Sherlock Holmes Day: Mind-boggling facts about the world's favorite detective
What's the story
May 22 every year is marked as Sherlock Holmes Day as it is the character's creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday today.
An absolute genius, the character is known to showcase his mannerisms in detail, which makes him a mass favorite, even today.
Let us discover some interesting facts about Sherlock Holmes and how the detective has overcome the test of time.
Fact 1
Holmes was inspired by a teacher
Although a fictional character, it is believed that Homes's character is loosely based on the Scottish author's former professor Dr. Joseph Bell.
Dr. Bell was a lecturer who used to teach at the University of Edinburgh and was known to diagnose patients on sight!
That's how Doyle came up with Holmes and based his skills on that of the professor.
Fact 2
Doyle had a different name for Holmes on his mind
From the notes of Doyle's first book from 1886, it was revealed that he had planned to name Holmes' character as either Sherrinford Hope or Sherrington Hope.
Then why the change? Well, Doyle was fond of cricket and amalgamated the names of his two favorite players Mordecai Sherwin and Frank Shacklock to come up with Sherlock Holmes.
It was his tribute to the cricketers.
Fact 3
Holmes died because Doyle got tired of his creation
Holmes dies in the book The Adventure of the Final Problem after he falls off a cliff during a fight with the antagonist.
However, did you ever wonder why the character had to be killed? Turns out, Doyle was tired of his creation as he thought that writing Holmes was taking too much time, leaving him with very less time to write other stories.
Fact 4
People wrote angry letters to bring back Holmes
You may not believe but when Holmes was killed in 1893, thousands of fans wrote angry letters to Doyle and even canceled their subscription to The Strand, the magazine where the stories were published!
They wanted the author to bring Homles back and after a decade, he was resurrected from his grave as he made a return in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Fact 5
Holmes's IQ was greater than Einstein's
John Radford, another character in the famous tale The Intelligence of Sherlock Holmes and Other Three-Pipe Problems, estimated Holmes's IQ level and revealed that it was 190, which was 30 points more than Einstein's score of 160.
John H. Watson's IQ was calculated somewhere between 120 to 130, which again, is higher than that of a regular person.