write 3 facts about his mother

5 things to know about Mary, the mother of Jesus

Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland

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Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Mary, the mother of Jesus, is unquestionably the senior saint within the Christian tradition. Yet we know remarkably little about her. In the New Testament, there is nothing about her birth, death, appearance or age.

Outside of the accounts of the birth of Jesus that only occur in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, she is specifically mentioned at only three other events in the life of her son.

She is present at a wedding where Jesus turns water into wine; she makes an attempt to see her son while he is teaching; and she is there at his crucifixion. Indeed, Mary is mentioned more often in the Qur'an than in the New Testament.

Here, then, are five things we do know about her.

Read more: In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God

1. She was an accidental virgin

The gospel of Matthew is the only one to tell us Mary was pregnant before she and Joseph had sex. She was said to be “with child from the Holy Spirit”. In proof of this, Matthew quoted a prophecy from the Old Testament that a “virgin will conceive and bear a son and he will be called Emmanuel”.

Matthew was using the Greek version of the Old Testament. In the Greek Old Testament, the original Hebrew word “almah” had been translated as “parthenos”, thence into the Latin Bible as “virgo” and into English as “virgin”.

Whereas “almah” means only “young woman”, the Greek word “parthenos” means physically “a virgin intacta”. In short, Mary was said to be a virgin because of an accident of translation when “young woman” became “virgin”.

2. She was a perpetual virgin

Within early Christian doctrine, Mary remained a virgin during and after the birth of Jesus. This was perhaps only fitting for someone deemed “the mother of God” or “God-bearer”.

Saint Ambrose of Milan (c.339-97 CE) enthusiastically defended the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary:

Blessed Mary is the gate, whereof it is written that the Lord hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut after birth; for as a virgin she both conceived and brought forth.

The Lateran Council of 649 CE , a council held in Rome by the Western Church, later declared it an article of faith that Jesus was conceived “without seed” and that Mary “incorruptibly bore [him], her virginity remaining indestructible even after his birth” . All this in spite of the Gospels’ declaration that Jesus had brothers and sisters (Mark 3.32, Matthew 12.46, Luke 8.19).

3. She was immaculately conceived

Within Western theology, it was generally recognised from the time of Saint Ambrose that Mary never committed a sin. But was her sinlessness in this life because she was born without “original sin”? After all, according to Western theology, every human being was born with original sin, the “genetic” consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The growing cult of devotion to the Virgin Mary in the medieval period led to fine-grained theological divisions on the issue. On the one hand, devotion to Mary led to the argument that God had ensured Mary did not have “original sin”.

But then, if Mary had been conceived without sin, she had already been redeemed before the redemption brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus her son.

The Catholic Church only resolved the issue in 1854. Pope Pius IX declared

that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception… was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

4. She ascended into heaven

The early centuries of the Christian tradition were silent on the death of Mary. But by the seventh and eighth centuries, the belief in the bodily ascension of Mary into heaven, had taken a firm hold in both the Western and Eastern Churches.

Read more: Friday essay: what might heaven be like?

The Eastern Orthodox Greek Church held to the dormition of Mary . According to this, Mary had a natural death, and her soul was then received by Christ. Her body arose on the third day after her death. She was then taken up bodily into heaven.

For a long time, the Catholic Church was ambiguous on whether Mary rose from the dead after a brief period of repose in death and then ascended into heaven or was “assumed” bodily into heaven before she died.

Belief in the ascension of Mary into heaven became Catholic doctrine in 1950. Pope Pius XII then declared that Mary

was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.

5. She is a sky goddess

The consequence of the bodily ascension of Mary was the absence of any bodily relics. Although there was breast milk, tears, hair and nail clippings, her relics were mostly “second order” – garments, rings, veils and shoes.

In the absence of her skeletal remains, her devotees made do with visions – at Lourdes, Guadalupe, Fatima, Medjugorje, and so on. Like the other saints, her pilgrimage sites were places where she could be invoked to ask God to grant the prayers of her devotees.

But she was more than just a saint. In popular devotion she was a sky goddess always dressed in blue. She was the goddess of the moon and the star of the sea ( stella maris ).

She was related to the star sign Virgo (not surprisingly) – the Queen of Heaven and Queen of the angels.

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17 Unbelievably Amazing Facts About Mothers

They are teachers, teaching their children how to cope with emotions and express their feelings. Is there anything they can't do?

Moms are amazing, there is no doubting that. They work full time from the second their children are born. Some take on jobs on top of motherhood, too. They run the house, make meals, clean up, and do laundry. It seems their tasks are endless sometimes.

Moms have so many great qualities and talents. They invest time and energy into understanding their children and love them unconditionally. They are teachers, teaching their children how to cope with emotions and express their feelings. Is there anything they can't do?

But, what about the facts? Moms all over are doing everything all the time, but some things really stand out . The kinds of things that make you wonder and do Google searches. That is what the list below is all about. Amazing facts about moms/motherhood.

Related: 10 Productivity Hacks For Busy Moms

17 Pregnancy

The longest pregnancy ever recorded lasted 375 days, nearly 100 days longer than a normal pregnancy . Typical pregnancies last around 280 days, so in 1945, Penny Diana Hunter's baby was nearly a hundred days overdue. Longer pregnancies are actually more common than one might think. According to The Guardian , many women reported being pregnant for 10 or 11 months, rather than the usual nine.

16 Giving Birth

The youngest mother in recorded history was Lina Medina. A child herself, she was just 5 years old when she gave birth to a 6 lb. baby boy (via cesarean) in Peru in 1939. Rare Historical Photos says Lina's parents initially thought their daughter was suffering from a massive abdominal tumor.

After being examined by doctors in Pisco, Peru, they discovered she was seven months pregnant. The diagnosis was confirmed. Lina was born with a rare condition called "precocious puberty". Precocious puberty is basically the early onset of sexual development.

15 Oh Baby!

The heaviest human baby was born to Signora Carmelina Fedele in Aversa, Italy in September 1955. Her son weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces!

14 Diaper Duty

The average Mom will have changed approximately 7,300 diapers by the time her baby reaches age two. This is based on a single child, and changing the diaper every two-three hours as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics .

13 Female Fetus

Every female fetus including your mother, developed all the eggs she will ever have while as a fetus herself, still inside of her own mom. Because one of those eggs ultimately developed into you, this means you started your life inside your grandmother.

12 The Beat Of My Heart

The fetal heart races faster when hearing its mother's voice versus a stranger's voice.

11 Listen To Your Mother

The sound of a mom's voice lowers a child's stress hormone, cortisol, and raises their level of oxytocin, a hormone linked with love and bonding.

10 Aging Gracefully

Erramatti Mangayamma at age 74, gave birth to twins in India last week after becoming pregnant through IVF. This made her the oldest person ever to give birth , according to her doctors, and reignited debate over so-called geriatric pregnancies.

9 Gene Therapy

After delivery, mothers go through a phase called microchimerism. According to The Journal of Obstetric Medicine , fetal microchimerism is defined as low levels of fetal cells harboring in maternal blood and tissues during and for decades after pregnancy.

8 Welcome To The Jungle

Elephants earn their spot on this list for giving birth to the biggest babies on Earth. Approximately 200–250 pounds! They also carry these babies for a whole 22 months.

7 To Die For

The female octopus' mission is to have just one successful brood in her lifetime. In accordance, she will lay roughly 200, 000 eggs and do anything to protect them. During the month of caring for the eggs, the female octopus is starved nearly to death. She may even go as far as ingesting her own arms before she will leave her eggs for food. Once hatched, the offspring float around in blooms of plankton. The mother, too weak to defend herself at this point, often falls prey to predators.

6 Holy Mother!

There are roughly 82.5 million mothers in the United States, and more than 2 billion worldwide. Approximately 4.3 babies are born every second.

5 Baby, Baby, Baby

On 6 May 2021, Associated Press announced the delivery of nine children born to Halima Cisse (Mali) in the Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco. This is the first known incidence of nonpulets surviving birth . The doctors had thought she had only seven babies in the womb. Born at 30 weeks gestation, they all weighed between one and two pounds.

4 No Time To Wait

The shortest interval between two different births is 208 days or 6½ months . Jayne Bleackley gave birth to a son on September 3, 1999. She later gave birth to a daughter on March 30, 2000.

3 Family Values

The mom with the most kids is Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev of Russia. She gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765 .

2 The Nesting Phase

The African Black Eagle typically will lay two eggs. After they hatch, the mother will just feed one of the chicks. The other chick is usually pecked to death by the other chick while the mother looks on.

