10 historical figures have been taught in school, admired in textbooks, and celebrated in popular culture, yet many of them had a far darker side. History’s heroes aren’t immune to being outright jerks.

10 Historical Figures Revealed

Below we rank ten celebrated personalities who, despite their fame, also displayed some truly awful behavior. From personal misconduct to outright cruelty, these figures prove that a place in the history books doesn’t guarantee good character.

10 Gandhi

For those of us who have played Sid Meier’s Civilization, this may come as no surprise, but to the rest of us, a world‑renowned pacifist and civil rights activist such as Mahatma Gandhi seems like an unlikely candidate for a spot on a list of assholes. But Gandhi was not as innocent as people would like you to believe.

Though known for his stance against violence, Gandhi admitted to abusing and beating his wife. That’s right, innocent little Gandhi was a wife‑beater. He was also known to bathe with women much younger than himself, believed semen had magical powers, and enjoyed sharing a bed with his teenage grandniece from time to time. Yuck.

9 Thomas Edison

Ah, Thomas Edison; what a debt society owes him. What would life have been like without such famous inventions as the light bulb, phonograph, motion pictures, and, of course, the elephant‑sized electric chair?

That’s right. In addition to creating some of the most influential inventions of all time, the Wizard of Menlo Park spent his spare time electrocuting innocent animals to run a smear campaign against his competitor Nikola Tesla by using Tesla’s alternating current to fry various animals. This included the electrocution of an elephant, which was filmed.

8 Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus played a vital role in the history of America. He is credited with discovering the New World and proving the Earth is round, not flat, all for the glory of Spain. Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but there are a few more facts you should listen to.

For one, Chris ran a nice little side hustle selling native women and girls as sex slaves to his men. Some of these girls were as young as nine. When he wasn’t making bank selling women and children to pedophiles, our boy Chris enjoyed the gentleman’s sport of hunting. But it wasn’t just deer or birds Columbus was after; he also enjoyed tracking down the natives. Sometimes, their flesh was used as dog food, and babies were fed to dogs in front of their parents. Add to that the mass genocide he committed in Cuba, and you’ve got yourself one grade‑A asshole.

Oh, and here’s a freebie: You know how you were taught in school that it was Columbus who discovered the Earth was round and not flat? Yeah, by the time Columbus set sail, it was already common knowledge that the Earth was indeed a globe. The main reason Columbus sailed to the New World was for money and glory. Sorry.

7 Aristotle

Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers in all of history. But some of his ideas were straight‑up rude and would definitely not fly in today’s politically correct age.

For one, as was common of the time, Aristotle believed that women were inferior to men, even going so far as to describe women as “a deformity.” Yikes. But don’t worry, our friendly Greek philosopher was an equal‑opportunity offender. He called other races “barbarians” and stated that slaves were “wholly lacking in the deliberative element.” In other words, they were stupid.

6 Benjamin Franklin

Who couldn’t love old Benny? He was one of the US Founding Fathers, he had that sweet old grandpa thing going for him, and was known for his catchy little phrases that we still use today. A penny saved is a penny earned, anyone? And if it wasn’t for his discovery of electricity, where would we be today?

For someone who seemed as down‑to‑Earth as Benjamin Franklin, he sure did like to play the game, often making visits to London and Paris to meet up with “low women,” despite being married. But Franklin, ever being the fountain of knowledge that he is, did his part to educate other men with insatiable libido on what kind of woman they should be on the lookout for. In 1745, he wrote a letter entitled “Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress.” In it, he suggested that older women make for better sexual partners than young ones.

Franklin explained that older women tend to be more discreet, will take care of you when you are sick, and are cleaner than prostitutes. Also, “There is no hazard of children.” Oh, and that story you heard of old Benny “discovering electricity” by tying a key to a kite and flying it in a storm? Yeah, it’s completely made up.

5 Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers and also the third president of the United States, which is commendable. Slightly less commendable is the fact that he was a slaveowner.

Although slavery was common at the time, Jefferson took it one step farther. Beyond believing black people to be an inferior race, Thomas Jefferson had some unusual ideas about their biology. In his book Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson wrote that black people “secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor.” He was basically saying that black people sweat urine.

4 Albert Einstein

The name “Einstein” has basically become synonymous with intelligence, but while he was one of the world’s greatest minds, Albert Einstein wasn’t so great at remembering his vows. That’s right, the world‑renowned physicist and mathematician was a cheater.

While in Berlin, Einstein cheated on his first wife Mileva Maric by having an affair with a woman named Elsa Lowenthal. Who was this woman? Why, none other than Albert’s cousin! Yep, Einstein cheated on his wife by having an affair with his own cousin. Because of his infidelity, Albert and Mileva divorced. The rest of the story doesn’t get much better. Einstein later married Elsa, who died in 1936—but not before he cheated on her, too.

3 John Adams

And here we have another one of the Founding Fathers; interesting how they keep popping up. John Adams was the second president of the United States, right before our buddy Tom. Although Adams co‑wrote and was one of the first people to sign the Declaration of Independence, he seemed to quickly forget exactly what was written there (namely the part against tyranny).

John Adams didn’t like people who disagreed with him, and that showed when he signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Among their more controversial provisions, the new laws essentially made it illegal for anyone to say anything against the fledgling US government. Anyone found to speak out against the government was subject to fines, imprisonment, or even deportation. Strange that this came from the same man who played an invaluable role in creating a government of and for the people.

2 Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the father of the automobile, a revolutionary advancement in technology that drastically changed the landscape of the United States and the world. Where would we be without cars today? Horse droppings would lie in the streets, it would take you forever to get to grandma’s house, and, maybe the worst of all, there would no fast food drive‑throughs! Ford was truly an important figure in US history, as any textbook will tell you. But what you might not read in your high school history class is that Henry Ford was a racist, like, big‑time.

Ford was the owner of The Dearborn Independent newspaper, a publication that frequently contained articles rife with anti‑Semitism. After the Black Sox purposely lost the 1919 World Series, Henry Ford had it published in his paper that the Jews were to blame for baseball’s problems, stating, “If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew.”

Ford’s words didn’t go unnoticed. Adolf Hitler saw Ford as an inspiration. He was known to keep a life‑size portrait of Ford next to his desk and was quoted as saying, “I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany.” Ford was later awarded the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle by the Nazi party, the highest honor that could be given to any foreigner.

1 Theodore Roosevelt

With a nickname like “Teddy,” how could he be so bad? Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States, known for his love of adventure and the great outdoors. Teddy established national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the natural beauty of the landscape. He created the Square Deal policies which protected small business owners, ensured that foods and drugs had to pass a health test, created worker’s compensation, and abolished child labor. Later, he was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. All around, he seems like a good guy.

But looking into his past, you may find that Teddy wasn’t so snuggly after all. In fact, this little teddy bear just may have been rabid! Famous American novelist Mark Twain called Roosevelt “clearly insane.” Roosevelt was said to ride his horse through Rock Creek Park shooting up at the branches of trees as he passed, unconcerned by the danger he put local homeowners in. Looking to strengthen his wrists, he once hung a wire over the Potomac River and dangled on it as the current of the river rushed past him.

But the real reason Teddy belongs on this list is for shooting a neighbor’s dog out of frustration after getting into an argument with his girlfriend during his younger days. Simply being a bit eccentric or even full‑on crazy won’t earn you the title of asshole, but gun down an innocent puppy, and you may just find yourself on this list of some of history’s biggest!

History is shaped by the people who live it, and today we’re unveiling 10 strange facts about historical figures that showcase the odd, the macabre, and the downright quirky sides of the world’s most famous personalities. From scientific oddities to royal quirks, these tales prove that even legends had bizarre moments.

10 Strange Facts Unveiled

10 Albert Einstein’s Cubed Brain

Albert Einstein, the legendary theoretical physicist, breathed his last at 1:15 AM on April 18, 1955. The nurse on duty at Princeton Hospital didn’t speak German, so his final words vanished forever, and later that day his cremation took place in Trenton, New Jersey. His son, Hans Albert, was shocked to discover that his father’s body had been tampered with before the cremation.

Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, found a ruptured aorta as the cause of death, but he also saw an opportunity for fame in medicine. Harvey sliced open Einstein’s skull and extracted the brain, hoping the specimen would cement his reputation.

Fast‑forward to 1978, when journalist Steven Levy tracked down Harvey and learned the grisly fate of the organ. Harvey revealed that Einstein’s brain had been preserved in a pickling solution, then cut into 240 tiny cubes, and stored for two decades in a box ominously labeled “Costa Cider.”

9 Sir Walter Raleigh’s Decapitated Head

Sir Walter Raleigh, the flamboyant Elizabethan explorer and writer, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Yet, after the queen’s death in 1603, Raleigh fell out of favor with King James I and was executed by beheading in 1618 for plotting against the crown.

His severed head was embalmed and sent to his wife, Lady Elizabeth Raleigh, who was also a lady‑in‑waiting for the queen. Legend says she kept the macabre trophy in a red leather bag for 29 years, refusing to part with it. Eventually the head was returned to its rightful resting place in St Margaret’s Church.

8 King Henry VIII’s Grooms Of The Stool

King Henry VIII appointed four men as Grooms of the Stool, tasked with the intimate duty of cleaning the monarch’s privy. These were Sir William Compton (1509‑1526), Sir Henry Norris (1526‑1536), Sir Thomas Heneage (1536‑1546) and Sir Anthony Denny (1546‑1547).

The official title was “Groom of the King’s Close Stool.” Beyond the obvious wiping responsibilities, the grooms supplied water, a wash‑bowl and a towel, and even monitored the king’s diet and meal times so they could anticipate his needs.

Because they were constantly in the king’s private chambers, the grooms became his most trusted confidants, privy to state secrets and personal musings. Their proximity turned the position into a powerful court appointment, and many courtiers scrambled to gain an audience through the groom.

Each groom was knighted, given lodgings, and even inherited some of the king’s old clothing and furniture. Their influence grew as Henry VIII increasingly relied on them for both personal and political counsel.

7 Thomas Edison’s Last Breath

Thomas Edison, often hailed as America’s greatest inventor, gave the world the motion‑picture camera, the phonograph and a practical electric light bulb, among countless other breakthroughs. His work inspired Henry Ford, who worked at Edison Illuminating Company in 1896 and later presented his automobile ideas to the famed inventor.

The two forged a friendship, and when Edison’s health waned, Ford persuaded Edison’s son, Charles, to hold a test tube to the inventor’s mouth in order to capture his final breath – a dramatic gesture meant, some say, to trap Edison’s spirit.

Edison died of diabetes complications in 1931 at his West Orange home. Stories differ: one claims eight test tubes were placed beside his bed, with one sent to Ford; another suggests Ford simply arranged for a single tube. Regardless, the captured breath now resides on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.

6 King George III’s Blue Urine

King George III, remembered for losing the American colonies and his bouts of repetitive speech, also suffered a bizarre medical symptom: his urine reportedly turned a startling blue hue.

Modern doctors have posthumously diagnosed him with acute intermittent porphyria, a hereditary blood disorder that can cause neurological disturbances, erratic behavior, and the production of discolored urine.

5 Galileo’s Three Fingers And Tooth

Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer who refined the telescope and unveiled the Moon’s mountains, the phases of Venus and countless other celestial wonders, died at 77 on January 8, 1642.

