100 Fun Facts About Historical Figures

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of which dynasty, founded by a general of Alexander the Great?

Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by Ptolemy I Soter after Alexander's death; she was reportedly the first of her Macedonian-Greek line to learn Egyptian.

Which river did Julius Caesar cross with a single legion in January 49 BC, starting a civil war?

Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the stream marking Italy's northern boundary, with the Thirteenth Legion in January 49 BC, reportedly saying 'alea iacta est' — the die is cast.

Which philosopher tutored the young Alexander the Great until he was 16?

Aristotle tutored Alexander at Mieza from about 343 BC, when the prince was 13, until Alexander began acting as regent for his father Philip II around age 16.

What was Genghis Khan's birth name?

Genghis Khan was born Temüjin, reportedly named after a Tatar chieftain his father Yesügei had just captured; he took the title Genghis Khan at a kurultai in 1206.

How old was Joan of Arc when she was burned at the stake in 1431?

Joan of Arc was about nineteen: born around 1412 in Domrémy, she was burned at Rouen on 30 May 1431, and was canonised in 1920.

Under which Florentine painter and sculptor was Leonardo da Vinci trained?

Leonardo trained in the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio from about 1466; he is credited with painting an angel in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ.

On which island was Napoleon Bonaparte born?

Napoleon was born at Ajaccio on Corsica on 15 August 1769, a year after the island came under French rule; he left for school on the mainland in 1779.

How many men did Napoleon take with him when he escaped exile on Elba and marched on Paris?

Napoleon sailed from Elba on 26 February 1815 with around a thousand men, landed at Golfe-Juan, and entered Paris on 20 March as the troops sent against him joined him.

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840. What was their family relationship?

After Albert died in 1861 she withdrew into mourning for years, though her reign ran to 63 years and 216 days.

In which state was Abraham Lincoln born, in a one-room log cabin?

Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 in a one-room log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

Gandhi moved to which country in 1893 to represent a merchant in a lawsuit, staying for 21 years?

Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893 to assist in a lawsuit for the merchant Dada Abdulla and stayed until 1914, founding the Natal Indian Congress in 1894.

How long was the 1930 Salt March that Gandhi led to the sea at Dandi?

The Salt March covered about 400 km — some 385 km by most counts — from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in 24 days, 12 March to 6 April 1930, to defy the British salt tax.

Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize in 1953. In which category?

He also painted seriously, exhibiting in Paris under a pseudonym.

Albert Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded chiefly for his work on what?

Einstein's 1921 prize cited 'especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect' — his 1905 explanation of light as quanta — rather than relativity, which the committee then regarded as unproven.

Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in which two different sciences?

Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry: the 1903 Physics prize, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for work on radioactivity, and the 1911 Chemistry prize for discovering polonium and radium.

How many years did Nelson Mandela spend in prison before his release?

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from his arrest in August 1962 until his release on 11 February 1990, most of it on Robben Island.

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was born a princess in which kingdom?

Catherine was born in 1729 at Stettin in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland) as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; her father commanded the city's Prussian garrison.

The sayings of Confucius were compiled after his death in which collection?

The Analects (Lunyu) gathers Confucius's sayings and conversations, compiled by his disciples and their followers over generations after his death in 479 BCE; it became one of the Four Books.

Hammurabi, famous for his law code, was king of which city?

Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon's First (Amorite) Dynasty, reigning about 1792–1750 BC; his law code survives on a diorite stele now in the Louvre.

Which pope crowned Charlemagne emperor in Rome in the year 800?

Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor at St Peter's in Rome on Christmas Day 800, a year after Charlemagne had restored Leo to his see following an attack by Roman nobles.

Elizabeth I of England was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and which wife?

Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533; Anne was executed in May 1536, when Elizabeth was two.

In which year was Newton's Principia first published?

Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was first published in 1687, seen through the press and paid for by Edmond Halley, who had urged Newton to write it.

Galileo was tried by the Inquisition and found 'vehemently suspect of' what?

In June 1633 the Inquisition found Galileo 'vehemently suspect of heresy' for defending Copernican heliocentrism in his Dialogue; he abjured and spent his remaining years under house arrest.

Which navigator brought Magellan's fleet home to Spain in 1522, completing the first circumnavigation?