According to Infant Behavior and Development , when mothers smile, coo, and show affection to their babies, their heartbeats synchronize into the same beat. So, if a baby is distressed, it calms them down. This is the reason why newborns need mothers the most when they are fussy and refuse to be calmed down by other family members.

Sources: The Guardian , Rare Historical Photos , American Academy of Pediatrics , Journal of Obstetric Medicine , Associated Press , Infant Behavior And Development

14 Fun Facts About the Science of Motherhood

A short list of the amazing changes and behaviors that transform both humans and animals on the journey of motherhood

Abigail Tucker

Mothers are so familiar that sometimes their mysteries are overlooked. As I dove into the research for my new book Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct , I began to see that mothers are even more extraordinary than I’d thought. Blue whale mamas produce 50 gallons of milk per day. Human pregnancy may actually be contagious. A woman’s brain is a key organ of childbirth. Many of the most dramatic maternal transformations happen internally and scientists are just now starting to figure them out. I’ve combed through the latest science to share some of these amazing changes with you.

Here are 14 fascinating facts about moms that have been burning a hole in my pocket, which, because I have four kids of my own, is also filled with last year’s crusty Kleenex wads and Cheerio crumbs.

Many Mammal Mamas Carry Kids on the Left

Regardless of whether they are left- or right-handed, human moms tend to cradle their babies on the left side of their bodies, especially in the early months. This left-handed bias likely has to do with the human brain’s lopsided layout: sensory information on the left side of the body is processed on the right side of the brain. The brain’s right hemisphere is also where emotions are processed, so holding and observing the baby on the left may help transmit social information to the right side more efficiently. Babies seem to prefer to keep their mother in the left visual field, too. Fascinatingly, researchers recently documented left-side bias in non-primate mammal mothers. Observed off the coast of a Russian island, walrus moms tend to keep their babies on the left while bobbing along the waves, and their calves swam over to their mother’s left side before diving to suckle. Ditto for flying fox moms dangling from tree branches in Sri Lanka who seemed to favor keeping their babies on the left.

“Mommy Brain” Is Real—and Very Complex

Roughly 50 to 80 percent of moms report what’s sometimes called “mommy brain,” the brain fog and mental bloopers associated with pregnancy and new motherhood. Individual experiments offer conflicting evidence, but a 2018 meta-analysis of 20 studies found that memory problems and poorer executive functioning do seem to be common themes, starting in the first trimester and worsening through the third.

In a first-of-its-kind, ground-breaking analysis of pre- and post-pregnancy brain scans published in 2016 , researchers found mothers lose gray matter during pregnancy—and these losses endure for at least two years . But volume loss may come with some benefits, too. The brain zones used for processing and responding to social cues might get more efficient in pregnancy, as the women who suffered the biggest gray matter losses scored higher on a standard assessment of a mother’s attachment to her child.

Women Pregnant With Boys May Get Nauseous More Easily

Snips, snails, puppy dog tails...yuck. Pregnant women carrying boys are measurably more sensitive to disgust, at least one rather creative study found in 2015.

A pair of Polish researchers studied disgust sensitivity in 92 pregnant women during all three trimesters using the “ Disgust Scale ” questionnaire, a commonly used assessment in psychology studies evaluating the emotion. The test is loaded with ick-inducing descriptions to vet a respondent’s reaction to cockroaches, watching someone eat “ketchup on vanilla ice cream,” hearing someone clear a “throat full of mucous” and seeing “a human hand preserved in a jar.” Mothers carrying sons had higher disgust sensitivity compared to mothers carrying daughters in the first trimester. While girl-moms’ queasiness decreased during the second trimester, boy-moms actually experienced elevated stomach-turning reactions.

Don’t Mess With Animal Moms—Even Squirrels

YouTube videos of beastly moms abound—from a mother moose charging grizzly bears to a mountain lion mama swatting at a terrified jogger who stumbled upon her cubs. Scientists have also studied maternal aggression in slightly less formidable animals: ground squirrels, who ferociously defend their youngsters by kicking gravel at rattlesnakes. Researchers played the sounds of fake rattlesnakes and found that squirrel moms —compared to non-mothers and males—were especially reactive to the ominous rattling. Squirrel moms with the youngest babies took extra risks to protect their newborns in a second experiment.

The widespread phenomenon of maternal aggression may involve oxytocin, a neurochemical also related to birth and lactation. In a 2017 lab experiment , rat moms stopped attacking a threat once oxytocin signaling in part of their brains was blocked.

Mother Cows Are Especially Defensive

Cows were recently declared the most dangerous large animals in Britain, killing more people than dogs—74 over a span of 15 years. Some of these rampaging bovines were bulls, but many were mother cows. Most victims were farm workers, but passersby also ran afoul of the cow moms, which is why the government is begging farmers not to pen naturally aggressive new mother cows in publically accessible fields, where hapless human walkers may be mistaken for calf-hungry predators. Dog walkers especially may provoke the attacks—in 17 out of 18 human walker deaths by cow, dogs were involved. Even non-fatal cow attacks amount to a type of “high-velocity trauma,” a ten-year review of hospital injuries found .

Girl Calves Have It Good

Some mammals produce richer milk for their sons, perhaps because large male body size is ultimately more important in mate competition. But a study of nearly 1.5 million Holstein cow moms showed they churn out more milk for daughters, to the tune of hundreds of extra gallons per year per cow. Scientists aren’t sure why, but the extra rations might help the female offspring reach sexual maturity earlier and thus have longer reproductive careers. This milky signaling seems to happen prenatally, since calves are often taken away from mother cows a day after birth in the dairy industry, but their mothers still produce extra-ample milk.

Sea Otter Moms Nurse Themselves to Exhaustion

Lactation is a major drain on mammalian moms. Sea otter moms have exceptionally high energy demands , because of their small body size in the heat-sucking Pacific. They are notoriously vulnerable to massive depletion of energy reserves in the months after pregnancy, when they are simultaneously feeding their pups and themselves, foraging half the day in a quest to eat a quarter of their body weight . The result is a state of “utter exhaustion” that scientists call “end lactation syndrome”—which likely explains why so many postpartum otter moms mysteriously succumb to minor infections and incidental wounds. When scientists studied a lactating captive otter named Clara, they found that in the period after birth when she was nursing her pup, her energy demands more than doubled : if that happened in the wild, she would likely become more vulnerable to danger, from disease to resource scarcity.

Blue Whale Moms Produce 50 Gallons of Milk Per Day

As the largest living mammals on Earth, blue whale moms have a big job to do. Once their calves are born, the fast-growing giant babies gain 200 pounds per day. To provide enough sustenance to reach their adult weight of up to 400,000 pounds, blue whale mothers produce 50 gallons of milk per day with between 35 and 50 percent fat content. Researchers are using tiny samples of blubber to learn more about how these humungous mothers pull off such an incredible feat. Hormonal fluctuations in mother whales’ enormous fat stores may be a valuable research tool, according to scientists who take blubber biopsies to learn about mysterious and critically endangered species like North Atlantic right whales. They’ve developed a “library” of these lard samples, each of which is about the size of a pencil eraser.

Moms Have Been Using Bottles for a Really Long Time

Human moms have likely been bottle-feeding since prehistory. Analyzing ancient clay vessels from child graves in Germany , scientists recently found the residue of milk from hoofed animals and identified the vessels as primitive baby bottles, the earliest dating back more than 7,000 years . The Bronze and Iron Age bottles that the scientists sampled looked more like round spouted bowls—or some might say, breasts. A few also feature animal feet and other decorations, suggesting that they might have doubled as baby toys. Scientists have speculated that the advent of bottle-feeding may have allowed local mothers to resume ovulation, which is frequently halted during nursing. This might in turn help explain certain previously mysterious Neolithic baby booms.

The Ice Age Made Mothers Evolve Better Breast Milk

Scientists suspect that a tweak to human moms’ breast tissue helped some populations survive the last ice age. Roughly 20,000 years ago, vital vitamin D would have been increasingly difficult for babies dwelling at far-northern latitudes to harvest through sunlight and exposed skin. Luckily a genetic mutation arose in mothers’ breast ducts that some scientists think allowed for critical nutrients to flow into infants in vitamin D-deficient conditions.

Bug Moms Serve Snacks, Too

Mammals are perhaps the most involved animal moms, yet a small but distinguished number of creepy crawlies are also doting mothers. Mommy daddy long legs tote their spiderlings for a week after they are born. And one type of earwig mom gives her all , Her hatched offspring completely consume their mother—a chilling process called matriphagy.

Dolphins May Teach Babies Sounds Before They Are Born

Bottlenose dolphin moms-to-be start whistling more often about two weeks before they give birth, according to scientists who tailed a mom-baby duo at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. Because dolphins have unique calls, this uptick in vocalizations may have been an effort to teach the baby dolphin her mom’s signature whistle while she was still in the womb. Interestingly, research into human mothers’ vocalizations suggests that we have signature tunes as well.