In a curious post‑mortem ritual, admirers removed three of his fingers and a single tooth before burial. Those body parts have since been preserved and are on display at the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy.

4 Queen Victoria’s Underwear

Queen Victoria reigned for over six decades, from June 20, 1837, until her death on January 22, 1901, making her the second‑longest‑serving British monarch. After she passed, her intimate garments were divided among courtiers as personal mementos.

Each piece bore her royal cypher “VR” (Victoria Regina). In 2015, a pair of her cotton knickers fetched £12,000 at auction, joining a collection of her stockings, nightdresses and hats, all marked with the same regal insignia.

3 Nikola Tesla And Pigeons

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian‑American genius behind modern alternating‑current electricity, developed an almost obsessive affection for pigeons in his later years. He claimed to love a white female pigeon as one would love a human companion.

According to Tesla, the pigeon once entered his hotel room through an open window, delivering a message that she was dying. He described seeing two intense beams of light in her eyes, “a light more intense than I had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in my laboratory.”

The beloved bird died in Tesla’s arms, and he interpreted the moment as the sign that his own life’s work was drawing to a close.

2 Abraham Lincoln And The Wrestling Hall Of Fame

Abraham Lincoln, celebrated as one of America’s greatest presidents, also earned a place in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. His long limbs and sturdy frame made him a formidable wrestler in his youth, and he suffered only a single defeat in roughly 300 matches.

Lincoln was known for his colorful smack‑talk in the ring. One contemporary account quotes him after a victory: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”

No challenger ever stepped up to face the future 16th president, and his wrestling prowess earned him the “Outstanding American” honor at the Hall of Fame.

1 William McKinley And The Handkerchief

William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, led the nation through the Spanish‑American War and was the last president to have served in the Civil War.

He married Ida Saxton, a devoted partner who endured over two decades of chronic illness. Though protocol barred her from state dinners, she often sat beside him. To shield her from public scrutiny during epileptic seizures, McKinley would discreetly drape a handkerchief over her face.

Welcome to our top 10 sports countdown, where we shine a light on athletes whose off‑field decisions eclipsed their on‑field greatness. Despite brilliant careers, many sporting figures have blown their reputations away by foolishness or crime. This is the list of the ten most infamous cases.

10. Pete Rose (1941 – Reds, Phillies, Expos – Reds Manager)

In August 1989, three years after he hung up his cleats, Rose accepted a permanent ban from baseball after accusations surfaced that he had wagered on games while still playing for and managing the Reds – some even claimed he bet against his own team. After years of denial, he finally admitted in 2004 that he had indeed bet on the Reds, though not against them. The ban meant the Hall of Fame would forever bar anyone on the “permanently ineligible” list from induction. Despite his legion of fans still pleading for his entry, the league’s stance remains unchanged. A stark reminder that gambling while employed by MLB is a surefire way to ruin a legacy. Nice one, Charlie Hustle.

9. Ray Lewis (1975 – Baltimore Ravens)

Despite his on‑field dominance, Lewis’s reputation took a hit after a Super Bowl‑era party on January 31, 2000, turned deadly. Two men – Jacinth Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24 – died from stab wounds. Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were taken to an Atlanta police station for questioning. Lewis lied, claiming he didn’t know the other suspects, but his limo driver testified seeing Lewis punch one of the victims and hearing the others admit, “I stabbed mine.” Eleven days later, Lewis, Oakley, and Sweeting were indicted for murder and aggravated assault. A plea deal saw Lewis plead guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice, earning a year of probation, a record $250,000 fine, but no NFL suspension. He continues to dominate on the field – my hero!

8. Ty Cobb (1886‑1961 – Tigers, A’s – Tigers Manager)

On May 15, 1912, at New York’s Highland Park, the Detroit Tigers faced the hometown Highlanders. In the stands, fan Claude Lueker relentlessly taunted Cobb, even hurling the slur “half‑nigger.” After warnings went ignored, Cobb stormed into the crowd, seized Lueker, and beat him savagely. Spectators begged Cobb to stop, noting Lueker had lost both hands in an earlier accident. Cobb, however, shouted, “I don’t care if he’s got no feet!” The league’s commissioner Ban Johnson immediately suspended Cobb indefinitely. A vivid illustration of how protecting a reputation can backfire, even for a legend.

7. Chris Benoit (1967‑2007 – WCW, ECW, WWE {F})

On June 25, 2007, the wrestling world was stunned when a welfare check at Chris Benoit’s Georgia home uncovered a horrific scene: the bodies of his wife Nancy and their 7‑year‑old son Daniel. Investigators determined that over three days, Benoit murdered both family members before taking his own life. WWE initially aired a tribute segment celebrating his career, only to realize mid‑show the tragedy was a murder‑suicide. The mishandling turned a somber remembrance into a shocking misstep. Open mouth, insert foot.

6. Darryl Strawberry (1962 – Mets, Dodgers, Giants, Yankees)

Strawberry’s career spiraled as alcohol gave way to cocaine and amphetamines. Starting with casual beer in high school, he escalated after joining the Mets, where complimentary brews turned into all‑night parties. By 1987 he was drinking nightly and using cocaine, yet still posted career highs: .283 average, 39 homers, 104 RBIs. His off‑field habits began to weigh on the organization – he skipped spring training, feigned illness to miss games, and in January 1989 faced a domestic‑violence arrest. Rehab followed, but he never disclosed his drug use. Subsequent legal woes piled up: a 1993 altercation with a homeless man, a 1994 tax bill of $146,000, a 1999 cocaine possession charge after an undercover sting, and administrative leave from the Yankees. Despite brief flashes of brilliance, his career fizzled under a cloud of infractions.

5. Ron Artest (1979 – Bulls, Pacers, Kings)

On November 19, 2004, Artest became the centerpiece of arguably the most infamous brawl in NBA history. After fouling Pistons center Ben Wallace, Wallace shoved Artest, sparking a scuffle near the scorer’s table. Artest retreated to the table, pretended to conduct a radio interview, and was hit by a cup of beer thrown by fan John Green. Enraged, Artest stormed the front‑row seats, confronting the wrong fan, which ignited a massive melee between Pistons supporters and Pacers players. He later punched fan A.J. Shackleford. The NBA responded with a season‑long suspension – 73 games plus playoffs – the longest non‑drug suspension in league history. Jackass indeed.

4. Mike Tyson (1966 – Heavyweight Boxing)

Tyson’s fall from grace began in July 1991 when he was arrested for raping Desree Washington, Miss Black Rhode Island, in an Indianapolis hotel. Convicted in February 1992, he received a six‑year sentence but served only three years before release in March 1995. The drama continued on June 28, 1997, when his rematch with Evander Holyfield turned chaotic: Tyson was disqualified after biting Holyfield’s ear, removing a piece of cartilage that landed on the canvas. He claimed retaliation for repeated head‑butts. The incident sparked a near‑riot, injuries, and a $3‑million fine. In July 1997, the Nevada State Athletic Commission revoked his boxing license, only to reinstate it in October 1998 after a 4‑1 vote. Further trouble arrived in February 1999 when Tyson was sentenced to a year in prison, $5,000 fine, two years probation, and 200 hours of community service for assaulting two motorists after a 1998 traffic accident. He served nine months. A monstrous talent in the ring, yet his off‑ring choices repeatedly landed his “dumb ass” in trouble.

3. Rae Carruth (1974 – Panthers)

On November 16, 1999, near Carruth’s Charlotte home, his girlfriend Cherica Adams was shot four times in a drive‑by attack. Adams, eight months pregnant with Carruth’s twins, survived long enough to call 911, describing how Carruth’s car stopped, another vehicle passed, and a passenger opened fire. She later fell into a coma and one twin died. Carruth posted a $3 million bond, promising to surrender if either woman or the children died. After Adams passed, he fled, only to be caught hiding in a motel trunk in Tennessee, alongside $3,900 cash, urine bottles, extra clothes, candy bars, and a cell phone. Convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and to destroy an unborn child, he received an 18‑to‑24‑year sentence, though acquitted of first‑degree murder. He now serves at least 18 years and 11 months, with a projected release in October 2018. Shooting a pregnant woman earns a fast ticket to hell.

2. Michael Vick (1980 – Falcons)

Michael D. Vick, once a promising NFL quarterback, saw his career derailed by a federal conviction for dog‑fighting conspiracy. In 2007 he received a 23‑month prison sentence for his role in a brutal dog‑fighting ring, with additional state charges pending for related gambling. He served time at Fort Leavenworth before being released. This scandal serves as the textbook example of how a promising quarterback’s ticket can be punched, sending him straight onto the same bus as Carruth. Despicable.

1. OJ Simpson (1947 – Bills, 49ers)

Beyond his Hall of Fame football career, Simpson became infamous for the 1994 murder trial of his ex‑wife Nicole‑Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Acquitted in criminal court in 1995 after a televised trial, he was later found liable in a 1997 civil suit, ordered to pay $33.5 million, yet has paid little. In 2006 he announced a book titled If I Did It, a fictional confession of the murders, which the publisher pulled before release. The Goldman family later published it, expanding the title to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. In September 2007, Simpson faced a slew of felonies – robbery, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, first‑degree kidnapping, coercion, and multiple conspiracies – some carrying life sentences. Whether guilty or not, his criminal record reads like a satanic ledger. If anyone believes he’s innocent, let me hear it; I remain convinced his ass belongs on a firing squad.

Contributor: StewWriter

Before the era of Twitter storms and Facebook feeds, people kept their inner worlds alive on paper. The 10 revealing diary entries below give us a front‑row seat to the private musings of some of history’s most famous characters, from presidents to poets. These pages expose raw emotions, strategic thoughts, and stark confessions that textbooks often leave out.

10 Revealing Diary Entries That Change Our View

10. President Harry Truman

We met at 11:00 AM today – Stalin, Churchill, and myself. Prior to that I had a critical briefing with Lord Mountbatten and General Marshall. We’d just uncovered a terrifying new weapon, perhaps the fire foretold in the story of Noah’s Ark. The test in the New Mexico desert was astonishing: thirteen pounds of explosive carved a crater six hundred feet deep and twelve hundred feet wide, toppled a steel tower half a mile away, and sent men flying ten thousand yards.

Exactly twelve days before the bomb that would later devastate Hiroshima, Truman recorded the high‑level discussions about using the atomic bomb. He stressed a preference for targeting military personnel, not civilians. Hiroshima was selected because of its naval base and military headquarters, while Kyoto was initially considered but dropped to spare civilian lives – a decision allegedly influenced by Secretary of War Stimson’s affection for the ancient city.

In hindsight, the majority of casualties were civilians, especially the elderly and children. Truman wrestled with guilt after the second bomb fell on Nagasaki. Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace noted Truman’s objection to more bombings, quoting his lament: “all those kids.”

9. Robert Scott

Since the 21st we have endured a relentless gale from the W.S.W. and S.W. We had enough fuel for two cups of tea each and food for only two days on the 20th. Every morning we were ready to march to our depot eleven miles away, but the wind outside our tent churned a wall of snow that kept us locked in. I can’t see any better outcome now. We’ll endure to the end, but we’re weakening, and the finish line feels close.

Captain Robert Scott led the British South Pole expedition of November 1911. Had his team succeeded, they would have been the first humans to stand at the pole. On 17 January 1912, they learned the Norwegians, under Roald Amundsen, had already planted their flag a month earlier.

