crassus, and even Mucia, the wife of Gnaeus Pompey. Indeed, both Curios, father and son, and many others reproached Pompey because, out of a thirst for power, he married the daughter of a man, because of whom he drove away his wife, who bore him three children, and whom more than once with a groan he called his Aegisthus, but more than all the rest he loved Brutus's mother, Servilia: even in his first consulship, he bought for her a pearl worth six millions, and in civil war, apart from other gifts, he sold her the richest estates at auction for next to nothing. When many marveled at this cheapness, Cicero wittily remarked: "What is the deal bad if the third part remains with the seller?" The fact is that Servilia, as they suspected, brought her daughter Junia III together with Caesar.
Among his mistresses were queens - for example, the Mauritanian Evnoya, the wife of Bogud: according to Nazon, he made numerous and rich gifts to both him and her. But most of all, of course, known love story about Caesar and Cleopatra: with her he feasted more than once until dawn, on her ship with rich chambers he was ready to sail through all of Egypt to Ethiopia itself, if the army had not refused to follow him. Egypt was completely subjugated by Caesar and thrown by him at the feet of Cleopatra - he could have made Egypt a Roman province, and no one would have dared to contradict him.
Caesar ordered the casting of a golden statue of Cleopatra, which he installed in the temple of Venus, thereby incurring the unprecedented wrath of the Romans, who were sacred to their gods.
Finally, he invited her to Rome, showered her with great honors and rich gifts, allowing her to even name her newborn son after him - Ptolemy-Caesarion. Some Greek writers report that this son was similar to Caesar in face and posture. Mark Antony argued before the senate that Caesar recognized the boy as his son and that this was known to Gaius Matius, Gaius Oppius and other friends of Caesar.
Tribune of the people Helvius Cinna admitted that he had written and prepared a bill that Caesar ordered to be carried out in his absence: according to this law, Caesar was allowed to take as many wives as he liked and any, for the birth of heirs, which gave rise to a lot of gossip that Caesar intends to appoint Cleopatra's son, Caesarion, as his heir
* AT Ancient Rome often staging real naval battles were staged on real warships in amphitheaters specially filled with water or artificial reservoirs which were called naumachia. The first naumachia known to historians was arranged by Julius Caesar on the occasion of his triumph - 2,000 prisoners of war and 4,000 rowers were involved in it, and the emperor Claudius on Lake Fucino organized the largest naumachia with 30,000 fighters. Many participants were criminals or prisoners sentenced to death, and victory in the naumachia was for them a real chance to avoid this fate and be set free.
* During the invasion of Africa, the army of Julius Caesar suffered from failure from the very beginning. Severe storms scattered the ships in the Mediterranean, and Caesar arrived on the African shores with only one legion. Leaving the ship, the commander stumbled and fell face down, which was a good sign to return back for his superstitious soldiers. However, Caesar did not lose his head and, grabbing handfuls of sand, exclaimed: “I hold you in my hands, Africa!”. Later, he triumphantly conquered Egypt with his army.
* Once Gaius Julius Caesar was captured by pirates. The robbers demanded a ransom of 20 coins from him. “You don’t value me cheaply,” Caesar laughed and offered them 50 coins for his release. Having sent out companions to collect money for ransom, Caesar, with a friend and two servants, remained on the ship, where he lived for more than two months. Julius forbade the pirates to make noise when he went to bed, took part in their competitions, and also practiced oratory and read his compositions to them, which did not arouse their enthusiasm. Then Caesar called them savages, promised to crucify them on the cross. The robbers only chuckled, surprised at such an unusual behavior of the captive. However, after his release, he kept his promise. Having received a ransom, the pirates released the hostages. Caesar immediately equipped the ships and took the offenders by surprise. He took the money from the robbers and ordered the robbers to be crucified. But, since they treated him well at one time, Caesar ordered to break their legs before the crucifixion in order to alleviate their suffering (if you break the legs of the crucified, he will die rather quickly from asphyxiation). Then he often showed leniency towards defeated opponents. This was the manifestation of the “mercy of Caesar”, so praised by the ancient authors.
* Gaius Julius Caesar for the first time in the Roman Empire was declared a dictator for life, "father of the fatherland"
* According to legend, Caesar was predicted to die on the Ides of March (March 15). On that day in 44, he really died at the hands of Republican conspirators, among whom was Mark Junius Brutus, whom Gaius Julius Caesar loved very much and considered a friend (there is a version according to which Brutus was Caesar's illegitimate son) The famous phrase “And you, Brutus! was uttered by the already mortally wounded dictator. The conspirators struck Caesar with a total of twenty-three blows with a dagger and a sword - in the neck, in the back, in the side and in the groin (Brutus) - "since it was agreed that all the conspirators would take part in the murder and, as it were, taste the sacrificial blood" (Plutarch ).