Moms May Be More Vulnerable to Tooth Decay

The old wives were on to something when they warned “gain a child and lose a tooth.” Women who have had three children forfeit four chompers more than those who have had two kids or fewer. Women whose first two children are the same sex, and who then go on to have a third child, are particularly at risk . Problems with gum disease and calcium absorption in pregnancy may leave moms vulnerable—and so might all those missed dental appointments, which might be a particular problem for mothers juggling multiple young children.

Pregnancy Might Actually Be Contagious

Analysis of the pregnancy timing of more than 30,000 German women found that pregnancy spreads in workplaces: In the year after a colleague had a baby, there was an uptick in first pregnancies in the same office. And families are contagious too. A Norwegian study of more than 110,000 sibling pairs shows that siblings have a relatively strong influence on each other when it comes to first pregnancies.

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Abigail Tucker | READ MORE

A frequent contributor to Smithsonian , Abigail Tucker is the author of The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World and Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct . More information is available at her website: abigailtucker.com

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10 Mind Blowing Facts About Mothers

1. There are roughly 82.5 million mothers in the United States, more than 2 billion worldwide and approximately 4.3 babies are born every second. About 2% of those US mothers have adopted. 2. The average Mom will have changed approximately 7,300 diapers by the time her baby reaches age two!

3. The longest pregnancy every recorded lasted 375 days, nearly 100 days longer than a normal pregnancy. 4. The heaviest human baby was born to Signora Carmelina Fedele in Aversa, Italy in September 1955. Her son weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces!

5. Typically, the first sound a baby vocalizes is the 'ma' sound. So it makes sense that in almost every language, the word for mother begins with the letter 'M' or is some iteration of the 'ma' sound.  6. The size of an animal baby relative to it’s mother usually depends on how much care it needs. Bigger babies that can walk and fend for themselves even minutes after birth are called precocial, while smaller altricial babies depend on their mothers for food, protection, and warmth.

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Born a Crime

Trevor noah, everything you need for every book you read., trevor’s mother / patricia nombuyiselo noah quotes in born a crime.

The white man was quite stern with the native. “You need to pray to Jesus,” he said. “Jesus will save you.” To which the native replied, “Well, we do need to be saved—saved from you , but that's beside the point. So let’s give this Jesus thing a shot.”

In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn't merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent. Race-mixing proves that races can mix—and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason.

As a kid I understood that people were different colors, but in my head white and black and brown were like types of chocolate. Dad was the white chocolate, mom was the dark chocolate, and I was the milk chocolate. But we were all just chocolate. I didn't know any of it had anything to do with “race.” I didn't know what race was. My mother never referred to my dad as white or to me as mixed. So when the other kids in Soweto called me “white,” even though I was light brown, I just thought they had their colors mixed up, like they hadn't learned them properly. “Ah, yes, my friend. You've confused aqua with turquoise. I can see how you made that mistake. You're not the first.”

So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it “the black tax.” Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero. Working for the family in Soweto, my mom had no more freedom than she'd had in Transkei, so she ran away. She ran all the way down to the train station and jumped on a train and disappeared into the city, determined to sleep in public restrooms and rely on the kindness of prostitutes until she could make her own way in the world.

When it was time to pick my name, she chose Trevor, a name with no meaning whatsoever in South Africa, no precedent in my family. It's not even a Biblical name. It's just a name. My mother wanted her child beholden to no fate. She wanted me to be free to go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.

My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do. When I look back I realize she raised me like a white kid—not white culturally, but in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself, that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered.

I was blessed with another trait I inherited from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. I remember the thing that caused the trauma, but I don't hold on to the trauma. I never let the memory of something painful prevent me from trying something new. If you think too much about the ass-kicking your mom gave you, or the ass-kicking that life gave you, you'll stop pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules. It's better to take it, spend some time crying, then wake up the next day and move on. You'll have a few bruises and they'll remind you of what happened and that's okay. But after a while the bruises fade, and they fade for a reason—because now it's time to get up to some shit again.

Fufi was my first heartbreak. No one has ever betrayed me more than Fufi. It was a valuable lesson to me. The hard thing was understanding that Fufi wasn’t cheating on me with another boy. She was merely living her life to the fullest. Until I knew that she was going out on her own during the day, her other relationship hadn't affected me at all. Fufi had no malicious intent.

I believed that Fufi was my dog but of course that wasn't true. Fufi was a dog. I was a boy. We got along well. She happened to live in my house. That experience shaped what I've felt about relationships for the rest of my life: You do not own the thing that you love.

“I know you see me as some crazy old bitch nagging at you,” she said, “but you forget the reason I ride you so hard and give you so much shit is because I love you. Everything I have ever done I've done from a place of love. If I don't punish you, the world will punish you even worse. The world doesn't love you. If the police get you, the police don't love you. When I beat you, I'm trying to save you. When they beat you, they're trying to kill you.”

I grew up in a world of violence, but I myself was never violent at all. Yes, I played pranks and set fires and broke windows, but I never attacked people. I never hit anyone. I was never angry. I just didn't see myself that way. My mother had exposed me to a different world than the one she grew up in. She bought me the books she never got to read. She took me to the schools that she never got to go to. I immersed myself in those worlds and I came back looking at the world a different way. I saw that not all families are violent. I saw the futility of violence, the cycle that just repeats itself, the damage that's inflicted on people that they in turn inflict on others.

I saw, more than anything, that relationships are not sustained by violence but by love. Love is a creative act. When you love someone you create a new world for them. My mother did that for me, and with the progress I made and the things I learned, I came back and created a new world and a new understanding for her. After that, she never raised her hand to her children again. Unfortunately, by the time she stopped, Abel had started.

When he said that, my body just let go. I remember the exact traffic light I was at. For a moment there was a complete vacuum of sound, and then I cried tears like I had never cried before. I collapsed in heaving sobs and moans. I cried as if every other thing I’d cried for in my life had been a waste of crying. I cried so hard that if my present crying self could go back in time and see my other crying selves, it would slap them and say, “That shit's not worth crying for.” My cry was not a cry of sadness. It was not catharsis. It wasn't me feeling sorry for myself. It was an expression of raw pain that came from an inability of my body to express that pain in any other way, shape, or form. She was my mom. She was my teammate. It had always been me and her together, me and her against the world. When Andrew said, “shot her in the head,” I broke in two.

“My child, you must look on the bright side.”

“ What ? What are you talking about, ‘the bright side’? Mom, you were shot in the face. There is no bright side.”

“Of course there is. Now you're officially the best-looking person in the family.”

She broke out in a huge smile and started laughing. Through my tears, I started laughing, too.

25 Fascinating Facts About Mothers You Never Knew

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Motherhood is a unique and complex experience that has been celebrated and studied throughout history. From the physical and emotional demands of pregnancy and childbirth to the joys and challenges of raising children, mothers play an essential role in the lives of their families and communities.

I personally lost my mother in 2022 and it’s been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever gone through. Everything I am today is because of my mother and father. My mother always supported me no matter what I wanted to do in life and it’s one of the reasons I miss her so much. Mothers are incredibly special and it’s important to spend time with them while we’re lucky enough to have them in our lives.

So, in honor of Mother’s Day and all the incredible mothers out there, we’ve compiled a list of 25 fascinating facts about motherhood that you may not have known. Whether you’re a mother yourself or simply interested in learning more about this important topic, read on to discover some surprising and inspiring facts about mothers.

Let the facts about mothers begin!