The return journey turned disastrous: insufficient dog support, brutal weather, and dwindling supplies. Edgar Evans fell on 17 February, and Lawrence Oates walked out into a blizzard on 16 March, preferring death over burdening his comrades. By 29 March, Scott, Wilson, and Bowers were trapped, frostbitten, and starving. The diary entry above was likely penned on the day they perished, their bodies later found huddled together in frozen sleeping bags.

8. Jack Kerouac

I told my mother she should pack up and move South with the family instead of grinding away in a shoe factory. In Russia they labor for the State; here they labor for expenses. People rush into meaningless jobs, coughing in early‑morning subways, squandering their souls on rent, decent clothes, gas, electricity, insurance—like peasants who have just left the fields, now tickled by the ability to buy trinkets.

I envision a simple farm where I grow my own food, sit under a tree, sip homemade wine, write novels to nourish my spirit, raise children, and mock the coughing masses. Soon enough, they’ll be marching to some annihilating war, their leaders keeping up appearances. Shit on the Russians, the Americans, everyone.

Two years before his debut novel The Town and the City, Kerouac recorded his disdain for post‑war consumerism. Living above a drugstore with his parents, he was fiercely devoted to his mother. He later joined the Beat Generation alongside Ginsberg, Cassady, and Burroughs, whose critique of American materialism shines through this entry. Though he never owned a farm, his later life was marked by wine‑drinking and a tragic health decline.

7. Andy Warhol

Bianca drove me nuts, nagging about her research on my Pittsburgh days for a book on Great Men. She kept repeating how I ‘broke the system,’ and I thought, ‘Look, Bianca, I’m just a worker. How did I break the system?’ God, she’s dumb.’

The Warhol diaries span 1976‑1987, offering a window into his daily life of parties, celebrity encounters, and neurotic musings. Though often superficial—a catalog of meetings and purchases—they reveal his honest self‑assessment: a working artist aware that fame was merely a job.

Warhol’s entries are peppered with banal anecdotes, yet they also contain insightful reflections on his art, 1970s‑80s New York, and the AIDS crisis within the gay community. At over 800 pages, the diaries demand patience, but they reward readers with occasional gems about creativity and cultural observation.

6. Franz Kafka

Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone—never.

Kafka was a marginal figure in his lifetime, publishing only a handful of stories. He wrote in German, having been raised in Prague. His life was riddled with alienation, a tyrannical father, and chronic illness—including migraines, insomnia, constipation, boils, and eventually tuberculosis.

At age 31, this bleak self‑portrait captured his social withdrawal. He suffered from severe anxiety and depression, which drove him deeper into his writing. Though he asked a friend to burn his manuscripts, the friend instead preserved them, allowing Kafka’s posthumous fame to flourish.

5. George S. Patton

I feel like death, but I am not out yet. If they will let me fight, I will; but if not, I will resign so as to be able to talk, and then I will tell the truth, and possibly do my country more good. All the way home, 5 hours, I recited poetry to myself.

Patton, already a celebrated WWII commander, had led successful offensives in North Africa and Sicily. By May 1944, D‑Day loomed six weeks away. The diary entry follows a reprimand from Eisenhower after Patton boasted that the United States and Britain were destined to rule the world—a comment that irked Soviet allies.

Patton’s penchant for controversy pre‑dated this incident; in August 1943 he slapped two soldiers recovering from “battle fatigue,” viewing the condition as cowardice. His diary reflects a blend of personal resolve, poetic introspection, and the heavy weight of leadership.

4. Ernest Hemingway

My name is Ernest Miller Hemingway. I was born on July 21 1899. My favourite authors are Kipling, O. Henry and Steuart Edward White. My favourite flower is Lady Slipper and Tiger Lily. My favourite sports are trout fishing, hiking, shooting, football and boxing. My favourite studies are English, Zoology and Chemistry. I intend to travel and write.

This nine‑year‑old entry already hints at Hemingway’s trademark directness and love of the outdoors. He listed a litany of interests—from literature to sport—that would later define his adventurous life.

Decades later, Hemingway’s fame was shadowed by alcoholism and mental illness, culminating in his suicide at 61. The innocence of his early diary starkly contrasts with the tragic end of a literary giant.

3. Josef Goebbels

We drive to Hitler. He is having his meal. He jumps to his feet, there he is. Shakes my hand. Like an old friend. And those big blue eyes. Like stars. He is glad to see me. I am in heaven. That man has got everything to be a king. A born tribune. The coming dictator.

In 1925, Goebbels, then a 28‑year‑old Nazi district leader, recorded his first meeting with Adolf Hitler after being appointed to the position. His diary bursts with reverent, almost child‑like adulation, describing Hitler’s eyes as “stars” and calling him a “born tribune.”

This fervor opened doors to Hitler’s inner circle. By 1933, as Propaganda Minister, Goebbels orchestrated the regime’s media machine, spreading hateful ideology. After Hitler’s death, Goebbels and his family committed suicide, refusing a future without their Führer.

2. Kurt Cobain

I kind of feel like a dork writing about myself like this as if I were an American pop‑rock icon‑demi God, or a self‑confessed product of corporate‑packaged rebellion, but I’ve heard so many insanely exaggerated stories or reports from my friends and I’ve read so many pathetic second‑rate, Freudian evaluations from interviews from my childhood up until the present state of my personality and how I’m a notoriously f‑ed up heroine addict, alcoholic, self‑destructive, yet overtly sensitive, frail, fragile, soft‑spoken, narcoleptic, neurotic, little pissant who at any minute is going to O.D., jump off a roof, wig out, blow my head off or all three at once. Oh Pleez GAWD I can’t handle the success! The success! And I feel so incredibly guilty! For abandoning my true comrades who were the ones who were devoted to us a few years ago. And in 10 years when Nirvana becomes as memorable as Kajagoogoo that same very small percent will come to see us at reunion gigs sponsored by Depends diapers, bald fat still trying to RAWK at amusement parks. Saturdays: puppet show, rollercoaster & Nirvana … … …

Published in 2002, Journals collects Cobain’s private notes, letters, lyrics, and sketches from his Nirvana years. The above passage is an open‑letter‑style rant never released during his life, revealing his self‑critical view of fame, addiction, and artistic pressure.

In the summer of 1992, four years into Nirvana’s rise, Cobain had just married Courtney Love and was cycling through rehab to curb a heroin habit. He confessed to using small doses of heroin for three weeks to dull pain from a stomach ulcer. The diaries expose his torment over betraying fans, his yearning for anonymity, and the tragic path that led to his 1994 death.

1. Virginia Woolf

She had a nose like the Duke of Wellington & great horse teeth & cold prominent eyes. When we came in she was sitting perched on a 3‑cornered chair with knitting in her hands. An arrow fastened her collar. And before 5 minutes had passed she told us that two of her sons had been killed in the war. This, one felt, was to her credit. She taught dressmaking. Everything in the room was red‑brown & glossy. Sitting there I tried to coin a few compliments. But they perished in the icy sea between us. And then there was nothing.

The day before her suicide in 1941, Woolf documented a meeting with psychologist Octavia Wilberforce. Though never formally diagnosed, Woolf is widely believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder, enduring manic highs and crushing depressive lows since her teenage years after her mother’s death.

Understanding of mental illness was primitive; without her literary stature, she might have been confined to an asylum. By 1941, at 59, she wrote to her husband Leonard that she felt she was “going mad again” and could not survive another bout of darkness. Her final diary entry captures the haunting stillness before her tragic end.

It’s hard to dissociate a famous person from the name they’re known by, but when you look at these 10 historical figures you’ll discover that many were born under completely different monikers. Names were altered for all sorts of reasons—clerical blunders, a desire to evade prejudice, or even a prayer for divine favor.

10 Historical Figures: The Stories Behind Their Name Changes

10. Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela gathered a bouquet of names over his lifetime, each reflecting a different facet of his character or the reverence of his people. Among them were Dalibhunga, meaning “creator or founder of the council,” Madiba—the name of his clan—plus affectionate titles like Tata (“father”) and Khulu, a shortened form of “grandfather” that also conveys greatness. His birth name, Rolihlahla, literally translates to “pulling the branch of a tree,” but it’s more widely understood as “troublemaker,” a label his father bestowed upon him.

The name most of the world knows—Nelson—entered his life when he first stepped into school. Colonial teachers often replaced African names with easier‑to‑pronounce Christian ones, and Miss Mdingane, seeking to simplify his identity for British officials, christened him Nelson. The change stuck, and it’s the name that echoed across history.

9. Ulysses S. Grant

Young Hiram Ulysses Grant was known by his middle name, a circumstance that earned him teasing nicknames like “useless” from local boys who noted his quiet, slight stature. Determined to rise above the mockery, he set his sights on West Point, spurred on by his father’s encouragement.

When a congressman filed his appointment, a clerical slip turned his first name into Ulysses and mistakenly attached his mother’s maiden name, Simpson, as a middle name. Thus, he entered the academy as Ulysses Simpson Grant. Rather than contest the error and risk rejection, he simply embraced it, signing every document thereafter as Ulysses S. Grant, a name that would later crown a president.

8. Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky’s revolutionary fervor was forged during a four‑year exile in Siberia, where he was arrested for his agitational activities. While there, he married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya and fathered two children, all the while deepening his ideological convictions about overthrowing the monarchy and building a disciplined party.

Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, he used several pen names before the exile forced a decisive shift. After escaping Siberia, he assumed the name Leon Trotsky—a “nom de guerre” taken from the passport of a jailer named Leon Trotsky in Odessa, which he had stolen to continue his clandestine work.

7. Haile Selassie

Haile Selassie’s imperial title read “Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Many Jamaicans saw him as the living fulfillment of two prophecies: one from Revelation 19:16, proclaiming a “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” and another from Marcus Garvey, who urged his followers to look to Africa for a black king who would be a redeemer.

The biblical promise dovetailed with the meaning of his name—“the power of the Trinity”—while Garvey’s call resonated with the Ethiopian emperor’s regal stature. Rastafarians, whose name derives from his pre‑imperial title Ras Tafari Makonnen, embraced him as a divine figure.

6. Geronimo

Before the name Geronimo entered legend, the Apache warrior was called Goyahlka, “the one who yawns.” The murder of his family by Mexican soldiers turned his gentle demeanor into a fierce, vengeful fury, as described by museum specialist Mark Megehee, who noted his sudden shift from mild to violent.

Driven by grief, Goyahlka led brutal raids against his foes, famously fighting off a hail of bullets with only a knife. The nickname “Geronimo” emerged from a prayer to St. Jerome—known in Spanish as San Jerónimo—by those who called upon the patron saint of death for aid, eventually morphing into the name we know today.

5. Caligula

The moniker Caligula instantly conjures images of decadence, but it began as a childhood nickname meaning “little boots.” The future emperor was born Gaius, son of the celebrated general Germanicus. His father’s troops outfitted the boy in a miniature soldier’s uniform, complete with tiny boots—caliagae—earning him the affectionate nickname.

Although the nickname stuck, Gaius reportedly despised it. His step‑father Tiberius, suspecting foul play in his father’s death, warned that he was “nursing a viper for the Roman people,” hinting at the dark future that the nickname would foreshadow.