Juan Sebastián Elcano took command after Magellan's death and brought the Victoria, the fleet's last ship, into Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522 with just 18 survivors.

During which war did Florence Nightingale earn the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp'?

During the Crimean War (1853–56) Nightingale ran the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, near Constantinople; a Times report of her night rounds gave her the name 'The Lady with the Lamp'.

Roughly how many enslaved people did Harriet Tubman personally guide to freedom over about 13 missions?

Tubman personally led about 70 enslaved people to freedom over roughly 13 missions between 1850 and 1860; the often-quoted figure of 300 comes from an inflated 19th-century biography.

Ada Lovelace, often called the first computer programmer, was the daughter of which poet?

Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, born in December 1815; her parents separated weeks later and Byron left England for good in 1816.

Nikola Tesla is best known for his contributions to which kind of electricity supply system?

Tesla championed alternating current: his 1888 induction-motor and polyphase patents, licensed by Westinghouse, underpinned the AC systems that won the 'war of the currents' against Edison's direct current.

Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific in 1937 trying to be the first woman to do what?

Earhart was attempting to fly around the world along an equatorial route; she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on 2 July 1937 near Howland Island, about 22,000 miles into the 29,000-mile trip.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in which city?

Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on 1 December 1955; the Montgomery bus boycott that followed lasted 381 days until the city's buses were desegregated in December 1956.

In which German city was Anne Frank born in 1929?

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main on 12 June 1929; the family left for Amsterdam after the Nazis came to power in 1933, and she went into hiding there in July 1942.

Simón Bolívar, 'El Libertador', was born in which city?

Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas on 24 July 1783 into a wealthy criollo family; orphaned by the age of nine, he was educated partly by the tutor Simón Rodríguez.

Mansa Musa, often called the richest man in history, ruled which West African empire?

Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire from about 1312 to 1337; his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca spent so much gold in Cairo that its price there reportedly slumped for years.

Hatshepsut's famous mortuary temple stands at which site on the Nile's west bank?

Hatshepsut's terraced mortuary temple, the Djeser-Djeseru, stands at Deir el-Bahari opposite Luxor, built into the cliffs beside the much older temple of Mentuhotep II.

Who led the excavation that discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922?

Howard Carter, funded by Lord Carnarvon, found the tomb's first step on 4 November 1922 and opened the burial chamber the following February; clearing its roughly 5,000 objects took a decade.

Marco Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295 brought him to the court of which ruler?

Marco Polo reached the court of Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty, at Shangdu around 1275 and by his own account served the Khan for some 17 years.

Roughly how far did Ibn Battuta travel in the 14th century, more than any pre-modern explorer?

Ibn Battuta's journeys between 1325 and 1354 covered roughly 117,000 km (about 73,000 miles), from Morocco to China; he dictated the account known as the Rihla to Ibn Juzayy in 1355.

By what age was Mozart already competent on keyboard and violin and composing?

By the age of five Mozart was playing keyboard and violin and composing short pieces, which his father Leopold wrote down; his earliest surviving works, K. 1, date from 1761.

Which Beethoven symphony premiered in 1824, by which time he was almost completely deaf?

The Ninth is Beethoven's last symphony, with its choral finale setting Schiller's 'Ode to Joy'; it premiered on 7 May 1824, and the deaf composer had to be turned round to see the applause.

Vlad the Impaler, the model for Dracula, ruled which principality?

He was voivode three separate times and died in battle in 1476 or 1477 trying to hold the throne.

Rasputin won the Romanovs' trust as a faith healer for the tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from what?

The tsarevich Alexei had haemophilia, inherited through his mother Alexandra from Queen Victoria; Rasputin's apparent ability to ease his bleeding episodes from 1907 won the empress's devotion.

Which fearsome nickname was given to Attila, ruler of the Huns from 434 to 453?

Attila was called 'The Scourge of God' (Latin Flagellum Dei), a label Christian writers attached to him as a punishment sent against a sinful Roman world; he ravaged Gaul and Italy in 451–452.

Suleiman the Magnificent's advance into Europe was halted by his failed 1529 siege of which city?

Suleiman's siege of Vienna in September–October 1529 failed as autumn rains, stretched supply lines and the Habsburg garrison under Niklas Salm held the Ottomans at the city walls.

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 from which state?

