Читать книгу Steve Wright’s Further Factoids - Steve Wright - Страница 7

Disgraced President Richard Nixon was so worried about his grades at Law School that he broke into his Dean’s office to find his results. He discovered he was top of the class.

Winston Churchill’s family motto was “Fiel Pero Desdichado”, meaning “Faithful But Unfortunate”.

Notorious villain Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed on his wedding night because he was too drunk to notice his nose was bleeding.

Some Argentine fans are so in awe of “Hand of God” football villain Diego Maradona they worship him as a god, with their own “Maradonian” religion. This involves following “ten commandments”–one of which is to call your son Diego.

Russian dictator Joseph Stalin’s face was left badly scarred by smallpox, which he suffered from as a child. He later had photographs retouched to make his pockmarks less noticeable.

Muhammad Ali learned to box after his bike was stolen while he and a friend were at the Columbia Auditorium. The then young Cassius Clay found a policeman in a gym and told him he was going to “whup” whoever stole his bike. The policeman told him, “You better learn to box first.” So he did, and the rest is history.

A recent survey voted Jack the Ripper the worst Briton of the last 1,000 years.

Serial killer Charles Manson recorded an album called Liein an effort to spread his beliefs.

Rowing hero Steve Redgrave won an Olympic Gold medal by a margin of just 0.38 seconds.

Although known during his life, and in history, as a tyrant, before his death Ivan the Terrible was actually re-christened as the monk Jonah and buried in his monk’s habit.

Mother Theresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu. After taking her first vows as a nun, she chose the name Theresa after the patron saint of missionaries.

Adolf Hitler left school with no qualifications.

Gangster Al Capone was the only real person to appear as a character in The Adventures of Tintin series of comic books.

Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, was named after American actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.

The name of James Bond villain Blofeld was inspired by the English cricket commentator Henry Blofeld’s father, with whom Bond creator Ian Fleming went to school. Look out, he’s got a dangerous cat, but he’s out for a duck.

Meanwhile, James Bond himself was named after an American ornithologist, a Caribbean bird expert who was the author of the definitive guide book Birds of the West Indies.

The flashing lights on the original Doctor Who Daleks were indicator lights from an old Morris 1100.

The person who does the housework at home walks an average of 7,000 miles in their lifetime doing the vacuuming.

Sucking blowing blowing sucking blowing blowing sucking sucking blowing sucking…

Ikea gave all its 9,000 staff a bicycle as its contribution to tackling global warming. Bet they were worried when they got letters telling them to get on their bikes.

“Rugged” is a two-syllable word that can be made one syllable by adding letters to it to make the word “shrugged”.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Why…?

Harry Randall is Cockney rhyming slang for candle. Fair enough, but who’s Harry Randall?

Renoir had to paint with the brush tied to his fingers because of rheumatism.

Drinking three cups of coffee a day can cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Louis XIII (that’s 13th in real money)appointed a Royal Anagrammist (bloke that does anagrams) for a salary of £1,200 a year.

Pensioners now prefer surfing the net to traditional old people’s pastimes of gardening, DIY and walking. And eating boiled sweets.

The “Mona Lisa” has no eyebrows–it was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off. She’s also got a tat of a spider on her neck if you look closely, and her tongue is pierced, which accounts for the painful smile.

Postmen and women walk further than secretaries in their work, a global study found.

The average number of sexual partners a man has during his life is 14.56. Must have been interrupted during the 15th…

Sack races were banned at a community’s annual festival because the cost of insuring against injury became too high. Out went the three-legged race and egg-and-spoon at the “fun day” in Hartlepool. Eggs can break easily when dropped, that’s a fact.

Psychologists at Aberdeen University reckon the best way to woo a woman is to chat up her mate.

Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight. Hmm, I think I’ll make him 6 foot 2.

Fulham’s Moritz Volz scored the 15,000th goal in Premiership history in the last game of last year. 15,000 Volz…

According to a poll in the British Medical Journal, the most significant health breakthrough of all time was not antibiotics, vaccines or anaesthetic but…sanitation.

Scientists have found the brain has a kind of screensaver that automatically kicks in when we’re idle, allowing our mind to wander or daydream.