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- Arnold Schwarzenegger began his transition from Austrian bodybuilder into an American film star when he made his screen debut in 1970 under the name "Arnold Strong" in "Hercules Goes Bananas."
- At the 1970 Oscar ceremonies, buxom Raquel Welch presented the award for best "special visual effects."
- At age 16 Confucius was a corn inspector.
- When Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman became the first U.S. President to take office in the midst of a war.
- Robert Redford attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship.
- Salvador Dali once arrived to an art exhibition in a limousine filled with turnips.
- Thomas Jefferson anonymously submitted design plans for the White House. They were rejected.
- During World War II, W.C. Fields kept US $50,000 in Germany 'in case the little bastard wins'.
- For a while Frederic Chopin, the composer and pianist, wore a beard on only one side of his face. 'It does not matter,' he explained. 'My audience sees only my right side.'
- Clark Gable used to shower more than 4 times a day.
- Charles Dickens kept the head of his bed aligned with the North Pole. He believed that the earth's magnetic field would pass longitudinal through his body and ensure him a good night rest.
- Grace Bedell, age 11, wrote Abe Lincoln with a suggestion. She urged Lincoln to grow a beard. If he did, she'd try to get her four brothers to vote for him as president. Lincoln won the election in November - then grew a beard.
- Mae West was once dubbed 'The statue of Libido'.
- Jimmy Carter is a speed reader (2000 wpm).
- Adam Sandler and Bill Gates rank number 1 and 2 among the most popular role models with male college freshmen.
- Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, learned Braille so that he could rest his eyes and still read. Huxley's eyes pained him when he read too much and his eyesight was failing. One of the benefits of learning Braille, Huxley said, was being able to read in the bed in the dark.
- When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.
- In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for applesauce, which coincidentally is what his name means in Japanese.
- Bob Dole is 10 years older than the Empire State Building.
- Before coming to the White House, Nancy and Ronald Reagan were actors. During their earlier careers each was involved in a performance that foreshadowed their later lives. In 1939, the then Nancy Davis had one line in a high school play called, eerily enough, "First Lady." It was, "They ought to elect the First Lady and then let her husband be president." She and her future husband also appeared in an episode of the "General Electric TV Theater" called "A Turkey for the President".
- John Lennon's middle name was Winston.
- The opera singer Enrico Caruso practiced in the bath, while accompanied by a pianist in a nearby room.
- Before beginning his movie career, Keanu Reeves managed a pasta shop in Toronto, Canada.
- Anthea Turner, Walt Disney, Tom Cruise, Susan Hampshire, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Edison, Henry Winkler, Cher, Brian Conley, and Leonardo DaVinci are, or were, dyslexic.
- Early in his career, William F. Buckley, Jr. was employed as a Spanish teacher at Yale.
- While at Harvard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam.
- George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.
- Lillian Gish has the longest movie career of any actress, having debuted as a 19 year old in An Unseen Enemy (1912), and making her last appearance in Whales of August (1987). Miss Gish was born in 1893.
- The first president to appear on television was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was seen by U.S. viewers at the opening of the New York World's Fair on April 30, 1939.
- Mystery writer Agatha Christie acquired her extensive knowledge of poisons while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I.
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