* Leap year Introduced by Gaius Julius Caesar. February 24th was called "the sixth day before the March kalends", and the extra day fell on the next day and became the "second sixth day", in Latin "bis sextus", from where the word "leap year" came from.
* Caesar achieved the greatness that he dreamed of in his youth, but on short term. He was one of the best rulers of Rome, and all Roman emperors from then on began to call themselves Caesars.
By the way, the name Guy means "happy", and Julius means "young". And the month of July is also named after him, and kings are still allegorically called by another name. In addition, the German Kaiser (“Kaiser”), as well as the Russian concepts of “Caesar”, “Tsar”, “Tsesarevich” I - Old Slavonic and Old Russian transfer of the Roman name and imperial title Caesar (Caesa) through the Greek kaisar - monarch, ruler
* After the death of Gaius Julius Caesar, he became the first man-god in the history of the Roman state religion.
* Gaius Julius Caesar is more famous than his great-nephew Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (Octovian Augustus) adopted by him by will. - the real founder of the Roman Empire, under which the empire reached the pinnacle of power, prosperity and cultural development.
And the most important achievement of Caesar was that he defeated the huge armies of the Celts and conquered Gaul (south of France and north of Italy). The territories he captured remained under Roman rule for about five centuries. During this period, they were subjected to significant influence of Rome. Laws, customs, language, and later also Roman Christianity were adopted there. Modern French is largely derived from the colloquial Latin of those times. Caesar's conquest of Gaul had an important impact on Rome itself, providing Italy with several centuries of protection from attacks from the north. In general, the capture of Gaul was a security factor for the entire Roman Empire.
Usually great people differ from the average layman, and not only in their famous achievements, but also in character and habits. Among these habits there are many oddities that distinguished many famous people. In this post - a selection of oddities of famous people.
Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov was one of the most famous Russian generals. He did not lose a single battle, and all of them were won with the numerical superiority of the enemy. Suvorov was famous for his strange antics: he went to bed at six in the evening, and woke up at two in the morning, and, upon waking up, poured himself cold water and loudly shouted “ku-ka-re-ku!”. With all his ranks, he slept in the hay. Preferring to walk in old boots, he could easily go out to meet high officials in a sleeping cap and underwear. He also gave the signal to attack to his beloved “ku-ka-re-ku!”, And, they say, after he was promoted to field marshal, he began to jump over chairs and say: “And I jumped over this one, and over this one - then!"
Often famous people were distinguished by great forgetfulness and absent-mindedness. For example, Diderot forgot the days, months, years and names of loved ones. Anatole France sometimes forgot to get a new sheet of paper or a notebook and wrote on everything that came to hand: envelopes, business cards, wrappers, receipts. But scientists are usually the most scattered.
Newton somehow received guests and, wanting to treat them, went to his office for wine. Guests are waiting, but the owner does not return. It turned out that entering work room, Newton thought so deeply about his next work that he completely forgot about his friends. There is also a case when Newton, having decided to boil an egg, took a watch, noticed the time and after a couple of minutes found that he was holding an egg in his hand, and was cooking a watch. One day Newton had lunch, but did not notice it. And when by mistake he went to dine another time, he was very surprised that someone had eaten his food.
Einstein, having met his friend and, absorbed in thoughts, said: Come to me in the evening. I will also have Professor Stimson. His friend, puzzled, objected: But I am Stimson! Einstein replied: It doesn't matter, come anyway! In addition, Einstein's wife had to repeat the same thing three times before the meaning of her remarks reached the great physicist.
One day, the father of Russian aviation, Zhukovsky, after talking all evening with friends in his own living room, suddenly got up, looking for his hat, and began to hurriedly say goodbye, muttering: However, I stayed too long with you, it's time to go home!
The German historian Theodor Mommsen once rummaged through all his pockets to find glasses. A little girl sitting next to him handed them to him. "Thanks, little one," Mommsen said. "What's your name?" “Anna Mommsen, papa,” the girl replied.
One day, Ampere, leaving his apartment, wrote with chalk on his door: Ampere will be at home only in the evening. But he returned home in the afternoon. I read the inscription on my doors and went back, because I forgot that he himself was Ampere. Another story that was told about Ampere was this. One day, sitting in a carriage, he wrote a formula with chalk instead of slate board on the back of the coachman. And he was very surprised when, having arrived at the place and got off the carriage, he saw that the formula began to move away along with the crew.
