52ºc, New York
10 witty facts about Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, the great British Bull, is undoubtedly one of Britain's most recognizable faces.
He is often voted the Top Briton of all time in polls - and it is!
He led the country from its darkest days to its best from 1940 to 1945 during World War II.
He fought and reported some conflicts during his youth, served in Congress for more than 60 years and under six different monarchs, and even served a second term as
Churchill is well known, with this man himself a writer who has written many memoirs and biographies, and the collective of human authors has written hundreds of thousands of pages about him.
But how much do you know about him?
Well, all of that and more will be in these 10 witty facts about Winston Churchill!
Winston Churchill's mother is American.
Back in the 19th century, it was customary for the British aristocracy to marry American heirs.
A marriage like this took place between a Lord Randolph Churchill and Brooklyn heir Jennie Jerome.
Jennie and Lord Randy had two children, Winston in 1874 and Jack in 1880, both born at Blenheim Palace on their Oxfordshire estate.
Quick note here: Jack, Winston's brother is not "Mad Jack" Churchill - World War II soldier used to rush into battle while playing his bagpipe, using a bow and arrow and saying, 'Any officer
He's a villain!
Most iconic British Bulldog images typically feature a chewy cigar clutched in his hand or grinning mouth, but smoking is not its only behavior.
Churchill absolutely loved a nipple!
This man himself once said that "hot baths, cold champagne, new beans and old brandy" are four essentials of life.
As a young man in the army, Churchill brought with him 60 bottles of wine of all kinds - mainly his favorite whiskey and spirits - when shipping to the Second Boer War in South Africa!
As you can imagine, Churchill was also not the most forbidding in America, describing it as "an affront to all of human history".
He even earned himself a Doctor of Merit in 1932, which stated that he could drink an 'indefinite' amount of alcohol during his time in the United States.
When Churchill visited King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia in 1945, he was informed that he could not drink in front of the King due to the King's religious beliefs.
Churchill, with his dry sense of humor that he was the famous master of answering "my religion prescribes an absolute sacred rite of smoking cigars and drinking wine before, after, and if necessary in socks.
Winston Churchill staged an escape from a young age.
As a young man, Churchill joined the army and graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, becoming an officer in the cavalry.
After graduating and had some experience as a war correspondent, he moved to South Africa in 1899.
Upon his arrival, the armored train he was traveling on was ambushed by Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers fighting the British at the time), and Churchill was captured and had to march to a
Now, the reason for the hack is not known exactly, but if I had to bet I would say they confiscated his wine ... because during the night Churchill managed to widen the wall - one thing
Without a clear plan, Churchill fortunately happened to be in the home of an English coal mine manager.
The mine manager was able to hide Churchill in a mine shaft for three days before sending him on his way to British-run Mozambique in a van loaded with wool.
Churchill from Mozambique boarded a train from Mozambique back to South Africa, and upon returning to the military camp, he became an overnight celebrity among his cavalry comrades!
He suffered from mild depression throughout his life.
Churchill tended to be in low mood and suffered from mild depression throughout his life - what he called his "Black Dog".
There will be times in Churchill's life when he lacks the energy or the will to get out of bed and stay active, lose his appetite, lose his concentration, and ignore his preferences.
There is still a lot of debate on the subject, with some believing Churchill suffers from Bipolar Disorder, and others disagreeing with this due to the degree of functionality he is able to achieve in life.
Some researchers also believe that he developed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD-H) as a child and continued to fight these symptoms throughout his adult life with activities like drawing.
He was voted on before World War II ended.
This may shock some, as he is often referred to as one of the "best Britons", or when people talk about him being Britain's best wartime leader ever.
However, in July 1945, two months after the Nazis surrendered unconditionally while war raged in the Pacific, England held its first general election in more than a decade -
As anyone who knows anything about British politics will tell you, every political campaign is always dripping propaganda (yes, Brexit, I'm looking at you) and this is no different.
Thanks to the work of the opposition Labor Party, who viewed Churchill's Conservative Party as counter-worker and counter-welfare, Clement Attlee defeated Churchill in a great shock.
Even so, he handled things quite well, saying, “They have the right to kick us out.
Despite losing his role as Prime Minister, Churchill remained in the National Assembly and would eventually run again as Prime Minister in the 1951 general election.
Churchill did not like Gandhi very much.
