10 Interesting Facts on Famous People Questions | Famous People Trivia Quiz

Answer: Guinea pig for the smallpox vaccine trial

That poor little boy! Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was the English scientist whose name will be forever, and somewhat incorrectly, credited with the vaccine to protect individuals against the killer disease, smallpox. What he did do was take his findings based on the largely ignored work of others, experiment on them, and push for the successful results of his vaccination to become a reality. In this he is rightly known as the father of immunology. His methods, however, were dubious to say the least.

Based on the general knowledge that the disease cowpox appeared to protect one against smallpox, he took the eight year old son of his gardener and injected the child with pus from cowpox sores on a milkmaid. This took place in May, 1796. In July, 1796, when the child recovered from the slight fever he developed as a result of that, Jenner then took pus from the sores of a smallpox victim and repeatedly injected the child with that. More than twenty times in fact. Jenner's work has been responsible for saving millions of lives ever since in various fields of medicine. Yet the question must be asked whether the ends justified the means? An adult volunteer would have been a far better subject on which to experiment, rather than a small child.

When Jenner died in 1823, he left a small cottage to James Phipps, who was still alive and kicking, as a mark of gratitude for his contribution towards his work.

Answer: The dark

Thomas Edison lived from 1847 until 1931. He is looked upon as the fourth most prolific inventor in history, and still held that honour in the early twenty-first century. More than one thousand inventions, many of which have benefited humanity to a great degree, are credited to his name. Although he is often said to have invented the light bulb, this is incorrect. What he did do, however, was invent the means to commercially produce the first practical version of it. Yet this great man, so full of complications and contradictions in his personality, was said to be fearful of one thing. When asked once if anything frightened him at all, he replied "I am afraid of the dark".

This "fact" should be taken with a big pinch of of salt however. Although the legend can be found on various sites on the internet, its source is not given, nor when, where and to whom this statement was supposed to have been made. It makes a great yarn though, doesn't it? When Edison died in 1931, every room in his large house in New Jersey was said to be lit with blazing lights as proof of this fear. The great man died at 9pm in the evening with quite a few people by his side. Obviously the lights would have been on.

Answer: Place himself in classes with mostly female students

Bill Gates, born in Seattle in 1955, is just brilliant. There can be no other word to describe him. While still a thirteen year old at school, he created a computer program for tic-tac-toe, took advantage of bugs in the school computer system to allow himself more computer time, and then negotiated more free computer time in exchange for discovering other bugs in the system.

When he was only seventeen, he designed a program for counting traffic which could be placed on computer systems. In his sophomore year at college he was easily sorting out computing problems which had defeated many other people, and the speed at which he did these remained unequalled for over thirty years.

Then came Microsoft, the world's largest personal computer software company - and the rest is history. Bill Gates is a computing genius.

Not only that, but this amazing man has given more than $28 billion of his fortune to charity, and he and his wife, Melinda, plan to eventually distribute 95% of their wealth to same.

Answer: Apple sauce

Born in 1940, Ringo Starr's given names were Richard Starkey. He rose to world wide fame of a member of the famous rock bank, the Beatles. Formed in 1960 in Liverpool, England, this group became the most popular rock band in history. Following the break-up of the Beatles in 1970, Starr went on to forge a career as a solo vocal performer, branched into furniture design as a sideline, and provided the narration for the delightful children's program "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends", as well as appearing in various minor movie and TV roles. In Japan, however, Richard Starkey MBE is known as Apple Sauce MBE. Quite a fetching name really.

When Ringo was a child, he was naturally left-handed, but his grandmother insisted that he write with his right hand instead. This was because she believed anyone who was left-handed was the victim of a witch's curse. Fortunately, this little piece of superstition led to Ringo becoming competently ambidextrous - and developing his skills as one of the world's foremost and most recognisable drummers.

