Facts and Trivia About Being A Lefty

By Maria Vultaggio
Aug. 13 is International Left Handers day, which means those 10 percent who always feel like they’re getting elbowed aside have a day to feel special. Continue reading to find out some fun facts and trivia about being a lefty.

--Even though the body in generally symmetrical, there are some aspects that leave it one-sided: like whether a person if a lefty or a righty for instance.

--Aug. 13 was designated as Left-Hander’s Day in 1996 to bring awareness to the difficulties of being a lefty in a right-handed world.

--Their hand gestures are perceived as more polite. As per the Telegraph: "Research this week suggested that right-handed politicians have a disadvantage in television debates because their hand gestures are interpreted more negatively by audiences."

--Left-handers are better swimmers. According to LeftHandersDay.com, "Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater." Sorry, they offered no actual proof of this.

---The lot of left-handers are smarter than right-handers. Or their IQ is extremely low. ABCNews touts: "Tests conducted by Alan Searleman from St Lawrence University in New York found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people." Famous left-handed thinkers include Albert Einstein, Barack Obama and four of the five original designers of the Macintosh computer.

--Left-handers may be better fighters. "It has long been thought that, in the days when arguments were resolved by hand-to-hand combat, being left-handed gave people the benefit of surprise against a right-handed opponent," according to AnythingLeft-Handed.co.uk.

--They make their family smarter. "Stephen Christman and Ruth Propper at the University of Toledo, Ohio, claim that people with 'lefties' in the family have a larger corpus callosum—the connection between the brain hemispheres. This makes you better at certain memory tasks, but worse at others, they believe," according to AnythingLeft-Handed.co.uk. -Brynn Mannino, Assistant Editor


--Mothers who give birth over the age of 40 are 128 percent more likely to have a child with left-handedness than a woman who has a baby in her 20s.

--Lefties have been traced back to the caveman days. Archaeologists believe that some cave paintings were created by a left- handed artist.

--Lefties are more likely to be geniuses. 

--Throughout history, being left-handed was seen as a trait marking creativity and musical ability.

--Left-handedness runs in the family, the British royal family namely. The Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and Prince William are or were all lefties.

--Lefties are more likely to loathe spiral notebooks.

--It’s not sure what makes a person become a lefty. Some scientists say it could be more testosterone in utero; others say it could be the hand babies prefer to have in their mouths.

--Some researchers believe lefties are better at handling stimuli, which means they’re naturally better at video games.

--Some scholars say lefties are the last unorganized minority in society because they don’t have a collective power or real sense of common identity.

--Lefties tend to be more susceptible to negative emotions like depression and anger because they engage in the right side of their brains more aggressively.

--Some scholars say lefties generally die nine years earlier than righties.

--Nearly 30 million people in the U.S. are left-handed.

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
Robert Blake
Matthew Broderick
Carol Burnett
George Burns, comedian
Ruth Buzzi, comedienne
Keith Carradine
Charlie Chaplin 
George Gobel, comedian
Chuck Conners
Tom Cruise
Matt Dillon
Marty Engles, comedian
Olivia de Havilland
Robert DeNiro
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
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
Shirley MacLaine
Kristy McNichol
Steve McQueen
Howie Mandel, comedian 
Marcel Marceau, mime 
Harpo Marx
Marsha Mason
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
Slyvester Stallone 
Rod Steiger
Alan Thicke 
Terry Thomas, comedian
Emma Thompson 
Rip Torn
Peter Ustinov
Rudy Vallee
Dick Van Dyke
James Whitmore
Bruce Willis
William Windom
Oprah Winfrey
Joanne Woodward
Keenan Wynn
Stephanie Zimbalist

Left handed celebraties
Albert Einstein, really smart guy
Napoléon Bonaparte, French emperor
Prince Charles of England
Prince William of England
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime-minister
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker
Helen Keller, advocate for the blind
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Wally Schirra, astronaut
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 3000
Wink Martindale, game show host
Euell Gibbons, naturalist
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
F. Lee Bailey, lawyer
Marcia Clark, lawyer
Alan Funt, television producer

Left handed artists
Michelangelo 
LeRoy Neiman
Raphael 
Leonardo da Vinci
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
John Dillinger, criminal/bank robber
Bart Simpson, cartoon character
Ray Tharaldson, artist, photographer & videographer

Left-Handed Musicians
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-writer

Left-Handed Athletes
Francis X. Gorman (diving)
Greg Louganis (diving)
Mark Spitz (swimming)
Bruce Jenner (decathlon)
Dorothy Hamill (skating)
Phil Esposito (hockey)
Oscar de la Hoya (boxing)
Reggie Johnson (boxing)
Rafael "Bazooka" Limon (boxing)
Freddie Miller (boxing)
Jacker Patterson (boxing)
Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker (boxing)