they did what welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top ten strange facts you never
knew about world leaders before we begin
we publish new videos every day so be
sure to subscribe for more great content
for this list we’re looking at
little-known or strange facts about
world leaders past or present Kim
jong-il freakiest guy in the world North
Korea freakiest country in the world
kidnapping people to make the freakiest
films in the world number 10 the X
Australian PM really knows how to chug a
beer Australian men have a reputation
for being fond of beer so it’s no
surprise that Bob Hawke who is the
country’s prime minister from 1983 to
1991 likes his suds what may be
surprising is that he actually once held
a Guinness world record for beer
drinking in 1953 Hawke chugged a yard of
ale about two and a half Imperial pints
in 11 seconds hock was a student at the
time but people have never forgotten the
record-breaking accomplishment as a
matter of fact he’s openly stated that
he believed his yard of ale chug is
responsible for his political success
with a populace that appreciates the art
of beer drinking number nine Nicolae
Ceausescu took paranoia to an extreme
communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
wasn’t exactly the warm and cuddly type
when he ruled Romania he instituted
reforms that were brutal even by Soviet
bloc standards perhaps best known for
his austerity policy which resulted in
the starvation of his own people The
Dictator was also off the charts on the
paranoia scale he was especially
concerned that his clothes would somehow
be poisoned so he kept a stockpile of
suits under lock and key and had staff
protect them from possible contaminants
after wearing a suit it was taken out
and burned of course with his approach
to ruling he had reason to be paranoid
he had turned his own country against
him number 8 the president of Madagascar
knew how to spin some tunes when Andre
rocks well seized the presidency of
Madagascar
in 2009 at the age of 34 he was the
youngest person ever to serve as an
African president he was also widely
criticized plus then again the guy he
deposed wasn’t too popular either an
established entrepreneur the young man’s
charisma and fierce ambition had taken
him from mayor to president in just two
years strangely it all started behind
turntables as a teenager he began
working as a DJ it gave him some startup
capital and sparked his interest in
exploring the world of business from
which he eventually branched out into
politics
number seven Muammar Gaddafi had
interesting hygiene habits Libyan
dictator Muammar Gaddafi may have been a
despot but he was a deficit that cared
about his appearance internationally
known for being exceedingly vain Gaddafi
worked hard to promote an image of
himself as a sex symbol to keep this
image intact as he aged he underwent
plastic surgery at his private
underground bunker sometimes without
anesthesia it’s also been reported but
he had the odd habit of washing his
hands in the blood of a freshly killed
deer claiming that warm blood had
special benefits we’re open to
homeopathic beauty regimens but
seriously you got to draw the line
somewhere
number six Mikhail Gorbachev is a Grammy
winner okay Meghan and McConnell
self-doubt is your name and we deem it
out as the final leader of the Soviet
Union Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies paved
the way for the end of communism in
Russia for his efforts Gorbachev
received numerous honors and awards
including the Otto Hahn peace medal and
the Nobel Peace Prize he even received
the first Ronald Reagan Freedom Award
something no one would have seen coming
ten years earlier but his most unusual
recognition may have been the Grammy
Award accorded to him in 2004 the
category was Best spoken word album for
children and Gorbachev won for his work
on a recording of Peter and the wolf
once upon a time early one morning PETA
opened the gate and went out into the
big
who else shared that Grammy with him
fellow voice actor and former US
President Bill Clinton number five Kim
jong-il abducted a film director while
his father was still on the throne Kim
jong-il decided he would take it upon
himself to shape North Korea’s film
industry how better to do that than by
kidnapping one of South Korea’s most
acclaimed directors and his ex-wife
filmmaker Shin Sun oak was imprisoned
and quote free educated then forced to
make films for Kim the end results
weren’t exactly masterpieces although
their knockoff of Godzilla sounds like
fun sano-kun his wife is mentally
escaped during a trip to a film festival
and found asylum in the u.s. as for Kim
he never did achieve his goal of
elevating the country’s film industry
number 4 William Lyon Mackenzie King
enjoyed really long distance talks
Canada’s longest serving Prime Minister
is known for shepherding the country
through the difficult years of World War
two and for helping establish the
country’s welfare system less well known
is King’s fondness for spiritualism
chaos is in particular as this
information didn’t come out until after
his death biographers indicate that
Mackenzie King was rather cold and
impersonal and that he had few good