4. Ho Chi Minh

The Vietnamese revolutionary most associated with the name Ho Chi Minh was originally Nguyen Sinh Con. Throughout his life he adopted a parade of aliases—Nguyen Tat Thanh, Nguyen Ai Quoc, and roughly ten others—each serving a strategic purpose.

The name Ho Chi Minh translates to “bringer of light,” a fitting epithet for someone who envisioned illuminating his nation. Some scholars argue the name was simply borrowed from a recently deceased beggar—a common practice among outlaws—when he was detained by the Chinese Kuomintang and handed over the stolen identity.

3. Amor De Cosmos

William Alexander Smith, the second premier of British Columbia, struggled to stand out among a sea of Smiths. To keep his mail from being misdelivered, he petitioned the legislature for a dramatic name change, eventually landing on Amor de Cosmos.

The road to that name was riddled with misunderstandings. A senator misheard “amor” as “armor,” sending the proposal to the military department, where it was further mangled into variations like “Armor Debosmos,” “Amor de Bosmas,” and “Amor de Cashmos.”

Legislators, amused by the chaos, debated adding aristocratic flair—suggesting “de” be swapped for “Muggins” or tacking on “Caesar.” Ultimately, Smith’s heartfelt letter clarified his motive: the name expressed his love for order, beauty, and the universe, and the bill finally passed.

2. Vladimir Lenin

Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the architect of the Russian Communist Party adopted the pseudonym Lenin during a Siberian exile. Unlike Trotsky’s stolen passport, Lenin’s moniker likely sprang from the nearby Lena River, offering him a discreet identity against the tsarist secret police.

Lenin’s revolutionary fire was inherited. His older brother participated in a plot to assassinate Alexander III, leading to his execution. With his father and brother gone, Vladimir shouldered family responsibilities while embracing the cause his brother had died for.

1. Pancho Villa

Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa earned a reputation akin to a Robin Hood of the north, stealing from the wealthy elite and redistributing to the impoverished masses under President Porfirio Díaz. Yet his outlaw path was not a choice but a forced exile.

At sixteen, still known as Doroteo Arango, he witnessed a member of the powerful López Negrete family attempt to rape his twelve‑year‑old sister. Arango shot the assailant, fled to the mountains, and adopted the name Pancho Villa—taken from his paternal grandfather—to evade capture.

His time as a fugitive forged a legendary guerrilla force that eventually helped topple Díaz. Controlling northern Mexico, Villa’s army complemented Emiliano Zapata’s southern forces, sealing the dictator’s downfall.

Here are 10 embarrassing mistakes that even the most renowned figures in history managed to pull off. When you’re a prominent public figure, you live your whole life under a microscope. Every one of your actions is scrutinized—particularly your mistakes. Critics love to latch onto any slip‑up, turning it into a permanent footnote in the annals of time.

10 Embarrassing Mistakes Uncovered

10. Dionysius Lardner’s Railway Error

Dionysius Lardner was a 19th‑century Irish professor, mathematician, and popularizer of science. He championed Charles Babbage’s difference engine and frequently lectured on the early calculator. Besides his scholarly papers, Lardner’s crowning achievement was the Cabinet Cyclopedia, a 133‑volume series that brought science and history to the average reader, featuring contributions from luminaries like John Herschel, Mary Shelley, Walter Scott, and Thomas Moore.

Despite his many successes, Lardner’s career wasn’t free of hiccups. He made several wildly inaccurate predictions about technology, earning derision from fellow scientists. He once declared that steamships crossing the Atlantic were as impossible as a “voyage to the Moon.” Yet his most infamous blunder concerned railway travel. Though a mathematician, Lardner ventured into medicine with a claim that high‑speed rail travel would suffocate passengers, stating, “Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.”

9. Finnur Magnusson’s Runes

Although the name probably isn’t very well known nowadays, Finnur Magnusson was a prolific Icelandic archaeologist of the 19th century. He had a great passion for Norse history and mythology, particularly for runes. Magnusson was often brought in to analyze and translate potential runes, and he became the first to claim to have deciphered part of the runes on the Runamo. Runamo is a dolerite dike in Sweden that supposedly bears runic inscriptions. According to Magnusson, the part he translated was a skaldic verse talking about the battle between the Danish king Harold Hildetand and the Swedish king Sigurd Hring.

Magnusson was not the first to discover the runes at Runamo. As early as the 12th century, the runes had been declared to be too worn down to be legible anymore. So Magnusson caused quite a stir when he claimed to have discerned an entire poem within the dike. Unfortunately for him, some geologists came to check the inscriptions, and in 1844, they concluded that the ancient runes were actually just natural cracks in the rock.

8. Christopher Columbus’s Mermaids

It’s not uncommon for your eyes to play tricks on you after a long time at sea. Even the most experienced sailors can be fooled, given the right circumstances. Take Christopher Columbus, for example. In 1493, while sailing near the Dominican Republic, Columbus thought he saw three mermaids. He didn’t, obviously, but mermaid sightings were quite common among sailors of that era. Nowadays, it is generally considered that Columbus actually saw manatees that, despite weighing up to 600 kilograms (1,300 lb), could probably be mistaken for a human from a very long distance. Other possible culprits included the dugong and the now‑extinct Steller’s sea cow, which was a common sight back then.

It’s probably just as well that Columbus didn’t see mermaids, though. According to him, they looked nothing like how they were depicted in paintings. Columbus claimed that the mermaids’ beauty had clearly been exaggerated since their faces looked very manly. Oddly enough, Columbus’s notion that mermaids aren’t as enchanting as we think was backed up by other prominent explorers such as Henry Hudson and Captain John Smith, who also reported seeing unsatisfying mermaids.

7. Richard Nixon’s Fashion Faux Pas

It didn’t take long for Nixon to commit his first blunder as president of the United States. He wasn’t very happy with the White House police uniforms. Nixon thought it made his men look “slovenly,” so he commissioned a new version. This one would be inspired by various traditional European uniforms that Nixon admired, such as the guards at Buckingham Palace. And what better occasion to unveil this new look than a visit from the British prime minister Harold Wilson?

What he saw when he arrived were police officers dressed in double‑breasted white tunics, complete with gold piping, starred epaulets, and some silly hats. It wasn’t long before the press got a hold of the story, and they were relentless. The Buffalo News said they looked like “old‑time movie ushers.” Even Nixon supporters like Walter Trohan of the Chicago Tribune criticized the look, stating that the uniforms were too reminiscent of European monarchies to be suitable for a democratic nation.

Most people simply thought they looked like marching band uniforms. Some modifications were attempted (like losing the silly hat), but after just two weeks, the whole thing was scrapped. In the end, the uniforms were put to good use by being donated—to a marching band, of course. The Southern Utah State College received the uniforms in almost mint condition and saved a cool $6,000 by not buying new ones. They even had to turn down an offer from rocker Alice Cooper, who wanted to buy some for his band.

6. Henry Fairfield Osborn’s Nebraska Man

Henry Fairfield Osborn is a big name in the world of paleontology, having served as president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years. However, a long and distinguished career such as his cannot be without its blemishes, and Nebraska Man was definitely his biggest.

Like Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man was touted as a new species of anthropoid primate and would turn out to be just as fake. Perhaps in a moment of hubris, Osborn proclaimed the existence of the species from just a single tooth he received in 1922 from an amateur Nebraska geologist named Harold Cook. The new species was named Hesperopithecus haroldcookii in honor of its discoverer, although Osborn jokingly suggested that it was named Bryopithecus to “honor” the “most distinguished primate” ever produced by the state of Nebraska. He was referring to rival William Jennings Bryan, the prominent anti‑evolution activist, who would act as a lawyer in the Scopes Trial just a few years later.

Pride comes before a fall, as Osborn was about to find out. His description of Nebraska Man didn’t satisfy the scientific community, and more digging was done on Harold Cook’s ranch. After a few years, more bones belonging to the species were found. As it turned out, Hesperopithecus haroldcookii was not one of our ancient ancestors. It wasn’t even a primate. The tooth belonged to an extinct species of peccary, an animal similar to the domestic pig.

5. Elvis Presley’s Catfish

Elvis Presley’s life is a well‑documented story of the rise and downfall of one of music’s most prominent figures. He soaring to unparalleled heights, but the last years of his career were marked by increasingly erratic behavior and sloppy shows from a bloated performer. One of Elvis’s low points was a remark during a 1975 Norfolk concert that made several of his backup singers leave the stage in disgust.

The event became known as the “catfish incident.” While on stage, Elvis said that he smelled green peppers and onions, which probably meant that the Sweet Inspirations had been eating catfish. The Sweet Inspirations, his gospel backup, were all black women, so the remark was immediately perceived as racist. Elvis continued his taunts until two of the Sweets, along with backup soprano Kathy Westmoreland, left the stage.

As it turned out, Westmoreland and Elvis had had a fling. Post‑breakup, Presley directed sexual references at her while onstage. This time, he’d switched it up and picked on the Sweet Inspirations because he “thought it was funny.” Elvis apologized to the singers, and the Sweets returned for next night’s show.

4. Johannes Stoffler’s Apocalypse

History has had more than its fair share of doomsayers warning us about the end of the world. Some of these apocalypses were the result of prophetic visions, others came from religious texts, and some had a pseudoscientific explanation behind them. Regardless of their nature, all doomsday predictions had one thing in common—they were all wrong.

One such prediction came from someone who really should have known better: the German priest‑turned‑professor Johannes Stoffler. This one blemish taints an otherwise impressive career. Stoffler was a mathematician and astronomer whose works were widely circulated throughout 16th‑century Europe, particularly a book on how to build and use an astrolabe. He even has a crater named after him on the Moon.

Unfortunately, Stoffler’s calculations in 1499 led him to believe that a giant flood would engulf the whole world 25 years later—specifically, on February 20, 1524. His reputation lent credence to the prediction, and over 100 pamphlets were published throughout Europe warning everyone of the impending doom.

One German nobleman named Count von Iggleheim even commissioned a giant ark for himself and his family. When the fateful day arrived, scores of people gathered around von Iggleheim’s ark on the Rhine out of curiosity. In an extreme case of bad timing, a light shower started pouring, enough to incite a panic. Over 100 people died in the stampede, and von Iggleheim was stoned to death when he refused to let anyone inside the ark.

3. William Henry Preece’s Telephone Prediction

Sir William Henry Preece was a Welsh inventor and engineer who worked on the first national communication systems for Great Britain using telegraph and telephone technology. He also served as president for the Institution of Civil Engineers and Institution of Electrical Engineers and retired as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Despite his success in this area, Preece was not always convinced about the potential of the telephone. In fact, his early remarks regarding this new invention still get mentioned today as one of the worst technological predictions in history—“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”

Despite Britain’s plentiful supply of “messenger boys,” it’s pretty clear today that Preece severely underestimated the usefulness of the telephone. His beliefs were probably the result of decades of working as an engineer for the General Post Office, time during which Preece contributed several inventions and improvements to the telegraph system. To his credit, Preece eventually realized his blunder. He quickly changed his tune and became a supporter of the telephone, even becoming one of the first to introduce the invention to Great Britain.

2. Kenneth Tynan’s Blind Blunder

A successful writer and an even more successful critic, Kenneth Tynan assured his place in the history books in 1965 when he supposedly became the first person to say the word “f—k” on television. Of course, this caused a huge hullabaloo. The BBC issued a formal apology, and the House of Commons passed four separate motions signed by 133 MPs from both parties to combat immorality and filth on TV. Some called the moment a genius move of self‑publicity.

