George Washington seems today a figure larger than life itself…..almost as he was when he was a familiar person in the halls, homes, shops, and bars of 18th-century city Williamsburg. On Duke of Gloucester Street, in the Raleigh Tavern’s Apollo Room, or the Governor’s Palace Gardens, his powerful frame and his nice attitude..his presence….drew to…
George Frederick Handel was born on February 24, 1685 in Halle, Germany. One of the greatest composers of the late baroque period (1700-50) and, during his lifetime, perhaps the most internationally famous of all musicians. Handel was born February 24, 1685, in Halle, Germany, to a family of no musical distinction. His own musical talent,…
Gerard Manley Hopkins, born on July 28 1844, was the eldest of eight children of a London marine insurance adjuster. Besides writing books about marine insurance Gerard’s father, Manley, also wrote a volume of poetry. His mother on the other hand was a very pious person. She was actively involved in the church and impressed…
Giuseppe Garibaldi, b. Nice, France; July 4, 1807, d. Caprera, Italy; June 2, 1882. He was known as Italy’s most brilliant soldier of the Risorgimento (the Italian Unification), and one of the greatest guerrilla fighters of all time. While serving (1833-34) in the navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, he came under the influence of…
Twenty-two centuries ago there lived a man named Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca a Carthaginian. Hamilcar was a general in the Carthaginian military in the first Punic War. After the defeat of Carthage in the first Punic War, Hamilcar made Hannibal swear “eternal enmity” to Rome. In 228 b.c. Hasdrubal, Hannibal`s brother-in-law, succeeded Hamilcar…
Harriet Beecher Stowe was a high class women, reformer, and writer in the 1800’s. She wrote many anti-slavery documents that helped reform society. You may know her as the writer of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the best-selling book in the 1800’s about how bad slavery was. Because of the encouragement if her husband, Calvin E. Stowe,…
Reichsfuhrer-SS, head of the Gestapo and the Waffen-SS, Minister of the Interior from 1943 to 1945 and organizer of the mass murder of Jews in the Third Reich, Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900. The son of a pious, authoritarian Roman Catholic schoolmaster who had once been tutor to the Bavarian…
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, best known for his pioneering achievements in the automobile industry. From humble beginnings he was able to create a company that would rank as one of the giants of American and World industry long after his death. There is no doubt that Henry Ford was a successful business man.…
Hernan (also Hernando or Fernando) Cortes was born in Medellin, Estramadura, in Spain in 1485 to a family of minor nobility. Cortes was sent to study law at the University of Salamanca. In 1501 He left school to fight in a military expedition but became ill and was forced to stay behind. In 1504 he…
Hippocrates, greatest physician of antiquity, is regarded as the father of medicine. Born on the island of Kos, Greece in the year 460 b.c., says the earliest biography written by Soranus of Ephesus in the a third century a.d. Although a native of Kos he was forced to leave the island as the result of…
Jim Morrison’s life is full of twists and turns. Yet, despite this he still managed to keep control of himself to create well-organized works of music as well as his poems. His social life started out to be the safe variable and when he was on stage he let loose giving crazy shows for the…
A French saint and a heroine in the Hundred Years’ war was Joan of Arc. This farm girl helped save the French from English command and was often called the Maid Orleans and the Maid of France. Her inspiration led the French to many victories. Joan Of Arc (In French Jeanne d’Arc) was born around…
James Joyce, an Irish novelist and poet, grew up near Dublin. James Joyce is one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century. In each of his prose works he used symbols to experience what he called an “epiphany”, the revelation of certain revealing qualities about himself. His early writings reveal individual moods and…
James Watt was born February 19, 1736 and died on August 19, 1889. As a child he was often sick. This kept James out of school. His mother had to teach him how to read and write. James suffered from severe headaches; so many people thought he was retarded. Little did they know that this…
James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831. His father died in 1833, when Garfield was only two years old and so his mother had to carry on working the family farm by herself. With the death of his father, the family feel into poverty. Even though they had very little money,…
In the beginning Jack Kerouac lived a wild and exciting life outside the realm of everyday “normal” American life. Though On the Road and The Dharma Bums were Kerouac’s only commercial successes, he was a man who changed American literature and pop-culture. Kerouac virtually created a life-style devoted to life, art, literature, music, and poetry.…
Ira Frederick Aldridge was born on July 24, 1807 in New York. However, his birthplace remained questionable until 40 or so years ago. It has also been listed as Senegal(Africa), and Maryland. However conclusive evidence was found in the 1950s that he was born in New York. Included in this evidence are his British Naturalization…
James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in Marton, England. At the age of 18 James Cook became an apprentice with a shipping company. His first voyages he worked on ships that carried coal to English ports. In 1755, during the French – Indian war, Cook joined the British navy. In 1759 he was…
A trail guide, a fur tracker and hunter and a fur trader. Jim Bridger may have been one of the best outdoorsmen of all times. James Bridger was born on March 17, 1804. In 1812 Jim’s parents moved to the vicinity of St. Louis. He was orphaned at age 12 and became a blacksmiths apprentice. …
John Adams, who became the second president of the United States, has been accused by some historians of being the closest thing America ever had to a dictator or monarch (Onuf, 1993). Such strong accusations should be examined in the context of the era in which Mr. Adams lived and served. A closer examination of…