Douglass fled from Baltimore, Maryland, on 3 September 1838, boarding a train disguised as a sailor with a free Black seaman's papers, and reached New York the next day.

Socrates was put on trial in Athens in 399 BC on charges of impiety and what else?

The indictment accused Socrates of not recognising the city's gods and of corrupting the youth of Athens; the jury of about 500 convicted him and he drank hemlock in 399 BC.

Boudica led her uprising against Rome as queen of which British tribe?

Boudica was queen of the Iceni of modern Norfolk; after her husband Prasutagus died around AD 60 Rome seized his kingdom, and her revolt burned Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium.

At which 1187 battle did Saladin crush the Crusaders, opening the way to Jerusalem?

At the Horns of Hattin, near Tiberias, on 4 July 1187 Saladin destroyed the Crusader army, capturing King Guy of Jerusalem and the True Cross; Jerusalem surrendered that October.

Louis XIV, who reigned 72 years, styled himself what?

Louis XIV adopted the sun as his emblem and was styled the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), having danced as Apollo, the sun god, in the 1653 Ballet de la Nuit.

Marie Antoinette was born at the Hofburg palace as the youngest daughter of which empress?

Marie Antoinette, born Maria Antonia on 2 November 1755, was the fifteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I; her 1770 marriage sealed the Franco-Austrian alliance.

What did Otto von Bismarck create in the 1880s partly to undermine his socialist opponents?

Bismarck built the first welfare state: health insurance in 1883, accident insurance in 1884 and old-age pensions in 1889, intended to bind workers to the Reich rather than to the Social Democrats.

The famous painted bust of Queen Nefertiti is displayed in a museum in which city?

The Nefertiti bust, found at Amarna by Ludwig Borchardt's German expedition in 1912, has been in Berlin since 1913 and has been displayed at the city's Neues Museum since 2009.

Ashoka the Great, patron of Buddhism, was the third ruler of which Indian dynasty?

Ashoka was the third Mauryan emperor, grandson of the dynasty's founder Chandragupta Maurya, reigning from about 268 to 232 BCE from the capital Pataliputra, modern Patna.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the third of Japan's three 'Great Unifiers', after Oda Nobunaga and whom?

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga's former general, completed the conquest of Japan by 1590; after his death in 1598 Ieyasu defeated his loyalists at Sekigahara in 1600 and took power.

Shaka, who reorganised the Zulu military into a formidable force, ruled the Zulu Kingdom during which years?

Shaka ruled the Zulu from 1816 to 1828, seizing the chieftaincy after his father Senzangakhona's death; he was assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana in September 1828.

With which half-brother did Peter the Great reign jointly as Tsar until 1696?

Peter shared the throne with his sickly half-brother Ivan V from 1682, under their sister Sophia's regency until 1689, and ruled alone after Ivan's death in January 1696.

How many treasure voyages did the Ming admiral Zheng He command between 1405 and 1433?

Zheng He led seven treasure voyages: six for the Yongle Emperor between 1405 and 1422 and a seventh under the Xuande Emperor in 1431–1433, reaching East Africa.

Which regent helped the young Mughal emperor Akbar expand and consolidate his domains?

Bairam Khan, a Turkmen general loyal to Humayun, served as regent for the 13-year-old Akbar from 1556, winning the Second Battle of Panipat that year, until Akbar dismissed him in 1560.

Cyrus the Great brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by first defeating which people?

Cyrus first overthrew his Median overlord Astyages around 550 BC, taking Ecbatana and making the Medes junior partners in his empire, before turning on Lydia's Croesus in 547 BC.

Which quaestor did Justinian I appoint to oversee the rewriting of Roman law?

Tribonian, Justinian's quaestor, directed the commission that produced the Codex (529, revised 534), the Digest and the Institutes (533) — together the Corpus juris civilis.

Charles Darwin neglected his medical studies at which university before moving to Cambridge?

Darwin entered the University of Edinburgh in 1825, found its lectures dull and surgery horrifying, and instead studied marine invertebrates with Robert Edmond Grant before leaving for Cambridge in 1828.

Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in which town?

Luther was a professor at Wittenberg, and the story has him posting the Theses on the door of its Castle Church on 31 October 1517; the account comes from Philip Melanchthon, who only arrived in 1518.