A frequently overlooked faux pas of Tynan’s took place much earlier, when he was reviewing singer Frank Ifield’s debut at the Palladium. Tynan couldn’t help himself from bursting into cheers, gasps, and applause at odd moments during the performance. Afterward, Tynan gave Ifield a glowing review, praising his courage and gallantry at overcoming his handicap. This must have left many people confused, Ifield in particular. What handicap was Tynan talking about?

Tynan thought Frank Ifield was blind. He wasn’t. Tynan had mistaken Ifield for a blind singer with a similar name. So, when Tynan was giving out random gestures of approval during the performance, he was marveling at how gracefully Ifield was strolling around on the stage without fear. It was almost as if he could see where he was going.

1. Joseph Goebbels’s Nazi Poster Child

A lot of the credit for the Nazis’ initial success goes to Joseph Goebbels, the man in charge of the propaganda machine that twisted an entire nation. His relentless efforts to paint the Jewish people as responsible for all the world’s evil ensured that the Nazi party had enough support to take power.

In 1934, long before World War II, Goebbels was already working on planting the seeds of hatred. He was looking for the perfect poster child. If Hitler represented the current face of Nazism, this child would show everyone the future. To do this, Goebbels hosted a contest to find the most beautiful Aryan baby. The winner was a two‑month‑old girl whose now‑iconic face was used in all kinds of Nazi propaganda. Goebbels made just one tiny mistake—the girl was Hessy Levinsons Taft, and she was Jewish.

Obviously, Goebbels had no idea of this when he personally picked Hessy as the most beautiful Aryan baby in the world. In fact, her Jewish parents were quite shocked when they saw their infant daughter in a Nazi magazine. The photographer who took the original photo had been ordered to send in his 10 best pictures and included Hessy as a joke at the Nazis’ expense.

We like to imagine that successful people are truly self-made, rising to prominence based solely on their own hard work and genius. But the truth is that everyone, even the great figures of history, needs a little help along the way. In this roundup of 10 significant people, we shine a light on the behind‑the‑scenes players who made the headlines possible.

10 Significant People Behind Great Figures

10 Genghis Khan’s Adviser

Yelu Chucai is the unknown figure behind the great success of Genghis Khan’s Mongolian empire. Not a Mongol himself, he had nomadic Khitan ancestry, but grew up in China. Captured by the Mongols, he met the Khan at 28 and quickly impressed him with his vast knowledge and administrative talent. Nicknamed “Urtu Saqal” for his long beard, he soon became one of Genghis’s most important advisers.

Chucai was most notable for convincing the Mongols to tax conquered cities instead of destroying them, arguing that the money and manpower gained from the cities could fund future conquests. With this line of reasoning, he almost single‑handedly averted a Mongol plan to wipe out the northern Chinese peasantry in order to return the land to pasture.

When Genghis’s son and successor Ogodei mocked him for always pleading on the people’s behalf, Chucai famously responded that empires could be conquered on horseback, but never ruled from it. Ogodei apparently came to agree, since he retained Chucai as his chief adviser after the death of his father. However, his fellow advisers conspired against him and he fell out of favor until his death, when he was buried in great splendor by the Mongols who had once been his captors.

9 Disney’s Sidekick

Great minds think alike and Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks were no exception. The pair became firm friends while working at the Pesman‑Rubin commercial art agency in Kansas City. They soon teamed up to form Iwerks‑Disney Commercial Artists, which didn’t last long. The flamboyant Disney eventually set off for Hollywood and formed his own production company, while the timid Iwerks remained in Kansas City doing animation for ad agencies. But Disney knew his friend had real talent and encouraged him to take a chance and join him out in California. In 1924, Iwerks agreed and Disney gave him a 20 percent ownership stake in the company.

Not long after they began working together, a rift occurred between Disney and Charlie Mintz, the distributor of Disney’s popular “Oswald The Lucky Rabbit” shorts. Since Mintz owned the rights to the character, he fired Disney and then hired most of his animators out from under him. But Iwerks refused to leave his friend and the pair quickly created a replacement character: Mickey Mouse.

Iwerks animated the early Mickey shorts almost by himself, which required him to turn out an incredible 600 drawings per day. Luckily, the shorts were a massive success and saved the company. Sadly, Disney and Iwerks had a falling‑out a few years later and Iwerks left the company to strike out on his own. But together they had already changed animation history. While Disney was the brain behind Mickey, Iwerks was the animator that brought him to life.

8 The Wright Brothers’ Mentor

It is said that while the Wright brothers taught the world to fly, Octave Chanute taught the Wright brothers how to fly. A self‑taught engineer, Octave Chanute became famous and successful for his unusual and creative designs. Among other things, he was the first person to realize that wood could be preserved by treating it with creosote. But Chanute’s real passion was flight. At the age of 54, he decided to focus his energies on developing the budding field of aviation.

Before Chanute, the study of flight was carried out haphazardly by independent researchers around the world. Almost single‑handedly, Chanute turned it into a cohesive field of study. He started lengthy correspondences with anyone he could find working on the topic, collecting and collating their findings. He organized the first scientific aeronautical conferences and financially supported pioneers like Louis Mouillard and Otto Lilienthal. He debunked false breakthroughs and gathered the real ones in his classic handbook Progress In Flying Machines. He carried out numerous experiments of his own, happily sharing his data with anyone who was interested. The Chanute Glider (pictured above) was the most advanced aircraft of its time.

Chanute took a particular interest in the Wright brothers, who frequently wrote to him for advice. Their 1900 glider was based on his research, and Chanute often sent his assistants to help the brothers out. He was the one who suggested that they should conduct their experiments in a sandy location with strong winds, which prompted their move to Kitty Hawk. He believed more than anyone that the Wrights would succeed in achieving powered flight, which they did in 1903.

Sadly, Chanute fell out with the brothers in 1905, when they became involved in patent disputes with other early aviators. Chanute had never patented his own work, believing that technical knowledge should be distributed freely. He had always dreamed that the ability to fly would bring about a new age of enlightenment and saw the Wrights’ desire to control the new technology as selfish. Happily, they later reconciled enough that Wilbur Wright delivered Chanute’s eulogy.

7 Apple’s Third Founder

Of course, most people have heard of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but there was actually a third Apple co‑founder: Ronald Wayne. The engineer’s involvement with Apple started when he met Steve Jobs while working at Atari in the ’70s. Jobs asked for Wayne’s help drafting the original partnership agreement that established Apple. After Wayne mediated a dispute between Jobs and Wozniak, they asked him to come on board as a partner. Wayne was given 10 percent of the company, allowing him to act as a sort of tiebreaker between Jobs and Wozniak, who each got 45 percent of the shares. Wayne also designed Apple’s first logo, wrote the company’s first operating manual, and drew up most of the documents. As Wozniak explained in his autobiography, Wayne “seemed to know all the things we didn’t.”

But Wayne was a veteran of several failed business ventures and he feared Apple would also go under, putting him into debt. Additionally, he was significantly older than Jobs or Wozniak and felt unwilling to put in the relentless work required to make Apple a success. Less than a month after the company was formed, he sold his shares to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. He was later paid an additional $1,500 to forfeit any claims on the company. Wayne’s stock would be worth as much as $35 billion today. However, Wayne insists that he doesn’t regret leaving Apple, since he lacked any passion for computing. In fact, he’s never even owned an Apple machine, feeling too familiar with Microsoft Windows to bother switching. As he told CNN, “What can I say? You make a decision based on your understanding of the circumstances, and you live with it.”

6 Martin Luther King’s Twin

Today, Ralph Abernathy is not as well‑known as he should be. In part, that’s due to the scandal caused by his book, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, which very briefly mentioned that Martin Luther King Jr. had engaged in extramarital affairs, including on the night before his death. The book made Abernathy a pariah among many of his former comrades, with Jesse Jackson writing that it “appeals to the most prurient tendencies in current public life and gives comfort to the civil‑rights movement’s enemies.” But during King’s life, there was no one closer to him than Ralph Abernathy.

In fact, King even described Abernathy as his best friend in his last sermon before he was assassinated. Abernathy was King’s closest ally and confidant at the height of the civil‑rights struggle, and King consulted him before all key decisions. They were basically inseparable, sharing everything from meals to prison cells, to the point that it’s hard to find a public photo of King without Abernathy visible in the background. Even the famous picture of King meeting Malcolm X has Abernathy standing right between them. They were soon referred to as the movement’s twins, while Abernathy was dubbed King’s alter ego.

Abernathy stayed with King right up until his assassination in 1968. They were standing on their hotel balcony when Abernathy stepped inside to put on some cologne. It probably saved his life. King was shot by a sniper mere seconds later.

5 T.S. Eliot’s Biggest Fan

Today, T.S. Eliot is one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, while Ezra Pound’s works are only rarely read. But when the two met in 1914, Pound was far more popular and famous. Pound was a fan of Eliot’s “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which he described as “the best poem I have yet had or seen from an American.” He soon took the younger man under his wing, forming one of the most unlikely friendships in literary history. Eliot was a somber and timid individual while Pound was an outrageously flamboyant troublemaker, an anti‑Semite, and a fascist.

But Pound played a key role in Eliot’s development, editing his work masterfully and arranging for it to be published in influential magazines. Pound even broke the news to Eliot’s parents that their son was abandoning his career to become a poet. Without Pound, Eliot’s masterpiece “The Waste Land” might still be known as “He Do The Police In Different Voices.”

In fact, Pound had a habit of mentoring promising young authors who later became famous, helping to popularize everyone from Ernest Hemingway to James Joyce. Hemingway estimated that Pound spent only a fifth of his time on his own work, dedicating the rest to helping his friends: “He defends them when they are attacked, he gets them into magazines and out of jail. He loans them money. He sells their pictures. He writes articles about them. He introduces them to wealthy women. He gets publishers to take their books… And in the end a few of them refrain from knifing him at the first opportunity.”

Hemingway himself refrained from knifing Pound until the depths of his deranged anti‑Semitism became clear during World War II, causing the author to declare his former friend “obviously crazy… He deserves punishment and disgrace but what he really deserves most is ridicule.”

4 Fitzgerald And Hemingway

Pound wasn’t the only one to champion Hemingway during his early years. Arguably the greatest American writer in history might have remained completely unknown if not for the efforts of his friend and fellow author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The two first met in 1925, when Fitzgerald was already an acclaimed author and Hemingway was just a journalist with a handful of short stories and poems to his name. They quickly became close friends and Fitzgerald introduced Hemingway to his famous editor, Max Perkins.

The biggest help Fitzgerald offered Hemingway was editing his breakthrough work The Sun Also Rises, a novel about a dissolute group of American expatriates drifting from Paris to a bullfight in Spain. Perkins thought Hemingway’s first draft was unpublishable and Fitzgerald agreed, writing a detailed 10‑page critique of the book’s “careless and ineffectual” aspects. He was particularly scathing about the opening chapter, declaring that “when so many people can write well [and] the competition is so heavy I can’t imagine how you could have done these first 20 pages so casually.”

To his credit, Hemingway took the advice, cutting the first 16 pages of the book entirely and making substantial revisions elsewhere. However, he lied about the issue in his posthumously published memoir A Moveable Feast, which claims that Fitzgerald never saw the book until the final draft was with the publisher.

