50 Fun Facts About Famous People Named Charles

Which US president was born on 12 February 1809, the very same day as naturalist Charles Darwin?

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room Kentucky log cabin on the day Darwin was born at his family's comfortable home in Shrewsbury, England.

Which English mathematician, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under a pen name?

Lewis Carroll is his real name in disguise: he turned Charles Lutwidge into the Latin Carolus Ludovicus, swapped the order and translated it back into English.

Chuck E. Cheese pizza arcades were started in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell, founder of which video game company?

Atari made its name with Pong, and Bushnell wanted arcade machines out of pool halls and in front of families, so he built a restaurant around them.

Basketball salesman Chuck Taylor's signature sits on the ankle patch of which brand's canvas high-top sneakers?

Converse took Taylor on as a travelling salesman, adopted his ideas for the design and added his name to the All Star, the first celebrity-endorsed athletic shoe.

In the film Cast Away, stranded FedEx employee Chuck Noland gives which name to the volleyball he befriends?

Wilson gets a face when Chuck cuts his hand trying to start a fire and leaves a bloody print on the ball. It is his only companion for four years on the island.

Which silent film star, creator of the Tramp, received a 12-minute standing ovation at the 1972 Academy Awards?

Charlie Chaplin was back in the United States for the first time in 20 years, after his re-entry permit was revoked over questions about his politics.

Which rock and roll pioneer's Johnny B. Goode is the only rock song on the Voyager spacecraft's Golden Record?

Chuck Berry was just as famous for the duck walk, a crouching strut he first did as a child to fetch a ball from under a table.

Which aviator flew the Spirit of St. Louis alone from New York to Paris in 1927, taking over 33 hours?

Charles Lindbergh was chasing the $25,000 Orteig Prize, and he found France by dead reckoning because he thought radio gear too heavy and unreliable to carry.

Pharmacist Charles Alderton created which soft drink at a Waco, Texas, soda fountain in 1885, a year before Coca-Cola?

Dr Pepper was first served at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store, where early customers ordered it by a nickname borrowed from the town rather than by its name.

Which game show did Chuck Woolery host from its 1975 debut until Pat Sajak replaced him in 1981?

Wheel of Fortune was only the start for Woolery, who went on to host Love Connection for more than a decade, along with Scrabble, Greed and Lingo.

Which Victorian novelist left school at 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory while his father was in debtors' prison?

Charles Dickens earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot polish, working ten-hour days to pay for his board and help his family.

King Charles III was crowned alongside Queen Camilla on 6 May 2023 in which historic church?

Westminster Abbey has staged coronations since William the Conqueror's in 1066, and Charles became the 40th monarch to be crowned there.

After King Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in 1649, which general ruled England as Lord Protector?

Oliver Cromwell had been a leading advocate of the king's execution, and he took the title in December 1653 and kept it for the last five years of his life.

After the 1651 Battle of Worcester, the future King Charles II hid from Roundhead soldiers in which kind of tree?

An oak in the woods around Boscobel House kept him out of sight, which is why The Royal Oak became one of the most common pub names in the country.

Which Frankish king was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in 800?

Charlemagne was named after his grandfather, the war leader Charles Martel, and his French name runs together Charles-le-magne, meaning Charles the Great.

Which teenage peasant girl helped the future Charles VII of France reach a 1429 coronation at Reims Cathedral?

Joan of Arc came from the village of Domrémy and demanded an escort to Charles from a garrison commander, saying visions of angels and saints had given her a mission.

Charles de Gaulle rallied the Free French from exile in 1940, then returned to power in 1958 to found which regime?

The Fifth Republic was built around a strong presidency under a constitution approved by referendum, and de Gaulle held the office until he resigned in 1969.

British general Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army to George Washington's forces in 1781 at which town?

Yorktown found Cornwallis claiming to be ill on the day of the ceremony, apparently to avoid facing Washington, so a deputy handed over his sword for him.

Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to Skye after his 1746 defeat at Culloden disguised as the maid of which Scottish heroine?

Flora MacDonald took him across by boat as an Irish maid called Betty Burke, a cover story that also explained away the maid's unladylike manners.

Charles Guiteau, an office seeker who felt he was owed a consulship, shot which US president in Washington in 1881?

James A. Garfield owed him nothing: Guiteau played only a peripheral part in the election campaign, yet believed he had won it and deserved a post in Vienna or Paris.

Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine inspired notes by which mathematician, often called the first computer programmer?

Ada Lovelace set out how the machine could calculate Bernoulli numbers, a method often described as the first published computer program.

Which self-taught chemist patented vulcanized rubber in 1844 yet was sent to debtor's prison again and again?

Charles Goodyear never owned the tire maker that carries his name: Frank Seiberling founded it in 1898, almost four decades after the inventor's death.

Which swindler promised investors a 50% profit in 45 days in 1920 by trading international postal reply coupons?

Charles Ponzi did not invent the trick of paying old investors with new investors' money, but it became so tied to him that it has carried his surname ever since.

Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg developed a 1935 scale at the California Institute of Technology to measure what?

Earthquakes were Richter's life's work: he was inspired by a 1928 paper from Japan's Kiyoo Wadati, and he kept studying seismograph data daily even after retiring.

Charles Best co-discovered which hormone with Frederick Banting, then sold the patent to a university for one dollar?

