Abbé Charles-Michel de l-Épée, the "Father of the Deaf", was born on November 24, 1712 in Versailles, France. In 1620, the Spanish priest Juan Pablo Bonet wrote a text about teaching deaf people to speak, using gestures as a tool. The sign language created by Bonet was used by Abbé Charles-Michel de l-Épée to create a finger-spelling alphabet in the 18th century. This alphabet has changed very little since then, and is still used today in France and North America.
Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. His father, Benjamin was a prominent state legislator, farmer, and tavern-keeper, who later became governor of New Hampshire. As president, he faced criticism for being a Northerner who sympathized with the South. His support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act did little to dispel this reputation, and his time in office is regarded to have led to the Civil War. Many view him as one of the worst US presidents ever.
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Abigail Adams, USA's second First Lady, was born on November 22, 1744 in Weymouth, Massachusetts to Elizabeth and Reverend William Smith, a Congregationalist minister. She is remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband, John Adams, while he stayed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the Continental Congresses.
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| Portrait of Adams by Benjamin Blyth, 1766 |
John Bale was born on November 21, 1495. A one-time Carmelite monk, he became a playwright, who in 1538 wrote a drama, King Johan, which is considered the first English historical play. Of his mysteries and miracle plays only five have been preserved.
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| John Bale |
Astronomer Edwin Hubble was born on November 20, 1889. Hubble's name is most recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was named in his honor. His proof that there are entire galaxies outside our own changed the scientific view of the universe.
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| Official portrait, 2021 |
Socialite Paris Hilton claimed in 2017 to have invented the selfie with Britney Spears on November 19, 2006. "11 years ago today, Me and Britney invented the selfie!” Hilton wrote on November 19, 2017. People quickly shut her down with various examples of others who got there before her.
The 13th century Chinese used Chow Chows to pull dog sleds, and this was remarked upon by Marco Polo.
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| Chow Chow |
The addition of milk, much improving chocolate as a drink, was a London innovation in the early 1700s.
Dramatist and librettist William Schwenck Gilbert was born on November 18, 1836, in London. As a toddler, Gilbert was kidnapped by bandits in Naples during a family holiday in 1839. The men convinced the child’s nurse they’d come to take him to his parents. He was returned after they paid a £25 ransom. He is best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operettas which include The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance.
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| Gilbert in 1878 |
Confectioner and inventor of canning, Nicolas Appert, was born in Châlons-en-Champagne, France on November 17, 1749. In 1795 Napoleon Bonaparte who at the time was in charge of the French army of the interior, offered a prize for a practical way of preserving food for his marching army. On hearing of this potential reward, Nicholas-Francois Appert, a maker of conserves of fruit started experimenting with cooking food in open kettles, then sealing food into glass jars using waxed cork bungs, wired into place. The jars were then heated by submersion in boiling water for varying lengths of time. Using this method he succeeded in preserving dairy products, fruits, jellies, juices, marmalades and vegetables and claimed the 12, 000 franc prize.
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| Nicolas Appert |
William Christopher Handy, commonly known as W.C. Handy, was an American blues composer and musician, born on November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Blues" due to his significant contributions to the genre.
Handy was a skilled composer, bandleader, and cornet player. He played a crucial role in popularizing the blues by incorporating it into mainstream music. Handy was classically trained but became deeply influenced by the African American folk music he encountered, particularly the blues.
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| France-Albert René By Joe Laurence / Seychelles News Agency |
The astronomer William Herschel was born on November 15, 1738 in the Electorate of Hanover in Germany, part of the Holy Roman Empire. He came to England as a refugee in 1757, in the aftermath of the French victory in the Seven Years War. His discovery of the planet Uranus, was a spectacular triumph, and soon every astronomer in Europe had heard of William Herschel. During his career, he constructed more than four hundred telescopes and discovered infrared radiation and two of Uranus' major moons.
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The founder of French Impressionist painting, Claude Monet, was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris. to wholesale grocer Claude Adolphe Monet and singer Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. Though he was baptized as Oscar-Claude, his parents called him simply Oscar. Monet was obsessed with the optical effects of light and color. He aimed to emphasis the impression the painting intended to convey rather than its detail. He carried his original fragmented technique to the final extreme with paintings such as Water Lilies.
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| Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge 1897-99 |
Bishop and theologian Augustine of Hippo was born on November 13, 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) in Roman Africa. Augustine admitted in his autobiography Confessions, that as a boy he "told lies to my tutors, my masters and my parents all for the love of games and the craving for stage shows." Young Augustine also stole pears from a neighbor's tree, and the sin troubled him for the rest of his life. Below is the earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome.
