Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.

  A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child  inside.

 A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove.

 A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

 Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin.  Today it is known as Tennessee.

 A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off.

 The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

 One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

 You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206.

 Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

 The state of Florida is bigger than England.

Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.

 Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

 Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

 Slugs have 4 noses.

 Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.

 The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year.

 There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express. Just horses.

 Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

 In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals.

 The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs.

 More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed  throughout the world.

 The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.

 Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the  name of any of the United States.

 One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.

 America once issued a 5-cent bill.

 You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.

 Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

 Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool. He changed it every 2 innings.

 Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.

 A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years.

 A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

 Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

 The richest person in the world is not Bill Gates, it's the sultan  of Brunei.

 Here are some interesting numbers to look at:
 166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the U.S.
 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire are strung across the U.S.
 123,000,000 cars are being driven down the U.S.'s highways.
 85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S.
 56,000,000 people go to Major League baseball each year.

 Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

 The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head.

 In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs.

 There are over 52.6 million dogs in the U.S.

 Seventy five percent of first-time pets are given away.

 Dogs and cats consume almost $7 billion worth of pet food a year.

 Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

 Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.

 In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.

 Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

 The blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as  grape juice.

 The average person laughs 15 times a day.

Facts about Americans.
* 21% of us don't make our bed daily. 5% of us never do.
* Men do 29% of laundry each week. Only 7% of women trust their husbands to do it correctly.
* 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.
* 85% of men don't use the slit in their underwear.
* 67.5% of men wear tightie whities (briefs).
* The average bra size today is 36C whereas 10 years ago it was a 34B.
* 85% of women wear the wrong bra size. (Is there a correlation????)

HABITS ---------
* 58.4% have called into work sick when we weren't.
* 3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations.
* 50% admit they regularly sneak food into movie theaters to avoid the high prices of snack foods.
* 39% of us peek in our host's bathroom cabinet.
* 17% have been caught by the host.
* 81.3% would tell an acquaintance to zip his pants.
* 29% of us ignore RSVP.
* 35% give to charity at least once a month.
* 71.6% of us eavesdrop.

 FOOD ------
* 69% eat the cake before the frosting.
* When nobody else is around, 47% drink straight from the carton.
* Snickers is the most popular candy.
* 22% of us skip lunch daily.
* 9% of us skip breakfast daily.
* 66% of us eat cereal regularly.
* 22% of all restaurant meals include French fries.
* 14% of us eat the watermelon seeds.

HYGIENE ---------
* 22% leave the glob of toothpaste in the sink.
* Only 13% brush our teeth from side to side.
* Nearly 1/3 of U.S. women color their hair.
* 53% of women will not leave the house without makeup on.
* 58% of women paint their nails regularly.
* 33% of women lie about their weight.
* 4 out of 5 of us have suffered from hemorrhoids. (I thought that was preferred Trident gum)
* 30% of us refuse to sit on a public toilet seat.
* 54.2% of us always wash our hands after using the toilet.
* 23.5% admit they don't always flush.
* 46.5% of men say they ALWAYS put the seat down after they've used the toilet, yet women claim to ALWAYS find  it up. --------

DRIVING --------
* 4 out of 5 sing in the car. (and probably 4 out of 5 can't sing for beans either)
* 12% of men never use their car blinkers.
* 45% of us consistently follow the speed limit. (This is hard to believe - Get on a highway and go the exact speed limit. Are 45% of the people not passing you - I doubt it)
* 2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light.
* 1/3 of us don't wear seat belts.
* 71% can drive a stick-shift car.
* 44% of men tailgate to speed up the person in front of them. (When this happens, accelerate while simultaneously touching your brake - just enough so the break light goes on - scaring the crap out of the guy behind you)
13% of us admit to occasionally doing our offspring's homework

Ivan IV (the Terrible)     1547 --- 1st Tsar of Russia.

Virginia Dare  1587 --- 1st child born in the American colonies, on August 18th, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

Ann Franklin 1762 --- 1st woman to hold the title of newspaper editor, "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, RI.

James Cook  1773 --- 1st person to cross Antarctic Circle.

Marquis d'Arlandes Pilatre de Rozier  1783 --- 1st humans to fly. They were airborne in a hot-air balloon for 20 minutes, in Paris, on Nov. 21.

John Jay 1789 --- 1st US Supreme Court chief justice.

Frederick Muhlenberg  1789 --- 1st Speaker Of the US House Of Representatives.

Samuel Hopkins  1790 --- holder of US Patent #1. Thousands of patents were issued before his, but his was the first when the numbering started. He patented a process for making potash and pearl ashes.

Henry Laurens - Charleston, South Carolina statesman  1792 --- 1st formal cremation in US. He left instructions in his will.

Thomas Jefferson  1801 --- 1st US president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

Mary Kies  1809 --- 1st woman to be issued a U.S. patent. She was granted a patent for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.

Edward Smith  1831 --- 1st indicted bank robber in the US. He was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.

Mary Lyon  1837 --- founded 1st woman's college in US, Mt. Holyoke College.

Queen Victoria  1837 --- 1st English monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.

Tim Hyer   1841 --- 1st recognized boxing (fisticuffs) champion.

Elizabeth Blackwell  1849 --- 1st woman physician in US.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell   1853 --- 1st American woman ordained a minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational.)

Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet)   1859 --- 1st person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Jules Leotard   1859 --- world's 1st flying trapeze circus act. Performed at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris, without safety nets.

Mary Walker  1866 --- 1st (and only) woman to receive the US Medal of Honor. She was a Civil War surgeon.

Sir John Alexander McDonald 1867 --- 1st Prime Minister of Canada.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor  1867 --- 1st woman in the US to become a certified dentist.

Hiram Revels   1870 --- 1st black US Senator. He completed the term of Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become president of the Confederacy.

Victoria Woodhall   1872 --- 1st woman to run for President of the US.

Jesse James   1873 --- committed the world's first train robbery on July 21. (Adair, Iowa)

Herbert Hoover  1874 --- 1st US President born west of the Mississippi.