3 The American Who Fought For Castro

Besides Che Guevara and the Castro brothers, we’re largely unfamiliar with the people who fought against the brutal Cuban regime of Fulgencio Batista. Which is a shame, considering that we’re missing out on such amazing figures as William Alexander Morgan (pictured on the far right), the American who fought with Castro.

Born in 1928, Morgan left home as a teenager and joined the army at 18. After spending five years in jail for deserting, he got married and began running errands for the Mafia. In the 1950s, he became involved in smuggling guns to the revolutionaries fighting to overthrow Batista. Quickly becoming a believer in their cause, Morgan joined their fight in 1957. Soon, Morgan rose through the ranks to become a comandante, a title only granted to one other foreigner, a certain Che Guevara.

After the fall of Batista in 1959, Morgan arrived in Havana to chants of “Americano!” Although staunchly anti‑Communist, he initially remained loyal to Fidel Castro, who was not openly Marxist at that time. When he was offered a million dollars to turn against Castro, he played along, broadcasting the sounds of a fake uprising to lure a squad of Dominican invaders into an ambush. But when Fidel began to display socialist leanings, he turned against him for real, arranging to smuggle weapons to a new rebel group opposing Castro. He was caught and executed in 1961.

2 Winston Churchill’s Father Figure

Born in Ireland, William Bourke Cockran came to the US at the age of 17. Settling in New York, he became an eminent attorney, served five terms in Congress, and was widely declared the greatest public speaker of his time. His skills as an orator were so good Churchill himself described him as the best speaker he had ever heard, declaring that he had “never seen his like, or in some respects his equal.”

Cockran apparently had a brief relationship with Churchill’s mother after the death of her husband, and they remained close friends. When Churchill was a young man, he decided to visit the US and Cockran agreed to put him up in his luxurious New York townhouse. Cockran eventually became something of a father figure to Churchill, advising and mentoring him in the art of public speaking.

Under Cockran’s tutelage, Churchill began to take an interest in politics and began emulating Cockran’s delivery pattern when addressing audiences. Churchill’s early political and economic views were also modeled on Cockran’s. Six years later, Churchill was elected to Parliament and became known for his own speaking skills.

1 The Other Oracle

Regarded by many as the most successful investor of the 20th century, Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha,” is regularly ranked among the richest people in the world. But a big part in Buffett’s success story belongs to his little‑known friend, Charlie Munger. The two have been friends for almost 60 years and Munger has served as Buffett’s second‑in‑command for the last 37. In a neat twist, Munger’s first job was actually working for Buffet’s grandfather at $1.98 an hour, although he didn’t meet the younger Warren until years later.

Before meeting Munger, Buffett followed the investing philosophy of his mentor, Benjamin Graham, who believed in buying underpriced assets and quickly selling them when their true value became apparent. This netted Buffett a huge fortune in his early years, but Munger wasn’t convinced it was the best way forward. Instead, he argued in favor of paying a fair price for good companies and then holding on to them as they grew, trusting that the long‑term yields would justify the initial investment. It required patience and good management, but Munger argued that over time the profit margins would be even greater than Graham’s short‑term buy‑to‑sell strategy.

Buffet found Munger’s ideas strange at first, but eventually came to embrace them, writing that “it took a powerful force to move me on from Graham’s limiting views. It was the power of Charlie’s mind. He expanded my horizons.” Munger’s philosophy eventually yielded huge results, helping to turn Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

From ancient empires to modern democracies, the saga of power is riddled with dramatic reversals. In this roundup of 10 amazing comebacks, we spotlight leaders who fell from grace only to claw their way back to the pinnacle of authority, sometimes for good, sometimes just for a fleeting encore. Some held on to power until their final breath, while others slipped away only to rise again later. Below are ten unforgettable stories of triumphant returns.

10 Richard Nixon Becomes President

Throughout much of the Eisenhower administration, Richard Nixon was seen as the unchallenged heir apparent of the Republican Party. He had cleared every political hurdle and seemed poised to step into the Oval Office. Yet neither the party nor Nixon could have foreseen John F. Kennedy’s meteoric rise. The 1960 presidential contest turned out to be one of the most acrimonious in American history, and when the dust settled, Kennedy emerged victorious. This crushing defeat was a heavy blow for Nixon, who had been regarded as the logical successor to Eisenhower. To make matters worse, he also lost the 1962 California governor’s race.

After the California loss, many declared Nixon’s political career dead. The prevailing sentiment among Republican voters was that no one could rebound from such a double defeat. Even Nixon seemed to accept his fate, famously telling reporters after the loss, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” He left California for New York, joining a law firm, and soon authored the bestseller Six Crises.

Nixon then embarked on a meticulously crafted comeback plan. He appeared on The Tonight Show in 1963, even playing the piano to reveal a more personable side. He wisely sat out the 1964 Republican primaries, instead cultivating goodwill through extensive campaigning and foreign‑policy tours. All this groundwork paid off in 1968 when Nixon reclaimed the presidency, though his second term would later be marred by the Watergate scandal.

9 Benjamin Disraeli Regains The Prime Ministry

Benjamin Disraeli is now celebrated as a towering figure of the British Conservative Party. His career reads like a novel—he was a brilliant politician, a gifted writer, and a shrewd statesman. Disraeli first ascended to the premiership in 1868 after the retirement of Edward Stanley‑Smith, the Earl of Derby. However, his first stint was brief; many were skeptical of him because of his political views and his Jewish heritage (though he practiced Anglicanism). He lost the 1868 election to William Gladstone of the Liberal Party.

Undeterred, Disraeli stayed on as leader of the opposition, reshaping the Conservative agenda and crafting a more cohesive platform. He light‑heartedly mocked politics with his 1870 novel Lothair, which some interpreted as a sign of his disengagement. By 1872, Disraeli had transformed into an aggressive, proactive leader. He championed the monarchy and defended the Church—positions the Liberals attacked. Though personal tragedy struck in 1872 with the death of his wife, he pressed on.

In 1873, after Gladstone’s defeat, Disraeli wisely declined the premiership to force a general election, confident that the Conservatives would secure a robust majority. His gamble succeeded, and he returned as prime minister in 1874, steering Britain through a vibrant period before his health declined. He passed away shortly after the Conservatives lost power in 1880.

8 Napoleon Returns To France

In 1814, after a series of defeats, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, where he was nominally made its emperor—a role many saw as a humiliation. Yet the former French emperor was far from resigned to a quiet life. He kept a modest force of a thousand men and plotted his return to the French throne.

The new monarch, Louis XVIII, proved unpopular. The French, still yearning for the revolutionary reforms and Napoleonic glory, viewed Louis as a step back toward tyranny. Seizing the moment, Napoleon escaped Elba on February 26, 1815, with his loyal troops. The French welcomed him with enthusiasm, and within a month he reclaimed the imperial crown, sparking the famous “Hundred Days.”

Unfortunately, the Seventh Coalition of European powers quickly rallied. Napoleon’s final stand at Waterloo ended in defeat, and he was banished once more—this time to the remote island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821.

7 Ulysses S. Grant Becomes General

Ulysses S. Grant began his career as a standout horseman, topping his West Point class in equestrian skill. After graduation, he entered the infantry rather than the cavalry, serving with distinction during the Mexican‑American War and earning a reputation for bravery. He married Julia and started a family, but a posting to the far‑west territories tore him away from home.

Disappointed with his western assignment, Grant fell into heavy drinking and financial strain, eventually resigning from the army in 1854. He and his wife attempted to run a farm provided by her father, even freeing a slave he had inherited—a decision that further strained their fortunes. Their hardships culminated in pawning a watch to buy Christmas gifts for their children.

When the Civil War erupted in 1860, Grant returned to service, training volunteers despite his tarnished reputation. He rose quickly, becoming a brigadier general and, by 1864, the commanding general of the Union Army, a rank only George Washington had previously held. After the war, Grant was promoted to General of the Armies in 1866 and was elected president in 1868.

6 Charles II Claims The Throne

Charles II narrowly missed his destiny as king after the English Civil War toppled his father, Charles I. The conflict, pitting the Roundheads against royalists, began in 1642 and culminated in the 1649 execution of Charles I. To avoid a similar fate, the young Charles fled to France and then the Netherlands, later accepting the Scottish crown in 1650. His 1651 invasion of England ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester at the hands of Oliver Cromwell.

Exiled once more, Charles roamed Europe, cultivating alliances and honing his diplomatic acumen. Though numerous conspiracies aimed to restore the monarchy, none succeeded until 1658, when Cromwell’s sudden death left England leaderless and restless. The public, weary of republican rule, clamored for a return to monarchy.

After fifteen years of exile, Charles triumphantly reclaimed the English throne in 1660, earning the nickname “the Merry Monarch.” His reign, however, was not without tragedy—plagues, the Great Fire of London, and political strife marked his years, but his charismatic, lavish lifestyle left a lasting imprint on English history.

5 The Medici Family Reclaims Florence

The Medici dynasty dominated Florence for centuries, leveraging the city’s thriving trade to build a banking empire that eventually translated into political power. After a 1340 economic downturn, the Medici rose to become Florence’s de‑facto rulers. Yet in the 1490s, Piero de’ Medici—dubbed “the Unfortunate”—made disastrous diplomatic choices, aligning with Naples and signing a humiliating treaty with Charles VIII of France, which sparked a popular revolt.

Piero and his family were expelled, and the Medici’s influence waned. Piero’s attempts to regain control ended tragically when he drowned in the Garigliano River in 1503. The family remained in exile until 1512, when Giovanni de’ Medici, later Pope Leo X, persuaded Pope Julius II to back a counter‑revolution. The papal forces marched on Florence, defeating the republican government at the Siege of Prato and restoring Medici rule.

Following the restoration, the Medici reclaimed their wealth and authority, even ordering the exile and torture of those who had governed during their absence. Notably, this purge forced Niccolò Machiavelli into exile, prompting him to write The Prince as a dedication to Lorenzo de’ Medici.

4 Santa Anna’s Many Returns To Power

Antonio López de Santa Anna was a charismatic yet erratic Mexican politician who served a staggering eleven non‑consecutive terms as president, often acting more as a military strongman than a democratic leader. His career saw dramatic swings: after the 1833‑1837 period, he was captured by the United States during the Texas Revolution, only to be released thanks to President Andrew Jackson’s intervention. He swore never to seek office again, retired briefly, then lost a leg fighting the French—an episode that turned him into a national hero.

Santa Anna resurfaced in 1839 as interim president during a liberal uprising, and again in 1841, despite imposing heavy taxes to fund extravagant military displays. Overthrown in 1844, he fled to Veracruz, was captured, and exiled to Cuba in 1845. He later escaped, returned to Mexico, and in December 1846 reclaimed the presidency, leading a disastrous campaign against the United States during the Mexican‑American War. After a series of defeats, he fled to Jamaica and then Venezuela.

By 1853, Mexico was again in chaos, and the public turned back to the familiar face of Santa Anna, who won yet another term. His administration’s extravagance and the unpopular Gadsden Treaty of 1854—selling large swaths of land to the United States—precipitated his final overthrow in 1855. He spent his last years trying to stage another comeback in Europe, eventually returning to Mexico in 1873 as an old man before dying in 1876.

