Approximately 25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal, and approximately 20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever.
14
Genghis Khan exempted the poor and clergy from taxes, encouraged literacy, and established free religion, leading many peoples to join his empire before they were even conquered.
28
During World War 1, Harry Houdini took 1 year off performing to help sell war bonds and teach american soldiers how to escape from German handcuffs.
34
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
Kung Fu actually originated in India, but was developed further in China.
90
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
In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant that she accepted.
29