Galileo was no less absent-minded. He spent his wedding night reading a book. Noticing at last that it was already dawn, he went to the bedroom, but immediately went out and asked the servant: - Who is lying in my bed? “Your wife, sir,” replied the servant. Galileo completely forgot that he was married.
Some of the greats didn't get married at all. Now you will not surprise anyone with this, but a hundred years ago it was considered a great oddity. Voltaire, Dante, Rousseau, Spinoza, Kant and Beethoven died convinced bachelors, believing that the wife would only prevent them from creating, and the servant would look after the house perfectly.
True, in Beethoven's house, the servants were powerless to maintain at least some semblance of order: sheets with symphonies and overtures were scattered throughout the office mixed with bottles and plates, and woe to the one who tried to collect them, breaking this mess! And the owner himself at this time, despite any weather conditions, jogged around the streets of the city.
The famous satirist Lafontaine also liked to take a walk. At the same time, he loudly recited the lines and rhymes that came into his bright head, waving his arms and dancing. Fortunately for him, the people then treated such personalities quite calmly, and no one called the orderlies.
The famous writer Leo Tolstoy was famous among his contemporaries not only for his works, but also for his quirks. As a count, he worked in the field on a par with the peasants. At the same time, working in the field side by side with the peasants was not an extravagant hobby for him, he sincerely loved and respected hard physical labor. Tolstoy, with pleasure and, importantly, with skill, sewed boots, which he then gave to relatives, mowed grass and plowed the land, surprising the local peasants who were watching him and grieving his wife.
Over the years, Tolstoy was increasingly captured by spiritual quests, and he paid less and less attention to everyday life, striving for asceticism and “simplification” in almost everything. The count is engaged in hard peasant labor, sleeps on the bare floor and walks barefoot until the very cold, thus emphasizing his closeness to the people. Just like that - on a bare foot, in a belted peasant shirt, simple trousers - Ilya Repin captured him in his picture.
Lev Nikolaevich maintained physical vigor and strength of mind until the very last days. The reason for this is the count's passionate love for sports and all kinds of physical exercises, which, in his opinion, were mandatory, especially for those who are engaged in mental work. Walking was Tolstoy's favorite discipline; it is known that already at the fairly respectable age of sixty, he made three foot crossings from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. In addition, the count was fond of skating, mastered cycling, horseback riding, swimming, and started every morning with gymnastics.
Already at the advanced age of 82 years, the writer decided to go wandering, leaving his estate, leaving his wife and children. AT farewell letter to his Countess Sophia, Tolstoy writes: “I can no longer live in those conditions of luxury in which I lived, and I do what old people of my age usually do: they leave worldly life to live in solitude and silence. last days own life".
And among scientists, Nikola Tesla was known as one of the most eccentric people. Tesla did not have his own house or apartment - only laboratories and land. The great inventor usually spent the night right in the laboratory or in hotels in New York. Tesla never married. According to him, a solitary lifestyle helped develop his scientific abilities.
He was terribly afraid of germs, constantly washed his hands, and in hotels he could demand up to a couple of dozen towels a day. By the way, in hotels, he always checked whether the number of his apartment would be a multiple of three, otherwise he flatly refused to be settled. If a fly landed on the table during lunch, Tesla demanded that the waiters bring it all over again. In modern psychiatry, there is a special term for this kind of oddity - “misophobia”.
Tesla counted steps while walking, the volume of bowls of soup, cups of coffee and pieces of food. If he failed to do this, then the food did not give him pleasure, so he preferred to eat alone.
Having become the author of many inventions that changed the life of modern civilization, Nikola Tesla left behind even more rumors and guesses about incredible discoveries, which for some reason never reached their publication and application.
The daily life of a person is not as boring as it seems to many. make the attentive observer think about it, be surprised at the diversity of life, or laugh hard.
But in the bustle of everyday troubles, we sometimes do not notice these things. Do you want to expand your horizons?
We are offering to you interesting facts from life which will definitely cheer you up and teach you to look at the world around you in a new way.
- According to statistics, chronic alcoholics live 15 years longer than people who work without vacation. Rest, more, gentlemen, but do not abuse alcohol!
- 25% of our compatriots think about sex while stuck in a traffic jam. Oddly enough, only 6% think about work.
- Blue-eyed people are less likely to suffer from visual impairment than brown-eyed and gray-eyed people.
- Brown-eyed people are more adapted to everyday difficulties.
- An interesting fact of life: the more often a man makes love, the lower his risk of a heart attack. Consider this a guide to action! Unfortunately, this does not apply to women.