Mary Baker Eddy   1879 --- 1st and only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion- The Church of Christ (Scientist).

 Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood    1879 --- 1st female lawyer to plead a case before the US Supreme Court.

Mary Mahoney   1879 --- 1st black woman to study and work as a professionally trained nurse.

Moses Fleetwood Walker   1884 --- 1st black baseball player in the major leagues.

Grover Cleveland  1886 --- 1st President married inside the White House.

Wilhelm Steinitz   1886 --- world's 1st chess champion.

Susanna M. Salter   1887 --- 1st woman US mayor. (Argonia, KS). She won by a two-thirds majority but didn't even know she was in the running until she went into the voting booth. Her name was submitted by the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She died at the age of 101 in 1961

Oscar Straus   1887 --- 1st Jewish ambassador from US. (Ambassador to Turkey.)

Louis Henry Sullivan  1891 --- architect of 10 story Wainwright Building, the 1st skyscraper.

Myra Bradwell, (nee Colby)   1892 --- 1st female lawyer in US. She qualified for Illinois bar in 1869, but was prevented, due to gender, from being admitted to practice until 1892.

Annie Moore  1892 --- 1st immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. She was 15 years old and from County Cork, Ireland.

Queen Isabella of Spain  1893 --- 1st woman to appear on a US postage stamp.
John J. McDermott   1897 --- winner of the he 1st annual Boston Marathon - the first of its type in the US.

1st Nobel Prize winners:   1901 --- Literature: Sully Prudhomme (Rene Francois Armand)
              Peace: Jean Henri Dunant & Frederic Passy
              Physics: Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
              Physiology & Medicine: Emil Adolf Von Behring
              Chemistry: Jacobus Henricus Van't Hoff
         1969 ---
              Economics: Ragnar Frisch & Jan Tinbergen

1st female Nobel Prize winners:
         1903 ---  Physics: Marie Sklodowska Curie
         1905 ---  Peace: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner
         1909 ---  Literature: Selma Ottilia Lovisa LagerlØf
         1911 ---  Chemistry: Marie Sklodowska Curie
         1947 ---  Physiology & Medicine: Gerty Radnitz Cori

Alexander Winton   1903 --- set the 1st land speed record in car racing. Set at Daytona Beach, his speed was 68.18 mph.

Theodore Roosevelt  1906 --- 1st American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It was for helping mediate an end the Russo-Japanese War.

Alice Wells   1910 --- 1st policewoman in the US.

Roald Amundsen - Norwegian explorer   1911 --- 1st man to reach the South Pole, beating out an expedition led by Robert F. Scott.

Ray Harroun  1911 --- 1st winner of the Indianapolis 500 car race. His average speed was 74.59 mph, he finished in 6 hours, 42 minutes, 8 seconds.

Arthur R. Eldred   1912 - 1st boy to reach the rank of Eagle Scout -- the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America program. He was of Oceanside, NY.

Louis D. Brandeis   1916 --- 1st Jewish member of the US Supreme Court. (Appointed by President Wilson)

Jeannette Rankin 1916 --- 1st woman elected to US congress. (Montana) Only legislator to vote against both WW I and WW II.

1st Pulitzer Winners   1917 ---
               Biography: Laura E. Richards, H. Elliott, and Florence Hall
               History: Jean Jules Jusserand
               Reporting: Herbert B. Swope

Ethelda "Thel" Bleibtrey - swimmer 1920 --- 1st US woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics. (Margaret Abbott was awarded a porcelain bowl, not a gold medal, in 1900.)

Margaret Gorman   1921 --- 1st Miss America. She was 16 and 30-25-32.

Edith Wharton   1921 --- 1st woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. For "The Age of Innocence."

Henry Sullivan   1923 --- 1st American to swim across the English Channel.

Nellie Taylor Ross    1925 --- 1st female state governor. (Wyoming)

Gertrude Ederle   1926 --- 1st American woman to swim the English Channel. It took her 14 hours and 39 minutes. (She broke the existing men's record.)

Al Jolson   1927 --- lead role in the 1st talking motion picture, "The Jazz Singer."

Charles Lindbergh   1927 --- 1st man to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Janet Gaynor   1928 --- 1st Oscar winner for Best Actress.

Emil Jannings   1928 --- 1st Oscar winner for Best Actor.

Ellen Church   1930 --- 1st airline hostess. She served passengers flying between San Francisco, California and Cheyenne, Wyoming on United Airlines.

Sinclair Lewis   1930 --- 1st American recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature.

Jane Addams   1931 --- 1st American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Jackie Mitchell - baseball pitcher   1931 --- 1st woman in organized baseball. She was signed by the Chattanooga Baseball Club at the age of 19.

Hattie Caraway   1932 --- 1st woman elected to US Senate.

Amelia Earhart   1932 --- 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman.

Frances Perkins   1933 --- 1st woman in US Presidential Cabinet. (Secretary of Labor under FDR.)

Marie, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie and Annette Dionne  1934 --- 1st quintuplets to survive infancy. They were born near Callender, Ontario to Oliva and Elzire Dionne.

Horton Smith   1934 --- won the 1st Masters Golf Tournament under the magnolia trees of Augusta National in Georgia.

Wallis Warfield Simpson   1936 --- 1st Time magazine "Woman of the Year."

Jane Matilda Bolin  1939 --- 1st black woman judge. (New York City)

Franklin D. Roosevelt  1939 --- 1st US president to speak on television.

Hattie McDaniel   1940 --- 1st black actress to win an Oscar.

Booker T. Washington  1940 --- 1st black to be pictured on a US postage stamp. His likeness was issued on a 10-cent stamp.

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini   1946 --- 1st canonized American saint.

Trygve Lie - Norwegian socialist  1946 --- 1st Secretary General of United Nations.

Chuck Yeager  1947 --- 1st person to break the sound barrier by flying faster than the speed of sound.

Dick Button  1948 --- 1st American to become World Figure Skating Champion.

Eugenia Anderson  1949 --- 1st US woman appointed ambassador to a foreign country. (Ambassador to Denmark)

Gwendolyn Brooks  1949 --- 1st black woman to win a Pulitzer prize.

