- Left handed people tend to reach puberty 5 months later than normal.
- Left handed people are good in many sports: baseball, tennis, swimming, boxing, etc. Some of the top tennis players are left handed – Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Rafael Nadal, Rod Laver.
- Four out of the seven recent United States presidents were left handed.
- According to the statistics, left handed college graduates go on to become 26% richer, compared to their right handed colleagues.
- In the past, left handed people and left-handedness has been related and seen as many bad things, such as: mark of the devil, a sign of neurosis, nasty habit, rebellion, criminality, and homosexuality. Left-handedness has also been seen as a trait indicating creativity and musical abilities.
- Did you know that the word “left” in English actually comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lyft – which means weak or broken?
- Women who are pregnant in their 40s are 128% more likely to have a left-handed baby, compared to pregnant women in their 20s.
- Almost 90% of all humans are right-handed. But cats, rats and mice seem to be equally split between right and left pawedness.
- A recent study has found that left handed people are more talented in spatial awareness, math and architecture. Right handed people tend to be more talented verbally.
- A recent study has shown that left handed people are slightly more prone to allergies and asthma than right-handers.
- According to a research, the medical experts have found that if a left-hander injures his dominant hand, he has an easier time learning to use the other hand than this right handed counterparts.
- Did you know that the longest words can be typed using only the left hand with conventional keyboard hand placement are sweater, dresses and tesserae decades?
- There have been four British monarchs that were left-handed:
King James I, King George II, King George IV and King George VI. Prince William is also left-handed. - People who are left handed are more prone to suffer from insomnia.
- Did you know that some of the most wanted murderers on the planet: Osama Bin Laden, The Boston Strangler and Jack the Ripper were all left handed people?
- People who are left handed are able to adjust to seeing underwater better than right handed people.
- A study, published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, has found that left handed people process emotions differently. And in turn they tend to get angry, much faster than their right handed peers.
Anyhoo, when I grew up it wasn’t so much fun being a leftie. At school I was forced to write, play sport and do things like sewing and cutting paper with my right hand. I can do it but I totally suck at it because I am actually left handed so my right hand didn’t function well at all. But my left hand is, as a result, untrained so now I am terrible at doing certain things with either hand.
I battle to peel vegetables or open tins with standard tin openers. I find it difficult to pour from anything which has the spout facing the ‘wrong’ way, I used to battle to write in a right handed cheque book, the standard lecture desks when I was at university had the writing table on the right. When I write with fountain pen or pencil my hand smudges it. I can’t cut bread very well and chip and pin code pads and card swipers are often designed for right handers.
I used to write three-hour exams on things like this (above)
Things are looking up though – we have our own day (International Left-Handers’ Day) on August 13th. Here is a nice site for things for left-handed people.
Many American Presidents have been left handed
- James A. Garfield (1881) 20th
- Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) 31st
- Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) 33rd
- Gerald Ford (1974-1977) 38th
- Ronald Reagan (1981 -1989) 40th (actually a right-handed writer)
- George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) 41st
- Bill Clinton (1993-2001) 42nd
- Barack Obama (2009 – 2017) 44th
The 1996 election involved three left-handed candidates: Clinton, Perot, and Bob Dole. Additionally, both major-party candidates in the 2008 presidential election – Barack Obama and John McCain – were left-handed.
Here is a list of 100 famous left-handed people. There is a longer list here
Leonardo Da Vinci
Paul Klee
Michelangelo Buonaroti
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
Peter Paul Rubens
Actors
Amitabh & Abhishek Bachchan
Drew Barrymore
Kim Basinger
Kenneth Branagh
Pierce Brosnan
Jim Carrey
Charlie Chaplin
Tom Cruise
Robert De Niro
Matt Dillon
Morgan Freeman
Judy Garland
Whoopi Goldberg
Angelina Jolie
Nicole Kidman
Val Kilmer
Lisa Kudrow
Marilyn Monroe
Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen
Sarah Jessica Parker
Brad Pitt
Keanu Reeves
Julia Roberts
Jennifer Saunders
Sylvester Stallone
Chewbacca the Wookie
Writers
Lewis Carroll
Bill Bryson
Germaine Greer
Berthold Schwartz
Janet Street Porter
Uhland Ludwig
Animation
Matt Groening
Bart Simpson
Comedy
Harpo Marx
Fashion
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Directors
James Cameron
Spike Lee
Music
Benjamin Britten
David Bowie
Celine Dion
Eminem
Kurt Cobain
Noel Gallagher
Bob Geldof
Jimi Hendrix
Annie Lennox
Sir Paul McCartney
Ricky Martin
Sting
Television/entertainment
Melinda Messenger
Magnus Magnusson
Ted Koppel
Paul Daniels
Tim Allen
Jeremy Beadle
Julian Clary
Charlie Dimmock
Loyd Grossman
Ross Kemp
Rik Mayal
Juliet Morris
Nicholas Parsons
Jonathan Ross
Shane Ritchie
Uri Geller
Shawn Michaels
History
Albert Einstein
Jack The Ripper
Napoleon Bonaparte
Julius Caesar
Aristotle
Neil Armstrong
Henry Ford
Marie Curie
Joan of Arc
Helen Keller
Royalty
Queen Mother
Prince William
Politics
Winston Churchill
President George Bush
Sport
Wasim Akram
Sir Bobby Charlton
Diego Armando Maradona
Pele
Paula Radcliffe
Jimmy White
Mark Williams
John McEnroe
Martina Navratilova
Greg Rusedski
Babe Ruth
David Gower
It’s a shame that you don’t give the sources of the 17 facts points and also that the list of 100 left-handed people is only based on Anglo or American people. There are countries in the world (and in Europe it is even more obvious) where there is a great percentage of left-handed people.
That is an interesting point! The long list about famous left-handers is from a UK site (link in article) so they probably concentrated only on UK and American people. It would be interesting to look at the similar sites for the different countries about left handers and see if they feature more local lefties?
The other list of 17 was originally a longer list created by my students. We discounted many of the things they found (for example one said that the British Queen was left handed, which she isn’t and another one used the wrong statistics). I must get their sources from them.
Yes I’m always sceptical about that sort of list or people starting sentences with “According to a recent study/a research…” or percentages when the sources are not given. It is so easy to make up facts or misread them that I never trust any information which is not traceable.
As I always say to my students: if you’re not able to give your sources then your information is not reliable and has never existed. Most of them are future journalists so they must be precise!