- In the morning we are about 1 centimeter taller. During the day, the joints are compressed, which makes us a little lower in the evening.
- No person in the world can sneeze with their eyes open. Want to check it out? Please! Just don't do it while driving. According to statistics, 2% of all accidents occur due to the fact that the driver sneezed and lost his vigilance for a couple of seconds.
- Women speak 13,000 more words per day than men. All men will agree with this fact, but women may be outraged!
- Interestingly, in a cold bedroom, nightmares are more common.
- Swearing can dull the pain for a while. Probably, Russian builders feel it on an intuitive level!
- The more you overeat, the worse your hearing gets.
- Cats' taste buds are not sensitive to sweets. By the way, read in a separate article.
- Men's hair is coarser and thicker than women's. However, there are twice as many hairs on a woman's head!
- If a woman periodically listens to an audio recording of a baby crying, her breasts can increase by 2 centimeters in a week.
- There is a small pocket on men's jeans that designers came up with in order to hide a condom there. In fact, it is designed for hours. Recommended reading.
- The best cleaner for kettles, bathtubs, toilets and ovens - this is the usual Coca-Cola!
- Unpainted Coca-Cola is green.
- Flavored cigarettes contain urea.
- The timbre of the voice of women who work in a male team is much lower than that of ladies who work side by side with other women.
- Regular sex relieves headaches. Interestingly, not all women use this fact in their lives. But men can take it into service as an argument!
- It is more convenient for left-handers to chew food with the left side of the jaws.
- You can stop yawning by touching your tongue with your finger.
- When talking to a person we like, our pupils involuntarily dilate.
- When there are many cows, it is a herd. Many horses are called a herd. A large group of sheep - a flock. But when there are a lot of frogs - this is ... an army! At least that's what zoologists call them.
- 4-5 summer child asks about 400 questions a day.
- Fear of Friday the 13th is considered a disease and is successfully cured by psychotherapists.
- A clear fact from life: the average person eats 35 tons of food in a lifetime.
- Turtles can breathe through their anus.
- OK (okay) is the most frequently used word in most languages of the world.
- 95% of emails sent by email are spam.
- A champagne cork can jump up to a height of 12 meters.
- Interestingly, in the entire history of the Earth, there were no two identical snowflakes. However, like people. Even twins have slight differences.
- In 2 years, a pair of rats can give birth to more than a million cubs. For comparison, a domestic cat gives birth to no more than 100 kittens in a lifetime.
- The first President of the United States, George Washington, in his spare time loved to admire the lush cannabis bushes that grew in his garden.
- Do not microwave grapes or they will explode!
- The cow is not able to go down the stairs.
- Incredible, but true: the largest eyes on Earth belong to a giant (colossal) squid. They are about the size of a soccer ball.
- Humpback whales scream louder than all animals on Earth. The cry of these mammals is louder than the roar of an airplane and is heard in open ocean over 500 kilometers.
- You won't believe it, but the caterpillar more muscle than in humans.
- People in white swimsuits and swimming trunks are more likely to become victims of sharks on beaches.
- The nostrils of a shark are an organ of smell, but not of breathing. Sharks breathe with gills.
- Babies have more bones than adults.
- The lighter the beard, the faster it grows.
- An interesting fact from life: the smartest woman (according to the results of the IQ test) was ... a housewife.
- Over 1,000 people die each year from lightning strikes.
- Initially, cologne was used to treat the plague.
- Koalas sleep 22 hours a day. Eh!..
- Domestic injuries and heart attacks peak on Monday.
- Every day, 13 new varieties of children's toys appear in the world.
- The most common tree in the world is the Siberian larch.
- And this fact is terrible, despite the fact that it is about life. Some sharks eat their siblings while still in the womb. Truly, the fittest survive!
- Contrary to popular belief, anteaters do not eat ants. Their main food is termites.
- Mayans and Aztecs used cocoa beans instead of money.
- A quarter of our skeleton is made up of leg bones.
- Dogs are able to guess the intentions of the owners. Pay attention to .
- The heart of a shrimp is located in the head, in the back of the head. Nearby are the genitals.
- The tongue of a giraffe reaches a length of up to half a meter.
- A blue whale can not breathe for 2 hours.
- Surprisingly, it is a fact: the female nightingale cannot sing.
- A postage stamp contains one tenth of a calorie.
- Tongue prints, like fingerprints, are unique and unrepeatable.
- Purple clothes are worn as a sign of mourning in Turkey. In all other Muslim countries, white is considered mourning.
- In the late 19th century, cocaine was used to treat insomnia and the common cold.
- If you chew gum while peeling onions, it is impossible to cry.
- Ticks can go 10 years without food.
- Until the end of the 19th century, it was only possible to buy vodka in Russia in a 12-liter bucket. People knew the measure once! By the way, we recommend reading where we have put together a very interesting selection.
- There are more color blind people among men than among women.
- This fact from life may surprise you. The fact is that some men are terribly afraid of virgins. Psychologists call this phenomenon parthenophobia.
- The hibernation period in snails can last 3 years.
- Vinegar can dissolve pearls.
- 99% of the living things that ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
- Every day on Earth, 3 people undergo a sex change operation.
Well, friends, we hope that you liked the interesting facts from life. Of course, we do not call them either the most important or the most interesting. It’s just that such collections help keep the brain in good shape and exercise memory.
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1. Napoleon was 26 years old when he captured Italy.
2. Baghdad University awarded Uday, the eldest son of Saddam Hussein, a doctorate in political sciences. Although he did not even have a secondary education. His dissertation was titled “The Decline of American Power by 2016.”
3. In 1938, Time magazine named Hitler "Person of the Year."
4. During his service in the KGB, Vladimir Putin had the nickname "Moth".
5. Hitler was a vegetarian.
6. Egyptian queen Cleopatra tested the effectiveness of her poisons by having her slaves take them.
7. Cleopatra married her sibling- Ptolemy.
8. Cleopatra was not an Egyptian. She had Macedonian, Iranian and Greek roots.
9. Lafayette became a general in the US Army at 19. His full name sounds like this: Mary Joseph Paul Yves Rocher Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.
10. The Minister of Culture of the RSFSR in the 50s, Alexei Popov, was a well-known swindler.
11. The Mongol conqueror Timur (1336-1405) played something like polo with the skulls of the people he killed. He created a pyramid of their severed heads 9 meters high.
12. At the time of Lenin's death, his brain was only a quarter of its normal size.
13. Napoleon was not born in France, but on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. His parents were Italian and they had eight children.
14. The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon.
15. One of Napoleon's drinking bowls was made from the skull of the famous Italian adventurer Cagliostro.
16. The founder of the theory of communism Karl Marx has never been to Russia.
17. The first American Chief Justice, John Jay, bought slaves to free them.
18. The first person in history to be hit by a train was British MP William Huskinson.
19. The ancestors of Winston Churchill on the maternal side were ... Indians.
20. US President Andrew Jackson believed the Earth was flat.
21. During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax on men's beards. However, Peter the Great did not favor bearded men either.
22. Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar ordered the execution of her subjects if they appeared to her in dreams without her permission.
23. Queen Victoria was presented with a piece of cheese with a diameter of 3 meters and a weight of 500 kilograms at the wedding.
24. King Henry VIII of England executed two of his six wives.
25. President of Uganda and one of the most ruthless dictators in the world, Idi Amin, served in the British Army before coming to power.
26. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston died in 1865 on a pool table where he was making love to his servants.
27. At the court of the King of Spain, Alfonso, there was a special position - a hymnal. The fact is that the king had no musical ear at all, and he himself could not distinguish the anthem from other music. The hymnal had to warn the king when the national anthem was played.
28. The Roman emperor Nero married a man - one of his slaves named Skorus.
29. The Roman emperor Nero forced his teacher philosopher Seneca to commit suicide.
30. The growth of Peter the Great was approximately 213 cm. Despite the fact that in those days average height men was significantly lower than today.
31. Sir Winston Churchill smoked no more than 15 cigars a day.
32. Tom Cruise at the age of 14 went to study at the seminary to become a priest, but left it after a year.
33. The French king Louis XIV had 413 beds.
34. The Israeli king Solomon had about 700 wives and several thousand mistresses.
35. King Louis XIV of France, known as the "Sun King", had over 400 beds.
36. Napoleon had ailurophobia - fear of cats.
37. Winston Churchill was born in the women's room of the Blenheim family castle. During the ball, his mother felt unwell and soon gave birth.
38. Physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr and his brother, renowned mathematician Harald Bohr, were football players. At the same time, Harald was a member of the Danish national team and even took second place at the 1905 Olympics.
39. The phrase “The king is dead, long live the king” was uttered by Catherine de Medici when she learned about the death of her son Charles IX.
40. The Swedish King Charles VII, who was killed in 1167, was the first king of the state with the name Charles! Charles I, II, III, IV, V and VI never existed, and it is not clear where the prefix "seventh" came from. A couple of centuries later, King Charles VIII (1448-1457) appeared in Sweden.
41. Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was an ophthalmologist by profession.