1) Mother’s Day was first celebrated in the U.S. in 1908. [1]

2) The word “mother” comes from the Old English word “mōdor”. [6]

3) The average age of first-time mothers in the U.S. is 27.3 years old. [2]

4) In the U.S., about 72% of mothers with children under 18 are in the labor force. [2]

5) The longest pregnancy on record lasted 375 days. [7]

6) Mother koalas feed their babies, or joeys, their own feces because joeys have not yet developed the intestinal bacteria to detoxify highly poisonous eucalyptus leaves. [1]

7) In the U.S., about 36% of mothers are raising their children on their own. [2]

8) The African black eagle typically lays two eggs but only feeds one of the chicks. [1]

9) In 2021, Black and Hispanic mothers, on average, were younger at the birth of their first child than White and Asian mothers. [2]

10) Mother Earth, or Gaia, was the first goddess in Greek mythology and created herself out of primordial chaos. [1]

11) In the U.S., about 40% of households with children under 18 include a mother who is the sole or primary breadwinner. [4]

12) The first woman to go into space was Valentina Tereshkova, who was also a mother. [8]

A Quote for Moms…

“Your mother is your first friend, your best friend, your forever friend.” – Unknown

13) Every year, approximately 152 million Mother’s Day cards are sent. [1]

14) In the U.S., about 90% of mothers breastfeed their babies at some point, but only about 25% exclusively breastfeed for the recommended six months. [3]

15) In the U.S., about 70% of mothers with children under 18 are married or living with a partner. [2]

16) The world record for most children born to one mother is 69, but this is disputed. [9]

17) In the U.S., about 25% of mothers have a bachelor’s degree or higher. [2]

18) The mother elephant gives birth to the largest baby on Earth, weighing around 200 pounds, after enduring a 22-month pregnancy. [1]

19) In the U.S., about 23% of mothers were born outside of the country. [5]

20) The world’s oldest mother was 74 years old when she gave birth to twins. [10]

21) In the U.S., about 86% of mothers have at least one child. [2]

22) After having a baby, working mothers in Canada are entitled to a year-long leave and receive 55% of their salary during that period. [1]

23) In the U.S., about 28% of mothers with children under 18 are not in the labor force. [2]

24) Mothers who give birth at a later stage in life have an increased chance of living longer. [1]

25) In the U.S., about 72% of mothers with children under 18 are employed full-time. [2]

  1 Karin Lehnardt. “57 Enlightening Facts about Mothers.” FactRetriever .

2 Katherine Schaeffer, Carolina Aragão. “Key facts about moms in the U.S.” Pew Research Center .

3 “Breastfeeding Report Card.” CDC .

4 “Breadwinner Moms.” Pew Research Center .

5 Gretchen Livingston. “Births Outside of Marriage Decline for Immigrant Women.” Pew Research Center .

6 Jamie Dwelly. “Mum, Mam, Mom: What do you call your mother?” History .

7 “Medicine: Prodigious Pregnancy.” TIME .

8 “First woman in space: Valentina.” The European Space Agency .

9 “Most prolific mother ever.” Guinness World Records .

10 Joshua Bote. “A 74-year-old woman reportedly gave birth to twins, may be the oldest ever to give birth.” USA TODAY .

I hope you enjoyed these fascinating facts about mothers!

Please share these mom facts with your friends and family.

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10 Fascinating Facts About Herman Melville

By kat long | aug 1, 2018 | updated: aug 1, 2020, 10:00 am edt.

Born in New York City to a wealthy and socially connected family, Herman Melville (1819-1891) chose a life as exciting as that of his Moby-Dick narrator Ishmael. He spent years at sea on whaling ships and traveled to far-flung places, but also struggled to make it as a novelist while supporting a large extended family. To celebrate his birthday on August 1, we’re diving into Melville’s adventures and fishing for some surprising facts.

1. Herman Melville's mother changed the spelling of their last name.

Despite his family’s wealth and pedigree—his mother Maria Gansevoort descended from one of the first Dutch families in New York, and his father Allan Melvill came from old Boston stock—young Herman had an unstable, unhappy childhood. Allan declared bankruptcy in 1830 and died two years later, leaving Maria with eight children under the age of 17 and a pile of debt from loans and Allan’s unsuccessful businesses. Soon afterward, Maria added an "e" to their surname—perhaps to hide from collection agencies, although scholars are not sure exactly why. "It always seemed to me an unlikely way to avoid creditors in the early 19th century," Will Garrison, executive director of the Berkshire Historical Society , tells Mental Floss.

2. Herman Melville struggled to find employment.

Thanks to a national financial crisis in 1837, Melville had difficulty finding a permanent job, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. He served as a bank clerk, teacher, land surveyor, and crew member on a packet ship before signing on, in 1841, to the whaler Acushnet of New Bedford, Massachusetts, then the whaling capital of the world. He served aboard a few different whalers and rose to the role of harpooner. His adventures at sea planted the seeds for Melville’s interrogation of man, morality, and nature in Moby-Dick . In that novel, Melville (in the voice of Ishmael) says, "A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard."

3. Herman Melville jumped ship in the middle of a three-year voyage. 

Melville and the Acushnet ’s captain didn’t get along, so when the ship reached the Marquesas Islands, Melville and a friend, Richard Tobias Greene, hid in the forests until the ship departed. They spent a month living with the Pacific Islanders. Melville was impressed with their sophistication and peacefulness; most Europeans believed that Polynesians were cannibals. He also found reason to criticize European attempts to "civilize" the islanders by converting them to Christianity. Melville drew on his South Pacific experiences in his first two novels, which became runaway bestsellers: Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847).

4. Herman Melville was inspired by a mountain.

Melville moved to Arrowhead , his charming mustard-colored home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with his wife Elizabeth and their son in 1850, after he achieved fame as a popular adventure novelist. In the upstairs study, he set up his writing desk so he could look out the north-facing window, which perfectly framed the summit of Mount Greylock, Massachusetts’s tallest mountain. Gazing at the peak on a sunny day, Melville was struck by how much the horizontal apex looked "like a sperm whale rising in the distance." He arranged his desk so he would see the summit when he happened to glance up from his work. In that room, in early 1851, Melville completed his manuscript of Moby-Dick .

5. Herman Melville fictionalized an actual whaling disaster.

While on the Acushnet , Melville had learned about an infamous shipwreck from the son of one of its survivors. In November 1820, a massive sperm whale had attacked and sunk the whaleship Essex of Nantucket in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its crew, stranded in three small boats with little food or water, chose to drift more than 4000 miles to South America instead of 1200 miles to the Marquesas Islands—where Melville had enjoyed his idyll—because they thought they’d be eaten by the natives. Ironically, some of the castaways ended up eating their dead shipmates to survive.

Melville used the disaster to form the climax of Moby-Dick , in which the Pequod of Nantucket is destroyed by the white whale. Melville visited Nantucket for the first time only after the novel was published. He personally interviewed the Essex ’s captain, George Pollard, who had survived the terrible ordeal and become the town’s night watchman. Later, Melville wrote, "To the islanders he was a nobody—to me, the most impressive man, tho’ wholly unassuming, even humble—that I ever encountered."

6. Moby-Dick was a flop.

Readers who were expecting another rip-roarin’ adventure like his earlier novels Typee or Redburn were sorely disappointed when Melville’s masterpiece was published in November 1851. The British edition of Moby-Dick, or The Whale received some positive reviews in London newspapers, but American reviewers were shocked at its obscure literary symbolism and complexity. “There is no method in his madness; and we must needs pronounce the chief feature of the volume [the character of Captain Ahab ] a perfect failure, and the work itself inartistic,” wrote the New York Albion . The reviewer added that the novel's style was like "having oil, mustard, vinegar, and pepper served up as a dish, in place of being scientifically administered sauce-wise."

7. Herman Melville was very fond of his chimney.

Arrowhead became the locus of Melville’s family life and work. Eventually, he and Lizzie, their two sons and two daughters, his mother Maria, and his sisters Augusta, Helen, and Fanny all lived in the cozy farmhouse. For a couple of years, Nathaniel Hawthorne was such a frequent guest that he had his own small bedroom off Melville’s study. After Moby-Dick , Melville wrote the novels Pierre and The Confidence-Man , his collection of works called The Piazza Tales , short stories including “ Bartleby the Scrivener ,” and many other pieces there. Melville grew very attached to the house, especially to the massive central chimney, which he immortalized in his 1856 short story “I and My Chimney.” Yet his financial struggles after Moby-Dick failed to find an audience led Melville to sell Arrowhead to his brother Allan in 1863. As an homage, Allan painted a few lines from “I and My Chimney” on the chimney's stonework, which are still visible today.

8. Herman Melville finally got a day job.

Melville’s chronic money woes prompted a return to New York City, into a brick townhouse at 104 East 26th Street in Manhattan, where the family benefited from being back in the bustle of civilization. Melville finally found regular employment as a district inspector for the U.S. Customs Service and maintained an office at 470 West Street . At the same time, he mostly abandoned writing short stories and novels in favor of poetry. In between inspections he wrote Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land , based on his visit to the Middle East in 1857. Because of its length—at more than 18,000 lines, it's the longest poem in American literature—and unconventional approach to its subject, Melville once called it "eminently adapted for unpopularity."

9. Herman Melville's last major work was discovered by accident.

The centennial of Melville’s birth renewed interest in his novels and poems, most of which were long out of print by then. Raymond Weaver, a literature professor at Columbia University working on the first major biography of Melville, collaborated with Eleanor Melville Metcalf, Melville’s granddaughter and literary executor, who gave him access to the author’s papers. In 1919, while poking through letters and notes, Weaver discovered the unfinished manuscript of Billy Budd in a tin breadbox. Melville had started to write the short story about a tragic sailor in 1888 but, by his death in 1891, had not completed it. Weaver edited and published the story in 1924, but initially considered the tale "not distinguished." Other scholars asserted that Billy Budd was Melville’s final masterpiece.

