He helped Gustave Eiffel design his eponymous tower, Count Zeppelin, the first airship, and Dmitry Mendeleev, the Periodic Table. The Panama Canal was his idea. He was a teacher and a playwright, a philosopher and a detective. He invented yogurt. He was voted the Greatest Czech of all time.

Only the last statement is true. Jara Cimrman, purported to do all those things (and much, much more), was himself invented in 1966 by a trio of writers. All of Czechia seems to be in on the joke: he is not real, and yet...

When the nationwide poll was held in 2005, Cimrman finished first. Alas, the votes for him had to be annulled. Instead, the honors went to King Charles IV, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century and founded Prague's Charles University. A lame cop-out, if you ask us. (For names you might know, Vaclav Havel was #3, Jaromir Jagr #27, Milos Forman #30, Kafka #55, Martina Navratilova #81, and poor Freud relegated all the way to #98.)

He was Jewish? Yes! Part of the legend is that Cimrman's father was a Jewish tailor, and "Cimrman" was originally "Zimmerman"...