42. Attila the Barbarian died in 453 on his wedding night immediately after the wedding.
43. Beethoven always brewed coffee from 64 grains.
44. The British Queen Victoria (1819-1901), who ruled Britain for 64 years, spoke English with an accent. She had German roots.
45. In 1357, a dead woman was crowned Queen of Portugal. She became Princess Ines de Castro, the second wife of Pedro I. Two years earlier, her father-in-law, Alfonso "Proud", who hated her for being a commoner, secretly ordered his people to kill her and her children. When Pedro became king, he ordered the removal of Inés' body from the grave and forced the nobility to recognize her as Queen of Portugal.
46. In 1849, Senator David Atchison became President of the United States for only 1 day, and most of that day he ... overslept.
47. The Grand Vizier of Persia, Abdul Kassim Ismail (who lived in the 10th century) never parted with his library. If he went somewhere, the library “followed” him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by 400 camels. Moreover, the books (together with the camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.
48. The great Genghis Khan died while having sex.
49. Hannibal died in 183 BC. e. taking poison when he learned that the Romans had come to kill him.
50. Hans-Christian Andersen could not write almost a single word without errors.
51. Henry IV often flogged his son, the future Louis XIII.
52. The Danish king Frederick IV was a bigamist. He married twice while his wife Queen Louise was alive. His first lover died in childbirth, his second lover was only queen for 19 days after the death of Queen Louise. All the children from both of his mistresses either died at birth or in infancy, as he believed for his sinful life. He later became extremely religious.
53. Jack the Ripper, the most famous killer of the 19th century, always committed his crimes on weekends.
54. Dr. Alice Chase, who wrote the book "Healthy Eating" and many books about proper nutrition died of malnutrition.
55. Once the merchant Krasnobryukhov turned to Alexander I with a request to change his surname, and he allowed him to be called ... Sinebryukhov. After that, the merchant went to Finland with grief and founded the famous Koff brewing company there.
56. When the Russian Queen Elizabeth I died in 1762, more than 15,000 dresses were found in her wardrobe.
57. Mozart started composing music at the age of 3.
58. There is not a single living descendant of William Shakespeare left on Earth.
59. Before composing music, Beethoven poured a bucket over his head cold water believing that it stimulates the brain.
60. Thomas Edison wrote 40,000 pages while designing the light bulb.
61. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Felix Mendelssohn wrote at the age of 17. It became his most famous work.
62. Beria suffered from syphilis.
63. More than 100 descendants of Johann Sebastian Bach became organists.
64. In the ZZ Top group, only one member does not have a beard. And his name is Beard, which in English means ... "beard".
65. Since 1932, only Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush have not been elected to the United States for a second term as president.
66. Ilf and Petrov discarded ideas that came to both minds at once - in order to avoid clichés.
67. When Beethoven wrote the famous Ninth Symphony, he was completely deaf.
68. Composer Franz Liszt was the father-in-law of the German composer Richard Wagner.
69. Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife.
70. Writer Rudyard Kipling couldn't write in ink unless it was black.
71. Writer Charles Dickens wrote with his face to the north. He also always slept with his head to the north.
72. The Roman emperor Commodus gathered dwarfs, cripples and freaks from all over the Roman Empire to arrange fights between them in the Colosseum.
73. The Roman emperor Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath on his head to hide his growing baldness.
74. Russian composer Alexander Borodin was also a well-known chemist in St. Petersburg.
75. The smallest of the American presidents is James Madison (1.62 m), and Abraham Lincoln is the tallest (1.93 m).
76. The shortest British monarch is Charles I. His height was 4 feet 9 inches (about 140 cm). After his head was cut off, his height became even smaller.
77. The body of Voltaire, who died in 1778, was stolen from the grave and was never found. The loss was discovered in 1864.
78. Balzac has a whole book dedicated to ... a tie.
79. The British Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) had about 3,000 outfits.
80. American Pete Ruff knocks an apple off his own head with a boomerang.
81. American industrial tycoon and billionaire John Rockefeller donated over $550 million. to various foundations and institutions.
82. American President Benjamin Franklin advocated that the national bird of America was the turkey.
83. In 1856, the English chemist William Perkin, while trying to obtain quinine from aniline, invented the first artificial dye, mauveine.
84. In the village of Lobovskoye, Saratov Region. there lives a beekeeper who is able to withstand 40 hours in a hive with bees completely naked.
85. In the period from 1952 - 1966, 5 children were born in the family of Ralph and Carolyn Cummins and all of them have a birthday on February 20th.
