The most interesting things in people's lives. Interesting facts from life

Once again, we want to invite you to combine business with pleasure and learn a lot of new and interesting things during breaks caused by the most for various reasons. Fill the forced waiting time easy reading and at the same time information useful for broadening your horizons. This time we bring to your attention the most incredible and little-known facts from world history. Thanks to its convenient design, the book can be used in almost any environment.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Essential Reading. 1000 new interesting facts for the mind and entertainment (E. Mirochnik, 2014) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Chapter 2. Incredible facts from the lives of great people

Great Losers

Beethoven's teacher considered him a completely untalented student. The great composer never mastered this until the end of his life. mathematical operation, like multiplication.

Darwin, who abandoned medicine, was bitterly reproached by his father: “You are not interested in anything except catching dogs and rats!”

Walt Disney was fired from the newspaper due to a lack of ideas.

Edison's mentor said about him that he was stupid and could not learn anything.

Einstein did not speak until he was four years old. His teacher described him as mentally retarded.

The father of Rodin, the great sculptor, said: “My son is an idiot. He failed to get into art school three times.”

Mozart, one of the most brilliant composers, was told by Emperor Ferdinand that his “Marriage of Figaro” had “too little noise and too many notes.”

Our compatriot Mendeleev had a C in chemistry.

When we look at Ford cars, we think that their creator, Henry Ford, was always a wealthy, successful businessman. We see this a huge empire, which has been living for more than a hundred years. But few of us know that before achieving financial success, Ford declared himself bankrupt several times and went completely bankrupt - the man who changed the course of history by putting the world on wheels.

Henry Ford never had a driver's license.

When Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio and told his friends that he would transmit words over a distance through the air, they thought he was crazy and took him to a psychiatrist. But within a few months his radio saved the lives of many sailors.

Nikolai Gogol, oddly enough, wrote rather mediocre essays at school. He achieved some success only in Russian literature and drawing. In addition, Nikolai Vasilyevich was an extremely shy person: for example, if a stranger appeared in the company, Gogol simply quietly left the room.

The great silent film actor Charlie Chaplin learned to read much later than he received his first theater role. He was terribly afraid that someone would discover his illiteracy, so he in every possible way avoided situations where he could be forced to read excerpts from the role.

The outstanding politician Winston Churchill was an excellent orator. But as a child he stuttered and had a lisp, and only thanks to to a good speech therapist speech defects were corrected.

Besides, Churchill literally hated school. He was the worst student in the class and often received blows from teachers. When the father noticed that his son was interested in toy soldiers, he suggested that he enroll in military academy. Churchill entered there... on the third attempt.

The famous storyteller Hans Christian Andersen wrote with grammatical and spelling errors until the end of his life. He had particular difficulties with punctuation marks. Therefore, a lot of money was spent on paying for the work of people who rewrote his works before they went to the publishing house.

Alexander Pushkin, as we know, was a graduate of the Lyceum. But he got into it through connections - his uncle placed him there. And that's when graduation party prepared lists of graduates, Pushkin was listed second in his academic performance... from the bottom.

Author of the law universal gravity Isaac Newton was a member of the House of Lords. We must give him his due - he attended all the meetings of the chamber regularly, but for many years he did not utter a word there. And then one day he nevertheless asked to be given the opportunity to speak. Everyone literally froze, waiting for the significant speech of the great scientist. And in absolute silence Newton said: “Gentlemen! I ask you to close the window, otherwise I might catch a cold!” That's all! This was his only performance.

The university graduation certificate of the German philosopher Georg Hegel stated: “A young man with sound judgment, but was not distinguished by eloquence and did not show himself in any way in philosophy.”

Little is known about the biography of Sylvester Stallone by a wide range of viewers who admire their favorite hero on the screen, and meanwhile the future action star was known at the school where he studied as a real bandit! His teachers unanimously insisted that Stallone would definitely kill someone and end his life in prison, with a life sentence or be executed! Probably for this reason, young Sylvester changed several schools every year, which eventually totaled 15!

Colombian singer Shakira was kicked out of her school choir at age 10 because her teacher didn’t like her voice. Then she practically abandoned the dream of a musical career.

A woman with outstanding forms, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, at one time, simply could not pass the very first selection in her life for filming in a television commercial. The fact is that the experts who assessed the candidates for the role of the girl who will advertise the jeans unanimously declared that Lopez simply would not fit into them.

The strangest actions and habits of great people

The 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe, whose research helped Sir Isaac Newton create the theory of universal gravitation, died an untimely farewell due to the fact that he did not visit the toilet on time. In those days, leaving the table before the end of the feast meant causing a grave insult to the owner of the house. Being a polite man, Brahe did not dare ask permission to leave the table. His bladder burst, and after suffering for 11 days, the astronomer died.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, a 17th-century composer who wrote music commissioned by the French king, died from excess dedication to his work. Once, during a rehearsal for another concert, he got so excited that, hitting his cane on the floor, he pierced his own leg and died from blood poisoning.

The great illusionist Harry Houdini died after a fan punched him in the stomach. Houdini allowed people to hit him, demonstrating the wonders of an impenetrable abs. He died in hospital from internal injuries.

The twelfth President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, ate too much ice cream after a ceremony on a particularly hot day on July 4, 1850, suffered from indigestion and died five days later, having been president for only 16 months.

Jack Daniel, the father of the famous Jack Daniel's whiskey, died of blood poisoning after suffering a leg injury: he broke his finger kicking his safe, to which he forgot the combination.

Vincent van Gogh painted for days, drank buckets of absinthe, cut off his left ear and painted a self-portrait in this form, and at the age of 37 he committed suicide. After his death, by the way, doctors published over 150 medical diagnoses that were given to the great painter during his lifetime.

While working, Gustave Flaubert moaned along with the characters he portrayed, cried and laughed, big steps walked quickly around the office and loudly chanted words.

Honore de Balzac was afraid of getting married more than anything else in the world. Long years he was in love with Countess Evelina Ganskaya. Balzac resisted for another eight years, but still the Countess insisted on the wedding. The writer fell ill from fear and even wrote to his fiancée: they say, my health is such that you would rather accompany me to the cemetery than have time to try on my name. But the wedding took place. True, Honore was taken down the aisle in a chair, since he himself could not go.

The French artist Henri Matisse, before starting to paint, felt a strong desire to strangle someone.

Voltaire drank up to 50 cups of coffee a day.

Ivan Krylov had an inexplicable mania: he loved to look at fires and tried not to miss a single fire in St. Petersburg.

