Humans are the most mysterious & fascinating being on this planet. Just when we think we know all that is there to know about a famous personality, some biography emerges with new revelations. Here we have curated 10 shockingly abnormal behaviour of famous people that you probably didn’t know of.
1. Benjamin Franklin Regularly Sat Naked By The Open Window
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He called it ‘air bathing’. In 1768, he wrote a letter to a friend in France telling how he spends his morning’s reading or writing for an hour or half with no clothes on.
Seeing his lists of discoveries and inventions, it’s easily understood that Franklin was fond of experiments and his mind worked differently than most folks. While most people believed cough and cold occur due to seasonal changes, he rubbished the idea and drew attention towards ventilating one’s house. Back then people were unaware of the benefits of fresh air and the harm stale air could do to the human body. Franklin, suffered from ‘respiratory illness’ and therefore came up with this ingenious cure.
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2. Saddam Hussein Dedicated A Quran To God Written In His Own Blood
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It took him over two years to create the ‘Blood Quran’. Hussein would sit with a nurse pumping out altogether 27 litres of blood while an Islamic calligrapher made a copy of the Quran using Hussein’s blood. Following his elder son’s escape from assassination Hussein wished to re-embrace his faith in God. He also wanted to show his gratitude to god for saving him from death numerous times. But more importantly perhaps he wanted to send a message that he could draw his own blood for the sake of religion.
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3. Chanakya Slow Poisoned Chandragupta Maurya
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Something like a character right out of the Game of Thrones universe, Chanakya – the great teacher, philosopher who helped establish the Maurya dynasty in ancient India apparently gave small doses of poison to the Maurya king without his knowledge. By having a little poison in every meal Chandragupta Maurya became immune to attempted poisoning by his enemies. Once the queen mistakenly ate his food and instantly died. She was pregnant at the moment and Chanakya allegedly cut the dying queen’s belly open and pulled out the baby.
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4. Archimedes Ran Naked Through The Streets Of Syracuse Chanting ‘Eureka’ ‘Eureka’
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Archimedes, the ancient Greek scholar stepped into a bath and encountered a revelation. He was so eager to share his discovery with others that he ran out on the street screaming ‘eureka’ whilst being naked. What he found out when he entered a tub was that the ‘volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged.’ This story was recounted 200 years later in the book De architectura by Vitruvius.
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5. Bram Stoker Had Crazy Conspiracy Theories
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Best known for writing Dracula, Bram Stoker was an established writer who has penned several fictions and non-fictions that has got nothing to do with the undead. His one book – Famous Impostors (1910) – has some of the craziest theories regarding con artists and imposters. Like the one where he believed that Queen Elizabeth was actually a man dressed as a woman and wearing a wig. Though lacking on hard proof, Stoker wrote that the actual Elizabeth died while vacationing at the age of 10. Her governess found an androgynous Bisley Boy from a town nearby who looked just like her and dressed him with Elizabeth’s cloths. From then on, he says, England was duped by an imposter for years.
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6. Charles Dickens Had Dead Body Fetish
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Dickens was a total weirdo. He performed mesmerism (Victorian version of hypnotism) on family and friends and insisted on sleeping with his bed facing northward. He believed it enhanced his creative powers. Dickens also had a thing for dead bodies and often visited the Paris Morgue. He explained his absurd fascination by saying, “Whenever I am at Paris, I am dragged by invisible force into the Morgue. I never want to go there, but am always pulled there.” Each year he made a point to end his Christmas and New Year’s Day in the morgue.
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7. Joseph Stalin Scribbled Insults On Nude Pictures
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Who would have thought, a dictator, amusing himself by defacing pictures of nude people in red and blue ink and signing them as “J. Stalin”. The works of 19th century Russian painters featured semi or full naked men. In order to censor their nudity, Stalin often scribbled out the exposed body parts with a pen. And in one of the prints that featured a naked man and woman, Stalin mocked the man for forgetting what to do with the woman. Take a look at some of his ‘rude jottings’ here.
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8. Aristotle Hated Women
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The greatest thinker and philosopher in human history wasn’t above contemporary stereotypes. In describing women he had said that a female “as it were, a deformity.” For him women were inferior being – a view widely accepted at his time. Granted, this abnormal mindset that influenced Western thinking for thousands of years still lingers in modern time.
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9. Peter The Great Had His Wife’s Lover’s Head Preserved In A Jar
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Beginning in the late 17th century, Peter the Great reigned over Russia for more than 40 years. He was a very influential man and, regardless, was an unabashed pervert. But when his wife, Catherine I, decided to have a little action on her side by starting an affair with her chamberlain, William Mons, Peter chopped the young man’s head off and preserved it in a jar with alcohol. As a reminder of Catherine’s infidelity, he kept the jar in her room.
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10. J. M. Barrie Impersonated His Dead Brother
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When J. M. Barrie’s elder brother – David – died, Barrie was only 6 years-old. To help his mother cope with the grief, he began impersonating David. It didn’t help. But none-the-less, Barrie’s mother emerged from depression with the belief that little David hasn’t gone away. He is there with her, as a boy who’ll never grow up. Yea well, it was J. M. Barrie’s mother who sowed the seeds of Peter Pan in little Barrie’s mind.
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11. Arthur Conan Doyle Thought Magic Was A Real Thing
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Creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has to be one of the most rational people on earth. But following his son’s death in World War I, he started believing in ‘spiritualism’ and wanted to speak to his son. He also believed in the existence of magic. Harry Houdini – a friend of Doyle and a renowned illusionist – decided to do something about his friend’s absurd belief.
He instructed Doyle to drop a ball into a bucket of white paint, then leave the house, walk three blocks away, write a message on a paper and return. When Doyle came back, he picked out the ball and placed it on a slate where the ball began rolling and spelled out the secret massage Doyle had written – “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin”. The ball was made of iron and Houdini used a magnet to move it. As to how he knew the message – at one point he had simply asked Doyle for the paper to examine whether it was properly folded and returned a blank paper in its place. Houdini let his Doyle know that he had actually been tricked but never explained how. So Doyle remained convinced that magic was a real thing.
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12. Einstein Failed In An University Entrance Exam
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Even geniuses have shortcomings. In 1895, Albert Einstein applied to the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School. He was 17 years-old and got flying colours in science and maths but utterly failed in history, geography, language and the rest. ‘The genius’ failed to secure admission that year.
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