86. Galileo Galilei was the first person to propose using a pendulum to measure time.
87. Hannibal died in 183 BC after taking poison when he learned that the Romans had come to kill him.
88. Grover Cleveland was the only US president to marry in the White House.
89. James Madison was the smallest of the American presidents (1.62 m), and Abraham Lincoln was the tallest (1.93 m).
90. Dr. Alice Chase, who wrote the book Healthy Eating and many books on proper nutrition, died of malnutrition.
91. For 35 years, Mozart created over 600 works. But after his death, the widow had no money for separate place at the cemetery
92. Famous 19th century bullfighter Lagarijo (born Rafael Molina) killed 4867 bulls.
93. When the German physicist A. Einstein died, his last words went with him. Nurse, former nearby did not understand German.
94. The maximum number of crossword puzzles was Andrian Bell. From January 1930 to 1980 he sent 4,520 crossword puzzles to The Times.
95. Robert Lincoln, son of President Lincoln, was rescued from a car accident by one Edwin Booth. As it turns out, Edwin is the brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. The father tried to kill the father, and their children saved each other
96. The first American president to use the telephone was James Garfield.
97. Concept a negative number was first introduced by the Italian merchant Pisano in 1202, denoting his debts and losses.
98. The world's largest private collection of meteorites belongs to the American Robert Haag - from the age of 12 he collected 2 tons of heavenly stones.
99. Thomas Edison had a collection of birds in 5000 copies.
100. Frenchmen Jeanne Louise and Guy Bruty made a crossword puzzle on a sheet of paper 5 m long and 3 m wide, from 18 thousand words and 50 thousand cells.
101. Shakespeare mentioned roses more than 50 times in his poems.
102. Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, was the only president to make his own clothes.
103. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day - February 12, 1809. The scientist lived almost 20 years longer than the politician.
104. Bill Clinton has sent as many as two emails throughout his presidency, one of which was a test to check that everything is working properly. I wonder who the second letter was to? Maybe Monica?
105. In 1759, Arthur Guinness leased St. Gate's Brewery for 9,000 years from rent 45 pounds a year. The famous Guinness beer was brewed there.
106. In 1981, Deborah Ann Fontan, Miss New York, was disqualified for excessive use of cotton stuffing in a swimsuit competition.
107. George Washington did not shake hands when meeting - he preferred to bow
108. The only president of the United States, concurrently being the chairman of any union - Ronald Reagan, head of the Screen Actors Guild
109. If you remember a little school physics course, then you know that there is a Richter temperature scale. So this same Charles Richter was a malicious nudist, because of which his wife left him
110. If you read the works of the writer Stephen King, you should notice that most of the actions of his stories take place in Maine. Paradoxically, this state has the lowest crime rate in the United States.
111. The founder of psychoanalysis has a lot of oddities. Freud was terrified of the number 62. He refused to book a hotel room with more than 62 rooms for fear of accidentally getting a room with the number 62. He used cocaine, like many of his contemporaries.
112. The famous entrepreneur Henry Ford preferred to hire people with physical disabilities - among the workers of his factories in 1919, there was one disabled person for four healthy people.
113. Research Louis Pasteur sponsored a beer factory. They also paid him a ticket to an international congress. When Pasteur was given the floor at the congress, the first thing he did was to hang advertising posters with beer on the stage. And he began his speech with the words that this beer is the best. And then he got down to business.
114. Madonna and Celine Dion are cousins of Prince Charles's wife, Camilla
115. The father of the famous comedian Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun, etc.) served as a policeman in Canada, and his brother worked in the Canadian Parliament
116. The father of tennis player Andre Agassi represented Iran at Olympic Games 1948 and 1952. He was... a boxer
Interesting stories from life famous of people .
the site believes that each of us can become a famous person, the main thing is to always believe in yourself and move forward. We have collected stories and facts from the life of famous people from all over the world.
Roman emperor Julius Caesar always wore a laurel wreath on his head to hide his progressive baldness.
In the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan died while having sex.
And the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle, was an ophthalmologist by profession.
The creator of Mickey Mouse, the famous Walt Disney?, was afraid of mice all his life.
The eminent Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh sold only one of his works during his lifetime, Red Vineyard at Arles.
And the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began composing music at the age of 3. For 35 years, Mozart created over 600 works. But after his death, his widow did not even have money for a separate place in the cemetery.
The theoretical physicist Albert Einstein did not speak a word until the age of 3, but at the age of 12 he understood Euclidean geometry.
The German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once tasted Franconian wine from Bavaria and was so impressed that from then on he demanded to send him 900 Franconian liters a year.
