- Catherine the Great was born on April 21, 1729 in Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland).
- Her name wasn't really Catherine; it was Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt- Zerbst.
- Her father was a German Prince. She was related to the Dukes of Holstein through her mother, so she had been around royalty all her life.
- She married Grand Duke Peter, but they both cheated on each other.
- She had four children, three of which were illegitimate.
- She died on November 6, 1796 in Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin, Russia)
- She reigned from 1762 to 1796.
- Her nephew, Peter, was abdicated and Catherine became the ruler. Shortly after Peter was murdered by Alexei Orlov, which was the brother of Catherine's current lover. She is thought to have had something to do with the murder.
- She always stayed loyal to her lovers even after their relationships had ended, she gave them titles, land, and palaces.
- She created one of the world’s most impressive art collections in St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace (now home to the Hermitage Museum).
- Her enemies at court began spreading rumors about Catherine’s death. Some said that she had died while on the toilet. Others went even further, telling a myth that has endured for centuries, that Catherine had died while engaging with an animal, usually believed to be a horse. This is just a rumor. Catherine really just suffered a stroke and died quietly in her bed
- Catherine had 12 lovers. Their names were Serge Saltuikov (1752), Stanislav Poniatowski (1755), Gregory Orlov (1760), Alexander Vasilchikov (1773), Gregory Potemkin (1774), Peter Zavadovsky (1776), Simon Zorich (1777), Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov (1778), Alexander Lanskoy (1779), Alexander Ermolov (1785), Alexander Dmitriev-Mamanov (1786), Plato Zubov (1789).