14 historical figures who had strange personal habits

You might know these people for their inventions or their politics, but it turns out that they had some very strange routines that became part of their everyday lives.

Tesla had a favorite number

Almost everyone has a favorite number, and Nikola Tesla was no different. The inventor liked the number three. But his love for it went beyond the norm, as he built parts of his daily routine around it. He preferred numbers divisible by three and got stuck on them. 

For example, when he went to restaurants, he’d ask for specifically 18 napkins to polish his plates and glasses. Eighteen, of course, divides by three. Tesla also walked around buildings three times before going inside because he was so big on the number three.

Hughes shut the world out

Howard Hughes was terrified of germs, and that only makes the state of his living space even stranger. The billionaire aviator and movie producer spent many years becoming more isolated because he was so afraid of catching germs. He actually began living inside a room at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. 

Hughes kept the curtains closed. He also taped shut the doors and windows. Housekeepers weren’t allowed in, and because Hughes was trying so hard to keep outside contamination away, the room became increasingly dirty. How ironic.

Reagan always had something sweet nearby

President Ronald Reagan had to sit through quite a few meetings. There was a good chance jelly beans weren’t far away when he was in one. Yes, he began eating them while trying to quit smoking, and it seems that he never really quit the candy habit. 

He kept jars of jelly beans around the White House while he was president. He gave some to visitors. His favorite flavor was licorice.

Beethoven could leave a very wet floor

Composer Beethoven had a very specific ritual for when he wanted to create a new piece. He’d pour water over himself. He would get a container of cool water and dump it over his hands, sometimes over his head, too.

It was especially important to him when he became absorbed in an idea, apparently. He didn’t seem to care where the water went afterward, and one account claims that Beethoven would splash so much water that some of it leaked into the room below. What a mess.

Proust turned his room into a cocoon

French writer Marcel Proust was a man who took quiet time seriously, perhaps a little too much. He spent much of his time in bed while working on In Search of Lost Time, and he had his walls covered in cork. Not for any artistic reason, though. He just wanted to block the sounds of Paris. 

Proust had thick sheets of it surrounding the room, and it apparently helped dull the outside noise while he slept. He was a night owl and tended to sleep during the day. His room definitely would’ve looked strange, that’s for sure.

Dickens brought directions into bed

Charles Dickens was another writer with strange specifications. He cared a lot about which way his head pointed while he slept, and he apparently always wanted it facing north. It got to the point where he carried a compass while traveling. 

That way, he could position unfamiliar beds ‘correctly.’ That’s not all, however, as he would apparently sleep in the middle of the mattress with his arms stretched out. He tried to make sure his hands would keep an equal distance from either side, because normal sleep wasn’t good enough. 

Dalí put bread into fashion

It should be no surprise that Salvador Dalí had some weird habits. Just look at how strange his paintings were. One of his quirkier habits involved walking around in public with what looked like an enormous loaf of bread on his head. 

It wasn’t actually a loaf, but just a hat made to look like bread. That doesn’t make the whole thing any less strange. Dalí had already used bread quite a lot in his art, so his fashion choice wasn’t completely random, at least not for him.

Johnson wanted serious water pressure

The White House shower wasn’t powerful enough for President Lyndon B. Johnson. He actually had workers continually change the plumbing because he wanted the water to hit him with more force, and from several directions. Five different shower setups were installed before he was finally satisfied. 

One worker even said the water was so strong that it knocked him off his feet. Richard Nixon tried the shower during his presidency and said that the pressure was too much for him. That figures.

Capote kept count of the ashtray

The number of cigarettes in an ashtray was a big deal for Truman Capote. The Breakfast at Tiffany’s writer was fine with two, but three was way too many. He would openly talk about his long list of superstitions. This was one of them.

Anytime that an ashtray reached three butts, he would remove one to keep the balance. Capote’s superstitions also meant he would avoid certain phone numbers and refuse to begin or finish a piece of writing on a Friday.

Kellogg had another use for yogurt

Most people think of yogurt as just a food. Famous doctor John Harvey Kellogg had some different ideas. He ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan and promoted a list of health treatments, including giving patients yogurt through enemas. Yes, really.

He believed it would help control certain bacteria in the intestines, so he told his patients to eat a pint of yogurt. They would then receive more through the rectum. It’s enough to put you off yogurt for life, honestly.

Turing’s commute required a gas mask

Codebreaker Alan Turing worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and he helped crack important German codes. He would sometimes ride his bicycle to work while wearing a gas mask. But it wasn’t because he expected a gas attack or anything.

No, Turing suffered from hay fever, and the mask would supposedly help keep pollen away. His nephew later said the sight of Turing riding his bike with the mask would scare people. They thought he knew something they didn’t.

Crawford counted every splash

Splashing your face with water is pretty normal. But the way Joan Crawford did it wasn’t. The film star would reportedly fill the sink with ice-cold water, and then splash her face 25 times. It had to be exactly 25, no more, no less.

Doing it once sounds uncomfortable enough. But she believed in doing it over and over before breakfast. Crawford followed the splashing with some moisturizer. She clearly took her beauty routines pretty seriously.

Ruth had something green under his cap

Yankees legend Babe Ruth was no stranger to hot weather, and he had a cooling trick for just those days. He would chill cabbage leaves in ice water. Then, he tucked one under his cap before heading onto the field.

Ruth would switch the leaf out for another when it stopped feeling cold. There were even rumors that he sometimes used two leaves because his head was so large. One of baseball’s biggest stars played with refrigerated cabbage under his hat, who would’ve thought it?

Christie plotted beside apple cores

A lot of murder mystery writer Agatha Christie’s ideas came together in the bath. But these were no ordinary baths. She would lie in an old-fashioned bathtub and eat apples at the same time. Then she’d think through plots for stories involving Hercule Poirot and other characters.

Nobody really knows why the apples were so important to Christie, but clearly, they were. She’d leave the cores sitting around the edge of the tub while she worked. She was a mystery in herself, it seems.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

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