10. You can see Herman Melville's personal collection of knick-knacks.

Just a short drive from Arrowhead, the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield holds the world’s largest collection of Melvilliana in its Melville Memorial Room. Along with first editions of Melville’s work and a full library of books about him, there are priceless objects owned by or associated with the author. Fans can geek out over the earliest known portrait of Melville, painted in 1848; carved wooden canoe paddles that he collected in Polynesia; his walking stick; his favorite inkstand, quills, and other desktop tchotchkes; a collection of scrimshaw, maps, and prints; and Elizabeth Melville’s writing desk. There's a section of the first successful transatlantic cable, which Melville valued as a prized souvenir, and even the actual breadbox in which Billy Budd had been hiding.

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Robert louis stevenson.

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Robert Louis Balfour stevenson (1850-1894)

A brief summary of Stevenson’s life. For more information see our recommended  biographies . 

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland and was the only child of respectable middle-class parents. His father, Thomas, belonged to a family of engineers who had built most of the deep-sea lighthouses around the coast of Scotland. His mother, Margaret Isabella Balfour, came from a family of lawyers and church ministers.

Throughout his childhood, Stevenson suffered chronic health issues which confined him to his bed. These illnesses, frequently described as a “weak chest”, persisted throughout his life, taking the form of fevers, coughing, bronchial infections, and eventually the “Bluidy Jack”, a hemorrhaging of the lungs. 

As a result of his persistent poor health, Stevenson had a limited formal education. Instead he was typically educated by private tutors and nannies, none so beloved as Allison Cunningham, whom he nicknamed “Cummy.” Cummy would regularly read to him from the Old Testament, Catechisms, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress. This somewhat isolated childhood led to the development of a healthy imagination through which dreams of being a writer developed. 

In 1867, Stevenson entered the University of Edinburgh as a science student where it was understood he would follow in the family tradition to become a civil engineer and join the family building firm. However, Stevenson was disinterested in the courses and turned his attention to French literature, Scottish history, and the revolutionary works of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer.  

In addition to a diversion in his studies, he also began to develop a more bohemian appearance, growing his hair long and wearing a velvet jacket when about town. He also developed more atheist beliefs, diverging from those of his parents, and began spending more time in the lounge of the Speculative Society – a group for orators and writers at the university. 

When Stevenson finally confided to his father that he did not want to become an engineer and instead wanted to pursue writing, his father was, understandably, upset. They eventually agreed that a professional degree was needed and so Louis would study law. 

During summer holidays, Louis would go to France to be in the company of other young artists, writers, and painters. There he worked on essays and, upon returning to Europe, spent much of his time writing book reviews and articles while experimenting with short stories. His first published work, an essay called Roads,  and his first published volumes were works of travel writing. 

In 1875, Louis left university having “passed advocate” and earning a law degree. Never planning to practice law however, he continued to write – always keeping two books with him “one to read, and one to write in.”

Seeking an adventure to inspire his writing, Stevenson embarked on a canoe trip from Antwerp, Belgium, to northern France with his friend, Walter Simpson. This trip would later inspire his work  An Inland Voyage . 

In September 1876 Stevenson found his way to the small artist town of Grez-sur-Loing, outside Paris, to meet with his cousin Robert “Bob” Alan Mowbray Stevenson .  

Unexpectedly, it was here that Louis was introduced to a married American woman, Fanny Osbourne, and her two children, Belle and Lloyd. At the time, Louis was twenty-five and Fanny, thirty-six. Despite this age difference, Louis fell in love with the intelligent and independent American “new woman” who was separated from her philandering husband. 

For two years, their relationship bloomed until Fanny was forced to return to California and her husband. Having lost Fanny, Louis took his broken heart to the south of France for a walking tour. This journey would inspire his work  Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes . 

A year later word came from Fanny that inspired Stevenson to travel to America in pursuit of his love. A steamer from Glasgow brought him to New York. He then traveled by rail and carriage until arriving in California. His arduous journey west would later inspired his work,  The Amateur Emigrant . Reunited with Fanny after some time, Fanny received her divorce from her husband in December 1879 and in May 1880 the two were married in San Francisco. 

The following months were spent in Napa Valley where Louis would pen his next work  The Silverado Squatters.

In August 1880 the Stevensons returned to England. Stevenson and his wife had wintered in the South of France and lived in England from 1880-1887, a period of time marked by Stevenson’s poor health and literary achievements. His first novel,  Treasure Island,  was published in 1883, followed by  A Child’s Garden of Verses  (1886),  Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and  Kidnapped (1886). Stevenson’s work was widely popular and received great critical acclaim. 

Upon his father’s death in 1887, Stevenson and his family left England for America where he stayed for one year. In June 1888, accompanied by Fanny, Lloyd, and Margaret, he set sail for the South Seas.

Enchanted with life in the South Seas and convinced he could not endure another winter in Scotland, in January of 1890 Stevenson purchased an estate in Apia, Samoa. The climate of the tropics did wonders for Stevenson’s health and the regular postal service meant he could continue regular correspondence with his publishers.

Stevenson lived on his estate, Vailima,  in the hills of Apia until his death at age 44 in 1894. While at Vailima, Stevenson wrote a great deal completing two of his finest novellas, The Beach of Falesa and the Ebb Tide (written with Lloyd) as well as two novels, The Wrecker and Catriona (aka David Balfour ). He also completed the short stories, The Bottle Imp and The Isle of Voices.

On December 3, 1894. Louis seemed in excellent spirits when he suddenly collapsed from a violent pain in his head and he lost consciousness. Stevenson, having suffered a brain hemorrhage and died soon afterwards. He was interred the following morning at the top of Mount Vaea. 

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F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896-1940)

Who Was F. Scott Fitzgerald?

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a short story writer and novelist considered one of the pre-eminent authors in the history of American literature due almost entirely to the enormous posthumous success of his third book, The Great Gatsby . Perhaps the quintessential American novel, as well as a definitive social history of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby has become required reading for virtually every American high school student and has had a transportive effect on generation after generation of readers.

At the age of 24, the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise , made Fitzgerald famous. One week later, he married the woman he loved and his muse, Zelda Sayre. However by the end of the 1920s Fitzgerald descended into drinking, and Zelda had a mental breakdown. Following the unsuccessful Tender Is the Night , Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood and became a scriptwriter. He died of a heart attack in 1940, at age 44, his final novel only half completed.

Family, Education and Early Life

Fitzgerald's mother, Mary McQuillan, was from an Irish-Catholic family that made a small fortune in Minnesota as wholesale grocers. His father, Edward Fitzgerald, had opened a wicker furniture business in St. Paul, and, when it failed, took a job as a salesman for Procter & Gamble. During the first decade of Fitzgerald's life, his father’s job took the family back and forth between Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York. When Fitzgerald was 12, Edward lost his job with Procter & Gamble, and the family moved back to St. Paul in 1908 to live off of his mother's inheritance.

Fitzgerald was a bright, handsome and ambitious boy, the pride and joy of his parents and especially his mother. He attended the St. Paul Academy. When he was 13, he saw his first piece of writing appear in print: a detective story published in the school newspaper. In 1911, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, his parents sent him to the Newman School, a prestigious Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. There, he met Father Sigourney Fay, who noticed his incipient talent with the written word and encouraged him to pursue his literary ambitions.

After graduating from the Newman School in 1913, Fitzgerald decided to stay in New Jersey to continue his artistic development at Princeton University. At Princeton, he firmly dedicated himself to honing his craft as a writer, writing scripts for Princeton's famous Triangle Club musicals as well as frequent articles for the Princeton Tiger humor magazine and stories for the Nassau Literary Magazine.

However, Fitzgerald's writing came at the expense of his coursework. He was placed on academic probation, and, in 1917, he dropped out of school to join the U.S. Army. Afraid that he might die in World War I with his literary dreams unfulfilled, in the weeks before reporting to duty, Fitzgerald hastily wrote a novel called The Romantic Egotist . Though the publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons, rejected the novel, the reviewer noted its originality and encouraged Fitzgerald to submit more work in the future.

Fitzgerald was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama. The war ended in November 1918, before Fitzgerald was ever deployed. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York City hoping to launch a career in advertising lucrative enough to convince his girlfriend, Zelda, to marry him. He quit his job after only a few months, however, and returned to St. Paul to rewrite his novel.

