Today is International Left-Handers Day.

Here are some things you may not have known about southpaws.

Left-handers make up about seven to ten percent of the world’s population. About 70-90 percent is right-handed.

For centuries cultures have favored right-handers over lefties and that extends to language. The fact that Right also means correct, is no accident. The Latin word for “left” and “unlucky” is “sinister.”

Since 1923, six U.S. presidents have been left handed. Three Democrats: Harry S Truman, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; and three Republicans: Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. In the 1992, 1996 and 2008 presidential elections all the major candidates were left-handed.

Our question, why are left-handers known as “southpaws” in the United States?

Today is also: Independence Day in Central African Republic, Women’s Day in Tunisia and in the United States it is Filet Mignon Day. It is the birthday of film director Alfred Hitchcock, golf legend Ben Hogan and  Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

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