Writer Edgar Allan Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were both kicked out of West Point.
The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves.
James Doohan, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand.
Hulk Hogan's real name is Terry Bollea.
Shirley Temple always had 56 curls in her hair.
Paul Revere rode on a borrowed horse that belonged to Deacon Larkin.
Napoleon Bonaparte's mother's name was Laticia.
Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversiary of Canada's independence.
Al Capone's famous scar (which earned him the nickname "Scarface") was from an attack. The brother of a girl he had insulted attacked him with a knife, leaving him with the three distinctive scars.
The Red Baron's real name was Manfred Von Richtofen.
A golden razor removed from King Tut's Tomb was still sharp enough to be used. Source: David Katz-Doft
Susan Sarandon's last name is from her first husband, Chris Sarandon, also known as Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride.
Dr. Seuss pronounced his name so that it rhymed with "rejoice." Source: Bryan Giese
Mata Hari, who was executed by firing squad in France in October, 1917, is probably the most famous spy of all time. Yet in fact she was not Oriental, or even a spy. Mata Hari was the stage name adopted by a plump, middle-aged Dutch divorcee named Margaretha McLeod who had left her alcoholic Scottish husband and opted to become a dancer in Europe.
The evidence of her alleged espionage on behalf of the German Kaiser is based merely on her being mistaken for a known German agent, Clara Benedix, by the British in November 1916. She was arrested and released by police when they realized the mistake. She was later arrested in France and charged with having been in contact with German intelligence officers in Madrid. At her trial in Paris her lurid lifestyle was used to damning effect. It was only in 1963, when secret files relating to her case were released, that the legend was reassessed. Source: "Reader's Digest Book of Facts"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his famous poem "Kubla Khan" directly from a dream. He was in the midst of writing down the visions he had seen in his dream when someone knocked on the door and he rose to let him in. On returning to his work, Coleridge found that he could not remember the rest of the dream. That is why "kubla Khan" remains unfinished. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"
Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engles, "I do not trust any Russian. As soon as a Russian worms his way in, all hell breaks loose." Source: "Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts"
Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category.
People who work at night tend to weigh more than people who don't. Source: "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"
The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.
In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King Charles II in the mid-1600's. The Earl was requested to produce a method to protect the King from syphillis.(Charles the II's pleasure-loving nature was notorious.). The result should be obvious.
The "R" in Dean R. Koontz's name stands for Ray.
Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous trans Atlantic flight.
Stalin was only five feet, four inches tall.
Stalin's left foot had webbed toes, and his left arm was noticably shorter than his right.
Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement.
Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England.
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd."
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, sentenced to life in prison for splinting the fractured leg of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, became a hero to guards and inmates of his island prison when he stopped a yellow-fever epidemic there, in 1868, after the army doctors had died. President Johnson, Lincoln's successor, pardoned Mudd in early 1869.
John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
Jesus Christ died at age 33.
Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore until it literally fell apart.
Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton.
The woman who has appeared most on the covers of Time magazine is the Virgin Mary -- ten times.
Napoleon favored mathematicians and physical scientists, but excluded humanists from his circle, believing them to be troublemakers.
Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!"
Samuel Clemens's pseudonym "Mark Twain" was the nickname of a riverboat pilot about whom Clemens wrote a needless nasty satirical piece. Apparently, Clemens felt guilt later and adopted the name as a nom de plume as some sort of expiation. The phrase does not mean measuring the depth of the river; it means a specific depth, to wit, two fathoms (twelve feet.)
The only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was Sinclair Lewis for his book Arrowsmith.
Horatio Alger, the man whose name symbolized success, had many personal problems and died broke. His stories of poor boys who became rich inspired people to a better life -- but Alger himself did not profit by it.
Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of "The Boy General" is one of the few women buried at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York
Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek rather than Egyptian.
Alexander the Great was an epileptic.
The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger.
The Mongol emperor Genghis Khan's original name was Temujin.
Genghis Khan started out life as a goatherd.
The type specimen for the human species is the skull of Edward Drinker Cope, an American paleontologist of the late 1800's. A type specimen is used in paleontology as the best example ofthat species.
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Louis IV of France had a stomach the size of two regular stomachs.
Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses.
Lizzie Borden was acquitted.
Leon Trotsky, the seminal Russian Communist, was assassinated in Mexico with an ice-pick.
Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin.
A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not a Sadist (of course).
St. Augustine was the first major proponent of the "missionary" position.
Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz.
Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand.
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the dome of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later.
Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died.
A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality.
