January 1: J Edgar Hoover

J Edgar Hoover, American law-enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was born on this date in 1895. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. His parents didn’t register his birth. He didn’t get a birth certificate until after his mother died in 1938, by which time he was 43.

2. He had a stutter as a child but overcame it so that by the time he was in high school, he was a member of the debating society.

3. The J stands for John, but his mother always called him by his middle name, Edgar.

4. He was a Freemason. Hoover joined the Freemasons as a member of Federal Lodge 1 in Washington DC and worked his way up to the 33rd degree, the highest rank, by 1955.

5. One of the things he’s famous for is putting together a team to hunt down famous gangsters like John Dillinger, Al Capone, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and "Machine Gun" Kelly. These men became known as "G-Men." The G-Men were quite successful in this endeavour and so they, and Hoover, were seen as heroes by the public.

6. He was, however, misogynist and racist. Although it could be argued that his debating society stance against votes for women might have been a topic assigned to him rather than his actual views, when he took over as head of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924, he fired all the women agents, just two years after the Bureau got its first woman special agent, Alaska Davidson. It was 1972 before women were allowed to be FBI agents again, after Hoover had died. He tried to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. and prevent his birthday from becoming a national holiday. He was reportedly furious when MLK was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

7. He did like Dogs, though. Since childhood, he always had a dog, including one named “G-Boy.” He sometimes gave dogs as presents to presidents like President Herbert Hoover (no relation) and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

8. He spied on a lot of people. He had people’s telephones tapped and relatives followed. Anyone, basically, who might be a communist or an activist. This meant he had a lot of dirt on a lot of people. Politicians, Supreme Court judges and even presidents (the latter possibly as an insurance policy against getting fired: Richard Nixon once expressed the opinion that Hoover might “bring down the temple” if he were sacked); and also celebrities and film stars, including John Lennon, Norman Mailer, Charlie Chaplin, and comedy duo Abbott and Costello. It’s also said that he had the world’s biggest collection of porn as he had an “Obscene File” full of compromising photos of famous people, although this was most likely blackmail material rather than something he got turned on by.

9. He never married and so there were rumours that he was gay and the love of his life was his assistant Clyde Tolson. Hoover reportedly hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality. That said, his name was linked romantically with actress Dorothy Lamour (who never denied the rumours) and Lela Rogers, mother of Ginger, who mutual friends thought might end in wedding bells.

10. He was awarded an honorary knighthood by King George VI of the United Kingdom.