History has it’s ups and downs. Mainly we divide into into heroes and villains. But sometimes we overlook certain people and find out they did some wild things. Many people did things that may change your view about them. Here are the top 10 bewildering facts about famous figures that you might not know.
10. Thomas Edison killed Animals by Electrocuting them.
Thomas Edison gave us many things that changed the world forever. His biggest contribution was figuring out how electricity works. But the intelligent inventor also had a dark side. At that time, Edison was in a battle with Nikola Telsa to have control of America’s electric groundwork. Edison argued that his idea was the best and that Telsa’s alternating current could be dangerous to the people. So Edison needed a way to prove that the current was not secure. What better option than to electrocute a grown elephant. In fact, Edison had been electrocuting dogs and cats before as well to test the currents.
Topsy was an elephant that was used as an attraction for Coney Island. She had a long history in the park. In fact she had killed three people. On that day, Edison sent over a team of technicians and a film crew for the event. Topsy was led to a unique podium. Then Edison threw the switch. It took a couple of seconds of work. Topsy was roasted. The results showed that Edison’s idea worked and he became a rich man. But it came as a result of killing an innocent animal. You may like; top 10 animals that entertained the world.
9. Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen from his grave and held for ransom.
Known for his famous comedic aspects, film actor Sir Charles Chaplin was one of the greatest comedic personalities of the silent-film era during the 20th century. He passed away on December 25th, 1977 in his Switzerland home.
What happened next looked like it came from a movie. Two men stealthily snatched Chaplin’s corpse from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey on March 2nd, 1978. They then contacted Chaplin’s wife Oona and demanded her to pay a 600,000 dollar ransom. Otherwise, they cautioned against her children. Oona refused because her husband wouldn’t approve of such a thing.
The investigation continued and concluded in five weeks when police arrested two auto mechanics. Roman Wardas, of Poland, and Gantscho Ganev, of Bulgaria were behind the theft. It turns out that Chaplin’s body was only a mile away concealed in a cornfield. The theft was arranged by Wardes in a time where he was struggling financially. He was sentenced to four and a half years of labor. Ganev only received eighteen months since he had a inadequate role.
8. Martin Luther King made a living plagiarizing.
The King is one of the most inspirational figures in the civil rights movement era. His biggest weapon was his inspiring speeches about racial equality. But they weren’t his own work. The King plagiarized the infamous “I Have A Dream” speech from one given at the Republican Convention in 1952 given by Archibald J. Carey, Jr., an an African-American lawyer in Chicago. The speech given by Carey goes ”We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrims’ pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring!”
Martin Luther said almost the exact same thing in his speech in Washington on 1963. He said “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” But it doesn’t end there. Years after his death, the University of Stanford found out that MLK also plagiarized a doctoral about the conception of god. It included large chunks of the lines that were used in Jack Boozer’s doctoral, who wrote his three years ago. The Journal Of American History, the staff at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project said that Luther plagiarizing his speeches started to became a pattern.
7. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel that was considered impossible.
Many authors have written revolutionary novels throughout their lifetime. William Shakespeare dazzled us with Romeo and Juliet. Mark Twain enticed us with Tom Sawyer. But there’s one very interesting novel you might not know. It’s called “Gadsby”. It was written by Ernest Vincent Wright.
What made the novel so special was the fact that it didn’t contain the letter “e”. What’s more remarkable is that the novel had 50,000 words! So how did Vincent avoid using the one of the most common letters? It’s simple, to avoid temptation, he took the letter “e” off his typewriter. It was a very strenuous experience for him. Most verbs have “ed” at the end. So Wright had to find replacements that made sense. Numbers also caused a lot of tension since any between seven through thirty were off limits. That was especially annoying because that means Wright had to avoid all dates in the novel.
Another concern was that he couldn’t abbreviations such as “Mr.” Or “Mrs.” because the original words had e in them. Commonly used words such as he, her, they, couldn’t be applied. So if these words must be used in a sentence, the sentence had to be redone to find a replacement that didn’t have e. It obviously also had to fit with the story as well. The book was criticized after it’s release. Many did’t believe such a thing was possible. So they said Wright was a fraud. But Wright proved that the unthinkable can be accomplished if one is determined.
6. A stolen bicycle inspired Muhammad Ali’s Career.
Before he was kicking ass as a boxer, he was Classius Clay, a kid Louisville, Kentucky. There was an incident in his early life that made him hit the gym. One time he and a friend were at the Columbia Auditorium. When he came back he realized someone had stolen his bicycle . It was very valuable to him. The frustrated Classius told an officer that he wanted to beat up the thief. Coincidentally the The officer was also a boxing coach. He said “Well, you better learn how to fight before you start challenging people,” That is when Ali’s passion for boxing was born.
Ali started to work out at the gym with the cop, who was known as Jack Martin. After that he never looked back. Then he went on to accomplish amazing things in his storied career. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Thanks to the thief who stole the bike and gave inspiration to a young kid who would eventually become one of the greatest ever.
