What’s so Funny about History? A User’s Guide to Famous People
31 July 2007History is, without doubt, the most impressive subject when considering destinies and famous lives. Even if we regard history as a chronological axis on which acts, wars, treatises, murders or pacts are included, there is a sea of secrets somewhere behind these stories. After all, that crowd of generals, kings, emperors and presidents were, first and foremost human beings, with qualities that set them apart, but also with shortcomings that made them famous.
If you were to think about one interesting piece of information about a famous president, other than the one in history books, what would it be? Surely enough, you must have heard that the teddy bear was named after Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or that the same famous president was forced by his mother to wear dress until he was five. What would you say if you knew that Benjamin Harrison was so afraid of electric lights that he used to have White House staff turn them on and off? History doesn’t seem just as plain and boring, does it?
Some skeptics might ask what’s the use in knowing such history facts. But then again, why only take for granted everything and omit the interesting part in things. For instance, it might be fun to know that John Tyler had 15 children, or that Rutherford Hayes was the first president to use a phone and his number was easy to remember: 1! How about Chester Arthur, who owed about 80 pairs of pants he would change daily, or Herbert Hoover, who would speak to his wife in Chinese, in order to keep their secrets?
History information is vast and, fortunately, history is still being written. So why should we stand apart and only skim what really happened, instead of getting into the kernel of actions and getting acquainted to any spicy detail that could have(why not admit this?) contributed to one event or another? The result of this productive curiosity can only be fruitful!
Related Posts:
- Traveler’s Guide to Notodden, Norway
- Database Management System
- Rooting Back Philosophy: The Ancient Thought
- A Summarized History of Basketball
- What’s Your Car’s Name?
- Physics Legacy: Tribute to Marie Curie
- How Industrial Can A Design Be?
- What’s Math Good for? The Story of Statistics
- Biology vs. Life: the Cloning Debate
- Funny Maths – A Game of the Mind
If you found this page useful, consider linking to it. Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site.
It will look like this: What’s so Funny about History? A User’s Guide to Famous People