30 Birthday Curiosities: From Surprising Traditions to Fascinating Statistics

Hugh Jackman worked as a birthday clown named 'Coco' and made just 50 bucks. Jackman admits that he had no magic tricks and was even told off by a 6-year-old that he is terrible.

2. Queen Elizabeth has owned more than 30 Corgis over the last 80 years all of which were direct descendants of her Corgi named Susan whom she had received on her 18th birthday.

3. In 1973, the members of Led Zeppelin gave drummer John Bonham a Harley Davidson for his 25th birthday, which he promptly rode up and down the hallways of his hotel, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The next day, he wrote a check for the damages and said "Oh, and keep the bike."

4. In 2010, when Tokyo officials went to congratulate the oldest man in the city, Sogen Kato, on his 111th birthday, they were shocked to find a 30-year-old skeleton. The family, as it turned out, was still drawing off the pension he was still receiving.

5. A goat named William Windsor reached the rank of lance corporal in the British Army and got demoted for inappropriate behavior during the Queen's official birthday.

A German man named Sven Hagemeier celebrated his birthday for 46 hours by traveling through different time-zones.

7. Before his death, author Robert Louis Stevenson gifted his friend's daughter his own birthday. His friend’s daughter was born on Christmas, and often complained she felt like she had no real birthday.

8. On her 56th birthday, Carol Burnett woke up to the news that her friend and mentor Lucille Ball had died. Flowers arrived later with a note that said "Happy Birthday, Kid. Love Lucy."

9. In 2016, the oldest living leap year baby celebrated her (Daisy Belle Ward) 25th birthday on her 100th year of life.

10. The British king or queen has two birthdays: their real birth date and one assigned to them during the summer, to ensure better weather for the parade.

Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two men who reached Mount Everest, didn't know when his exact birthday was. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter.

12. There is a copy of the Quran written in Saddam Hussein's blood which he had commissioned for his 60th birthday. Over the course of 2 years he provided up to 57 pints of his blood to complete the more than 336,000 words that make up the text.

13. Pharaoh Ptolemy VIII was married to his sister-wife Cleopatra II. Later when Ptolemy married his niece (Cleopatra’s daughter by another brother), it caused Cleopatra to rebel in support of their 12-year-old son. Ptolemy responded by dismembering their son and sending the pieces to Cleopatra on her birthday.

14. A billionaire hedge fund manager named Raj Rajaratnam once paid Kenny Rogers $4 million to sing The Gambler over and over a dozen times at his birthday party.

15. Christmas is banned in North Korea and instead of Christmas, the birthday of Kim Jong-suk (grandmother of the current supreme leader of North Korea) is celebrated on Christmas eve. However, some North Korean Christian believers still celebrate Christmas in secret.

In the 1800s, a man named James “Shanghai” Kelly used to kidnap men and forced them to work on ships. One year on his birthday he announced he was hosting a free “booze cruise” to celebrate, served opium-laced whiskey to the attendees, then offloaded them onto waiting ships and got 100 men in one night.

17. A Dutch city known as Utrecht celebrated George Orwell's 110 birthday by putting party hats on surveillance cameras.

18. There is a festival called Eeyore's Birthday Party, which is celebrated in honor of the character of the same name from Winnie the Pooh, who believes that everyone has forgotten his birthday.

19. Composer Arnold Schoenberg had a morbid fear of the number 13. On his 76th birthday, an astrologer wrote him a letter of warning reading only “7 + 6 = 13”, causing him to fall into a deep depression and illness, from which he died on Friday the 13th.

20. Snooty was the world’s oldest captive manatee that used to live at the South Florida Aquarium for almost his whole life until his death in 2017. On his birthday, his care takers used to give him a cake made of fruit and vegetables while the visitors sang him Happy Birthday.

On Donald Ducks' 50th birthday, Walt Disney World hatched 50 Peking ducks in front of Donald Duck, so they would think he is their "mother" and follow him around for a birthday celebration parade.

22. Babe Ruth believed that his birthday was February 7, 1894. However, when he applied for a passport he looked up his birth certificate and found his birthday listed as February 6, 1895, nearly a full year later than he thought.

23. Putting candles on birthday cakes dates back to the Ancient Greeks, who often burned candles as offerings to their many Gods and Goddesses. It was their way to pay tribute to the Greek moon goddess, Artemis. Round cakes symbolized the moon. Candles were added to represent the reflected moonlight.

24. Stephen Hawking was born (January 8, 1942) on the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.

25. Maroon 5 was banned from China after keyboardist Jesse Carmichael wished the Dalai Lama of Tibet a happy birthday on Twitter.