Charles Cooper  1950 --- 1st black player in NBA (Fort Wayne Indiana Celtics).

Florence Chadwick  1951 --- 1st woman to have swum across the English Channel in each direction.

Jacqueline Cochrane  1953 --- 1st woman to fly faster than speed of sound. (She piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.)

Elizabeth II  1953 --- 1st monarch to have a televised coronation.

Sir Edmund Hillary  1953 --- 1st recorded climb of Mt. Everest.

Sir Roger Bannister  1954 --- 1st person recorded to run a mile race in under four minutes.

Althea Gibson  1957 --- 1st black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

Laika, the dog  1957 --- 1st living creature to orbit the earth. Aboard the Soviet satellite, Sputnik 2.

Julia Child  1958 --- 1st woman designated a full-fledged "Chef."

William O'Ree  1958 --- 1st black hockey player in the NHL. (Boston Bruins)

Clifton R Wharton  1958 --- 1st black US foreign minister. (Romania)

Hiram L. Fong  1959 --- 1st Chinese-American in US Senate. (Hawaii)

Daniel K. Inouye  1959 --- 1st Japanese-American in US House of Representatives. (Hawaii)

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin  1961 --- 1st human in space, 1st human to orbit Earth.

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.  1961 --- 1st American in space; (Freedom 7). 2nd human in space; member of original Mercury 7.

Janet G. Travell  1961 --- 1st woman to hold the post of Personal Physician to the President. (Appointed by Kennedy)

Roy Claxton Acuff   1962 --- 1st living person admitted to Country Music Hall of Fame.

Joan Crawford  1962 --- 1st guest on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson," October 1.

John Glenn   1962 --- 1st US astronaut to orbit earth.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova - Russian cosmonaut  1963 --- 1st woman in space.

Jerrie Mock  1964 --- 1st around-the-world solo flight by a woman.

Sidney Poitier  1964 --- 1st black actor to win an Oscar in a major category. He earned the honor for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his role in the film, "Lilies of the Field".

Peter Sellers   1964 --- 1st male to appear on the cover of "Playboy" magazine.

Patricia R Harris  1965---1st black female US ambassador. (Luxembourg)

Alexei Arkhovich Leonov  1965 --- 1st human to walk in space.

Edward Higgins White, Jr.  1965 --- 1st American to walk in space.

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi  1966 --- 1st woman prime minister of India.

Robert C Weaver  1966 --- 1st black in US Presidential Cabinet (LBJ appointed him Secretary of HUD.)

Christiaan Barnard - heart surgeon  1967 --- performed the 1st human heart transplant.

Thurgood Marshall 1967 --- 1st black to become a Supreme Court justice.

Muriel Siebert 1967 --- 1st  woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She was also the nation's first- ever discount broker, and the first woman to serve as Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York.

Carl Stokes  1967 --- 1st black elected as the mayor of a major city. (Cleveland, Ohio)

Louis Washkansky  1967 --- 1st human heart transplant recipient. He lived 18 days with the new heart.

Shirley Chisholm   1968 --- 1st black woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

Neil Armstrong  1969 --- 1st man to walk on the moon.

Barbara Jo Rubin 1969 --- 1st woman jockey to win a race in North America.

Elizabeth P. Hoisington  1970 --- 1st female general in the US armed forces. She was appointed to the post of director of the Women's Army Corps.

Bella Savitsky Abzug  1971 --- 1st Jewish woman in Congress.

Satchel Paige  1971 --- 1st Negro-League player elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.

Berenice Gera  1972 --- 1st female umpire in pro baseball.

Mark Spitz - US swimmer  1972 --- 1st athlete to win 7 Olympic gold medals.

Jean Westwood  1972 --- 1st woman to head the US Democratic Party.

Henry Kissinger  1973 --- 1st Jewish US Secretary of State. He was also the 1st naturalized citizen to hold this office.

Emily Warner  1973 --- 1st female commercial airline pilot in the US. (Frontier Airlines)

Richard Milhous Nixon  1974 --- 1st and only US president to resign from office.

Mary Louise Smith  1974 --- 1st woman to head the US Republican Party.

George Carlin 1975 --- 1st guest host on "Saturday Night Live" which premiered on October 11.

Sarah Caldwell  1976 --- 1st first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Janet Guthrie  1977 --- 1st woman to qualify and race at the Indianapolis 500.

Jacqueline Means  1977 --- 1st woman to be an ordained Episcopal priest

Louise Brown  1978 --- 1st test tube baby. (Lancastershire, England)

Mary Hargrafen (Sister Mary Carl)  1978 --- 1st nun to become a captain in the US Air Force. (Sisters of St. Francis.)

John Paul the Second (Karol Wojtyla)
         1978 --- 1st Pole to become pope.
         1998 --- 1st pope to visit Cuba. (Jan. 21-25)

Diana Nyad  1979 --- 1st person to swim from the Bahamas to Florida.

Margaret Thatcher  1979 --- Britain's 1st female prime minister.

Sandra Day O'Connor  1981 -- 1st female US Supreme Court justice.

Barney Clark  1982 -- 1st recipient of a permanent artificial heart, on Dec. 2. He lived until March 23, 1983.

Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr. (Guy)  1983 --- 1st black American in space.

Elizabeth Dole (Mary Elizabeth Hanford)  1983 --- 1st female US Secretary of Transportation.

Sally Kristen Ride  1983 --- 1st US woman in space.

Vanessa Williams  1983 --- 1st black Miss America. Williams relinquished her crown during her reign when nude pictures of her were published in "Penthouse" magazine.

Joan Benoit  1984 --- winner of the 1st women's Olympic marathon at the Summer Games, held in Los Angeles.

Kathryn Sullivan  1984 --- 1st US woman to walk in space.

Wilma Mankiller  1985 --- 1st woman to lead a major American Indian tribe. She was elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Christa Sharon McAuliffe  1986 --- 1st teacher selected for the NASA Teacher in Space program. She died along, with the rest of the crew, when the space shuttle Challenger blew up not long after launching.

