Did you know that August 13th is International Left-Handers Day? Chances are that President Barack Obama, to say nothing of quite a few of his predecessors, knows it. Why? Because he — like five of the last seven presidents — is a lefty. (And we’re not talking about politically.)
Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford are or were left-handed — quite the statistical anomaly, considering that only about 1 in 10 people worldwide prefer using their left hands.
Naturally there is a website to teach you everything you needed to know about Left-Handers Day. It turns out that 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed, as were 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer. When it comes to twins, one of them has a high chance of being left-handed, and lefties are believed to be especially good at the likes of tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing.
There’s also a more serious side to the day, which spreads awareness about the special needs of left-handed kids. Also, lefties are far more likely to develop schizophrenia than right-handers, for reasons not well understood.
About 10 percent of people write with their left hand – a trait tenuously tied to intelligence and creativity, not to mention inky pinkies. And some experts say this small but steady legion sheds light on the brain.
The left hand is guided by the right side of the brain – the hemispheric home of orientation and intuition – leading researchers to suspect lefties may be wired differently than their right-handed counterparts.
Despite their minority status, lefties are more likely to excel in music, mathematics and athletics, according to studies. But left-handedness has also been linked to a higher risk of developmental disorders and mental illness.
"Handedness influences the way people think and feel, and how thoughts and feelings are organized in their brains," said Casasanto, who studies emotional processing in left-handers. "It turns out to matter in a number of ways."
But despite decades of research, the biological origins of handedness remain a mystery. It runs in families, suggesting some genetic influence, and can even be seen in the uterus: fetuses suck the right thumb more often than the left.
Some studies suggest stress in the womb might be to blame, as lefties are more likely to be born premature or have a low birth weight.
But forced to adapt to a right-hander's world, lefties are resilient. Once considered gauche – even sinister from the Latin for "on the left" – they tolerate teasing and, in some cases, attempts to rewire their handedness.
"Everyone assumed I should be able to switch and use my right hand," said Jane Angelich, a 60-year-old lefty from San Francisco. "It's tough when you're a kid and you're different from everyone else. But you grow out of it. Now I love being a lefty."
Today is international Left-Handers Day.
Glen Levy & Katie Moisse contributed to this report
Left-Handed U.S. Presidents
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) 31st
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd
Gerald Ford (1913- ) 38th
Ronald Reagan (1911 - ) 40th
George H.W. Bush (1924- ) 41st
Bill Clinton (1946- ) 42nd
Barack Obama (1961- ) 44th
Left-Handed Actors
Don Adams
Dan Aykroyd
Eddie Albert
Tim Allen
June Allyson
Harry Anderson
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
Herschel Bernardi
Robert Blake
Matthew Broderick
Bruce Boxleitner
Carol Burnett
George Burns, comedian
Ruth Buzzi, comedienne
Keith Carradine
Khaled Chahrour, Egyptian actor
Charlie Chaplin
George Gobel, comedian
Chuck Conners
Hans Conreid
James Cromwell
Tom Cruise
Quinn Cummings
Daniel Davis
Bruce Davison
Matt Dillon
Marty Engles, comedian
Olivia de Havilland
Robert DeNiro
Michael Dorn
Fran Drescher, comedian
Richard Dreyfuss
W.C. Fields
Larry Fine ? (of the Three Stooges)
Peter Fonda
Greta Garbo
Terri Garr
Paul Michael Glaser
Whoopie Goldberg
Betty Grable
Cary Grant
Peter Graves
Mark Hamill
Rex Harrison
Goldie Hawn
Joey Heatherton
Tippi Hedren
Jim Henson, puppetteer
Kermit the Frog
Rock Hudson
Angelina Jolie
Shirley Jones ?
Gabe Kaplan
Danny Kaye
Diane Keaton
George Kennedy
Nicole Kidman
Lisa Kudrow
Michael Landon
Hope Lange
Joey Lawrence
Peter Lawford
Cloris Leachman
Hal Linden
Cleavon Little
Shirley MacLaine
Andrew McCarthy
Kristy McNichol
Steve McQueen
Howie Mandel, comedian
Marcel Marceau, mime
Harpo Marx
Marsha Mason
Mary Stuart Masterson
Anne Meara, comedian
Sasha Mitchell
Marilyn Monroe
Robert Morse
Anthony Newley
Kim Novak
Ryan O'Neal
Sarah Jessica Parker
Estelle Parsons
Anthony Perkins
Ron Perlman
Luke Perry
Bronson Pinchot
Joe Piscopo, comedian
Robert Preston
Michael J. Pollard
Richard Pryor, comedian
Robert Redford
Keanu Reeves
Don Rickles, comedian
Julia Roberts
Mickey Rourke
Eva Marie Saint
Telly Savalas
Jean Seberg
Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
Christian Slater
Dick Smothers, comedian Brent Spiner
Slyvester Stallone ?