When the blues attacked Ivan Turgenev, he put a high cap on his head and put himself in a corner. And he stood there until the melancholy passed.

Anton Chekhov loved to talk unusual compliments: “dog”, “actress”, “snake”, “crocodile of my soul”.

William Burroughs wanted to surprise the guests at one of the parties. The writer planned to repeat the act of the archer William Tell, who hit an apple standing on the head of his own son. Burroughs placed a glass on his wife Joan Vollmer's head and fired the gun. The wife died from a bullet in the head.

Ivan the Terrible personally rang the bells at the main belfry of the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda in the mornings and evenings. Thus, they say, he tried to drown out mental suffering.

Lord Byron became extremely irritated at the sight of a salt shaker.

Charles Dickens always washed down every 50 lines of what he wrote with a sip of hot water.

Johannes Brahms constantly polished his shoes unnecessarily “for inspiration.”

Isaac Newton once welded a pocket watch while holding an egg and looking at it.

Ludwig van Beethoven always went unshaven, believing that shaving hindered creative inspiration. And before sitting down to write music, the composer poured a bucket on his head cold water: this, in his opinion, should have greatly stimulated the brain.

Alexander Pushkin loved to shoot in the bathhouse. They say that in the village of Mikhailovskoye almost nothing authentic from the time of the poet has been really preserved, but the wall that Pushkin shot at surprisingly remained intact.

Fyodor Dostoevsky could not work without strong tea. When he wrote his novels at night, there was always a glass of tea on his desk, and a samovar was always kept hot in the dining room.

Johann Goethe worked only in a hermetically sealed room, without the slightest access to fresh air.

Commander Alexander Suvorov was famous for his strange antics: his unusual daily routine - he went to bed at six o'clock in the evening and woke up at two o'clock in the morning, his unusual awakening - he wet himself cold water and loudly shouted “ku-ka-re-ku!”, an unusual bed for a commander - with all ranks, he slept on hay. Preferring to wear old boots, he could easily go out to meet high officials in a sleeping cap and underwear.

He also gave the signal for the attack to his loved ones “ku-ka-re-ku!”, and, they say, after he was promoted to field marshal, he began jumping over chairs and saying: “And I jumped over this one, and over that one.” That!"

Suvorov was very fond of marrying his serfs, guided by a very peculiar principle - he lined them up in a row, selected those suitable in height, and then married 20 couples at a time.

Emperor Nicholas I did not like music and, as a punishment for officers, gave them a choice between the guardhouse and listening to Glinka's operas.

Emperor Nicholas I ordered that portraits of his ancestors be hung in the toilet. The Tsar Father justified his action by saying that in difficult times he was pleased to feel the support of his relatives. In addition, Nikolai Pavlovich moved his library to the outhouse.

Arthur Schopenhauer was famous for his excellent appetite and ate for two; if anyone made a remark to him on this score, he replied that he thought for both.

It was his custom to pay for two seats so that no one could join him at the table.

At dinner, he used to talk loudly to his poodle Atman and at the same time addressed him every time as “you” and “sir” if he behaved well, and “you” and “man” if he was the master of something upset.

Sigmund Freud hated music. He threw away his sister's piano and did not visit restaurants with an orchestra.

French writer Guy de Maupassant was one of those who was irritated by the Eiffel Tower. Nevertheless, he dined at her restaurant every day, explaining that this was the only place in Paris from where the tower was not visible.

Hunter Thompson, before filming the film adaptation of his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, came to film set. The role of Raoul Duke was played by Johnny Depp. The writer, being able alcohol intoxication, personally cut the movie star’s hair, creating a huge bald spot on Depp’s head.

The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, designed his own tombstone and wrote a text for it that did not indicate that he was president.

The sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, always wore a tall black top hat on his head, inside which he kept letters, financial papers, bills and notes.

Chinese state and political figure 20th century Mao Zedong never brushed his teeth. And when he said that it was unhygienic, he replied: “Have you ever seen a tiger brush his teeth?”

English footballer David Beckham can't stand clutter. The objects surrounding it must be carefully selected in color, shape and size, and their number must be a multiple of two.

Funny incidents from the lives of famous people

One day Albert Einstein was riding a tram in Leipzig. And on this very tram there was a conductor. The conductor approached the physicist and asked him to pay the fare. Einstein counted down quite calmly the required amount and handed it to the conductor. He counted the money and said that another 5 pfennigs were missing.

- I counted carefully! This can't be true! - Einstein objected.

Galileo Galilei spent his wedding night reading a book. Noticing that it was already dawn, he went to the bedroom, but immediately came out and asked the servant: “Who is lying in my bed?” “Your wife, sir,” answered the servant. Galileo completely forgot that he got married.

Once Voltaire was invited to dinner party. When everyone was seated, it turned out that the maestro found himself between two grumpy gentlemen. Having drunk well, Voltaire’s neighbors began to argue about how to properly address the servants: “Bring me some water!” or “Give me some water!” Voltaire unwittingly found himself right in the middle of this controversy. Finally, tired of this disgrace, the maestro could not stand it and said:

- Gentlemen, both of these expressions are inapplicable to you! You should both say, “Take me to water!”

Once Vladimir Mayakovsky had to speak in front of a whole hall of writers. This was not uncommon for him, but that speech of the proletarian poet became special. While he was reading his poems on the podium, one of the poet’s ill-wishers, of whom there were plenty in those years, shouted:

– I don’t understand your poems! They're kind of stupid!

“It’s okay, your children will understand,” Vladimir Vladimirovich answered.

- And my children will not understand your poems! – continued the ill-wisher.

“Well, why are you talking about your children so quickly,” the poet answered with a grin. “Maybe their mother is smart, maybe they’ll take after her.”

Once, speaking at Polytechnic Institute at a debate on proletarian internationalism, Vladimir Mayakovsky said:

– Among Russians I feel like a Russian, among Georgians I feel like a Georgian...

- And among fools? – suddenly someone shouted from the hall.

“And this is my first time among fools,” Mayakovsky answered instantly.

While traveling around France, Mark Twain traveled by train to the city of Dijon. The train was passing, and he asked to wake him up on time. At the same time, the writer said to the conductor:

– I sleep very soundly. When you wake me up, maybe I will scream. So ignore it and be sure to drop me off in Dijon.

When Mark Twain woke up, it was already morning and the train was approaching Paris. The writer realized that he had passed through Dijon and became very angry. He ran to the conductor and began to reprimand him.