Oprah Winfrey  1986 --- 1st African-American woman to own her own television production company.

Gertrude Belle Elion - pharmacologist  1988 --- 1st woman admitted to National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Michael Jordan  1988 --- 1st basketball player pictured on a box of Wheaties cereal.

Antonia Novello  1990 --- 1st woman and first Hispanic to be named Surgeon General of the US.

Douglas L. Wilder  1990 --- 1st elected black US governor. (Virginia)

Maya Angelou  1991 --- 1st female poet to read a poem at a US presidential inauguration. She read "On the Pulse of Morning," at Clinton's inaguration.

Billy Crystal  1992 --- 1st guest on "The Tonight Show," when Jay Leno permanently replaced Johnny Carson as host.

Mae Carol Jemison  1992 --- 1st black woman in space (on the Endeavor.)

Akebono (Chadwick Haheo Rowan)  1993 --- 1st non-Japanese yokozuna (sumo wrestler.)

Carol Elizabeth Moseley-Braun  1993 --- 1st black woman in US Senate.

Kim Campbell  1993 --- 1st female Prime Minister of Canada.

Barbara Harmer  1993 --- 1st woman to pilot the Concorde (March 25th.)

Janet Reno  1993 --- 1st female US Attorney General.

Eileen Marie Collins  1995 --- 1st female space shuttle pilot. She piloted the space shuttle Discovery during a mission to rendezvous with space station Mir.

Madeleine Albright  1996 --- 1st female US Secretary Of State.

Dolly, the lamb  1996 --- 1st cloned animal.

"Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others' death and dying the others' life."

Sherwood Anderson - writer  1941 --- after swallowing a toothpick at a cocktail party he died of peritonitis on an ocean liner bound for Brazil.

John Jacob Astor 1912 --- drowned with the "unsinkable" Titanic.

Attila the Hun 453 AD --- bled to death from a nosebleed on his wedding night.

Aleksandr II (Aleksandr Nikolaevich) - Czar of Russia 1855-81  1881 --- assassinated by a bomb which tore off his legs, ripped open his belly and mutilated his face.

Jane Austen  1817 --- Addison's disease.

Sir Francis Bacon 1626 --- pneumonia. He was experimenting with freezing a chicken by stuffing it with snow.

Lucille Desiree Ball 1989 --- died after under-going heart surgery.

Velma (Margie) Barfield 1984 --- 1st woman executed in US since restoration of death penalty in 1967. (For poisoning her fiancée.)

Thomas a Becket - Archbishop of Canterbury 1170 --- murdered in the Canterbury cathedral by four knights, supposedly on orders by Henry II.

Ludwig van Beethoven 1827 --- cirrhosis of the liver.

John Belushi 1982 --- drug overdose.

Rainey Bethea 1936 --- the last publicly executed criminal in US. Executed by hanging.

Kimberly Bergalis  1991 --- died of AIDS. She had contracted the disease from her dentist.

Bridget Bishop 1692 --- 1st of the witches hung in Salem, Massachusets. She was executed on June 10.
(Salem witches: Almost 150 "witches" were arrested, but only 31 were tried in 1692. All 31, including 6 males, were sentenced to death. Nineteen were hanged, 2 died in jail, and 1 man was slowly pressed to death under heavy stones. None were burned.)

Amanda Blake (Beverly Neill) - actress (Miss Kitty on "Gunsmoke")  1989 --- AIDS contracted from her bi-sexual husband.

Anne Boleyn 1536 --- beheaded for adultery by request of Henry VIII.

Neil Bonnett - race car driver 1994 --- car crash, killed during practice at the Daytona International Speeway.

Salvatore "Sonny" Bono 1998 --- crashed into a tree while skiing.

Ray Brennan 1976 --- on July 27th - 1st person to die of "Legionnaire's Disease."

Charles Brooks, Jr. 1982 --- 1st criminal executed in US by lethal injection.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1861 --- acute bronchitis.

Lord Byron (George Gordon) 1824 --- died of malarial fever.

Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary)  1903 --- pneumonia following a bout of heavy drinking.

Al Capone - Chicago gangster 1947 --- syphillis.

Karen Carpenter - singer 1983 --- heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa, at age 32.

Jack Cassidy - actor  1976 --- died in a fire, while asleep on the couch in his apartment.

Catherine the Great - Empress of Russia 1796 --- a stroke, while going to the bathroom.

Nicolae Ceausescu - Romanian president 1989 --- executed by firing squad along with his wife.

Anton Joseph Cermak - mayor of Chicago 1933 --- assassinated by accident when riding with Franklin Roosevelt in motorcade.

Sergei Chalibashvili - diver  1983 --- diving accident. Attempted a three-and-a-half reverse somersault in the tuck position during the World University Games. On the way down, he smashed his head on the board and was knocked unconscious. He died after being in a coma for a week.

Raymond Johnson Chapman - Cleveland Indians baseball player  1920 --- died one day after being struck in head by baseball pitch, becoming the only player ever killed as result of major league baseball game.

Charles I - English king 1649 --- beheaded by order of Parliament under Oliver Cromwell on January 30.

Conor Clapton - son of musician Eric Clapton  1991 --- fell out of 53rd floor window at the age of 5.

Cleopatra 30 BC --- suicide by poison, supposedly from a venomous snake.

Nat "King" Cole - singer 1965 --- died of complications following surgery for lung cancer.

Christopher Columbus 1506 --- rheumatic heart disease.

Bob Crane - actor 1978 --- murdered in hotel room.

Jim Croce - singer  1973 ---plane crash. The plane crashed into a tree while taking off for a concert in Sherman, Texas.

Davy Crockett - US frontiersman  1836 --- killed defending the Alamo.
(Actually, Crockett survived the assault along with a few others, but was bayoneted to death by the Mexicans after they took the fort.)

Marie Curie - chemist, discovered Radium 1934 --- leukemia, caused by exposure to radiation.

James Dean (James Byron) 1955 --- car crash.