Insulin won Banting and John Macleod the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine, but the committee passed over Best and his colleague Collip.

Charles's law, named for French scientist Jacques Charles, says a gas's volume rises in proportion to which property?

Temperature, measured in kelvins with the pressure held constant, is the partner. Charles never published the work, so Gay-Lussac credited him when confirming it in 1802.

Journalist Charles Dow, inventor of a famous stock market average, co-founded which financial newspaper?

The Wall Street Journal came out of Dow Jones & Company, the firm Dow set up with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.

Charlie Munger was vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway from 1978 until his death in 2023 beside which famous investor?

Warren Buffett called Munger his closest partner and right-hand man, and credited him as the architect of the company's business philosophy.

English astronomer Charles Mason spent 1763 to 1767 surveying a famous colonial boundary line with which partner?

Jeremiah Dixon was a surveyor and amateur astronomer from County Durham, and the Mason–Dixon line the pair marked out still carries both their names.

Which actor, born Carlos Estévez, had his Two and a Half Men contract terminated in March 2011?

Charlie Sheen had been the highest-paid actor on television, earning $1.8 million an episode for playing the sitcom's Charlie Harper.

Which actor, born a Buchinsky in a Pennsylvania coal town, played a vigilante architect in Death Wish?

Charles Bronson was 52 when the 1974 film handed him his most famous role, a long way from a childhood of extreme poverty in the Allegheny Mountains.

Chuck Norris fought which martial arts star in Rome's Colosseum at the climax of The Way of the Dragon?

Bruce Lee did far more than star in the 1972 film: he also wrote the script, directed it, co-produced it and played percussion on the soundtrack.

Charles Schulz gave Snoopy a fantasy life as a World War I flying ace forever shot down by which enemy pilot?

The Red Baron always wins: Snoopy's Sopwith Camel is consistently shot down by his imaginary German rival, one of many daydreams the beagle has on top of his doghouse.

Chuck Jones directed the 1966 TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas with which horror film star as narrator?

Boris Karloff narrated it for Jones, whose earlier cartoon shorts had starred Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew and Marvin the Martian.

Charlie Watts, a jazz lover who trained as a graphic artist, drummed for which rock band from 1963 until 2021?

The Rolling Stones put his art training to work too: Watts doubled as the designer of their record sleeves and tour stages.

Which Kansas City saxophonist, nicknamed Bird, became a leading figure in the development of bebop in the 1940s?

Charlie Parker picked up the fuller nickname Yardbird early in his career, while he was on the road with bandleader Jay McShann.

Which country fiddler's band scored a 1979 pop hit with The Devil Went Down to Georgia?

Charlie Daniels took the song to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for it, and it was his band's only number-one country hit.

Charles Eames designed a celebrated 1956 lounge chair with his partner Ray Eames, who was what relation to him?

His wife Ray married Charles in June 1941, and the couple shaped modern furniture and architecture together through the Eames Office.

Modernist composer Charles Ives, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Music, made his living in which industry?

Insurance was his career from graduation, when Ives joined the actuarial department of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.

Which NBA Hall of Famer, nicknamed the Round Mound of Rebound, was voted league MVP with the Phoenix Suns in 1993?

Charles Barkley led the Suns to the NBA Finals that season, having already won a rebounding title during his years in Philadelphia.

Which baseball player, the all-time leader in hits, was nicknamed Charlie Hustle for sprinting to first base on a walk?

Pete Rose got the name as a jibe from Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford during a spring training game, and it stuck through all 4,256 of his hits.

Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls without a loss as head coach of which NFL team from 1969 to 1991?

The Pittsburgh Steelers had played just one playoff game in the 36 years before Noll took over, and they lost it 21–0.

Which test pilot first broke the sound barrier in 1947, flying the Bell X-1 with two ribs cracked in a riding fall?

Chuck Yeager feared the injury would get him removed from the mission, so he had a civilian doctor in a nearby town tape up his ribs.

Chuck Connors, star of The Rifleman, played pro basketball for which team before reaching baseball's major leagues?

The Boston Celtics were newly formed when he joined in 1946, and he went on to appear for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs before turning to acting.

Who directed Citizen Kane and starred in it as newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, in a first feature film?

Orson Welles also produced and co-wrote the 1941 drama, whose central figure is a composite of press tycoons including William Randolph Hearst.

Which actor first played the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier on film, in X-Men in 2000?

Patrick Stewart went on to share the part with James McAvoy, who played Xavier as a younger man in the later prequel films.

Which US vice president shared the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize and wrote a melody that became a No. 1 pop hit?

Charles Dawes composed Melody in A Major as a self-taught pianist; words were added in 1951, and Tommy Edwards's recording spent six weeks at number one in 1958.

Which pioneer of modern architecture, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland, took French nationality in 1930?

Le Corbusier was the name he worked under through a five-decade career that put his buildings in Europe, Japan, India and the Americas.

Chuck Palahniuk wrote which novel, his first to be published, after every publisher rejected Invisible Monsters?

Fight Club was adapted into a film of the same title, and its author has since added graphic novels and even adult coloring books to his output.

Checkpoint Charlie, named for the letter C in the NATO phonetic alphabet, was a Cold War crossing in which city?

Berlin had sister crossings on the Autobahn route in from the West, named in the same way: Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt and Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden.