Beethoven, was told by a music teacher that he had no talent for music. In fact, this teacher once remarked, “As a composer he is hopeless.”
184
Grenades were invented in China over 1,000 years ago.
50
In the 1830s, a Greek prime minister tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren't interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People then started stealing these potatoes so much that the crop spread to all of Greece.
29
The first telephone book was one page long and had only 50 names in it.
91
After Germany surrendered in WW2, people in Moscow partied until the entire city actually ran out of vodka.
66
The life expectancy in 1900 was just 47 years.
49