5. Michael Jackson wanted to play Spider Man.
Michael Jackson‘s spidey sense told him that he should play Spider Man. He discussed the situation with director Stan Lee and also said that he wants to purchase the rights to the character. Lee explained that he needs to go to marvel and share his plans with them. Lee also said that he and Michael were interested in buying the superhero company Marvel in the 1990’s as well. When asked if Jackson would have done well Lee said “I think he’d have been good”. I think he’d have been very good. But I must say that Tobey Maguire was wonderful”. Lee also said that the franchise might’ve not been as successful because Michael wasn’t a great business man.
But Jackson’s superhero love doesn’t end their. X men producers said that he came to them with the proposal of starring as Professor X. Whether this was a missed opportunity by the studios, or a pipe dream for Michael, we can all agree that Jackson’s movies would be a “thriller”.
4. Alexander Graham Bell didn’t invent the telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell was a perfect example of a good all around guy. Bell spent a whole lot of time working with deaf people. His wife was deaf, his mother was deaf and he was even Helen Keller’s favorite teacher. With this time-consuming near-obsession with deaf people, it’s amazing that Bell found time to invent the telephone. Or did he?
More and more evidence is showing that Bell stole the idea from an inventor named Antonio Meucci. He originally called his invention the electrophone. Also, he was rather poverty-stricken. He filed a half patent in 1871. Meucci couldn’t afford a full one. When it came time to renew, he couldn’t even put ten dollars together.
Tragedy struck when Antonio was part of a boiler explosion that killed 125 passengers. He survived but was seriously injured. When he came home he found out his wife had sold everything in his lab for six dollars to get medications. Indeed one of those things was his telephone. Meucci never gave up and built another model for the Western Union Telegraph Company. But they claimed to have lost his materials.
Skip forward to another two years, and Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the telephone. Meucci surely sued. But he couldn’t find his sketches and claimed he put them in the Western Union Lab where Bell coincidentally worked. Even more of a coincidence is that the sketches were gone. Unfortunately, Meucci died without being able to appeal against Bell. The House of Representatives declared the appeal irrational.
3. Dracula was a sick and merciless person.
When we think of Dracula, we remind ourselves of a blood eating human that we see in movies. But there’s more where that came from. Dracula actually existed in the 15th century. Bram Stroker wrote a chilling novel in 1897 about this very peculiar man. He like lived in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara. He wasn’t any typical prince. In fact, he was Vlad the Impaler, also known by many as “Dracula”.
Vlad was credited for the murder of 40,000 to 80,000 people in his tenure. But how he did the brutal killings is what makes him truly terrifying. Vlad favored impalement, an act in which the victim had a sharp object such as a stake pierced threw their bodies. Vlad made sure that the stake wasn’t too sharp. That would kill the person quickly and they wouldn’t have to suffer the pain in agony. At a single time, thousands were impaled. The casualties varied from merchants, ambassadors, to women and in some cases, children. No one survived the wrath of Vlad.
2. A man named Fulcanelli turned lead into gold.
No one knows his name or his identity. Historians refer to him as Fulcanelli. It’s assumed that he was well educated and very intelligent. There’s no evidence of his marriage or where he was schooled. Even his name could be fake to hide the identification of the real author. There were some names associated with him. Most notably he had a famous student named Eugene Canseliet who actually did something unbelievable. He turned lead into gold. He claimed he learned from his master and became his student at the age of sixteen.
Fulcanelli also had another student named Gaston Sauvage, who says he even witnessed Canseliet pulling the feat of turning lead into gold. Canseliet last said he saw Fulcanelli in 1926. Strangely that was the year when the alchemist disappeared into thin air. Many efforts have been made to find out who this mysterious figure was. Theories have risen that it was indeed Canseliet himself since he published the works of the deceased Fulcanelli. But there are flaws in the theory and the mystery in still unsolved.
This is a bizarre case in history because the real Fulcanelli might not have disappeared and still be alive. Maybe it was a hoax because he didn’t want to reveal to anyone else how to make gold by hand. This bizarre mystery may never be solved. The man who made gold might remain anonymous forever.
1. The bad luck on the Titanic.
The titanic was a famous figure unlike any other, even though it was a ship. It will live in infamy. At the time, the Titanic was the biggest ship in the world. It was thought to be unsinkable. No one expected the tragedy that took place on April 15, 1912.
The enormous ship was carrying 2,200 passengers and crew members. The ship departed from New England and was making a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The ship stayed on its course until it struck an iceberg. The water went through the compartments and brought down the bow of the ship, causing the ship to break in half. The nightmare continued since their weren’t enough life boats to save as many people as possible. The ship could’ve carried 64 life boats but only 48 were planned by chief designer Alexander Carlisle to make the deck seem less clustered. But in the end only 20 life boats were carried aboard. The 14 by 30 feet lifeboats had a maximum capacity of 65 people. The other folding lifeboats had 47 people each. 1,178 people were saved by the lifeboats. That’s 33 percent of all the passengers in total.