00:03Let's explore the interesting eccentric lives and behavior of some of the greatest people
00:08in history.
00:10Nikola Tesla was a visionary inventor and engineer whose primary accomplishments include
00:15developing the alternating current electrical system and pioneering wireless technology,
00:22which laid the groundwork for modern electrical power distribution and radio communication.
00:27But, he couldn't stand touching hair and avoided physical contact entirely.
00:33Sir Isaac Newton developed the laws of motion and universal gravitation, formulated the mathematical
00:38principles of calculus, and made fundamental contributions to the fields of optics and
00:44mechanics.
00:45Oh, he also stuck a needle between his eye and the bone to study optics.
00:50Charles Dickens was a renowned Victorian author whose major accomplishments include creating
00:55some of the world's most famous fictional characters and using his popular novels, such
01:00as Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, to expose social injustices and advocate for significant
01:06societal reform.
01:07And when he was tired, he always slept facing north to align with Earth's magnetic fields.
01:14Catherine the Great significantly expanded the Russian Empire's territory through successful
01:18wars, primarily against the Ottoman Empire, and championed the arts and education during
01:24a period known as the Russian Enlightenment.
01:26She also had some, shall we say, unusual hobbies, such as collecting thousands of erotic furniture
01:32pieces and risque art.
01:35Honoré de Balzac's greatest accomplishment was the creation of La Comédie humaine, the
01:40human comedy, a vast, interconnected series of nearly 100 novels and short stories that
01:46provides a comprehensive and realistic panorama of French society in the period after the fall
01:51of Napoleon.
01:52Also, when he was writing he drank up to 50 cups of coffee a day.
01:57Ludwig von Beethoven was a revolutionary German composer and pianist whose accomplishments include
02:03bridging the classical and romantic eras in Western music, composing nine symphonies, numerous
02:08piano sonatas, and one opera, and continuing to create some of his most profound works even
02:14after losing his hearing.
02:16He also dumped water over his head daily as a creativity ritual.
02:21Pythagoras was an influential ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician whose most famous accomplishment
02:26is the formulation of the Pythagorean theorem, which describes the relationship between the three
02:32sides of a right-angled triangle.
02:34He was a bit unusual.
02:36For example, he refused to eat beans, believing they contained human souls.
02:42George Gordon, also known as Lord Byron, was a leading figure of the Romantic movement in
02:48English poetry, whose accomplishments include writing the epic narrative poem Don Juan and
02:53creating the influential archetype of the Byronic hero.
02:56In a fit of pique while attending Cambridge University, who didn't allow dogs, he kept
03:01a pet bear in his quarters.
03:04Andy Warhol was a central figure in the pop art movement, whose major accomplishments include
03:09pioneering the use of mass production techniques in fine art, such as silk screening, and creating
03:15iconic works like the Campbell's soup cans and Maryland diptych, which blurred the lines
03:20between high and low culture.
03:22He also saved every receipt, letter, and scrap of paper in time capsules.
03:28Immanuel Kant's greatest accomplishment was the development of his critical philosophy,
03:33particularly in the critique of pure reason, which synthesized rationalism and empiricism to
03:39establish a new foundation for metaphysics and moral theory.
03:42And he was noted for walking, not randomly, but the same route every day, so precisely
03:47that neighbors set clocks by him.
03:51Franz Kafka was a highly influential German-language author whose major accomplishment was the creation
03:56of dark, allegorical novels and short stories, such as The Metamorphosis and The Trial, that
04:02explored themes of alienation, bureaucracy, and existential anxiety, becoming central to modernist
04:08literature. For entertainment, one supposes, he laughed uncontrollably while reading his
04:14own tragic stories aloud.
04:17H.B. Lovecraft was a master of the macabre and cosmic horror, whose greatest accomplishment
04:22was the creation of the Cthulhu mythos, a foundational literary universe that profoundly influenced
04:28modern horror, science fiction, and fantasy. He seemed to scare himself with his writings
04:33because he slept with all the lights on, due to lifelong night terrors.
04:39Peter the Great was a transformative Russian czar who modernized the country by reforming
04:44the military and government, adopting Western European culture and technology, and establishing
04:49St. Petersburg as Russia's new window to the West and imperial capital. Oh, and he personally
04:56performed dental extractions on courtiers for fun.
05:00Genghis Khan was the founder and first great Khan of the Mongol Empire, whose key accomplishments
05:05include uniting the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia and launching a series of military campaigns
05:11that established the largest contiguous land empire in history. But, in spite of his power,
05:17he was terrified of dogs.
05:20Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic whose accomplishments
05:25include pioneering the genres of detective fiction and psychological horror, and establishing
05:30a foundation for modern short story writing through works like The Raven and The Telltale
05:35Heart. In his spare time, he had a habit of inventing elaborate fake biographies about himself.
05:43Grigory Rasputin's key accomplishment was his rise to a position of immense and controversial
05:48influence over the Russian imperial family, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, by serving as a
05:54spiritual advisor and healer for their hemophiliac son, Alexei, thereby contributing to the public
06:00discredit and eventual collapse of the Romanov dynasty. Was he unusual? Well, he refused to wash
06:07regularly, believing dirt preserved his spiritual power.
06:11Albert Einstein's most significant accomplishments include developing the theory of special and general
06:16relativity, which profoundly changed our understanding of space, time, gravity, and the universe, and providing
06:23the mathematical equation E equals mc squared, which describes the equivalence of mass and energy.
06:30He may have been a just tad bit eccentric. He never wore socks, calling them a useless invention.
06:37Benjamin Franklin was a statesman, author, publisher, and diplomat whose major accomplishments
06:43include drafting the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, making fundamental discoveries
06:49in electricity, such as proving that lightning is electricity, and inventing the lightning rod and
06:55bifocals. After a hard day at his work, he took air baths, sitting naked by an open window for health.
07:03Salvador Dali was a highly imaginative Spanish surrealist artist whose major accomplishments
07:08include pioneering the use of the paranoiac critical method to generate bizarre, dreamlike compositions,
07:14and creating iconic works such as the persistence of memory. When he took a break from work,
07:20he would take his pet ocelot, named Bobo, to restaurants.
07:25Theodore Teddy Roosevelt's major accomplishments include leading the passage of the Square Deal domestic
07:30programs, dramatically expanding the national park and forest system, and building the Panama Canal,
07:36which established him as a key figure in the progressive era and on the world stage.
07:42And he boxed and practiced judo in the White House, which was quite unusual for a president.
07:48And that's it. Not 10, but 20 historical figures with unusual things about them.
07:55Thank you for watching. We hope you enjoyed this video and these unusual things.
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