3 Justinian II Becomes Emperor Again

Justinian II ascended the Byzantine throne at the tender age of sixteen in 685, quickly demonstrating military prowess by reclaiming Thrace and Macedonia from Slavic incursions and negotiating a favorable treaty with the Arabs that increased tribute to the empire. However, disagreements with the Arabs and a clash with the Pope eroded his popularity, prompting unrest.

His increasingly harsh policies, including the confiscation of funds from his own officers, ignited a revolt that culminated in a brutal punishment: his nose was sliced off, and he was exiled in 695. Fleeing the threat of arrest by his successor, he sought refuge with the Khazars, marrying the khan’s sister. Learning that the khan had been bribed to kill him, Justinian escaped again, this time finding sanctuary with the Bulgars, where he mustered an army.

In 705, a decade after his deposition, Justinian reclaimed the imperial throne. He reconciled with the Pope but pursued vengeance against his former enemies, instituting mass executions that alienated the populace. A subsequent revolt led to his and his family’s deaths, ending his second reign.

2 Grover Cleveland Is Reelected

Grover Cleveland remains the sole U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. His first term marked a historic moment as the first Democrat elected after the Civil War. He garnered widespread support, even winning votes from Republicans disenchanted with James G. Blaine. In 1886, Cleveland made history again by becoming the only president to wed inside the White House. Yet his firm stance against government aid—denying veterans’ pensions he deemed fraudulent, seizing 81 million acres of underutilized railroad land, and vetoing a seed‑grain bill for drought‑stricken farmers—earned him criticism.

In the 1888 election, Cleveland narrowly lost the electoral college to Benjamin Harrison despite winning the popular vote. He spent the ensuing four years practicing law. Harrison’s administration, plagued by corruption and overspending, along with the unpopular McKinley Tariff, turned public opinion back toward Cleveland’s fiscally conservative reputation. In 1892, he secured the Democratic nomination and won a decisive victory, receiving 277 electoral votes to Harrison’s 145.

However, his second term was shadowed by the Panic of 1893 and a series of ineffective policies that dampened his legacy, illustrating that even a remarkable comeback can face formidable challenges.

1 Charles De Gaulle Leaves Retirement

Charles de Gaulle is hailed by many French citizens as the greatest Frenchman of all time. He devoted his life to serving France, first as a soldier in World I and later as the leader of the Free French, fighting to liberate his nation from Nazi occupation. Initially, he faced opposition from both sides of the political spectrum: the left rejected his military background and devout Catholicism, while the right opposed his stance against Marshal Pétain. Frustrated, he resigned in 1946, weary of partisan bickering over coalition governments.

Undeterred, de Gaulle founded the Rally of the French People, a mass movement that evolved into a full‑blown political party. The group challenged the new constitution and opposed the rising influence of the French Communist Party, which de Gaulle deemed detrimental. By 1953, disillusioned with his own political creation, he withdrew from public life, retreating to his estate to write memoirs.

In 1958, as France teetered on the brink of chaos—particularly with the Algerian crisis threatening to erupt into revolution—de Gaulle was summoned back to the political arena. Though initially hesitant, President René Coty warned he would resign if de Gaulle was not appointed, prompting the National Assembly to name him prime minister and grant him authority to amend the constitution. In 1959, de Gaulle secured the presidency, frequently appearing at public events to maintain a visible connection with the populace. He negotiated Algerian independence in 1962, bolstered France’s nuclear capabilities, and strengthened the economy, all while positioning himself above partisan politics.

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects but until he finishes one, he will write for for his bread and butter. You can write him at [email protected].

Opium has left its mark on humanity for millennia, captivating people with its potent and habit‑forming qualities. Throughout history, even the most celebrated individuals have found themselves drawn to the drug, whether for pain, sleeplessness, or sheer habit. Below we unveil ten influential personalities who, despite their greatness, were dependent on opium.

10 Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr stands out as one of America’s most notorious figures. A political heavyweight for much of his career, his trajectory shifted dramatically after a duel that sealed Alexander Hamilton’s fate. Though the legal charges faded, Burr remained a marked man in the United States.

In 1808, he abandoned his New York residence and crossed the Atlantic to Britain, where he felt more accepted. Over four years abroad, Burr kept a candid diary chronicling his liaisons, ailments, and the remedies he employed. While visiting relatives in Britain, his opium consumption grew, a fitting coincidence given the Scottish aristocracy’s deep involvement in the opium trade.

The diary offers a stark window into his reliance. One entry details a toothache, noting, “I thought of my old remedy, camphor and opium.” Another recounts a sleepless night: “Have had a most uncomfortable night. Swallowed of the opium enough to sicken and stupify me.” Subsequent notes reference opium for headaches, nausea, and further toothache relief.

9 Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, the stoic Roman emperor, is best remembered for his seminal work Meditations, a guide still revered by modern leaders. While his philosophy champions emotional restraint, he apparently turned to opium—an exotic luxury of the elite—to manage his frailty.

Physically delicate, Aurelius faced frequent sickness, especially from cold. He reportedly ate little during daylight, preferring minimal nocturnal meals. To counter his ailments, his physician Galen prescribed a concoction called theriac, which, in practice, was opium‑laden. This remedy enabled him to endure the rigors of command.

Historical records indicate he avoided daytime dosing because it caused drowsiness, reserving the drug for night‑time use to secure sleep. Though dependent, his opium intake appears to have functioned more as a painkiller and sedative than a full‑blown addiction, allowing him to compose his philosophical texts.

8 Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third U.S. president, also harbored a penchant for laudanum—a tincture of opium. His eccentricity extended to self‑medication, especially after a bout of chronic diarrhea prompted a friend to recommend the drug in 1803.

While the exact moment he first embraced opium remains unclear, evidence shows he used it enthusiastically thereafter, relying on it until his death in 1826. On his deathbed, Jefferson famously declined further opium, telling his physician, “No doctor, nothing more,” and passed peacefully.

Jefferson even documented a homemade laudanum recipe in his medicinal journal, ensuring a steady supply. He cultivated white poppy at Monticello, a practice that persisted on the estate until 1992, when concerns over legality prompted its cessation.

7 Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis, famed explorer of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also grappled with opium. Following Jefferson’s commission to chart the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, Lewis set out with a substantial cache of the newly isolated pharmaceutical.

His own estimates suggest he consumed roughly a gram of opium daily—an alarming dose, especially when paired with his known alcoholism. He reportedly took three pills at night to induce sleep and two in the morning to maintain functionality.

Lewis suffered from depression, and the combination of alcohol and opium likely intensified his anguish. Some scholars speculate that his substance use contributed to his mysterious death in 1809, which remains debated between suicide and murder.

6 Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson, the towering English lexicographer behind A Dictionary of the English Language, also turned to opium in large quantities after 1765, when he was in his mid‑fifties.

A self‑styled medical enthusiast, Johnson formed friendships with physicians and often acted as his own patient. He suffered various physical ailments and tics, leading him to consume opium for what he termed “relaxation of the breast.” His preferred preparation mixed marshmallow with poppy, allowing him to ingest up to three grains (approximately 200 mg) at a time.

Despite acknowledging the drug’s addictive nature—frequently expressing fear of “the horrors of opiates”—Johnson persisted for nearly three decades until his death in 1784.

5 Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, a polymath founding father, faced severe health challenges in his later years, including gout and kidney stones. To alleviate his pain, his physicians prescribed laudanum in 1782, which initially helped him stay socially active and continue his work.

However, the drug’s long‑term effects proved detrimental. In a 1790 letter, Franklin lamented, “Little remains of me but a skeleton covered in a skin,” attributing his loss of appetite and dwindling focus to laudanum. He feared the medication would prevent him from completing his memoirs, and he died later that year without ever discontinuing the opiate.

4 William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce, the British abolitionist who helped end the slave trade, endured chronic stomach ailments throughout his life. To keep his parliamentary duties uninterrupted, he turned to opium, a drug widely recognized for its addictive potential even in his era.

His friend, the scientist Isaac Milner, reassured him, noting that the “habit of growling guts is infinitely worse.” Wilberforce reportedly used opium for 45 years, claiming its mental impact was milder than wine. He even recommended it to acquaintances, despite knowing its dangers.

3 Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, endured intense pressure as First Lady during the Civil War, compounded by personal battles with depression and anxiety. She relied heavily on opium‑based remedies, especially paregoric, to manage debilitating migraines.

Her maid, Mariah Vance, observed that Mary’s overuse of paregoric made her volatile. When urged to stop, Mary retorted, “If paregoric were poison, the Todd family would be dead years ago. Some never born. We were raised on it.” She also turned to laudanum for headaches and childbirth pains.

After Lincoln’s assassination, Mary’s opium consumption escalated dramatically. She oscillated between moments of lucidity and mania, mixing various opiate products. Even a family‑initiated commitment attempt failed to curb her habit; she was known to finish an entire bottle of laudanum on the street before seeking another.

2 Frederic Chopin

Frederic Chopin, the celebrated Polish composer, endured a lifetime of physical and mental distress, ranging from severe coughs to hallucinations. Doctors prescribed opium drops sweetened with sugar to soothe his persistent coughing.

Scholars still debate his exact illness, with theories suggesting temporal‑lobe epilepsy. The combination of epilepsy and opium likely intensified his depressive episodes and vivid hallucinations, which, in turn, influenced his hauntingly beautiful compositions. His lover, George Sands (the pen name of Armantine Dupin), recounted a terrifying vision where “phantoms called him, embraced him… and he pushed away their skeletal faces.”

The precise frequency of Chopin’s opium use remains unknown, but given the drug’s nature, it is reasonable to infer regular consumption. He ultimately succumbed to his illness in 1849 at the age of 39.

1 Horatio Nelson

Lord Horatio Nelson, England’s naval hero famed for defeating Napoleon’s fleet, also battled severe health issues. A frail child, he later suffered injuries that left him with a lost arm and a blinded eye. Persistent pain and insomnia drove him to laudanum.

Despite his constant agony, Nelson continued to command his forces, relying on a daily dose of laudanum to stay alert. Even as feverish and barely able to move, he led his troops to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. He died shortly after the triumph in 1805.

Opium’s reach across centuries is undeniable, touching the lives of some of history’s most eminent figures. Their stories remind us that even greatness can coexist with vulnerability.

Syphilis has almost been eradicated by modern medicine, yet before an effective cure existed the disease roamed unchecked across continents, striking both the powerful and the poor. In this roundup of 10 historical figures, we examine how this dreaded illness may have influenced some of the world’s most pivotal personalities, steering their creations, decisions, and even their downfalls.

10 Historical Figures and the Syphilis Mystery

10 Adolf Hitler May Have Ruled Germany While Suffering From Syphilis

One theory may plausibly explain Hitler’s behavior and decisions while ruling Nazi Germany. Some historians believe that Hitler was suffering from an advanced form of syphilis toward the end of his regime.

Dr. Theodor Morell, Adolf Hitler’s personal physician, kept extensive records about his most famous patient. Most of these records still survive, providing modern historians with a portrait of Hitler’s private life. Many medical researchers who have read the documents have stated that many of his symptoms match those of tertiary syphilis.

Dr. Morell also speculated that Hitler may have had the illness. In Mein Kampf, Hitler devoted several pages to syphilis, even calling it “the Jewish disease.” Dr. Morell noted symptoms such as severe gastric crises, skin lesions, and violent mood swings as evidence that Hitler had contracted syphilis and “sudden criminal behavior, paranoia, grandiosity and mania, all of which changes show in cases of neuro‑syphilis.”