Many of Remarque's characters, like himself, prefer Normandy apple brandy - Calvados - from alcoholic drinks.
M the Macedonian king from the Argead dynasty, commander Alexander the Great? knew by sight 30,000 soldiers of his army.
On May 24, 2000, the Clay Institute of Mathematics (Cambridge, USA) offers a million dollars for solving each of the seven mathematical "millennium problems", including the Poincare conjecture formulated in 1904. On November 1, 2002, the Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman posted on the website of the mathematical archive the first of three articles, according to the results of which he will be recognized as a scientist who won one of the toughest problems topology. In March 2010, the Clay Institute awards Perelman a million dollar prize. On July 1, 2010, Perelman refuses the prize, as he had previously rejected the "mathematical Nobel Prize" - the Fields medal. The refusal is explained by ethical reasons: Perelman believes that he owes success to the mathematician Hamilton, on whose work he relied.
Literary success came to I. Goncharov only at the age of 40.
And the English physicist, mathematician, mechanic and astronomer Isaac Newton wrote a preface to his works when he was 72 years old.
The Sero-Russian Empress from 1762 to 1796 Catherine the Great (Catherine II) loved beer. It was for her that the British brewed especially strong beer - so that it would not spoil on the road. This type of beer is called "Russian stout". It is not pasteurized, but matures in barrels for 2 months, after which it is aged in bottles for a year.
The German historian Theodor Mommsen once rummaged through all his pockets to find glasses. A little girl sitting next to him handed them to him. "Thank you, little one," said Mommsen, "what's your name?" "Anna Mommsen, papa," the girl replied.
Tupak Shakur is an American rapper, film actor and social activist.
He entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful hip-hop artist, selling a total of more than 75 million copies of his albums.
The late Tupac Shakur is the first representative of the hip-hop world to be honored with a monument. A seven-foot bronze statue of a black American hero was unveiled on September 13, 2005 at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
One day, young Thomas Edison returned home from school and gave his mother a letter from his teacher.
Mom read the letter aloud to her son, with tears in her eyes: “Your son is a genius. This and the school is too small, and there are no teachers here to teach him anything. Please teach it yourself.”
Many years after the death of his mother (Edison was by then one of the greatest inventors of the century), he once revised the old family archives and came across this letter.
He opened it and read:
“Your son is mentally retarded. We can no longer teach it at school with everyone else. Therefore, we recommend that you learn it yourself at home.”
Edison sobbed for several hours. Then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally retarded child.
Thanks to his heroic mother, he became one of the greatest geniuses of his age.”
Since the sculptor Lina Po, completely devoid of sight, she created more than a hundred wonderful works by touch.
In the 16th century, an influential statesman and philosopher, Francis Bacon, died because he stuffed a gutted chicken with snow (it occurred to him that snow could be used instead of salt to preserve meat, and he tried to test his theory). As a result of the experiment, the chicken did not freeze, but Bacon himself froze.
King Solomon had about 700 wives in Israel, as well as hundreds of mistresses.
Justin Timberlake is afraid of spiders.
In 1972, a young Indian wrote to John Lennon that he had a dream to travel around the world, but no money, and asked him to send the necessary amount. Lennon replied: "Meditate and you will be able to see the whole world in your imagination." In 1995, an Indian, having sold Lennon's letter at auction, went on a trip around the world.
Einstein adored the films of Charlie Chaplin and had great sympathy for both him and his touching characters. One day he sent a telegram to Chaplin:
“Your film “Gold Rush” is understood by everyone in the world, and I am sure that you will become a great person. Einstein".
Chaplin replied:
“I admire you even more. Nobody in the world understands your theory of relativity, but you still became a great person.
Chaplin".
Charles Dickens always slept with his head to the north. He thought it would improve his writing ability.
The house where Jefferson wrote the US Declaration of Independence now sells hamburgers.
Marilyn Monroe's bra sold for $14,000 at auction.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax on the beard of men.
The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Tesla did not have his own house or apartment - only laboratories and land. The great inventor usually spent the night right in the laboratory or in hotels in New York. Tesla never married. According to him, a solitary lifestyle helped develop his scientific abilities.
The myth that Marilyn Monroe has six toes on her left foot arose from one shot. Photographer Joseph Jagura photographed a young Norma Jean in 1946 on Zuma Beach. In one photo, due to the accumulation of sand that stuck to her foot, it seems that the actress has six fingers.
One day, the father of Russian aviation, Zhukovsky, after talking all evening with friends in his own living room, suddenly got up, looking for his hat, and began to hurriedly say goodbye, muttering: However, I stayed too long with you, it's time to go home!
