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30 Wild Facts About Famous Historical Figures

By:: Eric B; Cracked Writers

October 26, 2023

30 Wild Facts About Famous Historical Figures

Just because you know the name doesn’t mean you know the real story. Proceed, if you dare, and learn about 30 famous historical figures whose true stories left us floored. Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction...

30 Galileo

GALILEO WAS A PRACTICING ASTROLOGER We think of Galileo brilliant as a scientific mind, but in his time, he was also a well-regarded astrol- oger famous for his horoscopes and predictions. — Source: 22 Bizarre, Unexpected Facts About Historical Figures

29 Hugh Hefner

Source: 22 Bizarre, Unexpected Facts About Historical Figures

28 Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci fought for animal welfare. Leonardo had a habit of buying caged birds at the marketplace just to release them. He was furious about the fact that humans raise animals just to slaughter them, and apparently refused to eat meat. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Bizarre, Unexpected Facts About Historical Figures

27 Henry Ford

Henry Ford tried to end WWI by sailing to Europe on a Peace Ship. He sailed with a group of pacifists and reporters, planning to convince European soldiers to go on strike When they landed, they were greeted by eight college students in total. The half-million-dollar expedition ended in failure and ridicule. Ford told the pacifists he couldn't go on to Stockholm because he was sick, and then he sailed home on an ocean liner. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Bizarre, Unexpected Facts About Historical Figures

26 John Lennon

John Lennon was a gentle, peace-loving hippie. But he was also abusive to women and his kid. John admitted in a Playboy interview that when he was younger, he basically went around punching women. And he wasn't much better with Yoko. According to one biographer, he insisted Yoko accompany him into the bathroom with him, because he was worried she'd cheat on him if she were left alone. Even though John openly cheated on Yoko. His relationship with his son Julian was just plain sad. Their time together ran the gamut from awkward to abusive. CRACKED.COM express. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

25 Leo Fender

Leo Fender is a legend who perfected the electric guitar. But he couldn't play, and didn't like rock'n'roll. Despite the fact that his entire business revolved around manufacturing and constantly improving guitars and amps, Fender never actually got around to learning how to play them and didn't have any interest in doing so. When Fender was testing an amp with a guitar, other people in the shop had to go in and tune the instrument when they couldn't take the noise anymore. Yet his creations are the guitar of choice for legends such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

24 John Wayne

John Wayne is Hollywood's most famous cowboy. But he absolutely hated riding horseback. Wayne had learned to ride when he was young, so by the time he started making cowboy pictures, he was already fed up with it. In the book John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, Wayne is quoted as saying, I still hate riding horses. I go by truck everywhere I can. Another thing Wayne hated was hippies, for ducking the Vietnam draft... even though he himself got out of going to World War ll so he could make more cowboy movies. CRACKED.COM Michael Munn, 2005. John Wayne: The Man Behind — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

23 Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter is known as a president and humanitarian. But he's also laughed in the face of nuclear fallout. When President Carter was a Navy Lieutenant, he led a containment team of 24 men into the Chalk River Laboratories nuclear research facility after a reactor accident released 4,500 tons of radioactive water into the building's basement. He and his team spent rotating 90-second shifts doing cleanup and repairs right next to the malfunctioning reactor. Carter would later write that he absorbed so much radiation that his pee was actually radioactive for six months following the incident. CRACKED.COM Jimmy Carter. 1996. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

22 Iron Eyes Cody

Iron Eyes Cody was the tortured face of Native American sadness. But he was Sicilian. Children of the '70s and 88s probably remember the series of PSAs starring Chief Iron Eyes Cody. In them, he was a sad old chief shedding a single tear over pollution in America - the very land his noble people had held stewardship over for eons. But the truth is, Iron Eyes wasn't even a little bit Native American. He started out as Espera de Corti, the son of Sicilian immigrants. He wound up playing the noble Indian in over 200 films. All he had to do — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

21 Che Guevara

Che Guevara is seen as a revolutionary hero. He was actually kind of a racist. Che sauntered into Africa after the assassination of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. Using the political tragedy as a rallying point, he tried (and failed) to launch a people's revolution. Instead of working with rebel leaders, he charged in with a bunch of his own Cuban mercenaries. According to Che's Congo diaries, he had no faith in the Congolese people's ability to learn how to operate guns, and called them preposterous liars. CRACKED.COM http://reason.com/archives/2002/06/01/ches-secret-diary — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

20 Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was the ultimate '50s ladies' man. But Elvis was more into teens and pajama parties. Elvis sure loved the ladies, but he had one very specific type: They had to be young (like, school age). He met his future wife Priscilla when she was 14 and he was 24. And when he wasn't dating them, Elvis liked to throw pajama parties with teenage girls where he would start pillow fights and teach them to style their hair and put on mascara. Elvis was pretty insecure, so he preferred younger girls because they didn't seem as threatening to him. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