Albert Dekker - actor, California legislator  1968 --- suffocated, hanging from shower curtain rod, handcuffed, wearing women's lingerie.

John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) - singer 1997 --- plane crash in Monterey, CA.

Edward Despard 1803 --- last executed criminal drawn & quartered in England.

John Dillinger - (1st number one criminal on FBI's most wanted list.)  1934 --- killed by FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

Jane Dornnacker - helicopter traffic reporter  1986 --- died doing a live traffic report for WNBC-AM NYC when her helicopter crashed.

Anthony J. Drexel III - philanthropist  1893 --- shot himself accidentally while showing off a new gun in his collection to his friends.

Jessica Dubroff - (age 7)   1996 --- plane crash - attempting to become the youngest pilot to fly cross-country.

Isadora Duncan - actress 1927 --- accidental strangulation when her scarf caught in car wheel.

Dominique Dunne - actress ("Poltergeist")  1982 --- choked by boyfriend, John Sweeny. She died after being in a coma for 5 days.

Amelia Earhart 1937 --- missing in an attempt to fly around the world.

Nelson Eddy - actor / singer  1965 --- suffered a stroke while entertaining on stage in Miami Beach. He died the next day.

Adolf Eichmann  1962 --- executed by hanging for "crimes against the Jewish people."

Andres Escobar - Colombian soccer player  1994 --- murdered by unknown thugs, apparently in anger over the accidental goal he had scored for US during World Cup Game.

Marty Feldman 1982 --- found dead in motel room in Mexico. Death from heart failure, either from climate change or from shellfish poisoning.

Francis Ferdinand - Archduke of Austria  1914 --- assassinated; the incident initiated World War I.

W. C. Fields (Claude William Dukenfield)  1946 --- stomach hemorrhage and cirrhosis of the liver.

Michael Findlay - horror film maker   1977 --- decapitated by helicopter blade.

Jim Fixx - made jogging popular  1984 --- died of a heart attack . . . while jogging.

Robert (Bobbie) Franks  1924 --- kidnapped and murdered by Leopold & Loeb.

Eric Fleming - actor ("Rawhide")  1966 --- drowned when his canoe capsized during the filming of a movie near the headwaters of the Amazon in the Haullaga River, Peru.

Dian Fossey - primatologist  1985 --- found hacked to death, presumably by poachers, in her Rwandan forest camp.

Sigmund Freud  1939 --- cancer of the jaw, palate, throat and tongue.

Rajiv Gandhi - prime minister of India from 1984 until 1989, 1991 --- killed by a bomb, hidden in a bouquet of flowers, which exploded in his hand. Like his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

Judy Garland (Frances Gumm)  1969 --- overdose of sleeping pills.

Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.) - singer  1984 --- murdered on his birthday by his father.

Vitas Kevin Gerulaitis - tennis player  1994 --- died in his sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning at the home of a friend.

Andy Gibb - singer  1988 --- heart infection.

Gary Mark Gilmore  1977 --- 1st American executed after restoration of US death penalty in 1976. (Executed by firing squad.)

Sergei Grinkov - Russian figure skater  1995 --- died of heart attack during skating practice.

Henry Gunther  1918 --- last soldier killed in WWI.

Alexander Hamilton - former US Treasury Secretary  1804 --- shot by US Vice President Aaron Burr in a pistol duel near Weehawken, New Jersey on July eleventh.

Mata Hari (Gertrud Margarete Zelle) - World War I spy  1917 --- executed by firing squad, she refused a blindfold and threw a kiss to the executioners.

William Henry Harrison  1841 --- 1st US President to die in office.

Frank Hayes - jockey  1923 --- heart attack during a race. His horse, Sweet Kiss, won the race, making Hayes the only deceased jockey to win a race.

Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Cansino)  1987 -- Alzheimer's disease.

Phil Hartman (Philip Edward Hartmann)  1998 -- shot by his wife, who then committed suicide.

Les Harvey - musician (Stone the Crow)  1972 --- electrocuted on stage at a show in Swansea, Wales. He touched a poorly connected microphone and died a few hours later.

Ernest Miller Hemingway  1961 --- suicide with shotgun.

Margaux Hemingway (Margot Hemingway)  1996 --- suicide, overdose of a sedative. She was the fifth person in her family to commit suicide.

Jon-Erik Hexum - actor  1984 --- playfully shot himself with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of TV spy show "Cover Up." The concussion forced a chunk of his skull into his brain; he died six days later.

Wild Bill Hickok (James Butler Hickok)  1876 --- shot in the back of the head while playing poker.

Adolf Hitler  1945 --- suicide, cyanide and handgun.

Jimmy Hoffa (James Riddle Hoffa)  1975 --- disappeared from a Michigan restaurant on July 30th.

Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley)  1959 --- died in airplane crash with Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper. The name of the plane was "American Pie."

John C. Holmes - porn film star  1988 --- complications of AIDS.

Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss) - magician  1926 --- ruptured appendix. He died on Halloween.

Leslie Howard (Leslie Stainer) - actor (Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind)  1943 --- his civilian plane was shot down by German fighter planes during WWII.

Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.)  1985 --- died of AIDS. He was the 1st major public figure to announce he had AIDS.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson - Confederate General  1863 --- pneumonia, after accidentally being shot by his own troops.

Josef Jakobs - German spy  1941 --- last person to be executed in the Tower of London, England.

Thomas Jefferson  1826 --- dysentery. He died on the 50th anniversary of signing of Declaration of Independence, and the same day as John Adams.

Knut Jensen - Olympic cyclist  1960 --- fractured skull during the 1960 Olympics in Rome. In the 93 degree heat, he collapsed from sunstroke and hit his head. He was one of only 2 athletes to die as a result of Olympic competition. (Francisco Lazaro was the other.)

Joan of Arc (Jeanne Darc)  1431 --- burned at the stake for heresy and witchcraft.

Gee Jon  1924 --- 1st person executed in US in the gas chamber. Nevada State Prison in Carson City on February 8. (Hydrocyanic gas was used; the procedure took 6 minutes.)