'This Side of Paradise' (1920)

This Side of Paradise is a largely autobiographical story about love and greed. The story was centered on Amory Blaine, an ambitious Midwesterner who falls in love with, but is ultimately rejected by, two girls from high-class families.

The novel was published in 1920 to glowing reviews. Almost overnight, it turned Fitzgerald, at the age of 24, into one of the country's most promising young writers. He eagerly embraced his newly minted celebrity status and embarked on an extravagant lifestyle that earned him a reputation as a playboy and hindered his reputation as a serious literary writer.

'The Beautiful and Damned' (1922)

In 1922, Fitzgerald published his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned , the story of the troubled marriage of Anthony and Gloria Patch. The Beautiful and Damned helped to cement Fitzgerald’s status as one of the great chroniclers and satirists of the culture of wealth, extravagance and ambition that emerged during the affluent 1920s — what became known as the Jazz Age. "It was an age of miracles," Fitzgerald wrote, "it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire."

'The Great Gatsby' (1925)

The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald's finest work, with its beautiful lyricism, pitch-perfect portrayal of the Jazz Age, and searching critiques of materialism, love and the American Dream. Seeking a change of scenery to spark his creativity, in 1924 Fitzgerald had moved to Valescure, France, to write. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner who moves into the town of West Egg on Long Island, next door to a mansion owned by the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby. The novel follows Nick and Gatsby's strange friendship and Gatsby's pursuit of a married woman named Daisy, ultimately leading to his exposure as a bootlegger and his death.

Although The Great Gatsby was well-received when it was published, it was not until the 1950s and '60s, long after Fitzgerald's death, that it achieved its stature as the definitive portrait of the "Roaring Twenties," as well as one of the greatest American novels ever written.

'Tender Is the Night' (1934)

In 1934, after years of toil, Fitzgerald finally published his fourth novel, Tender is the Night , about an American psychiatrist in Paris, France, and his troubled marriage to a wealthy patient. The book was inspired by his wife Zelda’s struggle with mental illness. Although Tender is the Night was a commercial failure and was initially poorly received due to its chronologically jumbled structure, it has since gained in reputation and is now considered among the great American novels.

'The Love of the Last Tycoon' (unfinished)

Fitzgerald began work on his last novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon , in 1939. He had completed over half the manuscript when he died in 1940.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Short Stories

Beginning in 1920 and continuing throughout the rest of his career, Fitzgerald supported himself financially by writing great numbers of short stories for popular publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire . Some of his most notable stories include "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Camel's Back" and "The Last of the Belles."

Fitzgerald’s Wife Zelda

F. Scott Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre on April 3, 1920, in New York City. Zelda was Fitzgerald’s muse, and her likeness is prominently featured in his works including This Side of Paradise , The Beautiful and the Damned , The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night . Fitzgerald met 18-year-old Zelda, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge, during his time in the infantry. One week after the publication of Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise , the couple married. They had one child, a daughter named Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald, born in 1921.

Beginning in the late 1920s, Zelda suffered from mental health issues, and the couple moved back and forth between Delaware and France. In 1930, Zelda suffered a breakdown. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated at the Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Towson, Maryland. That same year was admitted to a mental health clinic in Switzerland. Two years later she was treated at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She spent the remaining years before her death in 1948 in and out of various mental health clinics.

Later Years

After completing his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby , Fitzgerald's life began to unravel. Always a heavy drinker, he progressed steadily into alcoholism and suffered prolonged bouts of writer's block. After two years lost to alcohol and depression, in 1937 Fitzgerald attempted to revive his career as a screenwriter and freelance storywriter in Hollywood, and he achieved modest financial, if not critical, success for his efforts before his death in 1940.

Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, at the age of 44, in Hollywood, California. Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure, since none of his works received more than modest commercial or critical success during his lifetime.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Birth Year: 1896
• Birth date: September 24, 1896
• Birth State: Minnesota
• Birth City: St. Paul
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: American short-story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his turbulent personal life and his famous novel 'The Great Gatsby.'
• World War I
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Libra
• St. Paul Academy
• Newman School
• Princeton University
• Interesting Facts
• Fitzgerald’s namesake (and second cousin three times removed on his father's side) was Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the "Star-Spangled Banner."
• Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure, since none of his works received more than modest commercial or critical success during his lifetime.
• Although 'The Great Gatsby' was well-received when it was published, it was long after Fitzgerald's death that it was regarded as one of the greatest American novels ever written.
• Death Year: 1940
• Death date: December 21, 1940
• Death State: California
• Death City: Hollywood
• Death Country: United States

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/f-scott-fitzgerald
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 9, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• What little I've accomplished has been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I wish now I'd never relaxed or looked back—but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: 'I've found my line—from now on this comes first.'
• Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meager.
• In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.
• It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess and it was an age of satire.
• Having once found the intensity of art, nothing else that can happen in life can ever again seem as important as the creative process.
• My characters are all Scott Fitzgerald.
• I didn't know till 15 that there was anyone in the world except me, and it cost me plenty.
• I never at any one time saw [Gatsby] clear myself—for he started as one man I knew and then changed into myself—the amalgam was never complete in my mind.
• Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.
• There are no second acts in American lives.
• Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.
• I left my capacity for hoping on the little roads that led to Zelda's sanitarium.
• Isn't Hollywood a dump—in the human sense of the word. A hideous town ... full of the human spirit at a new low of debasement.
• I was in love with a whirlwind and I must spin a net big enough to catch it.

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American Songwriter

5 Fascinating Facts About Tommy Lee

Posted: November 6, 2023 | Last updated: November 6, 2023

Tommy Lee is undoubtedly one of the most famous drummers in the world. Part of that comes from his outstanding instrumental ability, of course, as the engine behind hard rock legends Motley Crue. And, yes, part of it comes from the notoriety he gained as a tabloid sensation, someone whose private life became public consumption and provided endless fodder for celebrity magazines, gossip websites, and late-night comedians. You might think that there’s nothing about Tommy Lee that you haven’t heard a million times before. And maybe, if you’re a diehard fan, you’ve heard all the tidbits we’re about to present to you now. But we’re guessing that there are one or more of these Tommy Lee facts that are new to you.

1. His Father Was a Soldier and His Mother Was a Beauty Queen

That sentence sounds like the opening line to some John Mellencamp story song, doesn’t it? But in the case of Tommy Lee, it’s actually true. It helps to know that Lee was born in Athens, Greece, and his family didn’t come to America till he was a year old in 1963. His mother was Vassiliki Papadimitriou, who competed in the Miss Greece pageant before Lee was born. Meanwhile, his father was David Lee Thomas Bass, who met Lee’s Mom when he was serving in the Army. One wonders if his drumming career would have even gotten off the ground were it not for the family’s relocation to California.

2. He’s Done Session Work for a Fascinating Cross-Section of Artists

Most of Lee’s drum work has come in the service of Motley Crue. But he has occasionally broken out of the Crue cocoon to do sessions, and the artists he’s chosen to help out are what you might call an eclectic mix. In 1991, he played on the Richard Marx song “Streets of Pain,” helping out the hitmaking pop balladeer on a track that was co-written by Fee Waybill of The Tubes. Lee played on the 2010 Cee Lo album The Lady Killer , and Green later returned the favor by guesting with Motley Crue in concert. Perhaps the most striking collaboration came when Lee was the sole drummer used by Billy Corgan and company on the 2014 Smashing Pumpkins album Monuments to an Elegy , one of that group’s most well-received albums since their ‘90s heyday.

3. He Once Was Part of a Supergroup That Originated on a Reality Show

As part of the talent show reality TV boom of the 2000s that was spurred on by American Idol , CBS took a shot with a show called Rock Star . The idea was to use a singing competition to find a lead singer for an established rock band. In the first season, the show looked for a lead singer to replace Michael Hutchence in INXS. And then, in Season 2, Lee, Jason Newsted (formerly of Metallica), and Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N’ Roses) formed a supergroup titled Supernova that would gain a singer from the show. That singer turned out to be Lukas Rossi, but this project was somewhat doomed. For one, they couldn’t use the name Supernova because of a lawsuit brought by another band of the same name, which meant they had to go with the awkward name Rock Star Supernova. Their debut album in 2006 was savaged by critics and didn’t do much commercially, and the band was pretty much kaput by 2008. Rossi did guest on the Tommy Lee solo album Andro in 2020. 

