Left-Handers’ Day: Some Notable Lefties in History

Happy Left-Handers’ Day--no, it’s fake not a holiday coined by Ned Flanders--is on Tuesday.
Left-Handers’ Day: Some Notable Lefties in History
A $100 bill shows Benjamin Franklin, who was left-handed. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Jack Phillips
8/13/2013
Updated:
7/18/2015

Happy Left-Handers’ Day--no, it’s fake not a holiday coined by Ned Flanders--is on Tuesday.

“All year round, we fit in with home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ comfort – put up with doors, cookers, sinks, computer mice, keyboards and desks that are efficient for right-handers to work at, and hundreds of times every day we contort ourselves using back-to-front tools and gadgets that make us look clumsy and awkward in our efforts to make them to work,” reads a statement on the Left-Handers’ Day website.

It added: “But NOT TODAY! Because on this special day, it is your chance to GET YOUR OWN BACK on your right-handed friends colleagues and family, by designating your personal space as a LEFTY ZONE.”

Some notable left-handers include Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Michelangelo, Jimi Hedrix, and boxer Manny Pacquiao. Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, J.S. Bach, and M.C. Escher were also lefties.

And apparently, Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon Bonaparte were also left-handed.

Four out of the last five presidents are left-handed. Former President George W. Bush is the only one who wasn’t.

A number of Twitter users posted about what it means to be left-handed.

“Left handed people always end up successful,” wrote one. 

“To my left-handed brothers and sisters, today is International Lefthanders Day!” wrote Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Sims.

Data shows that around the world, 10 percent of men and 12 percent of women are left-handed.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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