Michael Jackson turns 50

Michael Jackson turns 50 today and to honor this happy occasion we have compiled a list of facts, strange rumors and weird things the megastar has done or been through over the years:

• The doors to Michael’s famous Neverland Ranch in California are now closed, but during the 80s some tabloids claimed that the megastar had built a runway for UFOs on the property.

• Michael Jackson is Nicole Richie’s godfather.

• The rumor has it that Michael used to have long phone conversations with Princess Diana about the downsides of being a celebrity.

• Even though Michael denies it, several cosmetic surgery experts claim he has undergone multiple nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips and a cheekbone surgery.

• In 1985, Michael rescued Bubbles the chimpanzee from some kind of testing facility in Texas. Michael and the monkey became good friends and the rumor has it that Bubbles even had his own bodyguards and that he and Michael shared the same bathroom.

• Michael married the nurse Debbie Rowe in 1996. The couple had two children together before they went their separate ways. According to some sources, Rowe still receives about $900.000 a year from the pop star.

• Actor Macaulay Culkin and Elisabeth Taylor are godparents to Michael’s two oldest kids.

• In 1992, Michael announced that his pale skin was a result of a skin disease called vitiligo.

• In 1986, the tabloid press ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process. This claim was later said to be false.

• For a while, some people were talking about the possibility that Michael and his sister La Toya was the same person… This rumor proved to be false, of course!

• Michael claims he was abused as a child.

• It was once reported that Jackson bought the bones of The Elephant Man, but this proved to be untrue.

• Michael has sold more then 300 million albums worldwide.

• Michael was best man at Liza Minelli’s wedding in 2002.

• Michael was once married to Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie.

• In 2002, Michael chocked the world by dangling his newborn baby boy from a balcony in Berlin.

• Michael was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, although the matter was settled out of court. And in 2005, Michael was found – after a long and public trail – not guilty of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

• Michael is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

• Today, Michael lives in a Las Vegas hotel with his three children.

• Michael Jackson is also known as “The King of Pop” and “Wacko Jacko” (a nickname he is said to despise).

[Sources: About.com, Wikipedia, npr.org, E! Online, virginmedia.com, CNN]