Brian Jones - musician, one-time Rolling Stone  1969 --- drowned in his swimming pool while drunk and on drugs.

Joselito (Jose Gomez) - Spanish bullfighter  1920 --- fatally gored fighting his last bull.

Michael Kennedy  1997 --- collided with a tree while skiing in Aspen, Colorado.

William Kemmler - convicted axe murderer  1890 --- 1st person executed in US in the electric chair. At Auburn State Prison in New York, on August 6. (The procedure took 8 minutes.)

Vladimir Komarov  1967 --- 1st cosmonaut to die in space. (Russian Soyuz 1)

David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howell)  1993 --- killed by agents of FBI & Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms.

Brandon Lee - actor  1993 --- shot by a gun firing blanks, while filming the movie "The Crow." His missing scenes were later filled-in by computer animation.

Bruce Lee (Li Yuen Kam) - actor  1973 --- died suddenly from a swollen brain.

T. E. Lawrence (Thomas Edward Lawrence)  1935 --- killed in a motorcycle accident after swerving to avoid two boys.

Francisco Lazaro - Olympic runner  1912 --- sunstroke and heart trouble. Collapsed toward the end of the 1912 Olympic marathon in Stockholm.

John Lennon  1980 --- shot to death by a mentally ill fan.

Liberace (Wladziu Valentino Liberace)  1987 --- AIDS.

Carole Lombard (Jane Alice Peters)  1942 --- plane crash.

Louis XVI - French king  1793 --- beheaded by French revolutionaries.

Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)  1965 --- murdered - shot 16 times by three assassins.

Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jayne Palmer)  1967 --- car accident. Her wig flew off in the impact, starting rumors that she had been decapitated.

Jean-Paul Marat  1793 --- knifed while taking a bath.

Pete Maravich - basketball player  1988 --- heart attack while playing a game of pick-up basketball.

Marie Antoinette  1793 --- beheaded by guillotine.

Bob Marley - musician  1981 --- brain tumor, at the age of 36.

Christopher Marlowe - author  1593 --- stabbed in a tavern brawl in Deptford, England.

Bill Masterton - hockey player for Minnesota North Stars  1968 --- head injury. He fell over backwards and hit his head on the ice after being checked during a game against the Oakland Seals. His is the only death in pro-hockey during the modern era.

William McKinley - 25th US President  1901 --- died of gangrene. He was shot by an assassin and his wounds were not properly dressed.

Butterfly McQueen (Thelma Lincoln McQueen)  1995 --- died of burns received when lighting kerosene heater in her apartment.

Sal Mineo - actor  1976 --- stabbed to death in the street outside of his home.

Russell Mockridge - cyclist  1958 --- vehicular accident. He was competing in the Tour of Gippsland in Melbourne when he was struck by a bus and killed instantly.

Luis Monge  1967 --- executed in gas chamber, Colorado State Penitentiary, Cannon City, CO, on June 2. He was the last US execution until 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated. (He had murdered his wife and 3 of his 10 children.)

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Baker)  1962 --- drug overdose, probably suicide.

Thomas More  1535 --- beheaded for treason upon the order of Henry VIII.

Vic Morrow - actor  1982 --- helicopter accident on the set of "Twilight Zone - The Movie."

Jim Morrison - musician (the Doors)  1971 --- heart attack while in the bathtub.

Mary Ann Nicholls - prostitute  1888 --- fed poisoned grapes and disemboweled by Jack the Ripper.

Florence Nightingale  1910 --- heart failure after 53 years as an invalid.

Francis Russell O'Hara - US art critic 1966 --- died from being hit by taxicab.

Janet Parker - medical photographer  1978 --- last person to die of smallpox.

George S. Patton  1945 --- broke his neck in a car accident. He lived, incapacitated, for one more week.

Nicolas Jacques Pelletier - French highwayman  1792 --- 1st person beheaded with the guillotine.

River Phoenix  1993 --- drug overdose on the sidewalk in front the Viper Club in Hollywood on Halloween.

Francisco Pizarro - Explorer and conquistador  1541 --- stabbed by countrymen in a feud over Incan riches.

Martha Place 1899 --- 1st woman executed in the electric chair, Sing Sing Prison, NY, on March 20.

Edgar Allan Poe  1849 --- cerebral edema following a drinking binge.
(The September 1996 Maryland Medical Journal published a study that showed Poe's symptoms suggest rabies instead.)

Elvis Presley  1977 --- accidental drug overdose. He died while sitting on the toilet.

Alexander Pushkin - Russian author  1837 --- killed in duel.

Grigory Rasputin  1916 --- assassinated: poisoned (cyanide), shot (3 times), and thrown into a river.

John Augustus Roebling - designer of the Brooklyn Bridge  1869 --- died of a tetanus infection after having his leg crushed by a ferryboat while working on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Rebecca Rolfe (Pocahontas)  1617 --- smallpox. She died in London.

Oscar Romero - archbishop of San Salvador  1980 --- murdered while saying mass at the Cathedral of San Salvador.

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg 1953 --- executed in electric chair on June 19. The 1st husband-and-wife team executed in the US. They had been charged with espionage and spying.

Ronald Ryan  1967 --- executed by hanging in Melbourne. He was the last man to be hanged in Australia.

Girolamo Savonarola - religious reformer  1498 --- hanged and burned for heresy.

Rebecca Schaffer - actress  1989 --- shot by a "celebrity stalker" fan.

Selena (Quintanilla Perez) - singer 1995 --- shot by the president of her fan club.

Thomas A. Selfridge  1908 --- 1st mortality in an airplane crash. He was the passenger when Wilbur Wright crashed a US War Department test plane.

Betty Shabazz, (Betty Sanders; Sister Betty X, Hajj Bahiyah) - widow of Malcom X  1997 --- complications from apartment fire started by her grandson.

Tupac Shakur  1996 --- murdered in drive-by shooting.

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1822 --- accidental drowning.

Eddie Slovik  1945 --- shot by an American firing squad in France for desertion. (The only US soldier since the Civil War to be executed as he was.)

Vladimir Smirnov - fencer  1982 --- brain damage. During a fencing match against Matthias Behr, Behr's foil snapped, pierced Smirnov's mask, penetrated his eyeball, and entered his brain. Smirnov died 9 days later.

Joseph Smith - founder of Mormon religion  1844 --- shot by an angry mob while he was jailed in Carthage, IL.

Diana Spencer (Princess of Wales)  1997 --- car crash while eluding paparazzi.

Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots)  1587 --- beheaded for treason.

Mary Surratt  1869 --- executed for being a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. 1st woman ever executed by the United States government. Hung on July 7.

Sharon Tate  1969 --- murdered by Charles Manson and his followers.

Leon Trotsky - Russian leader  1940 --- assassinated in Mexico with an ice-pick, died the next day.

Tommy Tucker - musician  1982 --- carbon tetrachloride poisoning sustained while he was finishing floors in his home.

Kelton Rena Turner -  1975 --- last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

Rudolph Valentino (Rodolfo di Valentina D'Antonguolla) - actor  1926 --- perforated gastric ulcer and ruptured appendix.

Mike Venezia - jockey  1988 --- died in 5th-race fall at Belmont Race Track, NY.

Gianni Versace - clothing designer  1997 --- murdered by serial killer.

Sir William Wallace - Scottish rebel  1305 --- executed by being hanged for a short time, taken down still breathing and having his bowels torn out and burned. His head was then struck off, and his body divided into quarters, the punishment known as 'hanged, drawn and quartered'. His head was placed on a pole on London Bridge, his right arm above the bridge in Newcastle, his left arm was sent to Berwick, his right foot and limb to Perth and his left quarter to Aberdeen where it was buried in what is now the wall at St. Machars Cathedral.

Karl Wallenda - aerialist   1978 --- fell to death at the age of 73 as he was walking a highwire strung between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Edward Higgins White, Jr.  1967 --- died in space capsule fire during rehearsal of scheduled Apollo 1 launch with Roger Chaffee & Gus Grissom.

Stanford White - Architect, designed Madison Square Garden  1906 --- shot atop Madison Square Garden by Evelyn Nesbit's jealous husband, Harry Thaw.

Oscar Wilde  1900 --- cerebral meningitis.

Tennessee Williams - writer  1983 --- choked to death on a bottle cap. He was 71.

Jackie Wilson - entertainer  1967 --- collapsed of a stroke and a heart attack on stage, while singing his hit "Lonely Teardrops": He never regained consciousness and died eight years later.

Natalie Wood (Natasha Nikolaevna Gurdin)  1981 --- accidental drowning.

Alexander Woollcott - literary critic  1943 --- heart attack while appearing on the CBS radio program "People's Platform."

Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC) was an epileptic.

Aleksandr III, Russian Czar  blamed the Jews for his father's 1881 assassination. He vowed to kill one third of Russia's Jews, drive out another third and to convert the rest.

Queen Anne (ruler of England 1702 - 1714) gave birth to 17 children, none of whom survived her.

Louis Armstrong always had a handkerchief in his hand while playing his trumpet.

Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category.  Refused to fly in airplanes.

Fred Astaire  made his dance debut at age 7 in 1906.  at the height of his career, his feet were insured for $650,000.

Irving Berlin  wrote more than 1000 songs and scores of Broadway musicals.

Mel Blanc - the voice of Bugs Bunny  was allergic to carrots.  After a near-fatal auto accident in 1961, Blanc did his cartoon voices, including the first 65 episodes of "The Flintstones," flat on his back, with the microphone hanging over his bed.

James Brown - singer  was once arrested for brandishing a shotgun in his office building while demanding to know who had used his private toilet.

James Buchanan  was the only US president to remain a bachelor.

Caligula (12 AD - 41 AD) - Roman emperor,  thought he was a god. He set up a temple with a life-sized statue of himself in gold which was dressed each day in the clothing such as he wore himself.

Jimmy Carter  was the first US president to have been born in a hospital.

George Washington Carver  invented peanut butter.

Dame Agatha Christie  is the world's top-selling fiction writer, having written 78 novels that have sold an estimated 2 billion copies worldwide.  Suddenly disappeared in 1926 for a period of 11 days - an event she left unexplained.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)  was born in a ladies' room during a dance at Blenheim Palace.  Was a skilled bricklayer and for many years carried a union card.  Was made an honorary US citizen by Kennedy in 1963.  He "rationed" himself to 15 cigars a day.

Cleopatra  was Greek, not Egyptian.  Her last name was Ptolemy.  Was a decendant of four generations of brother-sister marriages, and married 2 of her own brothers.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge  was an opium addict. He wrote his masterpiece, 'Kubla Khan,' while under the influence of opium.  At the height of his addiction, he drank about 2 liters of laudanum (tincture of opium) each week.

Bing Crosby  his son Lindsay Crosby committed suicide in 1989 with a small caliber rifle  his son Dennis M. Crosby committed suicide in 1991 with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Charles Dickens  always faced north when writing and sleeping.

Empress Elizabeth - Russian monarch  died in 1761 with 15,000 dresses in her closets.

Thomas Edison  was afraid of the dark.

Albert Einstein  couldn't speak fluently when he was nine, so his parents thought he might be retarded.  In 1898, he applied for admission to the Munich Technical Institute, but was turned down on the grounds that he "showed no promise" as a student.  He was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952.

Sigmund Freud  had a morbid fear of ferns.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (Sari Gabor)  was Miss Hungary, 1936 Has been married to: Burhan Belge, Conrad Hilton, George Sanders, Herbert Hutner, Joshua S. Cosden, Jr., Jack Ryan, Michael O'Hara, Philippe d'Alba, and Prince Frederick von Anhalt. Marriage #8, to playboy Felipe De Alba, only lasted a single day.  Her ex husband, George Sanders, later married her sister, Magda.  In 1990, she served 3 days in jail for slapping a cop after a traffic stop.

Judy Garland (Frances Gumm)  was Fred Astaire's dancing partner in the Irving Berlin musical "Easter Parade."  he was left handed. On the day she died, a tornado touched down in Kansas, just as it had in "The Wizard of Oz."

