FAMOUS PEOPLE
GOD’S SCIENTIST Isaac Newton wrote more about religion than he did about physics
Why was Charles VI of France called ‘the Mad’?
Famously, his symptoms included Crowned at the age of 11 in 1380, the Glass Delusion – a belief that he Charles VI of France was much was made of glass and would shatter loved as a benevolent king in if touched. His behaviour earned the his early reign. But while travelling moniker, ‘the Mad’. with a retinue of knights in 1392, he suffered the first of many psychological breakdowns. A leper stopped him on the road and warned him that Britain’s greatest physicist actually wrote far more he was about to be betrayed, about religion than science. Indeed, even in an era and then a subsequent loud when almost everyone had faith of some kind, noise triggered a violent fit Isaac Newton was exceptional for the intensity of his. of madness. he King lashed Newton wrote some two million words on subjects out with his sword, killing including Biblical interpretation, the Holy Trinity and at least one knight before the idea that the Universe “could only proceed from the being restrained. counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Sadly, this was the first of being”. Though he possessed some radical, almost heretical 44 bouts of insanity, each views, he also wrote strongly to condemn atheism, lasting between and argued that ancient temples – such as three and nine Stonehenge – had been built along heavenly months, until patterns in the worship of the creator his death God. Most surprising of all, Newton in 1422. pored over Biblical texts looking for T THE COUfoNr the R O F clues prophesying future events and T U O ign the campa predicted that the Apocalypse would Inspired by undreds of women NAME CHANGE h s or come in the year 2060. rm In his early reign, Charles vote, in 1911 fo s su n eir ce was called ‘the Beloved’ defaced th e enumerator. th hid from ilding W ily m E e r Sufragett unted afte as only co w n o is a av in D d hiding being foun Commons f o se Hou b cup oard.
WAS ISAAC NEWTON RELIGIOUS?
ALAMY X3, GETTY X4, THINKSTOCK X1
DID CHURCHILL HAVE ANY HOBBIES? The workaholic Sir Winston Churchill famously relaxed by painting – a hobby he’d started in 1915 after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign – and visitors to his Kent home, Chartwell, can view many of his canvases. But also visible is a red brick wall in his garden, which Winston proudly laid “with his own hands” between 1925-32. The future war leader was a dedicated member of the Amalgamated Union of Bricklayers and could lay 200 bricks a day.
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HISTORYEXTRA.COM
Who was the first US-born president?
VAN BUREN
Over 60 years after the US was formed, the first ‘American’ President was sworn in
On 4 July 1776, the 13 American colonies declared independence from Britain and bound themselves together as the United States. In 1789, this new nation elected its first president, George Washington, but the next six leaders would not be American-born citizens, because they had entered the world as subjects to the British Crown. It was in 1837, the year of Queen Victoria’s enthronement, that Martin Van Buren (born in 1782 became president number eight and broke the link to the royalist past. Yet, while he may have been the first American-born, he actually grew up speaking Dutch.