– I have never been as angry as I am now! - he shouted.

“You are not as angry as the American whom I dropped off in Dijon at night,” answered the guide.

Mark Twain, being a newspaper editor, once published a devastating denunciation of a certain N. It contained the phrase: “Mr. N does not even deserve a spit in the face.” This gentleman filed a lawsuit, which ordered the newspaper to publish a refutation, and Mark Twain showed himself to be a “law-abiding” citizen: in the next issue of his newspaper it was published: “Mr. N deserves a spit in the face.”

End of introductory fragment.

All of us, graduates of Soviet and post-Soviet secondary schools, at least we can remember something about famous historical figures. Well, for example, that Gaius Julius Caesar was killed as a result of a conspiracy involving a certain Brutus. Or that Albert Einstein is the author general theory relativity. However, there are a number of interesting facts about famous people, which they are unlikely to tell you about at school.

1. Once upon a time famous physicist had a chance to become president of Israel. However, he refused this position with the caveat that he would not be able to decide state affairs due to their significance and scale.

2. Perhaps, while dying, Albert Einstein finally put forward another brilliant theory or said something equally significant. Alas, we will never know about this, since he died in the presence of a nurse who did not understand a word of German.

3. The last wish of the founder of the Nobel Prize was a request not to be considered a promoter of violence due to the fact that he invented dynamite.

4. British Queen Anna was the mother of 17 children and outlived them all.

5. Elizabeth the First introduced a tax for those men who wore a beard.

6. She also passed a law obliging everyone, except very rich people, to wear special hats on Sunday.

7. One can only guess what happened during feasts before Catherine the First issued a law stating that no man had the right to get drunk during a feast before 21.00.

8. For her wedding, among other things, Queen Victoria received a “piece” of cheese weighing half a ton and three meters in diameter.

9. Lady Astor is credited with saying the following to Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “If you were my husband, I would put poison in your coffee.” They say that a worthy answer was received to this: “If you were my wife, I would drink it.”

10. And the British Prime Minister himself smoked about 15 cigars a day.

11. The autograph of a famous Roman emperor is valued at $2 million. The problem is that no one has been able to find it yet.

12. The appearance of a laurel wreath on the head of Julius Caesar is associated with his attempt to hide the beginning of hair loss.

13. The loving Israeli king Solomon had about 700 wives and at least a hundred mistresses.

14. The sex icon's bra, which Marilyn wore in Some Like It Hot, fetched $14,000 at auction.

15. The famous writer Charles Dickens slept exclusively facing north. He firmly believed that this would help improve his writing talent.

16. What would US President Thomas Jefferson think of his descendants if he learned that the house in which he wrote the Declaration of Independence is now... a diner?

17. George Washington can be proud that his birthday is the only birthday that is an official holiday in all states of America.

18. During World War I, the future Pope John XXIII served as a sergeant in the Italian army.

19. Isaac Newton was interested in occult and supernatural ideas.

20. John Rockefeller gave away more than $500 million to charitable causes during his lifetime.

21. Personally, I am perplexed by the fact that a two-time Nobel Prize winner was unable to become a member of the prestigious French Academy solely because she was a woman.

22. Mozart never went to school.

23. There was a payphone in the mansion of one of the richest people in the world.

24. The first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party worked as an assistant librarian at Beijing University before taking power.

25. Three most famous names in China they amaze with their modesty and originality: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley.

26. John Glenn became the first American astronaut to reach earth's orbit.

27. This professional illusionist claimed that his extraordinary abilities came to him from the distant planet Huva.

And finally

28. Italians owe their national flag Napoleon Bonaparte.

ABOUT COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES

1. The Alaska flag was created by a 13-year-old boy.
2. Military honor in no country is given with the left hand.
3. International telephone code Antarctica - 672.
4. Captain Cook was the first person to set foot on all the continents of the Earth except Antarctica.
5. The West African Matami tribe plays football with a human skull.
6. In Australia, the fifty cent coin originally contained two dollars worth of silver.
7. Most often, the Guinness Book of Records is stolen in English libraries.
8. The National Orchestra of Monaco is larger than its army.
9. One day - February 18, 1979 - it snowed in the Sahara Desert.
10. Canada is larger in area than China, and China is larger than the United States.
11. The only country, where not a single birth was registered in 1983 - Vatican.
12. The Nile froze twice - in the 9th and 11th centuries.
13. In Siena, Italy, you can't be a prostitute if your name is Maria.
14. In ancient Rome, a man taking an oath or making an oath would place his hand on the scrotum.
15. Tickling was prohibited by law in some ancient countries of the East, as it was considered a sinful arousing activity.
16. There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
17. In the Eskimo language, there are more than 20 words for snow.
18. There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.
19. In France, the law prohibits the sale of dolls with non-human faces, such as “alien girls.”
20. Canada has been declared the best country to live by the UN 4 times over the past 5 years.
21. B Ancient Rome If a patient died during an operation, the doctor's hands were cut off.
ABOUT CULTURE
22. As X-rays showed, under the “Mona Lisa” we know, there are three more of her initial versions.
23. John Lennon's song "I'm a Walrus" was inspired by the sound of a police siren.
24. Most often sung song in the world - " Happy birthday to you" - is protected by copyright.
25. There is only one Western directed by a woman.
26. George Harrison's toilet seat sang "Lusy in the sky with diamonds."
27. During World War II, in order to save metal, Oscar figurines were made of wood.
28. The original title of “Gone with the Wind” is “Be-be, black sheep.”
29. In Cameroon's film Titanic, the most frequently spoken word is "Rose".