4. One of Lee’s Favorite Drummers was a Founding Member of the 80’s New Wave Band Missing Persons

When you hear Lee talk about his favorite drummers, there are some predictable names on the list. But he has also constantly talked up Terry Bozzio, who first rose to acclaim in the ‘70s as a member of Frank Zappa’s ever-changing backup band, playing on classic albums like Zoot Allures and Shake Yerbouti . Those Zappa records are most likely where Lee gained his admiration for Bozzio’s dazzling technique (and his massive drum kit). Bozzio also met singer and future wife Dale Bozzio while with Zappa, and the pair joined guitarist Warren Cuccurullo to form Missing Persons, who scored minor ‘80s hits such as “Words” and “Destination Unknown.”

5. During a Concert, Lee Got Stuck Over the Crowd on His Drum Rollercoaster

On December 31, 2015, Motley Crue played what was supposed to be its final concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Needless to say, the retirement didn’t stick. But one thing that did stick was the rollercoaster-like contraption that Lee was using to play one of his show-stopping drum solos. Lee hung suspended over the audience for several minutes while Crue’s crew worked furiously to get it rolling. Ever the showman, Lee kept the audience engaged with some profane patter until the contraption once again began to move.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The post 5 Fascinating Facts About Tommy Lee appeared first on American Songwriter .

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• Mother's Day Wishes
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• Mother Shipton was a Prophetess in Britain 500 years ago. She could see the future, and predicted that another Queen Elizabeth would sit on the throne of England. (QE II)
• Mother's Day is now celebrated in many countries around the world. Australia, Mexico, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Russia, China, Thailand, all have special celebrations to honor Mothers, but not in the same way or on the same day as the United States.
• Eve is credited with being the "Mother of All the Living", in the Bible,
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• 52 % of the words for mother in the material have ma/me/mo or na/ne/no in the root syllable poems.
• In the vast majority of the world's languages, the word for "mother" begins with the letter M.
• The Egyptians honored the goddess Isis in a similar holiday.
• Catholics have a special day for honoring the Virgin Mary.
• The British celebrated a similar holiday, called Mothering Sunday.
• Japan's Imperial families trace their ancestry to Omikami Amaterasu, the Mother of the World.

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47 facts about the movie all about my mother.

Published: 04 Oct 2023

All About My Mother is a critically acclaimed film that weaves together elements of drama, comedy, and tragedy to create a captivating cinematic experience. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, this Spanish film won numerous awards and captured the hearts of audiences worldwide. With its compelling storyline and stellar performances, All About My Mother offers a deep exploration of motherhood, loss, and identity. In this article, we will dive into 47 fascinating facts about the movie , shedding light on its production, cast, and cultural impact. From the inspiration behind the film to behind-the-scenes anecdotes, get ready to uncover the secrets that make All About My Mother a true masterpiece of cinema.

The movie All About My Mother was written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar.

Almodóvar, known for his vibrant and provocative storytelling, crafted a powerful narrative that resonated with audiences worldwide.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000.

All About My Mother received international acclaim and brought recognition to Spanish cinema on a global scale.

The story revolves around a grieving mother named Manuela.

Manuela’s life takes unexpected turns after the death of her teenage son and sets her on a journey of self-discovery.

The movie explores themes of motherhood, identity, and gender roles.

Almodóvar masterfully delves into complex and emotive subjects, creating a thought-provoking cinematic experience.

The cast of All About My Mother includes renowned actors from Spain.

Penélope Cruz, Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, and Antonia San Juan deliver captivating performances that breathe life into their characters.

Almodóvar drew inspiration from classic movies and iconic actresses.

The film pays homage to Bette Davis and her role in the iconic film All About Eve.

All About My Mother was a major commercial success.

The film resonated with audiences worldwide, further establishing Almodóvar as a prominent figure in international cinema.

Almodóvar won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for All About My Mother.

This recognition solidified his standing as a visionary filmmaker and further propelled the film’s success.

The movie incorporates elements of humor, tragedy, and melodrama.

Almodóvar skillfully balances these tonal shifts, creating a rich and multi-layered viewing experience.

All About My Mother explores the concept of chosen families.

The film portrays the deep bonds formed between individuals who come together in unconventional and unexpected ways.

The title of the movie is a nod to the phrase “All About Eve”.

The film All About Eve serves as inspiration for All About My Mother, highlighting Almodóvar’s fascination with cinematic history.

All About My Mother tackles LGBTQ+ themes.

The film depicts the challenges faced by transgender and gay characters, shedding light on their struggles and resilience.

Pedro Almodóvar dedicated the film to all the actresses he has worked with.

Through this dedication, he honors the talent and dedication of the women who have brought his stories to life.

The movie seamlessly blends realism and fantasy.

Almodóvar’s distinct storytelling style allows for moments of magic realism, adding an ethereal quality to the narrative.

All About My Mother received widespread critical acclaim.

The film was praised for its powerful performances, compelling storytelling, and bold exploration of complex themes.

The screenplay of All About My Mother took two years to complete.

Almodóvar carefully crafted the script, ensuring each character’s journey was authentically portrayed.

The film was shot in various locations across Spain.

From Barcelona to Madrid, the movie captures the vibrancy and energy of Spanish urban landscapes.

All About My Mother won numerous international awards.

The film received accolades from prestigious award ceremonies and film festivals around the world.

The movie addresses the impact of loss and grief.

Manuela’s journey invites viewers to reflect on the transformative power of healing and acceptance.

All About My Mother features a diverse and ensemble cast.

Each actor brings a unique perspective to the story, contributing to the film’s rich tapestry of characters.

The film highlights the strength and resilience of women.

Through its female-centric narrative, All About My Mother celebrates the multifaceted nature of womanhood.

Music plays a significant role in the film.

The soundtrack, composed by Alberto Iglesias, enhances the emotional impact of each scene, complementing Almodóvar’s visual storytelling.

All About My Mother explores the complexities of human relationships.

The film examines the intricacies of love, friendship, and the ties that bind us together.

Almodóvar aimed to challenge societal norms through his portrayal of unconventional characters.

The film subverts stereotypes and explores the nuances of individuality and self-expression.

All About My Mother is considered one of Almodóvar’s most personal films.

The director’s own experiences and emotions are woven into the fabric of the story, adding depth and authenticity to the narrative.

Almodóvar’s choice of vibrant colors is a signature element of the film.

The visually stunning cinematography adds an extra layer of visual impact to the storytelling.

All About My Mother presents a nuanced portrayal of motherhood.

The film explores different types of mother-child relationships, challenging traditional notions of maternal love.

It took approximately five months to film All About My Mother.

The production process involved meticulous attention to detail and the collaboration of a dedicated team.

The movie addresses social issues prevalent in Spanish society.

Almodóvar uses his platform to shed light on topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness and gender inequality.

All About My Mother was a major turning point for Spanish cinema.

The film’s success opened doors for other Spanish filmmakers to gain international recognition.

The movie All About My Mother has been praised for its strong female representation.

Almodóvar showcases the talent and depth of female actors, giving them complex and empowering roles.

All About My Mother explores the complexities of identity.

Characters in the film grapple with questions of self-discovery and self-acceptance, making it a deeply introspective piece of cinema.

The film incorporates elements of comedy to lighten the emotional weight of the story.

Almodóvar skillfully balances humor with dramatic moments, creating a film that resonates with a wide range of emotions.

All About My Mother addresses the stigmas surrounding sex work.

The film challenges societal taboos and portrays sex workers with empathy and understanding.

The movie’s title in Spanish is “Todo sobre mi madre”.

Almodóvar’s choice of the title reflects his intention to honor and celebrate motherhood as a universal concept.

All About My Mother explores the impact of secrets and hidden truths.

The characters’ journeys are shaped by the revelation of long-held secrets, creating a sense of catharsis and growth.

The film incorporates elements of surrealism.

Almodóvar blurs the boundaries between reality and dreams, immersing viewers in a world of visual symbolism.

All About My Mother was a box office hit in Spain.

The film attracted audiences from diverse backgrounds, reflecting its universal appeal.

The movie’s poster, featuring a close-up of actress Cecilia Roth, became an iconic image.

It captured the attention of audiences and became synonymous with the film’s emotional depth.

All About My Mother explores the concept of forgiveness.

The characters embark on journeys of forgiveness, seeking closure and redemption.

The film addresses the complexities and challenges of the healthcare system.

All About My Mother raises awareness about the importance of accessible and compassionate healthcare.

All About My Mother was influenced by classic Hollywood melodramas.

Almodóvar pays tribute to the golden age of cinema while infusing his unique style and perspective.

The movie’s narrative is driven by strong female protagonists.

Through their stories, Almodóvar explores female empowerment and resilience.

All About My Mother received standing ovations at film festivals around the world.

Viewers were captivated by the film’s emotional depth and powerful performances.

The movie’s release sparked discussions on gender and sexual identity.

All About My Mother was praised for its progressive portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters.

All About My Mother has become a benchmark for Spanish cinema.