19 Albert Einstein

People love the story that Einstein flunked math. Unsurprisingly, it isn't true. The idea that Albert Einstein did badly in school is thought to have originated with a a 1935 Ripley's Believe it or Not! trivia column. But those columns were amalgamation of things Robert Ripley thought he read somewhere, heard from somebody, or just made up. The fact is, Einstein was always a genius. At age 11 he was reading college physics books, and at 13 his favorite book was Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. And he got high marks in math. CRACKED.COM cttps://www.washinatonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/02/11/ — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

18 Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was a beloved children's author. And he didn't like children. Theodor Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss, not only never liked children, but was actually scared of them. He never had children of his own, and according to his widow, the reason he didn't like them was that he never knew what their weird child brains would make them do next. He ventured into children's stories when his publisher tasked him with writing a book even first graders couldn't put down, using a vocabulary of just 250 words. CRACKED.COM obs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/film.html — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

17 Caligula

The movie Caligula was insanely perverted. that does But Caligula himself wasn't unusually sexual. Most of Caligula's horrendous reputation comes from the writings of Suetonius and Cassius Dio, neither of whom were alive during Caligula's day. His contemporaries never recorded any instances of the incest, scandals, or nut-crushing cruelty now associated with his name. He did have luxurious pleasure barges, but that was fairly typical for emperors of his era. Caligula was prone to mental instability, which historians now attribute to encephalitis. CRACKED.COM http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Caligula — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

16 Mrs. O'Leary

Mrs. O'Leary is remembered for causing the Great Chicago Fire. But she was innocent. And SO was her cow. Despite all the campfire songs to the contrary, the 1871 Chicago fire wasn't caused by Catherine O'Leary's COW kicking over a lantern she'd left burning. The official report actually cleared Mrs. O'Leary (and her cow). But that didn't stop The Chicago Tribune from publishing Michael Ahern's unproven story blaming O'Leary. Because of anti-Irish prejudice, she was reviled and literally spit on her entire life. CRACKED.COM https://www.thoughtco.com/mrs-olearys-cow-great-chicago-fire-1774059 — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

15 George Washington

Remember the story of George Washington chopping the cherry tree? It's completely made up. According to the story, when Washington was six years old he chopped down his father's prize cherry tree. When confronted, he said, I cannot tell a lie and confessed. Ironically, this story the Th iconic about value of honesty was invented by one of Washington's first biographers, an itinerant minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems. Weems just figured he'd make up some stories he thought would make Washington look virtuous. And people bought them so hard that Weems' pack of lies were taught as fact — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

14 John Edgar Hoover

One of history's worst-kept secrets: was a transvestite. Which is unfortunate, because it isn't true. FBI Director John Edgar Hoover's raging homophobia (he attempted to out Eleanor Roosevelt and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson) made him some enemies, most notably openly gay playwright Truman Capote. Capote took it upon himself to spread the hilarious rumor that Hoover had been spotted at gay orgies dressed as a woman. When asked about the rumor, Capote snapped, who cares? CRACKED.COM Richard Hack, 2007. Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

13 Thomas Jefferson

In his will, Thomas Jeferson left James Madison his gold -mounted walking staff of animal horn as a token of their friendship. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

12 Frisbee Creator Ed Headrick

Per his request, Headrick's ashes were molded into frisbees and given to his family and friends. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

11 Pringles Creator Fredric Baur

Baur died in 2008 but had the idea for his ashes to be buried in a Pringles can, his invention, since the 1980s.. His family honored his wishes. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

10 Harry Houdini

Before he died, the magician and his wife created a secret way to communicate to test whether seances were real. After his death, his wife held unsuccessful seances for a decade. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

9 Alexander McQueen

The fashion designer left 50,000 for the care of his three dogs and donated 100,000 to both the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and the Blue Cross Sick Animal Center. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

8 Hugh Hefner

Within his will, Hefner stipulated that his wife and children would be financially cut off if they became dependent on illegal drugs or alcohol, as determined by trustees. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

7 David Bowie

In his will, Bowie left $2 million and shares to his personal assistant as well $1 million to his daughter's former nanny. He specified he didn't want a funeral. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

6 Motorhead's Lemmy

Before he died, Lemmy expressed that he wanted his ashes to be put into bullets and given to close friends. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

5 Janis Joplin

In her will, Joplin left 2.500 for a party after her death. Her roommate Lyndall Erb, who arranged the wake, said, It was not an event of mourning, it was an event of enjoying life. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

4 Napoleon Bonaparte

In his very detailed will, he requested that his hair be preserved and made into several bracelets with a little gold clasp for his friends and family. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

3 Charles Dickens

Dickens was a very fashion-conscious man who instructed in his will that those who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hat-band, or other such revolting absurdity. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

2 William Shakespeare

Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his eldest daughter but left his second best bed to his wife. Sounds weird, but this was common practice for the time, with children receiving the best of the furniture. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

1 Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe left her estate to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg. She also left money for her psychoanalyst and a poet friend. She set up a trust to care for her mother, who spent most of her life in mental institutions. — Source: 14 Fascinating Final Wishes And Wills Of Famous People

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