King Henry VIII  was the most married English king, having had 6 wives.

Rudolf Hess - Nazi politician  was sentenced to life in prison in 1946. From 1966 until 1987 he was the only prisoner of Spandau Prisonin Berlin, Germany.  He committed suicide at the age of 93.

Jean Harlow  was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine.

L. Ron Hubbard - science fiction author  founded the Church of Scientology.

Howard Hughes  sold his 75% holding in TWA in 1966 and made a half a billion dollars in one day.  Once spent 26 straight hours in the bathroom. (He suffered from severe constipation.)  Suffered from a fear of public places (agoraphobia.)  Suffered from a fear of germs (mysophobia.)
Weighed only 93 pounds when he died.

Ted Hughes - poet  his first wife, Sylvia Plath, the poet, committed suicide by inhaling gas from an oven in 1963.  Second wife, Assia Wevill committed suicide by the same method in 1969.

Andrew Jackson  unknowingly married his wife Rachel while she was still married to her first husband. Was the only US president to fight a duel.  Spent most of his adult life with a bullet no more than two inches away from his heart as a result of a duel he fought before becoming President.  Suffered from tuberculosis for most of his term as president.

Jesus Christ  spoke the Aramaic language, a dialect of Galilee.

Elton John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight)  received his first gold record - for "Crocodile Rock," in 1973.

Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler)  in 1942, at the height of her Hollywood career, patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was two decades ahead of its time. The concept was taken up by engineers in 1957 and became the basic tool for secure military communications.

Jerry Lee Lewis  His third wife was his 13 year old first cousin, Myra Gale Brown.  For a five month period, he was concurrently married to both wife #2 and wife #3.  Wife #4 Jaren Gunn was found dead in a swimming pool.  Wife #5 Shawn Stevens died of a methadone overdose two and a half months after the wedding.  His two sons were no luckier than his wives. Son #2 drowned as an infant. Son #1, a drug addict, was killed in a car accident.

Abraham Lincoln  was the first Republican US president.

James Madison  was the smallest US president: he was under 5'4" tall, and weighed less than 100 pounds.

Rocky Marciano - boxer  was the only world champion at any weight to have won every fight of his professional career (1947 to 1956). 43 of his 49 fights were won either by KO's or because the fight had to be stopped.

William McKinley  in 1889, was the first US president to ride in an automobile.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  began to compose music at the age of 5.

Sir Isaac Newton  was an ordained priest in the Church of England.

Jack Nicholson - actor  in 1974, at the age of 37, discovered that his sister, June, was actually his mother, and that the woman he had grown up thinking was his mother, Ethel May, was actually his grandmother.

George Orwell  is responsible for coining the terms: "Big Brother", "unperson", and "doublethink."

Luciano Pavarotti  carries a bent nail in his pocket for good luck whenever he sings.

Edgar Allen Poe  in 1831, as a cadet at West Point, he took the order to "appear for a public parade in white belts and gloves, under arms" literally. He showed up naked, except for his belt, gloves and rifle. He was expelled.

Cole Porter - composer  ordered 9 pounds of fudge every month from Arnold's Candies in Peru, Indiana.

Elvis Presley  was inducted into the army in 1958. His serial number was 53310761.  Weighed 230 pounds at death.  His last snack was 4 scoops of ice cream and 6 chocolate chip cookies.  Was made an agent of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by President Nixon in 1970.  In the last 7 months of his life, Elvis had 5,300 uppers, downers, and painkillers prescribed for him.

Ramses II (1316 BC-1224 BC) - Egyptian pharaoh  had his own harem when he was 10 years old.  fathered 111 sons and 67 daughters.

Ronald Reagan  1st US president to have been divorced.

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (1606-1669)  painted 64 self portraits.  He died impoverished and alone at 63.

Babe Ruth  hit his last Major League home run on May 25, 1935. Guy Bush of the Pittsburgh Pirates was pitching.

Frank Sinatra  paid a $240,000 ransom to free his kidnapped son.

Ibn Saud - King of Saudi Arabia 1926-1953  was 6'6" tall.  He had married 156 times and had 56 children.

King Solomon  had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Diana Spencer (Princess of Wales)  her 1981 wedding attracted over 700 million TV viewers.  Had appeared a record number of 43 times on the cover of 'People' magazine before her death.

Robert II Stuart (1316-1390) - king of Scots  was born by cesarean section after his mother's death following a riding accident.

Shih Huang Ti, China's first emperor  was buried surrounded by 7,000 life-size clay figures of soldiers standing in battle formation, along with life-sized ceramic chariots and horses.

Billy Tipton (Dorothy Lucille Tipton) - jazz musician  lived as a man. Although married to several women, and a step-father to children, wasn't found out to be female until she died in 1989, at the age of 74.

John Tyler  was the first US president to be photographed while in office.

Queen Victoria  married her first cousin.  Almost all of the crowned heads of Europe in the 20th century were her descendants.  She was raised speaking German at home. Although she ruled England for 64 years and is probably one of the best-known of all English monarchs, she never spoke English fluently.   She made the use of chloroform to combat pain during childbirth acceptable in Britain.

Vincent van Gogh  sold only one of his paintings in his lifetime.  It was in Arles, France, that he cut off his ear.  His last painting was "Wheat Field with Crows."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

Marilyn Vos Savant (1946 - ) - American journalist  has an IQ of 228, the highest ever recorded.

Woodrow Wilson  is the only US president to have a Ph.D. degree.

Steve Young - San Francisco 49'ers quarterback  is the great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young.

Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) (1893-1976) - founder of Communist China  is listed in 'The Guiness Book of Records' as holding the record for mass murders. He was responsible for at least 40 million deaths and perhaps 80 million more, in China, between 1949 and 1971.  His teeth turned green because he refused to brush them. [Ick, ick, ick] He preferred rinsing his mouth with tea and then chewing the tea leaves.  He believed that the more women he slept with, the longer he would live. He sometimes had three, four or five bed partners at one time.