The film’s impact continues to be felt, inspiring emerging filmmakers and captivating new audiences.

The legacy of All About My Mother lives on.

The film’s enduring popularity serves as a testament to its timeless themes and masterful storytelling.

Now that you know the 47 fascinating facts about the movie All About My Mother, it’s time to revisit this cinematic gem or discover it for the first time. Experience the emotional journey of its characters and the profound impact of Almodóvar’s storytelling.

In conclusion, “All About My Mother” is a captivating movie that delves into the complexities of motherhood, love, identity, and loss. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, the film beautifully explores the lives of its characters and delves deep into their emotions, struggles, and personal journeys. With its compelling storyline, powerful performances, and stunning visuals, “All About My Mother” has established itself as a timeless masterpiece in the world of cinema. Whether you’re a fan of Almodóvar’s work or simply looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally charged film, “All About My Mother” is definitely worth watching.

1. Who directed the movie “All About My Mother”?

Pedro Almodóvar directed the movie “All About My Mother.” He is a renowned Spanish filmmaker known for his unique storytelling and bold cinematic style.

2. What is the genre of “All About My Mother”?

“All About My Mother” falls under the genre of drama. It explores complex themes such as motherhood, identity, and loss, and portrays the emotional journey of its characters.

3. What is the plot of “All About My Mother”?

The movie follows the story of Manuela, a single mother who loses her teenage son in a tragic accident. Devastated by the loss, she sets out on a journey to Barcelona in search of her son’s estranged father and encounters a diverse cast of characters along the way.

4. Is “All About My Mother” based on a true story?

No, “All About My Mother” is not based on a true story. It is a work of fiction created by Pedro Almodóvar.

5. What awards did “All About My Mother” win?

“All About My Mother” received critical acclaim and won numerous prestigious awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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Trump Trials: Donald Trump takes the stand

The former president is scheduled to testify at his civil fraud trial in new york on monday. and other trial news..

Welcome back to The Trump Trials, our weekly effort to keep readers up to date on the criminal — and civil — cases the 45th president is fighting in federal and state courts.

Have questions on the trials? Email us at [email protected] and devlin.b[email protected] and check for answers in future newsletters.

Let’s get started.

What’s ahead

Get ready: Trump — the man himself — is expected to take the witness stand on Monday in the civil fraud trial in New York against him and his family real estate business. He is accused of fraudulently inflating his property values to get better terms on loans and insurance. His son Eric said the former president is “fired up” to testify.

It will be interesting to see Trump’s demeanor on the stand given how contentious the trial has been thus far. Trump has derided the judge — and the judge imposed a gag order after the former president publicly criticized his law clerk.

Ivanka Trump is expected to testify on Wednesday.

• This may be the only time Trump is actually is on the witness stand over the next year. Yes, he faces four criminal trials, but criminal defendants cannot be forced to testify.

Subscribe to The Trump Trials, our weekly email newsletter on Donald Trump's four criminal cases

Now, a recap of what you may have missed last week.

1. Florida: Federal classified documents case

The details : Trump faces 40 federal charges over accusations that he kept top-secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago — his home and private club — and thwarted government demands to return them.

Planned trial date : May 20

What happened: At the hearing, Judge Aileen M. Cannon suggested the current schedule for pretrial motions, which would culminate in a trial in May 2024, may be unrealistic because of all the other legal demands on Trump’s time, particularly the federal case in Washington.

Cannon put her pretrial schedule on hold while she considers issuing an order to push back deadlines.

2. D.C.: Federal case on 2020 election

The details : Four counts related to conspiring to obstruct the 2020 election results .

Planned trial date : March 4

What happened : Judge Tanya S. Chutkan scheduled jury selection to begin on Feb. 9, with hundreds of D.C. residents to be summoned to the federal courthouse to complete a written questionnaire about the case.

• This doesn’t necessarily mean that the case will start right on time in March . But it strongly suggests that Chutkan aims to move fast and stick to her schedule as much as possible — a contrast to what is playing out so far in the Florida case.

A limited gag order issued against Trump by Chutkan , barring him from attacks on the prosecutors, witnesses and court staffers involved in the D.C. case, is again on hold — at least for now.

The federal appeals court in D.C. agreed to pause — or, in legal parlance, stay — the gag order while the court considers whether such restrictions violate his constitutional free-speech rights, both as an individual and as a leading presidential candidate . That brings us to our …

Nerd word of the week:

The nerd word of the week is … Stay. Like calling a time out on a particular issue, stays are issued by judges to temporarily halt a ruling or a legal proceeding. The key word here is temporary. Judges may even issues stays of their own rulings, to give the losing side a chance to reargue or appeal the issue.

3. Georgia: State case on 2020 election

The details : Trump faces 13 state charges for allegedly trying to undo the election results in that state. Eighteen people were charged alongside Trump, and four have pleaded guilty.

Planned trial date : None yet.

What happened: Lawyers for Harrison Floyd , a co-defendant in the case who worked for the 2020 Trump campaign, appeared in court to argue that their client is entitled to thousands of pages of election records from Fulton County and the Georgia secretary of state.

• That’s some of the same material that election conspiracists have been seeking for years, and it highlights a novel legal theory that may be presented in court: That the 2020 election was actually stolen.
• Why it matters: State prosecutors allege that Floyd and other defendants “knowingly” lied. Floyd’s lawyers say they have the right to try to prove that the claims of election fraud weren’t a lie at all.

4. New York: State business fraud case

The details : 34 charges connected to a 2016 hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Planned trial date : March 25

Last week : No significant developments, but at the civil courthouse in New York, there was something of a Trump family reunion. The former president’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump both took the stand and sought to distance themselves from the allegedly fraudulent financial documents.

Eric Trump said his role with the Trump Organization focused on construction projects and development deals, not financial documents. Similarly, Trump Jr. deflected blame and said he trusted the company’s longtime accounting firm to ensure that all financial documents were accurate.

Question Time

How did Judge Aileen M. Cannon get assigned to Trump’s classified-documents case? Should she recuse herself because Trump nominated her to the bench?

We’re handing this question to our colleague Ann E. Marimow , who has reported extensively on Cannon and the judiciary.

Cannon first attracted attention when she issued a controversial 2022 decision that slowed the FBI review of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. She was reversed by a unanimous panel of conservative judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

There’s been chatter within anti-Trump circles that the process to get Cannon to then oversee the criminal trial was somehow rigged. But that isn’t the case.

Special counsel Jack Smith made a conscious choice to bring the main classified documents case in South Florida , knowing there was the possibility it would be assigned to Cannon. Court officials said she was randomly assigned as trial judge in June following Trump’s indictment.

Federal law says a judge “shall disqualify” herself in any proceeding in which her “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Legal experts say Trump’s role in putting Cannon on the bench is not itself a basis for recusal. Federal judges nominated by President Biden , for instance, routinely rule on his administration’s policies challenged in court. But a judge could be asked to step aside because of prior rulings that cast doubt on their ability to be impartial.

Suggested reads

Trump and allies plan to use Justice Department to seek revenge in a second term

Transformed Trump family takes center stage in a New York courtroom

Trump and the media want a televised trial in D.C. The U.S. doesn’t.

A Colorado judge considers if Trump incited a riot — and if he can run again

An earlier version of this story misstated the scheduled start date of Donald Trump's Florida trial. It is May 20.

More on the Trump Jan. 6 indictment

The charges: Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here’s a breakdown of the charges against Trump and what they mean, and things that stand out from the Trump indictment . Read the full text of the 45-page indictment .

The trial: Jury selection in the D.C. criminal trial is set to begin Feb. 9 , with the trial set to begin March 4 . U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has imposed a gag order on Trump’s public statements in advance of the trial.

The case: The special counsel’s office has been investigating whether Trump or those close to him violated the law by interfering with the lawful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election or with Congress’s confirmation of the results on Jan. 6, 2021. It is one of several ongoing investigations involving Trump .

Can Trump still run for president? While it has never been attempted by a candidate from a major party before, Trump is allowed to run for president while under indictment in four separate cases — or even if he is convicted of a crime. Here’s how Trump’s indictment could affect the 2024 election .

• Gag order against Trump in Jan. 6 case put on hold by appellate court November 3, 2023 Gag order against Trump in Jan. 6 case put on hold by appellate court November 3, 2023
• Jury selection in Trump’s D.C. criminal trial set to start Feb. 9 November 2, 2023 Jury selection in Trump’s D.C. criminal trial set to start Feb. 9 November 2, 2023
• Campaign, court gag order collide with Trump attack on likely witness October 30, 2023 Campaign, court gag order collide with Trump attack on likely witness October 30, 2023