Christopher Columbus was born in which Italian maritime republic?

Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa around 1451, the son of a wool weaver, Domenico Colombo; he sailed for Castile on all four of his Atlantic voyages.

Which pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling?

Pope Julius II, the 'warrior pope' of the della Rovere family, commissioned Michelangelo in 1508; the ceiling was unveiled on 1 November 1512, four years later.

Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, guarded by the Terracotta Army, lies near which modern city?

The mausoleum lies in Lintong District about 30 km east of Xi'an in Shaanxi; farmers digging a well found the first terracotta soldiers there in March 1974.

At which battle in 216 BC did Hannibal inflict a crushing defeat on Rome?

At Cannae in Apulia on 2 August 216 BC Hannibal's double envelopment destroyed a Roman army of roughly 80,000, killing perhaps 50,000 to 70,000 — Rome's worst single-day defeat.

Augustus, the first Roman emperor, was born with what name?

Augustus was born Gaius Octavius on 23 September 63 BC; Julius Caesar's will adopted him in 44 BC, making him Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus; the Senate later granted him the honorific name Augustus.

Constantine built his new imperial capital on the site of which Greek city?

Constantine refounded the Greek colony of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, as his capital, dedicating it on 11 May 330; it became known as Constantinople, 'Constantine's city'.

In which year was William the Conqueror's Domesday Book survey of England carried out?

The Domesday survey was carried out in 1086, after William ordered it at his Christmas court of 1085; its returns recorded every landholding in England and its holder in 1066 and 1086.

How old was Mehmed II when he conquered Constantinople in 1453?

Mehmed II was 21: born on 30 March 1432, he took Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege, earning the epithet Fatih, 'the Conqueror'.

Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, proclaimed which dynasty in 690?

Wu Zetian proclaimed her own Zhou dynasty in October 690, interrupting the Tang; it lasted until the Shenlong Coup of February 705 forced her to abdicate in favour of her son Zhongzong.

King Sejong, creator of Hangul, was the fourth monarch of which Korean state?

Sejong was the fourth king of Joseon, reigning 1418–1450; the dynasty had been founded by his grandfather Yi Seong-gye (Taejo) in 1392, and Sejong promulgated Hangul in 1446.

In which year was Ivan IV crowned the first Tsar of all Russia?

Ivan IV was crowned Tsar of all Russia in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on 16 January 1547, aged 16; weeks later he married Anastasia Romanovna, the first tsaritsa.

Which instrument did Frederick the Great play and write more than 100 sonatas for?

Frederick the Great was an accomplished flautist, writing about 120 flute sonatas and four flute concertos; his teacher Johann Joachim Quantz entered his service in 1741.

At which failed 1797 attack did Horatio Nelson lose his right arm?

Nelson's attempt to storm Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 24–25 July 1797 failed; a musket ball shattered his right arm as he landed, and it was amputated aboard HMS Theseus that night.

In July 1793 Robespierre was appointed to which body that came to run the Terror?

Robespierre joined the Committee of Public Safety in late July 1793; the twelve-member committee, led in practice by him, Saint-Just and Couthon, directed the Terror until his fall on 9 Thermidor Year II (July 1794).

Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand landed in 1860 on which island?

Garibaldi's thousand red-shirted volunteers landed at Marsala in western Sicily on 11 May 1860 and defeated the Bourbon army at Calatafimi four days later, going on to take Palermo.

Toussaint Louverture rose to lead the revolution in which French colony?

Toussaint Louverture led the revolution in Saint-Domingue, France's richest colony, which became independent Haiti on 1 January 1804, after his death at the Fort de Joux in April 1803.

Who challenged Alexander Hamilton to the 1804 pistol duel that killed him?

Vice President Aaron Burr challenged Hamilton after reports of insults during the 1804 New York governor's race; they duelled at Weehawken, New Jersey, on 11 July 1804, and Hamilton died the next day.

Teenage Sacagawea helped which expedition explore the Louisiana Territory?

Sacagawea, a Shoshone about 16 years old, joined the Lewis and Clark expedition at Fort Mandan in 1805 with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau and her newborn son, Jean Baptiste.

In 1885 Sitting Bull left the reservation to tour with whose Wild West show?

Sitting Bull toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show for four months in 1885 for $50 a week, riding once around the arena at each performance.