ABOUT THE LITTLE BROTHERS

30. The cat falling from the 12th floor has more chances survive than a cat that falls from the 7th.
31. When Europeans first saw a giraffe, they called it a “camelback,” thinking that it was a hybrid of a camel and a leopard.
32. Animal with the most big brain in relation to the body - an ant.
33. About 70 percent of living creatures on Earth are bacteria.
34. When young, Black Sea perches are mostly girls, but by the age of 5 they radically change sex!
35. The elephant is the only animal with 4 knees.
36. The Tokyo Zoo closes for 2 months every year so that the animals can take a break from visitors.
37. Anteaters prefer to eat termites rather than ants.
38. When a giraffe gives birth, her baby falls from a height of one and a half meters.
39. Despite the hump, the camel’s spine is straight.
40. Female dogs bite more often than male dogs.
41. Every year, more people die from bee stings than from snake bites.
42. Sharks are immune to cancer.
43. Birth control pills work on gorillas.
44. A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
45. A starfish can turn its stomach inside out.
46. The animal that can go the longest without drinking is the rat.
47. The only animals that suffer from leprosy, besides humans, are armadillos.
48. Hippos are born under water.
49. Orangutans warn of aggression with loud burps.
50. A mole can dig a tunnel 76 meters long in one night.
51. A snail has about 25,000 teeth.
52. A black spider can eat up to 20 spiders a day.
53. With a lack of food, a tapeworm can eat up to 95 percent of its body weight - and nothing!
54. Crocodiles are responsible for more than 1,000 deaths on the banks of the Nile per year.
55. The ancient Egyptians taught baboons to serve them at table.
56. Saint Bernards, the famous rescuers of mountaineers, do not wear a flask of brandy around their necks.
57. It takes 4 hours to hard-boil an ostrich egg.
58. Within a pride of lions, 9/10 of the prey is supplied to the “family” by lionesses.
59. Sloths spend 75% of their lives sleeping.
60. Hummingbirds cannot walk.
61. A moth has no stomach.
62. Europeans, having arrived in Australia, asked the aborigines: “What are these strange jumping animals you have here?” The Aborigines answered: “Kangaroo,” which meant: “We don’t understand!”
63. The easiest way to distinguish a vegetarian animal from a predator: predators have eyes located on the front of the muzzle to see the prey. Vegetarians have them on both sides of their heads to see the enemy.
64. Bat- the only mammal that can fly.
65. 99% of living creatures that lived on Earth became extinct.
66. To make a kilogram of honey, a bee must fly around 2 million flowers.
67. Blood of a grasshopper white, lobster - blue.
68. The only animals that have sex for pleasure are humans and dolphins.
69. Over the past 4,000 years, not a single new animal has been domesticated.
70. Penguins can jump more than one and a half meters in height.
71. The only pet that is not mentioned in the Bible is a cat.
72. Chimpanzees are the only animals that can recognize themselves in the mirror.
73. The word “orangutan” means “jungle man” in some African languages.
74. Emu means "ostrich" in Portuguese.
75. Elephants and humans are the only mammals that can stand on their heads.
76. Crocodiles swallow stones to dive deeper.
77. Polar bears can run at a speed of 40 km/h.
78. Dogs have elbows.

ABOUT THE GREATS

79. “The Thinker” by Rodin - a portrait of the Italian poet Dante.
80. Singer Nick Cave was born with a ponytail.
81. Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day - April 23, 1616.
82. English writer Virginia Woolf I wrote most of my books standing up.
83. Sarah Bernhardt played 13-year-old Juliet at 70 years old.
84. When Walt Disney was a child, he tortured an owl. Since then, he decided to bring animals to life in cartoons.
85. Beethoven was once arrested for vagrancy.
86. Buzz Aldrin, one of the astronauts who walked on the Moon, has his mother’s maiden name Moon (Moon).
87. When Einstein died, his last words died with him: the nurse did not understand German.
88. Julius Caesar wore Laurel wreath to hide the beginning of baldness.
89. D. Washington grew marijuana in his garden.
90. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, never called his mother and wife: they were both deaf.
91. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of the Irish, was not Irish.
92. Leonardo da Vinci invented an alarm clock that rubbed the feet of a sleeping person.
93. Napoleon suffered from ailurophobia - fear of cats.

ABOUT PEOPLE

94. The nose grows throughout a person’s life.
95. Only one child out of 20 is born on the day prescribed by the doctor.
96. The ancient Greeks believed that boys grew up in right side belly, and girls - in the left.
97. If you remove space from all atoms human body, then what remains will be able to slip through the eye of the needle.
98. In the Middle Ages, in the dark spots of the Moon, people saw the figure of Cain carrying an armful of brushwood.
99. A sperm is the smallest single cell in the body. The egg is the largest.
100. If only real woman had the proportions of a Barbie doll, she could only move on 4 limbs.
101. Blonde beards grow faster than dark ones.
102. In Russian and English languages there is no word for the back of the knee.
103. In the 15th century, it was believed that the color red heals. Patients wore red and surrounded themselves with red things.
104. Tongue imprints are individual for all people.
105. When you blush, your stomach turns red too.
106. There is enough body fat in the human body to make 7 bars of soap.
107. 80% of the human body’s heat leaves the head.
108. A person has fewer muscles than a caterpillar.
109. At the time of death, Lenin's brain was a quarter normal size.
110. The world's highest IQ scores on standardized tests belong to two women.
111. Most people lose 50% taste sensations by the age of 60.
112. House dust 70% consists of shed skin.
113. The tooth is the only part of a person that lacks the ability to repair itself.
114. The brain is 80% water.
115. More living organisms live on the body of one person than there are people on Earth.
116. One hair can support a weight of 3 kg.
117. The average human head weighs 3.6 kg.
118. Over the course of his entire life, a person produces so much saliva that it would be enough for 2 large swimming pools.

