8 astonishing secrets taken to the grave by great people

Angelo Faticoni, born in 1859, was a man who had an incredible ability to float in the water for long periods of time. He discovered his "super power" in the early childhood and became a freakshow artist later. There were numerous experiments in which large amounts of iron and steal were attached to Angelo's body, but he still never drowned. He even crossed the Hudson river once being tied to a chair which was weighted with lead! Angelo Faticoni promised to disclose his secret to the society one day, but died unexpectedly in 1931.

After the great composer's death, an unsent love letter was found among his personal correspondence and documents. There was no information about the recipient on the envelope, so Beethoven took this secret to the grave.

This great library was created in the 16th century by Ivan III and contained an enormous number of Latin, Egyptian and Greek books and manuscripts. Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) was the last Tsar to own the library. He was very proud of the famous collection and took measures to keep its location secret. The library was hidden well, but Ivan the Terrible was supposed to pass it to the next generation before his death. Anyway, he never did that and the information about the location of the library got lost. Later it was entitled "The Lost Library of the Moscow Tsars."

The legendary illusionist put an envelope with the secrets of his greatest magic tricks in a safe and instructed to open the safe 100 years after the day of his death. According to his will, the safe was opened in the public view on at the right time... and was empty. Houdini never explained his amazing performances.

Second Officer Charles Lightoller was the most senior officer surviving the famous catastrophe. As it turns out, he may have really known something important about the reason of the disaster. Lightoller supposedly met with the captain of the liner when the ship hit the iceberg to find out the details. He kept it secret for the rest of his life and only shared the information with his family.

Almost a century later, his granddaughter, novelist Louise Patten, decided to reveal the family secret. According to her, Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, insisted on keeping sailing even after the fatal mistake of the ship's steersman. He was concerned about the status of the company. Under his influence, the officers didn't stop the ship to wait for help, and the liner continued moving even after the crash. Anyway, no one can verify this information today. Why did Lightoller keep silent? Revealing the truth would have resulted in business bankruptcy and lots of people could have lost their jobs. “He was simply caught between two differing codes of honor, and my grandmother and the rest of the family understood that,” said Lightoller's granddaughter in an interview.

In his famous "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Douglas Adams gives an incredibly simple and ridiculous answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. According to the author, the answer is "42". No one knows why Adams chose this number, but the true fans of the trilogy have spent years trying to dig into it. Was it just a joke? Did Adams just use a random number? Or is there any hidden meaning? The writer never disclosed this secret.

This oolite limestone structure was built by Edward Leedskalnin, an eccentric sculptor and engineer who emigrated to the US from Latvia at the beginning of the 20th century. The thing is that he constructed the whole castle all alone! Somehow he single-handedly moved the large oolite stones weighing up to 30 tons. Moreover, he used no mortar - only the right location of each piece keeps all of them together. While alive, Edward claimed to know the secret of how the pyramids of Egypt was built, but never shared it with anyone. Many years after his death, one of the elements of the castle was broken, and the engineers had to use a construction crane to move it.

Einstein died in a hospital in his sleep. The only person present at his deathbed was a nurse who... didn't speak German. And the great scientist spoke his last words in his mother tongue. She didn't understand him, so the final words of the genius will remain unknown forever.