Or India, for that matter.
Throughout her life, Churchill was a very outspoken Imperialist - believing that the British Empire should keep its colonies.
Especially so for India, who is a fiercely opposed to any form of Indian autonomy.
So Churchill was not a fan of Gandhi - he openly supported letting Gandhi die during a hunger strike.
He often spoke out against Gandhi - in Congress and in public - going so far as to say that Gandhi was a "malignant overthrowing fanatic" and "an ambitious lawyer at the Medieval Temple, currently in disguise.
Churchill's hand is far from clean ...
Given Churchill's well-known thoughts on India, it is not surprising that the people of India suffered at his hands during World War II.
And I'm not only talking about Indian men on the British Army, but also civilians of India.
The 1943 famine of Bengal - the only famine in modern Indian history that was not caused by nature - killed about 3 million civilians.
As part of Churchill's wartime logistics efforts, vast quantities of rice were exported out of India to the frontlines and to Britain as a means of keeping the people and the British Army fed and
Churchill, a former critic of the Indian population or Gandhi, blamed the famine on the Indians, said it was their fault to "raise like rabbits" and that the shortage could not be so bad because
He did not play too much an active role in military affairs during World War II.
Unlike Hitler, who was famous and infamous among his generals for interfering with and interfering with war plans, Churchill tended to stay out of military plans for his armed forces in
After starting his Parliamentary career in 1900, Churchill finally landed as First Lord of the Navy in 1911 - a role comparable to that of the Secretary of the United States.
In this role, Churchill planned one of the greatest failures of the British Navy: Operation Dardanelles.
Churchill believes (and yes, it is fair to say) that if the British Army can defeat the collapsing Ottoman Empire, they can bond with their Russian teammates and put additional pressure on the army.
However, when the Royal Navy's fleet entered the Dardanelles, the Ottoman firepower sank three ships almost immediately, severely damaging three other ships and causing the rest of the fleet to run back.
Churchill was quick to resign following the incident, and although he suffered a bit of political damage and fame, he was able to rebuild it over time.
This mistake must have weighed heavily on Churchill, because during World War II he often left strategic and tactical military decisions to military leaders.
Winston Churchill is an all-round creative and talented artist.
Churchill was, by all accounts, a rather sensitive soul, who was not afraid to tighten his heart on his sleeves - often moved to tears in the House of Representatives, or when speaking or receiving praise.
He is also a very artistic and creative person - a passionate painter, a journalist in his early years, and an author throughout his life.
Churchill was quite fond of impressionist landscapes and still lifes, and after the Great War he befriended the painter Paul Maze, who greatly influenced him artistically.
The two remain friends and companions in the paintings until the end of their life.
Churchill drew under the pseudonym "Charles Morin" and most of his surviving works can be seen at Chartwell House in London.
He was also a prolific writer throughout his life, having written a novel, two biographies, three memoirs and several history books.
Churchill was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature during his second term as Prime Minister "for his proficiency in historical and biographical description as well as for his outstanding eloquence in the defense of human values.
But even so, he's not a Nazi at all - mocking the controversial grammar law for not ending a sentence with a preposition by saying “That makes no sense, I will
He has a speech problem.
Yes, one of the most famous speakers in history has had trouble speaking.
Churchill suffered from unilateral lisp, and as a result, he had difficulty pronouncing the "s" and "z" sounds.
In 1897, he sought help from Sir Felix Semen, a respected expert on dysphoria, who simply told Churchill that he only needed to practice to overcome it.
So that's what he did.
There was one word, though, Churchill never understood, and it might have been just a little deliberate.
He was never able to pronounce "Nazis" correctly, saying "Narzees" instead.
On January 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died at the age of 90 after a severe stroke nine days earlier.
He hosted the largest state funeral ever to happen in British history, with representatives from 112 participating countries and 350 million Europeans, including 25 million British, watched live on TV.
As Churchill's coffin crossed the River Thames, the ship builders working there simultaneously lowered their cranes in a beautiful impromptu salute.
The Royal Artillery fired 19 welcome shots and the RAF took off with 16 English Electric Lightning fighters.
At his request, Churchill was buried in his family estate, a short distance from his birthplace at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
Demonstrating the dry sense of humor of the Great British, the epitaph on his headstone reads:
“I'm ready to meet my Creator.