Well and Miscellaneous

Repellents don't repel mosquitoes - they hide you. The substances contained in repellents block the receptors with which mosquitoes find their prey.
Dentists recommend keeping your toothbrush at least two meters away from the toilet.
No sheet of paper can be folded in half more than seven times.
Every year, donkeys kill more people on earth than die in plane crashes.
You burn more calories while sleeping than while watching TV.
The first product with a barcode was Wrigley's chewing gum.
The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is greater than the distance of the Wright brothers' first flight.
American Airlines saved $40,000 by removing just one olive from salads served to first class passengers.
Venus the only planet solar system, rotating counterclockwise.
Apples help you wake up in the morning better than coffee.
The plastic things at the ends of the laces are called aiguillettes.
The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.
Michael Jordan received more money from Nike than all the workers at the company's factories in Malaysia.
Marilyn Monroe had six toes on her feet.
All US presidents wore glasses. It’s just that some people didn’t like to appear in public wearing them.
Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice.
Pearls dissolve in vinegar.
Among people posting marriage advertisements, 35 percent are already married.
The three most expensive brand names on earth are Marlboro, Coca-Cola and Budweiser, in that order.
You can make a cow go up a ladder, but you can't make it go down.
Duck croaking does not echo, no one knows why.
The reason American firehouses have spiral staircases dates back to the days when pumps and other heavy objects were lifted by horses. The horses crowded below, unable to figure out how to climb the straight flights of stairs.
Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president to have all the letters of the word "criminal" in his name.
The second was Bill Clinton.
On average, 100 people die every year from choking on a ballpoint pen.
90 percent of New York taxi drivers are immigrants.
The elephant is the only animal that cannot jump.
One in two million people have a chance of living to 116 years old.
Women, on average, blink twice as often as men.
It is anatomically impossible for a person to lick his own elbow.
Indiana University's main library building is sinking one inch each year because engineers did not take into account the weight of the books it contained during construction.
Snails can sleep for up to three years.
Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongues.
The lighter was invented before matches.
Every day, US residents eat 18 hectares of pizza.
Almost everyone who read this text tried to lick their elbow.
Having learned that, according to Plato, Man is a biped without feathers, Diogenes plucked the rooster and, bringing it to the Academy, announced: “Here is Plato’s man” ;)
If you scream for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, the amount of acoustic energy you generate will be enough to heat one cup of coffee.
If you fart continuously for 6 years and 9 months, the amount of gas you release will be enough to create an amount of energy equal to an explosion atomic bomb.
When pumping blood in the body, the human heart creates pressure sufficient to eject blood 10 meters forward.
You will burn 150 calories if you bang your head against the wall for an hour.
An ant can lift 50 times its own weight and pull 30 times its own weight. And when an ant is poisoned with chemicals, it always falls on its right side.
A cockroach can live 9 days without a head, after which it will die of hunger.
The male praying mantis is not capable of copulation when he has a head. Therefore, sexual intercourse in praying mantises begins with the female tearing off the male’s head.
Some species of lions can copulate up to 50 times a day.
Butterflies taste food with their feet.
Elephants are the only animals that are unable to jump
Cat urine glows under ultraviolet light.
An ostrich's eye is larger than its brain.
A starfish has no brain.
All polar bears are left-handed.
Humans and dolphins are the only species of animals that have sex for pleasure.
Cockroaches have existed on Earth for 250 million years and have not undergone any evolutionary changes since then.
Crocodiles have never lived in Australia's Alligator River.
Drinkers began clinking glasses in ancient times. It was believed that in this way they ward off evil spirits.
Thanks to gravity, a person weighs a little less when the Moon is at its zenith.
Polar bears have black skin.
"Spain" literally means "land of rabbits".
For an oak tree to grow acorns, it must be at least 50 years old.
Pacific Tiwi girls are married off at birth.
In the 70s, the issue of a sex tax was seriously discussed in the United States. The fee was supposed to be 2 dollars.
Bees have five eyes.
Peanuts are used in the production of dynamite.
The first cologne in history appeared as a means of preventing the plague.
There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
Every second, 1% of the world's population is dead drunk.
A beard consists of 7-15 thousand hairs. And it grows at a speed of 14 centimeters per year.
The ant has the largest brain of all living creatures. In relation to the body, of course.
To commit suicide with coffee, you need to drink 100 cups in a row.
Hans Christian Andersen could not write almost a single word correctly.
There are 25% more back injuries and 33% more heart attacks on Mondays.
Every day, an average of 33 new products appear in the world. 13 of them are toys.
The average person spends two weeks in their entire life waiting for a traffic light to change.
A person gets used to tea faster than to heroin.
Toilet paper was invented in 1857.
Every day, Americans throw away 20 thousand televisions, 150 thousand tons of packaging materials and 43 thousand tons of food.
Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day is equivalent to drinking a coffee cup of nicotine every year.
Ancient Egyptians used eye shadow to protect against conjunctivitis and trachoma.
The body of a sleeping person is half a centimeter longer than that of a waking person.
Mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of people who have recently eaten bananas.
A hockey puck can reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
The Neanderthal brain was larger than yours and mine.
In some public toilets Singapore has installed karaoke video consoles.
Yaks have pink milk.
The shortest river in the world is the Saginaw in American state Michigan.
The average ATM makes a mistake of $250 per year - and not in its favor.
Christopher Columbus was blond.
A penguin can jump three meters high.
If you multiply 111.111.111 by 111.111.111, you get 12345678987654321.
In 1863, Jules Verne wrote Paris in the 20th Century, in which he described in detail the automobile, the fax machine and the electric chair. The publisher returned the manuscript to him, calling him an idiot.
The largest trade turnover in the world is gasoline. In second place is coffee.
IN South Korea Marriages between namesakes are prohibited.
English nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty is dedicated to King Richard III, who actually fell from the wall during the 1485 battle.
Over the course of a year, a person's ribs make 5 million movements.
The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head.
Michael Jordan receives more money from Nike every year than all the workers at its factories in Malaysia combined.
Only 1 out of 7 thefts are solved in the world.
The 3 smartest dog breeds are the border collie, poodle and German shepherd, the dumbest are the Afghan hound, bulldog and chow chow.
Some brands of toothpaste contain antifreeze.
Icelanders drink Coca-Cola the most, Scots drink the least, preferring Irn Bru.
If you put a person on soap, he will get 7 pieces.
No language in the world has a word for the back of the knee.
Only 55% of Americans know that the Sun is a star.
When a gorilla gets angry, it sticks out its tongue.