In which year was Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting in Rochester, New York?

Anthony voted in the presidential election of 5 November 1872 and was arrested at her Rochester home on 18 November; tried in June 1873, she was fined $100, which she never paid.

Theodore Roosevelt won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for helping end which war?

He was the first non-European to win any Nobel Prize, though he had privately hoped Japan would win.

The surname 'Atatürk', granted by parliament in 1934, is usually translated as what?

Atatürk means 'Father of the Turks' (ata, ancestor or father, plus Türk); the Grand National Assembly granted it by special law on 24 November 1934 and forbade anyone else from using it.

What was Lenin's family surname at birth?

Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in Simbirsk on 22 April 1870; he adopted the pseudonym Lenin around 1901, and Simbirsk was renamed Ulyanovsk in 1924 after his death.

Where was Leon Trotsky assassinated in 1940?

Trotsky was struck with an ice axe by the Soviet agent Ramón Mercader at his fortified house in Coyoacán, Mexico City, on 20 August 1940 and died the next day.

In which country was Che Guevara born?

Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, into a middle-class family of Irish and Basque descent; he studied medicine in Buenos Aires before the motorcycle journey across South America that radicalised him.

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in which city, then part of the Ottoman Empire?

Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje on 26 August 1910 to Albanian parents; she left at 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland and never returned to live there.

Haile Selassie's regnal name roughly translates from Ge'ez as what?

Haile Selassie, his baptismal name, means 'Power of the Trinity' in Ge'ez; born Tafari Makonnen, he adopted it as his regnal name at his coronation on 2 November 1930.

Golda Meir was born in 1898 in which city of the Russian Empire?

Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch in Kyiv on 3 May 1898; the family left for Milwaukee in 1906, and she emigrated to Mandatory Palestine with her husband Morris Meyerson in 1921.

In World War II, Alan Turing broke German ciphers at which British codebreaking centre?

Turing reported to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire on 4 September 1939, the day after Britain declared war, and led Hut 8, which attacked the German naval Enigma.

In which year did Alexander Fleming discover penicillin?

Fleming noticed the penicillin mould on 3 September 1928 at St Mary's Hospital, London, on a staphylococcus plate left out while he was away; he published his findings in 1929.

Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine used material from which milder disease?

Jenner used cowpox: in May 1796 he inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with matter from a cowpox sore on milkmaid Sarah Nelmes, and the boy proved immune to smallpox.

Gregor Mendel was a friar at St Thomas's Abbey in which Moravian city?

Mendel entered the Augustinian St Thomas's Abbey in Brno in 1843 and became its abbot in 1868; he grew some 28,000 pea plants in its garden between 1856 and 1863.

In which year did Mendeleev present his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society?

Mendeleev's paper was read to the Russian Chemical Society on 6 March 1869, arranging the 63 known elements by atomic weight and predicting gallium, scandium and germanium from gaps in the table.

In which year was Copernicus's De revolutionibus published, the year he died?

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was printed at Nuremberg in 1543; legend holds that Copernicus received a copy on his deathbed, the day he died, 24 May 1543.

Helen Keller earned her bachelor's degree in 1904 from which college?

Helen Keller graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in June 1904, the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor's degree; Anne Sullivan spelled the lectures into her hand throughout.

Richard III's skeleton was found in 2012 beneath a car park in which English city?

Richard III's remains were found under a Leicester council car park in August 2012 on the site of the Grey Friars friary; he was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in March 2015.

Queen Nzinga ruled Ndongo and Matamba, kingdoms in which present-day country?

Ndongo and Matamba lay in present-day Angola, whose name derives from ngola, the title of Ndongo's kings; Nzinga ruled from 1624 until her death in 1663, resisting the Portuguese.

Diocletian's retirement palace forms the historic core of which modern Croatian city?

Diocletian retired in 305 to the palace he had built on the Dalmatian coast; its walls and streets became the old town of Split, and his mausoleum is now the city's cathedral.

Amundsen sailed from Norway in 1910 for his South Pole expedition aboard which ship?

Fram, Nansen's polar ship, carried Amundsen south; he revealed the Antarctic goal to his crew only at Madeira in September 1910 and telegraphed Scott that Fram was proceeding to the Antarctic.