Answer: Named after the places in which they were conceived

American Ron Howard was born in 1954. His career has spanned that of a delightful child actor, right up to directing and producing big name movies. He is most well known for his role as Opie Taylor in the "Andy Griffith Show" (1960-68) where he played the role of the town sheriff's son. His other major television role was that of Ritchie Cunningham in the sitcom "Happy Days (1974-84) in which he played the son of one of the leading characters, Howard Cunningham, owner of the local hardware store. Just two of the successful movies produced by the versatile Howard include "Cocoon" (1985) where a group of senior citizens are given a new lease on life by visitors from outer space, and the 1995 "Apollo 13" which tells the story of the troubled Apollo 13 lunar mission. One could say that movie also involved an almost miraculous intervention as well.

Ron Howard married his high school sweetheart, Cheryl Alley, in 1975. They have four children named after the cities or places where the couple were staying when the babies were conceived. These are Bryce Dallas Howard, Jocelyn Carlyle Howard, her twin sister Page Carlyle Howard, and their son, Reed Cross Howard. According to a tongue-in-cheek Howard, his son was named after a London Street because "Volvo isn't a very good name for a boy".

Answer: False

Stephen Foster (1826-1864) died alone, unloved, completely broke, and abandoned by his wife and daughter. Living in a dingy hotel in New York, and confined to bed with a fever, he stumbled and badly gashed his head when he attempted to call for assistance.

He died in hospital three days later. His tattered wallet, when opened, was found to contain a line of lyrics "Dear friends and gentle hearts", and three pennies. This tragic and lonely death for a man who gave the world sweet old melodies such as "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and the lovely "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" is indeed sorrowful. Most people, if singing these exquisite old songs today, tend to gallop through them, but if sung at their correct tempo, and feelingly, these compositions are truly beautiful. Foster's most famous song perhaps, "Beautiful Dreamer" was published after his death. Truly, it's enough to break one's heart.

Answer: She depicted herself smiling and showing her teeth

Louise Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was taught her art by her father, a reasonably well known portrait painter. On her mother's second marriage to a wealthy jeweller, the family moved to Paris where they freely mingled with the upper echelons of society. By the time she was in her late teens, Louise Elizabeth was painting portraits professionally. When she married painter and art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, she was invited to the Palace of Versailles to paint Marie Antoinette's portrait. She would go on to paint thirty portraits of the French queen, and through her direct influence, Louise Elizabeth's work became famous. All except for that scandalous painting of herself of course. Her "Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat", which is quite lovely, became infamous for the ridiculous reason that she depicted herself smiling with a slightly open mouth and showing her teeth - which was considered most unladylike.

This was against every painting convention and tradition stretching right back through time, and in soundly condemning this lack of propriety, her work was described in a local work as follows: "An affectation which artists, art lovers and persons of taste have been united in condemning, and which finds no precedent among the Ancients, is that in smiling, (Madame Vigee-lebrun) shows her teeth". Oh, what a wicked hussy!

Answer: Goat farming

Born in 1982, Heggestad was regarded as one of Norway's top footballers. At the age of twenty-six he rejected an offer to renew his contract for a secure future in the game. Instead, he returned home to where he grew up in a small village with a population of 123 inhabitants - and took up goat farming. I'm not "kidding".

Answer: Borscht

Sports journalist Dick Beddoes (1926-1991) made this reckless statement regarding the 1972 ice hockey Summit Series against the Russians when he was working at "The Globe and Mail" newpaper in Toronto. His exact words were that he would eat his words "shredded at high noon in a bowl of borscht on the steps of the Russian Embassy" if the Soviets won even one game. Well, there's nothing like tempting fate.

The Russians won the first game of the series - and Beddoes followed through on his bet. Borscht, for those who are unaware of this dish, is a soup made from beetroot.

It's an acquired taste.

Answer: Moose

I can't imagine why I think that is so funny, but sadly I do. Swedish physicist and astronaut Christer Fuglesang was born in 1957. His space career included flying two space shuttle missions and five spacewalks. Because it was so soon before Christmas, it was thought it would be indelicate of Fuglesang to take along reindeer jerky on the joint mission with the Americans to the International Space Station in December 2006. So he was given moose jerky instead. Nobody of course considered how the unfortunate moose would feel in all these high flying decisions. Still, at least it got to jump over the moon.