David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

In 1926 Spanish ultra-modernist painter Salvador Dali was expelled from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid when he refused to allow his professors to critique his paintings.

Daltrey was expelled from Acton County Grammar School in England. ‘I was an evil little so-and-so,’ he remembers, ‘I didn’t fit in.’ The headmaster who expelled him commented, ‘When you have 500 boys in uniform, and one in a teddy boy outfit, no wonder he didn’t fit in.’

The 18-year-old Flaubert was first in his philosophy class at the College Royal. Nevertheless, he led a revolt against a substitute teacher, and when the noisy students were ordered to copy 1,000 lines of poetry as punishment, Flaubert organised a petition in protest. The headmaster was unmoved, and Flaubert and two other boys were expelled.

In 1885, American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was expelled from Harvard, halfway through his junior year. He had given each of his professors a chamber pot adorned with the professor’s name and picture.

Killy began skiing at the age of three, and by the time he was a teenager he often cut school to attend ski competitions. ‘Once you start racing in France,’ he said, ‘your schooling is finished.’ He was expelled at 15 because of chronic truancy.

At the age of nine, Mussolini was sent 20 miles from home to a boarding school in Faenza, Italy, run by Salesian priests. The recalcitrant youth was nearly expelled for throwing an inkpot at a teacher who had struck him with a ruler. Finally he went too far — he stabbed a fellow student in the buttocks with a knife. The future dictator was permanently dismissed.

In 1831 American author and poet Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point when he refused to attend drills and classes for several weeks.

Pryor was expelled from a Catholic grammar school in Peoria, Illinois, when the nuns discovered that his grandmother ran a string of brothels. At 16, he was expelled from Central High School for punching a science teacher named Mr Think.

In 1811, while a student at Oxford, the poet Shelley and his close friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg sent a pamphlet entitled ‘The Necessity of Atheism’, a summary of the arguments of John Locke and David Hume, to the heads of the colleges. When both students refused to answer questions about the pamphlet, they were summarily expelled.

At approximately the age of 10, Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky was expelled from secondary school in Odessa, Russia, after he incited his classmates to howl at their teacher. Trotsky, however, was the school’s best pupil and was readmitted the following year.

Wilson was expelled from prep school after he and two friends stole the answers to a maths exam. ‘I got called into the headmaster’s office and he handed me a geometry problem and told me to do it. When I couldn’t, he pointed out I had just completed a similar one on the exam.’ The next year, Wilson was enrolled in the New Mexico Military Institute, where, he noted, ‘I learned to follow rules, even the ones I thought were stupid.’

In 1883, during the sixth grade, American inventor and aviator Orville Wright was expelled from his elementary school in Richmond, Indiana, for mischievous behaviour.

Beckham has a large crucified figure in the centre of his back. Above and below are the names of his sons, Romeo and Brooklyn. Among his other tattoos are his wife’s name misspelled in Hindi and the Roman numeral VII, representing his number when he played for Manchester United.

On his back is a monitor lizard wearing a top hat.

Had an anchor on his arm. His mother, Jenny, had a snake on her right wrist.

The singer has several tattoos including one on his wrist that says ‘Slit Here’, three in honour of his daughter and an open grave with the words ‘Rot in Pieces’ dedicated to his ex-wife.

Just below her bikini line she has what appears to be Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse having sex.

When the actors in The Lord of the Rings were tattooed with an Elfish design for ‘The 9’ to represent the Fellowship of the Ring, director Jackson was tattooed with an Elfish ‘10’.

The singer has Jesus on his right arm and Woody Woodpecker on his left.

Among his dozen tattoos are an open zipper with an eyeball peering out and, on his chest, a note that says ‘Back in 15 minutes’.

Besides the obvious Maori-style tattoo on his face, Tyson has pictures of Mao Tse Tung on his right arm, tennis player Arthur Ashe on his left arm, Che Guevara on his stomach and his second wife, Dr Monica Turner, on his left forearm.

1. AMERIGO VESPUCCI, Italian explorer

Total area : 16,243,000

North America: 9,360,000

South America: 6,883,000

2. VICTORIA, British queen

Total area : 1,188,100

Queensland (Australia): 666,790

Victoria (Australia): 227,620

Great Victoria Desert (Australia): 127,000

Victoria Island (Canada): 83,000

Victoria Island (Antarctica): 60,000

Lake Victoria (Africa): 26,000

Victoria Strait (Canada): 6,000

3. MAUD, Norwegian queen

Total area : 1,102,000

Queen Maud Land (Antarctica): 1,081,000

Queen Maud Mountains (Antarctica): 15,000

Queen Maud Gulf (Canada): 6,000

4. JAMES WEDDELL, British seal hunter and explorer Weddell Sea (Antarctica): 1,080,000

5. ABEL JANZOON TASMAN, Dutch explorer

Total area : 925,100

Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean): 900,000

Tasmania (Australia): 24,900

Tasman Peninsula (Australia): 200

6. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Italian explorer

Total area : 920,200

Colombia: 440,830

British Columbia (Canada): 365,950

Columbia Plateau (US): 100,000

Colon department (Honduras): 3,430

Colon department (Panama): 3,150

District of Columbia and 10 US counties named for Columbus (combined area): 6,790

7. VITUS BERING, Russian explorer

Bering Sea (Arctic Ocean): 879,000

8. IBN-SAUD, Saudi king

Saudi Arabia: 865,000

9. CHARLES WILKES, US naval officer

Wilkes Land (Antarctica): 660,000

10. WILLEM BARENTS, Dutch explorer

Barents Sea (Arctic Ocean): 592,000

She is mentioned five times in the book of Genesis, but only in the context of being one of a group who is present. This is surprising considering how talented and efficient she must have been to have been suddenly uprooted from her home and asked to set up housekeeping in a gopherwood ark filled with birds, snakes, insects and full-grown animals of every species. This woman, who kept everything in order in the ark for 12 months, is known to us today, not by her own name, but only as ‘Noah’s wife’, (Gen. 6:18; 7:7 and 13; 8:16 and 18).