The Russian composer Alexander Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg on November 12, 1833. He was the illegitimate son of Prince Luka Spanovich Gedianov, an elderly nobleman, and the beautiful and intelligent 24-year-old Avdotya Konstantinova Antonova. To save any public embarrassment, he was registered under the name of one of the Prince’s serfs, Pofiry Borodin. Although best known today as a romantic composer, Borodin was one of the foremost chemists of his time, being particularly noted for his work on aldehydes.
The second of seven children in Moscow, Fydor Dostoyevsky was born at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor in Moscow on November 11, 1821 where his father was an army doctor. Fyodor's cruel and despotic father, Mikhail, was a military surgeon in a Moscow hospital and also a musician. Dostoyevsky's literary works engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
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| Alessandro Mussolini |
Leonardo DiCaprio was born in Hollywood, California on November 11, 1974. Leonardo's name derives from his legal secretary German-born mother Irmalin's having experienced a sudden kick from her unborn boy while standing in front of a da Vinci painting in Italy. As an actor, DiCaprio achieved international stardom in the epic romance Titanic, and later became a favorite of Martin Scorsese, starring in the director's films including Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) on November 10, 1483. He entered this world at the back of a stall at Eisleben market. in Eisleben, Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Luther was baptized as a Catholic the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours after whom he was named. In 1517 Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation when he criticized the Catholic Church's sale of indulgence in his 95 theses, which he nailed to the door of a Wittenburg church.
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| A posthumous portrait of Luther as an Augustinian friar |
Isabella of Valois was born on November 9, 1389. She became Britain's youngest ever queen consort when aged 6 she became the second spouse of King Richard II of England. The wedding was a move for peace with France. Queen Isabella reportedly had a close platonic relationship with her husband and was heartbroken when he died five years after their marriage. Six years after becoming a widow, Queen Isabella married her cousin Charles, Duke of Orléans. Isabella died in childbirth at the age of 19, leaving one daughter, Joan.
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| Isabella of Valois |
Bram Stoker, the inventor of the Dracula character, was born on November 8, 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland. The manager of the actor Sir Henry Irving's London's Lyceum Theatre, Stoker began writing in his spare time. He was inspired by a trip to Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast in 1890 to write his vampire fantasy novel. Stoker never visited Transylvania; he simply read travel books for details about the country.
English explorer Captain James Cook was born in Marton, (in present-day Middlesbrough) on November 7, 1728. His father, James Cook, was an agricultural laborer who eventually became a bailiff and landowner. At the age of 16, Cook was apprenticed to Mr William Sanderson a grocer and haberdasher in the fishing village of Staithes. According to tradition, it is during his time there that Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out the shop window.
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| Official portrait of Captain James Cook |
John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. on November 6, 1854 to João António de Sousa, a trombonist by profession who played with the Marine Band and his German wife Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus. Growing up in Civil War era Washington, John Philip heard, and was influenced by, the sounds of drummers and military bands. Known as the American March King, Sousa is remembered for "The Stars and Stripes Forever," the National March of the United States of America.
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| Sousa in 1900 |
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, also known as The Great Belzoni, was born on November 5, 1778. The Italian joined a travelling circus and performed exhibitions of feats of strength and agility as a strongman. Belzoni was also a pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He discovered tombs, explored pyramids, found ancient artifacts, all while foiling assassination attempts, dodging bullets, and fighting the French army.
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| Portrait of Belzoni by Jan Adam Kruseman, 1824 |
William III of England was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on November 4, 1650. He was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange and Mary, the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England. Eight days before he was born, his father died from smallpox meaning William became the Sovereign Prince of Orange at the moment of his birth. In 1688, William invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution, deposing his Catholic uncle and father-in-law, James II. He ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as King William III until his death in 1702.
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| Portrait attributed to Thomas Murray, c. 1690 |
Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford was born on November 3, 1749. Rutherford discovered nitrogen in 1772, calling it "noxious air" or "phlogisticated air." When Rutherford married Harriet Mitchelson of Middleton in 1786 he became the maternal uncle of the future novelist Sir Walter Scott.
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| Engraved portrait of Rutherford |
Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania on November 2, 1734 into a family of Quakers - his father had come to the colonies from England in 1713 and settled in Pennsylvania. Boone received his first rifle at the age of 12. He was trained by locals, both Europeans and Indians. One tale that became part of his image was of calmly shooting down a panther as it attempted to pounce on him.
Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen on November 2, 1755 at the Hofburg Palace, in Vienna. She was the fifteenth out of sixteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. A court official described the new baby as "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess." The French Queen from 1774 to 1792 and wife of Louis XVI, as an Austrian Marie Antoinette was disliked and suspected by the French people.
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| Marie Antoinette by Jean-Baptiste-André Gautier-Dagoty, 1775 |
The 11th President of the United States, James K Polk, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on November 2, 1795. James' father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent. His mother, Jane Polk (née Knox), was a descendant of a brother of John Knox, the man who brought the Protestant Reformation to Scotland. As president, Knox led the nation to victory in the Mexican-American War, which gave the U.S. most of its present Southwest.
The 29th President of the United States, Warren G Harding, was born November 2, 1865, in Blooming Grove, Ohio. His parents originally lived on a farm but decided to go into medical practice as a means of providing their family with a better life. Harding is generally regarded as one of the most scandalous US presidents as a result of a number of incidents later coming to light. They include his involvement in the Teapot Dome bribery scandal and his extramarital affair with Nan Britton.
For more November 2nd anniversaries, including the first organized cheerleading, the BBC debuting a regular television service and the establishment of Samaritans, check out OnThatDay.
English artist Laurence Stephen Lowry was born on November 1, 1887 at 8 Barrett Street Stretford, which was then in Lancashire. Known as L.S. Lowry, he developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". Lowry was a rent collector by day, and a painter by night. He painted in his old suits, wiping the brushes on his sleeves and lapels. He loved to paint drunk people, but when he visited his local pub, he would drink nothing stronger than orange squash.
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| Going to Work by L.S. Lowry (1943) |
Christopher Columbus was born sometime before October 31, 1451 in Genoa. His birthplace is now a historic attraction. He was the son of Domenico Colombo, an Italian wool weaver and Susanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of a wool weaver. Christopher's father also owned a cheese stand and later, a tavern. Although he was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas, his four voyages initiated Spain's colonization.
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| Posthumous portrait of Keats by William Hilton |
John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 in Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy, Massachusetts). His father, John Adams Sr, worked as a farmer and cobbler and his mother came from a prominent family of scientists and medical doctors. The second president of the United States, from 1797 to 1801, Adams was the only president elected under the banner of the Federalist Party. The main accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the undeclared naval war with France.
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| President John Adams by Asher B. Durand |
Surgeon-Captain Rick Jolly was born on October 29, 1946. A British Army surgeon in the Falklands conflict, he saved every life under his care, both British and Argentine. Jolly was the only man decorated by both Britain and Argentina for his services in the war. He went on to practice and give lectures to medical establishments on his experiences.
Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III on October 28, 1955. His father was a lawyer and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates co-founded Microsoft, which he grew to become one of the most successful companies in history. From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was launched in 2000 is reported to be the largest private foundation in the world.
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| Bill Gates in 2017 |
Niccolo Paganini regarded by many people to be the greatest violin virtuoso ever, was born on October 27, 1782. Paganini was so good that he was thought to be the son of the Devil or to have sold his soul for his talent. As a result, he was forced to publish his mother's letters to him in order to prove that he had human parents.
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| Portrait of young Paganini |
Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947 at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago and raised in Park Ridge, a suburb located 15 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
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| Clinton in 2016. By Gage Skidmore |
Johann Strauss the Younger ('The Waltz King") was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss the Elder who was popular in Europe as a conductor and composer. His two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard), also became noted composers. Strauss the younger created over 500 works, including over 400 waltzes and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna. Some of his most famous works include "The Blue Danube" and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka".
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| Johann Strauss in his younger years |
Dutch scientist Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632. Using his handcrafted microscopes, van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe microorganisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules (from Latin animalculum = "tiny animal"). Van Leeuwenhoek was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, and blood flow in capillaries.
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| A portrait of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek by Jan Verkolje |
Saint Ignatius of Loyola was born Íñigo López on October 23, 1491 in the municipality of Azpeitia at the castle of Loyola in today's Basque Country, near the Pyrenees in Spain. The youngest of thirteen children, Íñigo López was brought up by María de Garín, the local blacksmith's wife, after his own mother died soon after his birth. The co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) he became its first Superior General at Paris in 1541. During the Counter-Reformation, he gained prominence as a religious leader. Bellow is Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Vision of Christ and God the Father at La Storta by Domenichino
Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France was born to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on October 22, 1781. By early 1788 Louis Joseph was suffering from frequent high fevers and the Royal Physicians informed the royal couple that he was terminally ill with consumption. Marie-Antoinette spent most of her time nursing him during his last agonizing months. On June 4, 1789, Louis Joseph died at the age of seven after which the King sank into sporadic bouts of clinical depression.