Terence Stamp
Jessica Steen
Rod Steiger
Alan Thicke
Terry Thomas, comedian
Emma Thompson
Rip Torn
Peter Ustinov
Brenda Vaccaro
Karen Valentine
Rudy Vallee
Dick Van Dyke
Graham Walker a.k.a. Grumbleweeds, English comedian
Wil Wheaton
James Whitmore
Treat Williams
Bruce Willis
William Windom
Oprah Winfrey
Mare Winningham
Joanne Woodward
Keenan Wynn Stephanie Zimbalist
Left-Handed Artists
Albrecht Dürer
M.C. Escher
Hans Holbein
Paul Klee
Michelangelo
LeRoy Neiman
Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci (RH paralyzed?)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer
David Byrne (Talking Heads)
Glen Campbell
Vicki Carr
Natale Cole
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)
Dick Dale (guitarist)
Don Everly (The Everly Brothers)
Phil Everly (The Everly Brothers)
Bela Fleck, jazz musician
Glenn Frey (the Eagles) Eric Gale, guitarist
Noel Gallagher (Oasis) (?)
Errol Garner, jazz pianist
Judy Garland
Crysal Gayle
Kevin Griffin, guitarist & lead singer (Better than Ezra)
Thomas Hedley, vocalist/musician
Jimi Hendrix
Isaac Hayes
Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
Albert King, guitarist
Melissa Manchester Chuck Mangione, trumpet
Martina McBride ?, country music singer
Paul McCartney (the Beatles; Wings)
Christie Marie Melonson (opera)
George Michael (Wham!)
Peter Nero, conductor
Joe Perry ? (Aerosmith)
Robert Plant (Led Zepplin)
Cole Porter, song-writer
Sergei Rachmaninoff ?, composer
Maurice Ravel ?, composer
Lou Rawls
John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols / Public Image Ltd.)
Rich Szabo, trumpeter
Seal
Ringo Starr (?) (the Beatles)
Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
Tiny Tim
Rudy Valee
Lenny White, drummer
Paul Williams, song-writerLeft-Handed Authors
James Baldwin, novelist
Bet Bowen, horror novelist
Peter Benchley, novelist
Lewis Carroll
Richard Condon, novelist Jean Genet
Marshall McLuhan
Diane Paul
Helen Hooven Santmyer, novelist
Viktoria Stefanov
Samuel C. Warner (?), poet
H.G. Wells
Jessamyn West
Eudora Welty, see One Writer's Beginnings (1983:27)
[Thomas Carlyle - switched to left due to injury]
Left-Handed U.S. Politicos
Senator Bill Bradley, Rhodes scholar, basketball star
McGeorge Bundy, presidential advisor
Benjamin Franklin, statesman/publisher/scientistSteve Forbes, businessman/publisher
Jean-Marc Froidevaux ?, Swiss politician
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice
Senator Daniel Inouye
Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice
Alan Keyes, US Senator, US Ambasador
Brigadier Gen. Lee Hsien Loon, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
John McCain, US SenatorB
Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense
Col. Oliver North, White House aid
H. Ross Perot, businessman
William Perry, Secretary of Defense
Nelson Rockefeller, Vice PresidentSenator Hugh Scott
Robert Wagner, New York mayor
Henry Wallace, Vice President
[Senator Bob Dole - switched to left due to injury]
Miscellaneous Left-Handers
Joan of Arc (?), French heroine
Lloque Yapanqui (?), Inca monarch
Ramses II (?), Egyptian pharaoh
Tiberius (?), Roman emperor
Alexander the GreatCharlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoléon Bonaparte (?), French emperor
Josephine de Beauharnais
King Louis XVI of France
Queen Victoria of England
King George II of England
King George VI of England
Prince Charles of England
Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime-minister
Ehud Olmert, Israeli prime-minister
Nicole d'Oresme, mathematician
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, bankerDwight F. Davis, founder of the Davis Cup
Helen Keller, advocate for the blind
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, physician/missionary
August Piccard, inventor of stratosphere,
Bathosphere
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Wally Schirra, astronaut
Dr. Mark Silver, surgeon
Paul Prudhomme, chef
Cecil Beaton, photographer/costume designer
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts (ambidexterous)
Dave Barry, journalist
David Broder, journalist
Edward R. Murrow, correspondent
Ted Koppel, journalist
Forrest Sawyer, journalist
Ray Suarez, journalist
John F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer/publisher
Caroline Kennedy, lawyer/author
Ron Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan
Vin Scully, sports broadcaster
David Letterman (?), host
Jay Leno, host
Lenny Bruce, comedian
Allen Ludden, host
Joel Hodgson, host of Mystery Science Theater
Wink Martindale, game show host
Uri Geller, psychokinetic performer
Richard Simmons, exercise guru
Euell Gibbons, naturalist
Marie Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Clarence Darrow, lawyer
F. Lee Bailey, lawyer
Melvin Belli, lawyer
Marcia Clark, lawyer
Alan Funt, television producer
Milt Caniff, cartoonist
Bill Mauldin, cartoonist
Cathy Guisevite, cartoonist
Matt Groening, cartoonist
Jean Plantureux (Plantu), political cartoonist
Pat Oliphand, political cartoonist Ronald Searle, cartoonist
Pat Robertson, evangelist/politician
N.B. Forrest, Confederate general
John Dillinger, criminal/bank robber
Boston Strangler (Albert Henry DeSalvo), serial killer
Jack-the-Ripper, serial killer
John Wesley Hardin, Western gunslinger
Bart Simpson, cartoon character
[King Edward III of England, due to stroke]
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