Toward the end of his life, Hitler became increasingly erratic and detached from reality. Dr. Morell prescribed iodide salts for Hitler, although they’re also used for angina and chest pain, another of Hitler’s complaints.

The syphilis theory is somewhat discounted because most of the evidence is circumstantial. Still, it can’t be entirely discredited, even if it was just a contributing factor to Hitler’s behavior. If he did have syphilis, another question arises: How did he catch it? Ironically, some say he caught it from a Jewish prostitute.

9 Christopher Columbus Introduced Syphilis To Europe

Although Christopher Columbus is generally credited with discovering America, at least one of his other discoveries was less than noble. In fact, it would prove to be one of the most aggressive diseases of all time.

Before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, syphilis was a disease indigenous only to the western hemisphere. As we all know, syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease, but Columbus and his crew were unaware of it. As they began to have sexual relations with the natives, some of the crew caught the dreaded sickness.

When Columbus returned to Europe, he presented many interesting gifts and other curiosities. But people didn’t expect him to bring back a new disease. Syphilis began to spread rapidly after Columbus returned. Soon, it became a full‑blown epidemic affecting many European countries.

Although there were many different treatments, the Europeans of those times had no real cure. Despite physicians’ best efforts, nothing could stop the deadly spread of syphilis throughout the continent. As a result of Columbus’s voyage, he had unwittingly released in Europe one of the worst diseases in history.

8 Beethoven Wrote His Compositions While Suffering From Syphilis

Throughout his life, Beethoven composed some of the greatest symphonies of all time, but he also had to deal with several handicaps. It’s well‑known that Beethoven was almost completely deaf in his later years, but he may also have had syphilis.

Beethoven suffered from chronic illnesses, but many of them remain undiagnosed. He also had a tragic personal life because of his romantic view of love. His personal relationships were often unfulfilling because his idea of romance didn’t fit reality. As such, he often had sexual relations with prostitutes and may have caught syphilis because of this.

It’s also possible that Beethoven had congenital syphilis (syphilis at birth). There’s evidence to discount the theory that Beethoven had the disease, such as the fact that no mercury was found in his hair when mercury was a common syphilis treatment. However, many of his physical and psychological symptoms match those of syphilis.

Some believe that Beethoven’s deafness may have been caused by syphilis. Other symptoms include chronic pain, which was a common complaint for Beethoven. Many of his psychological and physical symptoms, such as frequent migraines, could also be attributed to syphilis.

Could Beethoven have written his greatest works while suffering from the worst of diseases? It’s interesting to believe so.

7 Abraham Lincoln May Have Had Syphilis While President

If Abraham Lincoln had syphilis, he was killed before the symptoms became too severe. In America, syphilis was common at the time because there was no protection from the disease and no real cure. Even though Lincoln was shot before the later stages of syphilis were manifested, there is medical evidence that Lincoln had the disease. There is also considerable evidence that he gave the disease to his wife.

Before Lincoln married his wife, Mary Todd, he often consorted with prostitutes, which could have been where he contracted the disease. Around 1835, Lincoln admitted to his close friend and biographer William Herndon that he’d caught the disease. Later, Herndon speculated that syphilis may have caused the Lincoln children to die prematurely.

Lincoln often took “little blue pills” (mercury pills), which were a common treatment for the disease at the time. Possibly the greatest evidence that Lincoln had syphilis was his wife’s manifestation of the symptoms. Syphilis produces a variety of psychological symptoms that cause insanity: Mary Todd Lincoln most certainly had those.

She was known for her erratic behavior in later life, and she complained of hallucinations and delusions. Mary Todd also developed blindness and had extreme weight loss, other possible symptoms of syphilis. She had insomnia, impaired coordination, migraines, and chronic pain. When an autopsy was performed, her brain showed signs of nerve deterioration, which may have been related to syphilis.

6 John Wilkes Booth May Have Been Suffering From Syphilis During The Assassination

It’s undeniable that John Wilkes Booth was mentally unstable. However, it isn’t known what caused his insanity. Theories range from alcoholism to mental disorders, but one theory has enough evidence to possibly be accepted as fact: John Wilkes Booth had late‑stage syphilis.

The world in which Booth was born and raised was a fertile one for syphilis. Booth was a handsome man and a popular actor from a famous family. It would have been easy for him to find sexual partners. He was a frequent womanizer, so catching syphilis was probably only a matter of time.

Although young when he killed Lincoln, Booth’s career was almost over. He suffered from hoarseness, a common symptom of syphilis, which made him unable to project his voice on stage. Other possible symptoms include the tumors which he had removed from his back and neck, frequent rashes all over his body, and pain in his chest.

He also showed the psychological signs—mental instability, delusions, mood fluctuations, and depression. He was known to fly into angry rages at the slightest provocations. Booth also became impulsive, a symptom indicative of the deterioration of the frontal lobe, which is common with syphilis.

If Booth did indeed kill Lincoln because of mental illness caused by syphilis, imagine how different history would have been if he had never caught the disease.

5 Charles VIII Caught Syphilis And Started An Epidemic

King Charles VIII of France had an obsessive desire to reclaim the Kingdom of Naples. In 1491, he married Anne of Brittany, ceding the rights to several territories to her family. In 1493, he signed the Treaty of Barcelona, which gave even more French territories away. Only Charles knew why he had made such strange decisions: He wanted to get rid of all concerns so that he could conquer Naples.

Finally, in 1495, he marched into Naples without opposition and received the crown. Unfortunately for Charles, almost every other kingdom in Italy opposed his leadership. They banded together to form the League of Venice and defeated Charles at the Battle of Fornovo. Charles and the remainder of his army fled back to France.

Apparently, sailors from Christopher Columbus’s crew had gone to Naples, where they spread syphilis. When Charles and his army occupied the kingdom, they had sexual relations with people in Naples and subsequently contracted the disease. During their retreat, Charles and his army caused an epidemic of syphilis throughout Europe. As a result, syphilis became known as the “French disease.”

4 Ivan The Terrible’s Infamous Reign May Have Been Caused By Syphilis

While Ivan the Terrible was a relatively sane and just ruler at the beginning of his reign in Russia, he became increasingly insane and cruel in his later years. In one fit of rage, he even killed his son. While insanity is quite common in royalty, there seemed to be no reason for Ivan the Terrible’s sudden change in personality. However, recent medical evidence shows what the cause may have been.

As mentioned earlier, mercury was a common treatment for syphilis before there was an effective cure. So when Ivan the Terrible’s body was tested by forensic scientists centuries after his death, they put two and two together when they found high levels of mercury in Ivan’s corpse. Of course, mercury poisoning could have also actually caused many of Ivan the Terrible’s psychological symptoms, rather than the other way around. But why would Ivan’s physicians have given him mercury in the first place?

There’s certainly no question that Ivan had ample opportunity to contract syphilis. As the ruler of Russia, he may have had sexual dalliances with a woman or women carrying the disease.

From Kazimierz Waliszewski’s 1904 book, Ivan the Terrible, a description of Ivan’s behavior in later life matches symptoms of the later stages of syphilis:

During the second half of the Sovereign’s life, as to which we possess most information, his habitual expression struck the majority of witnesses as being threatening and gloomy, though he often burst into roars of laughter. … Ivan was energetic to the point of violence, and yet timid down to outright cowardice; his pride amounted to positive madness, and his humility occasionally descended to baseness. He was intelligent, and yet capable of saying and doing the most foolish things.

His paranoia, mood swings, and poor health could all have been caused by tertiary syphilis.

3 Shakespeare May Have Quit Writing Due To Syphilis

Even though William Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers in history, his life remains a mystery to this day. The little we do know comes from outside records and speculation, but at least one theory could explain why Shakespeare abruptly quit writing and went into retirement. The idea comes from Shakespeare’s own handwriting.

At 36, Shakespeare’s handwriting, including his signature, became noticeably different, showing evidence of a tremor in his hand. Why would Shakespeare have developed a tremor so early in life?

In his plays, Shakespeare developed an obsession with syphilis, a disease usually ignored by society at that time. As author D.H. Lawrence wrote: “I am convinced that some of Shakespeare’s horror and despair, in his tragedies, arose from the shock of his consciousness of syphilis.”

Being involved in the theater, Shakespeare was believed to have had a vigorous sexual appetite, so that’s one way he might have become infected. Even gossip from the time said that Shakespeare became involved in a sexual scandal in which he and others caught the illness. At that time, the treatment for syphilis was mercury. Some of the side effects of mercury are psychological changes and the tremors that Shakespeare developed.

2 Vincent Van Gogh’s (Possibly) Syphilitic Inspirations

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous names in the art world, but he suffered a tragically short life of almost constant poverty and depression. However, the genius behind the beautiful art can’t be denied. Was van Gogh’s art created from the suffering he may have had from syphilis?

In the 1880s, van Gogh left his childhood home and went to the city of Antwerp in Belgium where he engaged in a libertine lifestyle. There, he started to drink absinthe and regularly hired prostitutes. Although he left Antwerp in 1886 to live with his brother in Paris, van Gogh would have a lasting reminder of his time in Belgium: syphilis.

During this time, he started the most productive period of his life, but he also became increasingly plagued with seizures and delusions. In 1888, van Gogh left his brother and in a fit of insanity, famously sliced off his own ear and presented it to a prostitute as a love gift. He was placed in an asylum where he experienced manic episodes, visions, and paranoia.

Throughout all of this, van Gogh’s paintings became darker and more bizarre. In 1889, he checked himself into an asylum in Saint Remy where he seemed to partially recover. He made some of his best paintings there.

In 1890, he checked out of the asylum, although he was still mentally unbalanced. Things seemed to be looking up for van Gogh as critics started to recognize his work. However, van Gogh went to a field and shot himself. He died two days later on July 27, 1890.

Some people still believe that it was the effects of syphilis that caused van Gogh to kill himself. Others believe that other mental illnesses may have caused van Gogh’s madness, although syphilis is believed to have had a major effect on his life.

1 Oscar Wilde Died Insane With Syphilis

For a time, Oscar Wilde was one of the biggest celebrities of 19th‑century England with his sharp wit, whimsical behavior, and curious personality. Widely beloved by the upper class when he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, his literary legacy seemed assured. However, a shocking scandal and a sensational trial ruined Wilde. As a final blow, he may have contracted syphilis, which could have affected his mind.

Researcher Richard Ellmann believes that Wilde contracted the disease after a youthful escapade with a prostitute in 1878. However, descendants of the Wilde family have disagreed, stating that he didn’t have syphilis. The problem is that there is some evidence that he did have the disease.

As early as 1912, biographers claimed that Wilde had syphilis. Reginald Turner, Wilde’s only friend who remained with him during the last weeks before his death, had this to say about Wilde’s illness: “[The disease] was only shortly before his death diagnosed as a tertiary symptom of an infection he had contracted when he was 20.”

The wording is vague, but it would match the timeline when Wilde was said to have caught syphilis. Over the years, many of his former friends came to believe that he had syphilis, some even claiming that he had inherited the disease from his father.

Although his death certificate doesn’t list a cause of death, it’s generally agreed that Wilde died of cerebral meningitis, which is inflammation of the lining of the brain. Cerebral meningitis can be caused by syphilis because syphilis causes deterioration in the brain. It’s also known that Wilde had regular mercury treatments, a common therapy for those with syphilis.