Hong Kong has the most Rolls-Royces per capita.
Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors.
The area of the human alveoli is equal to a tennis court.
Over the past 4 thousand years, humans have not domesticated a single new species of animal.
The Speaker of the English House of Lords is prohibited from speaking during meetings.
A bee has two stomachs - one for honey, the other for food.
Every minute there are 2 earthquakes in the world.
To fall asleep to a normal person it takes an average of 7 minutes.
The word "doctor" comes from the word "to lie." In Rus', healers often treated with incantations and spells. Muttering and chatter were called lies until the beginning of the 19th century.
IN Empire skyscraper The State Building is about 10 million bricks.
Most lipsticks contain fish scales. And each woman eats on average about 4 kilograms of this cosmetic product during her life.
Watching color TV is less harmful than black and white: bright colors stimulate the color-perceiving apparatus of the eye, relieving some of the load from the accommodative muscles.
All swans in England are the property of the Queen.
On average, a person drinks 60,560 liters of liquid during his life.
Until the eighteenth century, people did not use soap.
The elephant is the only mammal that cannot jump.
Humans and dolphins are the only animals that can have sex for pleasure.
The smallest army in the world (12 people) is the Republic of San Marino.
Drinking vodka (and other strong drinks...) is much more harmful than eating a snack.
Las Vegas is visible from space as the brightest place on Earth.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his famous “one man’s small step and all mankind’s giant step” to the Moon with his left foot.
Cholera bacilli die in beer within a few hours and the disease does not develop. The discoverer of cholera pathogens, Professor Koch, recommended beer as a medicine.
The mass of the human brain is 1/46 total mass body, the mass of an elephant's brain is only 1/560 of its body mass.
Every year on the Fourth of July, Americans eat more than 150 million hot dogs.
Every second, about 100 lightning flashes on Earth.
The human eye is capable of distinguishing 130-250 pure color tones and 5-10 million mixed shades.
The eagle owl can turn its head 270 degrees.
Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue produced by the human body.
Complete adaptation of the eye to darkness takes 60-80 minutes.
On his deathbed, Salieri repented of all his sins, but his confession was considered the delirium of a dying man.
Australia has twice as many kangaroos as people.
The surface pattern of a cat's nose is unique, like a human fingerprint.
A man swallows an average of 21 milliliters of liquid in one gulp, and a woman swallows 14 milliliters.
March 8 - International Day for Women's Rights and international peace.
If someone wanted to count all the stars in the Galaxy - and began to count them at the speed of one star per second - then it would take the “stargazer” about 3000 years.
If your scream lasts 8 years 7 months and 6 days, you will produce enough acoustic energy to boil a glass of water.
An ant poisoned by chemicals always falls on its right side.
The polar bear is left-handed.
The crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
The word "mouse" comes from the ancient Sanskrit word "mus", that is, "thief".
If someone annoys you and you make a face, 42 muscles are involved.
You only need to use 4 muscles to hit someone on the head.
When you hit your head against a wall, you burn 150 calories per hour.
A flea can jump a distance of 350 times its body length. It’s the same as a person jumping over a football field.
Soms have more than 27,000 taste buds.
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue!
In one of the issues of the Moscow Provincial Gazette for 1848, you can read the following: “The tradesman Nikifor Nikitin should be exiled to the remote settlement of Baikonur for seditious speeches about a flight to the moon.”
IN ancient Greece women counted their age not from the day of birth, but from the day of marriage. By this they showed that only married life had meaning for them.
Over the past 200 years, 150 animal species have become extinct. The next 600 species of the animal world are on the verge of extinction.
To fill a half-liter sucker with honey, bees are forced to collect nectar from almost 2,000,000 flowers.
Boiling water extinguishes fire faster than cold water, since it immediately removes the heat of vaporization from the flame and surrounds the fire with a layer of steam, making it difficult for air to reach.
Today, the average person weighs 5 kg more than in 1960.
The Russian word "banya" goes back to the Latin "valneum" (bathing, washing), which has another meaning - "expulsion of sadness."
Among the Indians of the Kwaktul tribe living in British Columbia, there is a funny custom: if someone borrows money, he leaves his name as collateral. Until the debt is repaid, the person remains nameless. At this time, other Indians call him with a movement of their hand or inarticulate screams.
In the movie Pulp Fiction, the word "fuck" is used 257 times (give or take a couple for the gagged Marsellus).
Tickling was prohibited by law in some ancient countries of the East, as it was considered a sinful arousing activity.
In the Eskimo language there are more than 20 words for snow.
There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.
In France, the law prohibits the sale of dolls with non-human faces, such as “alien girls.”
Canada has been declared the best country to live by the UN 4 times over the past 5 years.
In ancient Rome, if a patient died during an operation, the doctor's hands were cut off.
King Louis XIX ruled France for a total of 15 minutes.
There are more cows in Nebraska than people.
In the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" by S. Kubrick, the astronauts used the crazy supercomputer HAL, if word H-A-L change each letter to the next one in the alphabet, we get I-B-M.
Bulls do not distinguish colors; they use red for brightness and beauty, and blood is less noticeable on it.
Spider web is stronger than steel
The most durable thing that nature has created is shark teeth.
A shark has about 1,000 constantly changing teeth.
The largest shark that ever lived could fit a full-length man in its mouth. (something made me think of sharks)
Cats sometimes lay out dead mice in a strict semicircle with their tails outward/inward, and place another one in the center.
At dusk, red appears redder.
Some people are able to live for a long time ice water.
In an unconscious state, a person does not breathe in water.
From lack of air a person falls asleep.
Humans are immune to mad cow disease, which means that even Europeans, no matter how much they boasted of good morals, indulged in cannibalism.
Herbivores do not spread rabies.
Red cockroaches are not Russians (Prussians).
Animals dream.
Wasps kill more people than are killed by cars (an old fact that may have changed)
Plastic hardly decomposes.
The spider is the only insect with eight legs.
The jumping spider has an intelligence comparable to that of a small rodent, due to its “scanning” gaze.
The ruff has purple eyes.
Some frogs can change sex.
It is impossible to die from hydrocyanic acid in an apartment with an open window.
The first condoms appeared under Tutankhamun.
Crabs and lobsters lack a central nervous system.
Gogol suffered from manic-depressive psychosis.
In the ancient concept, a Shahid is a great martyr and should not at all own death kill more innocent people.
the octopus has 10 legs
Goats and octopuses have rectangular pupils.
The bite of the vampire mice causes more blood to flow out than she drinks.
It is anatomically inconvenient for a vampire to drink blood with fangs - they are designed to hold the victim, and for that they have hands. In order to drink blood, they need sharp incisors, not fangs (like bats)
There is only one species of crocodile that can run on land.
Crocodiles cannot chew.
The yew grows out of itself.

