Berita Hari Ini: What famous leader taxed beards?


	April 24, 2026

Original photo by gilaxia/ iStock

Russian Czar Peter the Great established a tax on beards.

A few years into his reign, Russian Czar Peter I (aka “Peter the Great”) decided to study abroad. Worried that Russia was lagging behind in key technological areas, Peter traveled incognito to various European countries, where he picked up some new skills — and a grooming preference that led to some controversial policies.

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		Numbers Don't Lie

Year Peter the Great’s beard tax was finally repealed (47 years after his death)

1772

Length (in inches) of the world’s longest beard (now at the Smithsonian)

210

Length (in inches) the average beard grows per month

0.3-0.5

The year “No-Shave November” debuted on Facebook in an effort to raise money for cancer patients

2009

Sideburns are named after a Union general in the Civil War.

Sideburns have been found on the faces of several famous figures, from Alexander the Great to Charles Darwin, but it wasn’t until the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) that the term “sideburns'' came into being, thanks to a particularly hirsute Union general. Ambrose Burnside wasn’t much of a general: At the Battle of Antietam, his ineffective command meant his soldiers struggled to take a stone bridge (now called Burnside Bridge) and turned what could’ve been a Union victory into a draw. At Fredericksburg, things went from bad to worse, as Burnside led several failed assaults against Robert E. Lee’s forces. But what Burnside might’ve lacked in military acumen, he made up for with his luxurious facial hair, which connected his side-whiskers to his mustache (his chin remained clean-shaven). After the war, many men copied the general’s look, and these facial facsimiles were called “burnsides.” Over the years, the term eventually flipped into its modern spelling.