1684 Matej Bel is born hereTu sa narodil Matej Bel

In the spring of 1684 Matej Bel was born in this village. Nothing about Očová should have produced a scholar with a European reputation: it was a subject village of a hunting estate, in a century of uprisings against the Habsburgs. He was educated in Lutheran schools and then at the University of Halle in Germany, became rector of the Lutheran grammar school in Banská Bystrica in 1710, and from 1714 ran the lyceum in Bratislava. Sources give his birthday as either 22 or 24 March, which is a small lesson in how thin the record can be even for a famous man.Na jar 1684 sa v tejto dedine narodil Matej Bel. Na Očovej nebolo nič, z čoho by mal vzísť učenec európskeho mena: bola to poddanská dedina poľovníckeho panstva, v storočí povstaní proti Habsburgovcom. Vzdelanie získal na evanjelických školách a potom na univerzite v Halle v Nemecku, v roku 1710 sa stal rektorom evanjelického gymnázia v Banskej Bystrici a od roku 1714 viedol lýceum v Bratislave. Pramene uvádzajú ako deň jeho narodenia raz 22., raz 24. marec, čo je malá lekcia o tom, aké tenké môžu byť záznamy aj o slávnom človeku.