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 science. 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 “Man of the Year.”
4. While serving in the KGB, Vladimir Putin had the nickname “Mol.”
5. Hitler was a vegetarian.
6. Egyptian queen Cleopatra tested the effectiveness of her poisons by forcing her slaves to take them.
7. Cleopatra married her brother, Ptolemy.
8. Cleopatra was not Egyptian. She had Macedonian, Iranian and Greek roots.
9. Lafayette became a general in the US Army at age 19. His full name is: Maria 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 famous swearer.
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 born not 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 invented by Napoleon.
15. One of Napoleon's drinking cups was made from the skull of the famous Italian adventurer Cagliostro.
16. The founder of the theory of communism, Karl Marx, never visited 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 Member of the British Parliament William Haskinson.
19. Winston Churchill's maternal ancestors were... Indians.
20. US President Andrew Jackson believed that 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. At her wedding, Queen Victoria was given a piece of cheese with a diameter of 3 meters and weighing 500 kilograms.
24. King Henry VIII of England executed two of his six wives.
25. The President of Uganda and one of the most ruthless dictators in the world, Idi Amin, served in British Army.
26. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston died in 1865 on a billiard table, on which he made love to his servants.
27. At the court of King Alfonso of Spain, there was a special position - a gymnast. The fact is that the king had no ear for music at all, and he himself could not distinguish the anthem from other music. The anthem leader had to warn the king when the national anthem was played.
28. The Roman emperor Nero married a man - one of his slaves named Scorus.
29. The Roman Emperor Nero forced his teacher, the philosopher Seneca, to commit suicide.
30. The height of Peter the Great was approximately 213 cm. Despite the fact that in those days the average height of men was significantly lower than today.
31. Sir Winston Churchill smoked no more than 15 cigars a day.
32. Tom Cruise entered seminary at age 14 to become a priest, but dropped out after a year.
33. The French king Louis XIV had 413 beds.
34. The Israeli king Solomon had approximately 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 toilet 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 famous mathematician Harald Bohr were football players. 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 of the death of her son Charles IX.
40. Swedish King Charles VII, killed in 1167, was the first king of a state named Charles! Charles I, II, III, IV, V and VI never existed, and it is unclear where he got the prefix “seventh”. And after a couple of centuries, 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 beans.
44. Britain's 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. 2 years earlier, her father-in-law, Alfonso “The Proud,” who hated her for being a commoner, secretly ordered his men to kill her and her children. When Pedro became king, he ordered Ines's body to be removed 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 this 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 camels) were located 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. Danish king Frederick IV was a bigamist. He married twice while his wife Queen Louise was alive. His first lover died during childbirth, his second mistress was queen for only 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. Later he became extremely religious.
53. Jack the Ripper, the most famous murderer of the 19th century, always committed his crimes on weekends.
54. Dr. Alice Chace, 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 this, the merchant, out of grief, left for Finland and founded the famous Koff brewing company there.
56. When Russian Queen Elizabeth I died in 1762, more than 15,000 dresses were discovered in her wardrobe.
57. Mozart began composing music at age 3.
58. There is not a single living descendant of William Shakespeare left on Earth.
59. Before composing music, Beethoven would pour a bucket of cold water on his head, believing that this would stimulate the brain.
60. While developing the electric light bulb, Thomas Edison wrote 40 thousand pages.
61. Felix Mendelssohn wrote “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at the age of 17. This became his most famous work.
62. Beria suffered from syphilis.
63. More than 100 descendants of Johann Sebastian Bach became organists.
64. In the group ZZ Top, only one member does not have a beard. And his name is Beard, which translated from English means... “beard”.
65. Since 1932, only Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush have not been elected to a second term as president.
66. Ilf and Petrov discarded ideas that came to both of their minds at once - in order to avoid cliches.
67. When Beethoven wrote the famous Ninth Symphony, he was completely deaf.
68. Composer Franz Liszt was the father-in-law of German composer Richard Wagner.
69. Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife.
70. The writer Rudyard Kipling could not write with ink unless it was black.
71. The writer Charles Dickens worked with his face turned to the north. He also always slept with his head facing north.
72. The Roman Emperor Commodus collected dwarfs, cripples and freaks from all over the Roman Empire to arrange fights between them in the Colosseum.
73. Roman Emperor Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath on his head to hide his increasing baldness.
74. Russian composer Alexander Borodin was also a famous chemist in St. Petersburg.
75. The smallest American president 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 (approximately 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 his 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 magnate and billionaire John Rockefeller donated more than $550 million. to various foundations and institutions.
82. American President Benjamin Franklin advocated for the turkey to be America's national bird.
83. In 1856, the English chemist William Perkin, while trying to obtain quinine from aniline, invented the first artificial dye, mauvais.
84. In the village of Lobovskoye, Saratov region. There lives a beekeeper who can withstand 40 hours in a hive with bees completely naked.
85. Between 1952 and 1966, 5 children were born into the family of Ralph and Carolyn Cummins and all of them had a birthday on February 20th.
86. Galileo Galilei was the first person to propose the use of 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 get married in the White House.
89. James Madison was the smallest American president (1.62 m), and Abraham Lincoln was the tallest (1.93 m).
90. Dr. Alice Chace, who wrote the book Healthy Eating and many books about proper nutrition, died of malnutrition.
91. Over 35 years, Mozart created over 600 works. But after his death, the widow did not have money for a separate place in the cemetery
92. Famous bull fighter of the 19th century. Lagarijo (born Rafael Molina) killed 4,867 bulls.
93. When he died German physicist A. Einstein, his last words went with him. Nurse, ex nearby, did not understand German.
94. The maximum number of crossword puzzles was created by 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 traffic accident by a certain Edwin Booth. As it turns out, Edwin is the brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Father tried to kill father, and their children saved each other
96. The first American president to use a 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 celestial stones.
99. Thomas Edison had a bird collection of 5,000 specimens.
100. The French Jeanne Louise and Guy Bruti compiled 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 sew 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 sent as many as two emails during his entire presidency, one of which was a test email to check that everything was working fine. I wonder who the second letter was to? Maybe Monica?
105. In 1759, Arthur Guinness leased St Gate's Brewery for 9,000 years at a rent of £45 per annum. The famous Guinness beer began to be brewed there.
106. In 1981, Deborah Ann Fountain, Ms. NY, was disqualified for excessive use of cotton padding in a swimsuit competition
107. George Washington did not shake hands when meeting - he preferred to bow
108. The only US president who is also the chairman of a union is Ronald Reagan, who heads the Screen Actors Guild.
109. If you remember a little school course physicists, 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 many oddities. Freud was terrified of the number 62. He refused to reserve a hotel room with more than 62 rooms for fear of accidentally getting a room with 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 every four healthy people.
113. Louis Pasteur's research was sponsored by a brewery. They also paid for his ticket to international congress. When Pasteur was given the floor at the congress, the first thing he did was hang advertising posters with beer on the stage. And he began his speech by saying that this beer is the best. And only then did he get 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 police officer in Canada, and his brother worked in the Canadian Parliament
116. Tennis player Andre Agassi's father represented Iran at Olympic Games 1948 and 1952. He was... a boxer

