Genius Facts About Einstein That Were Left Out Of The History Textbooks

Remember: if someone calls you "Einstein," you probably just had the opposite of a genius moment. But the man behind the name was the real deal. Every mastermind has his quirks, and Albert Einstein was no exception. And it's possible that the quirkiest part of his life didn't even happen in a classroom, but at home! His personal life pushed the envelope just as much as his brilliant ideas, though most people have no idea just how "mad" the scientist/physicist really was!

The guy whole stole Einstein's brain

After performing Einstein's autopsy in 1955, Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey kept Einstein's brain without permission. He theorized that there was something unique about Einstein's brain that made him so intelligent. Harvey even sent pieces of the brain to various scientists around the world for research purposes! Harvey finally relinquished the organ in 1998.

He inspired an iconic Star Wars character

Living in a swamp in Dagobah, Einstein might be. When designing Yoda for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, makeup artist Stuart Freedman borrowed some of the scientist's recognizable facial features. There's definitely a hint of Einstein in Yoda's curious eyes, placid expression, and wispy white hair. Clearly, Yoda also inherited Einstein's wisdom. Impressed, we are.

His surprising first love

Much to Einstein's chagrin, his mother Pauline forced him to learn violin as a child. At that time, he much preferred calculus equations to sheets of music! However, his entire outlook flipped when he turned 13. Suddenly struck by the beauty and complexity of the instrument, he fell in love with it, and the violin remained one of his greatest passions for the rest of his life.

Einstein's secret child

In the 1980s, historians found personal letters from Albert Einstein revealing a dark family secret. He had a child out of wedlock with his first wife, Mileva Marić, when they were both fresh out of college in the early 1900s. They named the girl Lieserl, but nobody knows for sure what happened to her. Some historians believe she was adopted, but others think she passed away from scarlet fever when she was an infant.