friends at least among the living the
Prime Minister apparently utilized
mediums to hold talks with departed
friends and relatives including his dear
mother and his dog among the oddest of
his alleged otherworldly confidants was
deep leonardo da vinci number 3 napoleon
penned a steamy romance novel okay it
may not be steamy by modern standards
but we are sure it would have snapped
the stays on numerous courses in a stay
in 1795 Napoleon was not yet a
world-renowned military leader but he
did display knowledge of skirmishes of
the heart when he met Desiree Clary his
brother Joseph fiance he quickly made it
apparent that his brother should clear
out joseph did into the nearby arms of
Desiree’s sister enraptured Napoleon
wrote a thinly veiled account of his and
Desiree’s romance spicing it up with
dollops of betrayal and death but before
the year was out the pole
had found someone new to replace Desiree
unsurprisingly this novella went
unpublished in his lifetime
number two Saddam Hussein used his blood
as ink Saddam Hussein shed a lot of
blood but by his own admission little of
it was his own that’s why he undertook
this interesting pet project over a
period of about two years he allegedly
had some fifty or so pints of blood
withdrawn from his own body with this
blood abbas Shakir Jody an expert in
Islamic calligraphy was charged with
making a copy of the Quran all three
hundred and thirty-six thousand words of
it the resulting blood Quran was then
put on official display while a
captivating story there is significant
doubt as to the veracity of the account
donating 50 pints of blood in such a
short period of time would leave a body
seriously weakened before we unveil our
number one pick here are some honorable
mentions
[Music]
[Music]
number one Abraham Lincoln is in the
Wrestling Hall of Fame maybe the Civil
War would have ended more quickly had
Honest Abe challenged Jefferson Davis to
a wrestling match shall we stop this
bleeding it turns out that the 16th US
president was an enormous ly skilled
wrestler some sources claim he
participated in 300 matches losing only
once since exact records from the period
are hard to come by that may be an
exaggeration but nonetheless the lanky
leaders skill was such that the National
Wrestling Hall of Fame posthumously
inducted him in 1992 labeling him an
outstanding American now if only we
could get him in the ring with another
legend like John Cena I look like Mark
Wahlberg ate Mark Wahlberg do you agree
with our picks check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
you
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top ten strange facts you never
knew about world leaders before we begin
we publish new videos every day so be
sure to subscribe for more great content
for this list we’re looking at
little-known or strange facts about
world leaders past or present Kim
jong-il freakiest guy in the world North
Korea freakiest country in the world
kidnapping people to make the freakiest
films in the world number 10 the X
Australian PM really knows how to chug a
beer Australian men have a reputation
for being fond of beer so it’s no
surprise that Bob Hawke who is the
country’s prime minister from 1983 to
1991 likes his suds what may be
surprising is that he actually once held
a Guinness world record for beer
drinking in 1953 Hawke chugged a yard of
ale about two and a half Imperial pints
in 11 seconds hock was a student at the
time but people have never forgotten the
record-breaking accomplishment as a
matter of fact he’s openly stated that
he believed his yard of ale chug is
responsible for his political success
with a populace that appreciates the art
of beer drinking number nine Nicolae
Ceausescu took paranoia to an extreme
communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
wasn’t exactly the warm and cuddly type
when he ruled Romania he instituted
reforms that were brutal even by Soviet
bloc standards perhaps best known for
his austerity policy which resulted in
the starvation of his own people The
Dictator was also off the charts on the
paranoia scale he was especially
concerned that his clothes would somehow
be poisoned so he kept a stockpile of
suits under lock and key and had staff
protect them from possible contaminants
after wearing a suit it was taken out
and burned of course with his approach
to ruling he had reason to be paranoid
he had turned his own country against
him number 8 the president of Madagascar
knew how to spin some tunes when Andre
rocks well seized the presidency of
Madagascar
in 2009 at the age of 34 he was the
youngest person ever to serve as an
African president he was also widely
criticized plus then again the guy he
deposed wasn’t too popular either an
established entrepreneur the young man’s
charisma and fierce ambition had taken
him from mayor to president in just two
years strangely it all started behind
turntables as a teenager he began
working as a DJ it gave him some startup
capital and sparked his interest in
exploring the world of business from
which he eventually branched out into
politics
number seven Muammar Gaddafi had
interesting hygiene habits Libyan
dictator Muammar Gaddafi may have been a
despot but he was a deficit that cared
about his appearance internationally
known for being exceedingly vain Gaddafi
worked hard to promote an image of
himself as a sex symbol to keep this
image intact as he aged he underwent
plastic surgery at his private
underground bunker sometimes without
anesthesia it’s also been reported but
he had the odd habit of washing his
hands in the blood of a freshly killed
deer claiming that warm blood had
special benefits we’re open to
homeopathic beauty regimens but
seriously you got to draw the line
somewhere
number six Mikhail Gorbachev is a Grammy
winner okay Meghan and McConnell
self-doubt is your name and we deem it
out as the final leader of the Soviet
Union Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies paved
the way for the end of communism in
Russia for his efforts Gorbachev
received numerous honors and awards
including the Otto Hahn peace medal and
the Nobel Peace Prize he even received
the first Ronald Reagan Freedom Award
something no one would have seen coming
ten years earlier but his most unusual
recognition may have been the Grammy
Award accorded to him in 2004 the
category was Best spoken word album for
children and Gorbachev won for his work
on a recording of Peter and the wolf
once upon a time early one morning PETA
opened the gate and went out into the
big
who else shared that Grammy with him
fellow voice actor and former US
President Bill Clinton number five Kim
jong-il abducted a film director while
his father was still on the throne Kim
jong-il decided he would take it upon
himself to shape North Korea’s film
industry how better to do that than by
kidnapping one of South Korea’s most
acclaimed directors and his ex-wife
filmmaker Shin Sun oak was imprisoned
and quote free educated then forced to
make films for Kim the end results
weren’t exactly masterpieces although
their knockoff of Godzilla sounds like
fun sano-kun his wife is mentally
escaped during a trip to a film festival
and found asylum in the u.s. as for Kim
he never did achieve his goal of
elevating the country’s film industry
number 4 William Lyon Mackenzie King
enjoyed really long distance talks
Canada’s longest serving Prime Minister
is known for shepherding the country
through the difficult years of World War
two and for helping establish the
country’s welfare system less well known
is King’s fondness for spiritualism
chaos is in particular as this
information didn’t come out until after
his death biographers indicate that
Mackenzie King was rather cold and
impersonal and that he had few good
friends at least among the living the
Prime Minister apparently utilized
mediums to hold talks with departed
friends and relatives including his dear
mother and his dog among the oddest of
his alleged otherworldly confidants was
deep leonardo da vinci number 3 napoleon
penned a steamy romance novel okay it
may not be steamy by modern standards
but we are sure it would have snapped
the stays on numerous courses in a stay
in 1795 Napoleon was not yet a
world-renowned military leader but he
did display knowledge of skirmishes of
the heart when he met Desiree Clary his
brother Joseph fiance he quickly made it
apparent that his brother should clear
out joseph did into the nearby arms of
Desiree’s sister enraptured Napoleon
wrote a thinly veiled account of his and
Desiree’s romance spicing it up with
dollops of betrayal and death but before
the year was out the pole
had found someone new to replace Desiree
unsurprisingly this novella went
unpublished in his lifetime
number two Saddam Hussein used his blood
as ink Saddam Hussein shed a lot of
blood but by his own admission little of
it was his own that’s why he undertook
this interesting pet project over a
period of about two years he allegedly
had some fifty or so pints of blood
withdrawn from his own body with this
blood abbas Shakir Jody an expert in
Islamic calligraphy was charged with
making a copy of the Quran all three
hundred and thirty-six thousand words of
it the resulting blood Quran was then
put on official display while a
captivating story there is significant
doubt as to the veracity of the account
donating 50 pints of blood in such a
short period of time would leave a body
seriously weakened before we unveil our
number one pick here are some honorable
mentions
[Music]
[Music]
number one Abraham Lincoln is in the
Wrestling Hall of Fame maybe the Civil
War would have ended more quickly had
Honest Abe challenged Jefferson Davis to
a wrestling match shall we stop this
bleeding it turns out that the 16th US
president was an enormous ly skilled
wrestler some sources claim he
participated in 300 matches losing only
once since exact records from the period
are hard to come by that may be an
exaggeration but nonetheless the lanky
leaders skill was such that the National
Wrestling Hall of Fame posthumously
inducted him in 1992 labeling him an
outstanding American now if only we
could get him in the ring with another
legend like John Cena I look like Mark
Wahlberg ate Mark Wahlberg do you agree
with our picks check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
you
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