Famous people seem almost ideal to everyone else; it seems that they immediately became famous, or that they cannot get into funny and absurd situations. But, in fact, they are people like everyone else. Not everyone immediately understood what exactly they were talented at, and some did not immediately receive recognition. Reading interesting stories from, you begin to treat them not only as special individuals, but also as people who can make mistakes, get into ridiculous situations and achieve their goals.

Jules Verne

This is not just a writer of adventure novels, but also one of those authors who could foresee some things. Jules Verne also belonged to this category, and his works were the favorite books of not only children, but also adults. They contained not only fantastic inventions for that time, but also colorful descriptions of nature and the depths of the sea. And the life of Jules Verne was as bright and a little mysterious as his novels.

Back in 1839, the boy, who was only 11 years old, went to the port of Nantes, where the schooner Coralie was located. This is exactly what this boy chose as a cabin boy. This ship was supposed to go to the fabulous and mysterious India, where he so dreamed of going. But he was noticed in time and put ashore. Many years later, already as a grown man, he told those around him that his calling was in maritime affairs. And he regretted that he could not become a sailor then. This boy was Jules Verne.
People often said that his novels described technologies that would be invented in the future. One of these stories is connected with the legend of the writer’s family. Allegedly, in 1863 the writer finished work on the novel “Paris in the 20th Century.” He returned from the publishing house puzzled: the publisher refused to print the manuscript because it was too fantastic! And suddenly, in 1989, Verne’s great-grandson discovered that very novel and the inventions that were described in the book actually existed.
Jules Verne is one of those writers who popularized science in society thanks to his writing talent. Therefore, for many designers and engineers of spacecraft, as well as cosmonauts and astronauts, his books have become reference books. His talent and faith in science were rewarded: a large crater on the far side of the Moon was named in his honor.

The famous Russian writer, whose talent was most clearly revealed in drama, managed to completely change the idea of what a play should be. In his works, Anton Pavlovich knew how to very accurately select expressions that would describe all the weaknesses of human nature. At the same time, the writer himself was philanthropic and throughout his life he urged everyone to “take care of the person within you.” Chekhov did not like to write about himself, but notebooks the writer, his letters, memories of people who had the opportunity to communicate with him, allow you to get acquainted with interesting facts from the life of Anton Pavlovich.

1. There was always a place for medicine in Chekhov’s life. After all, initially he saw his calling as a doctor, and writing stories, plays and humorous notes for him was just a way to earn extra money. Among the teachers at Faculty of Medicine, where the writer studied, was also famous Nikolai Sklifosovsky. Later, Anton Pavlovich began working as a doctor.

After some time, there was a change in priorities, and in January 1886 a sign was removed from his door, which stated that a doctor was seeing there. It was not only that Anton Pavlovich began to seriously engage in writing, but a difficult case occurred in his practice: two of his patients died of typhus. During his famous trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov wrote that he was ready to leave medicine.

But, in fact, he always continued to be a doctor. Anton Pavlovich attended various medical congresses to keep abreast of the latest news in this area. On his estate in Melikhovo he continued to provide medical care to all those in need, and treated the sick in Yalta. Even being already seriously ill, Anton Pavlovich was ready to go to Far East not as a writer, but as a doctor.

2. It was Chekhov who “gave” Sakhalin to Russia. In 1890, the playwright made the most difficult expedition to Sakhalin, which was a place of exile for prisoners and convicts. One newspaper wrote about this trip as a significant event. Anton Pavlovich took a responsible approach to the trip: he studied the history of the Russian prison, all kinds of records about the island, the works of historians, geographers and ethnographers about Sakhalin.

When Chekhov went to Sakhalin, then this place was not fully studied, of no interest to anyone, there was not even accurate data on the population. The trip lasted three months, during which the writer took a census of the population and studied the life of convicts. It was thanks to Anton Pavlovich that Russian and foreign researchers became interested in the island.

3. Chekhov was engaged in charity work, which was not limited to one medical care. He raised funds for the needy, built schools, opened public libraries, to which he gave his numerous books, which were of museum value. Well, of course, he helped all the sick and even arranged for those who had little money to go to a sanatorium. All his life he followed his covenant: “Take care of the person within you!”

An outstanding scientist who laid the foundations of chemistry, creator of the periodic table, professor - the life of such a talented person as Dmitry Mendeleev was just as interesting. There was quite a place in it interesting facts, which reveal a different side to the scientist.

1. The most important well-known fact of the scientist’s biography is the famous dream in which he had periodic table chemical elements. No matter how it gives a certain aura of mystery to Mendeleev’s personality, it is not so. Dmitry Ivanovich created this table through long research and reflection.

Open periodic law was in 1869. On February 17, the scientist sketched a table on the back of one letter, which contained a request to come and help production. Later, Mendeleev wrote on separate cards the names of all chemical elements known at that time, as well as their atomic weights, and arranged them in order. Therefore, the trip was postponed, and Dmitry Ivanovich himself plunged into work, as a result of which the periodic table of chemical elements was obtained. And in 1870, the scientist was able to calculate the atomic mass of those elements that had not yet been studied, which is why there were “empty” spaces in his table, which were later filled with new elements.

2. Despite its numerous scientific works And important discoveries, Dmitry Ivanovich never received the Nobel Prize. Although he was nominated for it more than once, each time it was awarded to a different doctor. In 1905, Mendeleev was among the candidates, but the German chemist became the laureate. In 1906, it was decided to present the prize to Dmitry Ivanovich, but then the Royal Swedish Academy changed its mind and presented the award to the French scientist.

In 1907, a proposal was voiced to divide the prize between the Italian scientist and Mendeleev. But on February 2, 1907, the 72-year-old outstanding scientist passed away. Possible reason, due to which Dmitry Ivanovich did not become a laureate, they call the conflict between him and the Nobel brothers. It occurred due to disagreements over the introduction of a tax on oil, thanks to which the brothers were able to get rich and control some of the Russian shares.

The Swedes started a rumor about exhaustion oil field. A special commission was created, among whose members was Mendeleev. He was opposed to introducing a tax, and denied the rumor started by the Nobel brothers, which became the cause of the conflict between the Nobels and the scientist.

3. Despite the fact that for the majority the name Mendeleev is associated with chemistry, in fact, works devoted to chemistry accounted for only 10% of the total amount scientific research. Dmitry Ivanovich was also interested in shipbuilding and participated in the development of navigation in Arctic waters. And he devoted about 40 works to this area.

Mendeleev took an active part in the construction of the first Arctic icebreaker "Ermak", which was launched on October 29, 1898. For his active participation in the study of Arctic development, a ridge located under water in the Arctic, discovered in 1949, was named in his honor. .

The facts written above are only a small part of the cases that happened to these outstanding people. But these stories show that famous personalities They did not always immediately determine their calling; they tried to set an example for other people and follow their principles. Therefore, interesting stories from the lives of great people can inspire humanity to do something important for the development of science or contribute to art or simply help other people.