Cable Forum - Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

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Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Phew, that's alright - I've got exactly 106 days to beat all of these people:

At age 30:

Mark Twain published his first short story, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog."

Danish novelist Hans Christian Andersen published his book of fairy tales.

Nat Turner led a slave rebellion.

U.S. mariner Moses Rogers made the first ocean steamboat voyage.

Donald Trump persuaded bankers to lend him $80 million so he could buy the Commodore Hotel.

Samuel Morse's assistant, Alfred Lewis Vail, devised Morse code.

Physicist Armand H. L. Fizeau measured the speed of light.

Dr. Narinder Kapany invented fiber optics and designed a glass gastroscope which can be snaked down the throat for a detailed view of the stomach.

Hank Williams overdosed on drugs and alcohol.

Bill Gates was the first person ever to become a billionaire by age 30.

Earl Vickers started the Dollar Project, in which dollar bills were rubber-stamped as being lost, with a reward offered for their safe return.

Better get busy, hadn't I :D

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy

Hmmmm, France hasn't been invaded for a few years now...

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Quote:

Orson Welles produced and performed his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, terrifying millions of people. He also got his face on the cover of Time Magazine.

About the only interesting one for 23!
They need more sporting achievements I think ;)

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Quote:

At age 17:

Nicolo Paganini dazzled audiences with his virtuosity and pawned his violin in order to pay gambling debts.

Artificial heart developer Robert Jarvik began working on his first invention, a surgical stapler.

After giving birth at age 8, Nigerian girl Mum-zi became a grandmother at 17.

Rugby college student William Webb Ellis invented the game of rugby.

Author Joseph Conrad, wanting to be a sailor, first went to sea. This was an uncommon ambition in land-locked Poland.

American author Jack London ran away to sea on a sealing ship headed for the North Pacific. After becoming a hobo and spending time in jail, he resolved to get an education.

Composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote his overture to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." By this time he had also composed twelve symphonies.

Walt Whitman began teaching school in Long Island.

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

:cry: I feel even more useless now than I did yesterday...

Quote:

At age 24:

Nelly Bly made a solo trip around the world in less than 80 days for the New York World, beating Phileas Fogg's fictional record.

Radioastronomy grad student Jocelyn Bell Burnell observed an unknown signal from outer space; this resulted in the discovery of pulsars.

And this next one.... I can't stop giggling at it, let alone actually do it:

Quote:

John Couch Adams became the first person to predict the position of a planetary mass beyond Uranus.

Johannes Kepler defended the Copernican theory and described the structure of the solar system.

Entrepreneur Ted Turner took over his father's billboard advertising business. He later launched CNN.

Tracy Chapman released her first album, winning three Grammies.

Scottish physician Mungo Park became the first European to reach the West African interior.

Edgar Allen Poe won a $50 prize for the story "MS. Found in a Bottle."

Noah Webster published a spelling book.

Isaac Pitman devised the first scientific shorthand system.

Security guard Frank Wills alerted D.C. police to the Watergate break-ins.

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryo2dx

About the only interesting one for 23!
They need more sporting achievements I think ;)

There's more than enough there for me already :erm:

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

At age 52:

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart had sex with a prostitute and was removed from the ministry.

Francis Chichester sailed around the world alone in a 53-foot boat normally manned by a crew of six.

Mr. Phillips was 52 when he began work on painting his front door. The work is about 46% complete and is expected to take another eighteen months. Mr. Phillips is not a national figure but works at a leading educational institute.

Nila Hughes installed all of the innerds of her toilet in two hours without any male help.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Best laugh I've had all day...

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

At age 21:

Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini had a dream in which he sold his soul to the Devil. The piece he wrote upon waking, the "Devil's Sonata," was the best he ever wrote, though far inferior to the one he heard in his dream.

American novelist Herman Melville jumped ship and spent a month as the captive of a cannibal tribe. This became the source of his novel Typee.

Jack London went to the Klondike with the first rush of gold-seekers, returning home a year later as poor as when he had left.

English chemist Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide ("laughing gas"), and suggested that it may have use as an anaesthetic.

Thomas Alva Edison created his first invention, an electric vote recorder. After it failed to sell, he decided to devote his energy to inventions for which there was a market.

John Dillinger robbed a grocery store, was caught and spent 9 years in prison. He later became "public enemy number one," before being gunned down by the FBI.

Luther Burbank purchased 17 acres of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts and began a plant-breeding career that would span 55 years.

Pablo Casals made significant modifications in cello playing technique and was acclaimed as a master.

Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster wrote "Oh! Susanna!" which quickly gained great popularity.

Future robber baron Jay Gould began investing in the leather business and speculating in railroad stocks.

Robert Browning publishes his first poetry; it is poorly received.

Alfred Tennyson publishes his first poetry; it is poorly received.

College dropout Steven Jobs co-founded Apple Computer.

French mathematician Evariste Galois developed group theory (and many other theorems) before his death at the age of 21.

:o

Re: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age

Well I always thought I was a waste of atoms and this confirms it. Hot bath and a broken Bic I think :mis:

Nuclear plant lab tech Karen Silkwood died in a car crash on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter and a union official to document her allegations about falsified quality control reports.

I remember watching the film Silkwood as a kid - scared the hell out of me. The unaccompanied "Amazing Grace" at the end always gets me :cry: