Beethoven was half-deaf most of his lifetime. He became completely deaf when he composed his greatest work, 'The Ninth Symphony.'
Aged 98 in 1976, Dimitron Yordandis from Greece was the oldest person ever to complete the marathon race.
Collecting can be an expensive hobby. In 1994, a Steiff bear was bought by a collector for UK £110,000, making it the most expensive teddy bear ever. A letter dated 1847, with two Mauritius stamps (originally valued at 1 and 2 pence) sold in 1993 for over UK £ 2 million.
The world's most popular sport is football. Football games are attended or watched by more people than for any other sport.
Apart from being a great painter, sculptor, architect and author of over 300 poems, Michaelangelo also designed a new type of fort that resists attack from cannon fire.
The jeep got its name from its original initials G.R, which stood for general purpose vehicle.
A 1905 masterpiece by Pablo Picasso has sold for a price of US $104 million. This is one of the most expensive painting. It was sold to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby's in New York (USA) on May 2004. Picasso painted this when he was 24 year old.
German Kayaker, Birgit Fischer (formerly Birgit Schmidt) (42), won the gold medal in K4-500 m canoeing in the Athens Olympics, 2004. It is her 8+h Olympic Gold and it came 24 years after she won her first, in Moscow.
As we know, Brian Lara (West Indies), is the highest scorer with 400 (n.o) in test cricket matches. He also scored the highest ever individual score of 501 (n-o) in first class matches, when he played for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston, UK. This 501 (n.o) also includes a record of most runs scored in a day (390) and the most runs from boundaries (308 with 62 fours and 10 sixes).
The best Selling writer ever is Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Her 78 crime stories featuring detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have been translated into more than 44 languages. Many have been made into plays such as 'The Mousetrap.'