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| Louis Joseph Portrait by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, 1784 |
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder and first emperor of China's Ming dynasty, was born on October 21, 1328. Zhu Yuanzhang rose to command the force that conquered China and ended the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, forcing the Mongols to retreat to the Central Asian steppes. Following his seizure of the Yuan capital, Khanbaliq (present-day Beijing), Zhu ascended the throne of China on January 22, 1368. This initiated the Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.The English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in the country town of Ottery St Mary, Devonshire, England on October 21, 1772. His father, the Reverend John Coleridge (1718–1781), was a well-respected vicar of the parish and headmaster of Henry VIII's Free Grammar School at Ottery. Coleridge wrote about 750 poems in total and is best remembered for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan and his poetry volume collaboration with William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads.
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| Coleridge in 1795 |
Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, was born on October 21, 1833. Nobel was a Swedish chemist and millionaire, who invented dynamite and established almost 100 arms factories.The Nobel Prizes came about when a brother of Nobel died and a French newspaper mistakenly printed Alfred's obituary under the headline: "The merchant of death is dead." Desperate to leave a positive legacy, he decided to bequeath his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
For more October 21st anniversaries, including the patenting of Portland cement, the first Japanese kamikaze attack and the publication of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, check out OnThatDay.
English mathematician-physicist and architect Christopher Wren was born on October 20, 1632 at East Knoyle in Wiltshire, England. His father, also Christopher Wren, was at that time the rector of East Knoyle. In 1635, Christopher Wren snr was appointed Dean of Windsor by Charles I and the family moved to Windsor. Young Christopher spent his early years at Windsor Castle where his father was Dean. He used to play there with the future Charles II.
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| Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller 1711 |
English critic, essayist and poet Leigh Hunt was born October 19, 1784, at Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the United States. Hunt co-founded The Examiner, a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles.
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| Leigh Hunt; portrait by Benjamin Haydon |
German-Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein was born on October 18, 1799. Schönbein was the first to isolate ozone during experiments on the electrolysis of water at the University of Basel. He named the pungent gas after the Greek for 'to smell' which is 'ozein'.
Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 18, 1926 to Henry, a contractor and deacon of a nearby Baptist church, and Martha a certified public school principal. He gave his first public performance in 1941 while still at Sumner High School. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. His song "Johnny B Goode" was chosen as part of a sample of Earth music carried on the Voyager space probes in 1977.
The actress Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Cansino on October 17, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York, the oldest child of two dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino, Sr., was from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain. Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. She was featured in over 60 films throughout her 37-year career and was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II.
American lexicographer Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758 in West Hartford, Connecticut to a politically prominent family. Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) in two volumes was the first dictionary to give comprehensive coverage of American usage, and his name survives in the many dictionaries produced by the American publishing house His books on grammar and spelling and American Dictionary of the English Language standardized the spelling of American English.
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| Noah Webster painted by Samuel F. B. Morse |
Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin on October 16, 1854. He was the second of three children born to surgeon Sir William Wilde and prominent Dublin intellectual Jane Wilde. A playwright, and poet, Wilde is best known today for his The Importance of Being Earnest play, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his memorable, witty epigrams.
The Roman poet Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro in the village of Andes, near Mantua in the valley of the River Po on October 15, 70 BC. At the time Andes was in Cisalpine Gaul part of the Roman Empire. Not much is known about Virgil's parents but it seems his father was a wealthy cattle farmer and beekeeper.
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| Friedrich Nietzsche (circa 1875). |
James II of England and VII of Scotland was born at St. James's Palace in London on October 14, 1633. He was the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. The last Catholic monarch of England and Scotland, James' reign from 1685-1688 is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. His attempted arbitrary rule and favor of Catholics led Whig and Tory leaders plot the overthrow of the king and invite his daughter Mary and her Dutch Protestant husband William of Orange to invade England.
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| William Penn at 22 |
Aloha Wanderwell, the first woman to drive around the world, was born on October 13, 1906. Travelling in a Ford Model T as driver, translator and film maker for the Wanderwell Expeditions, she started and ended in Nice, France, between December 1922 and January 1927.
Edward VI of England was the son of Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymour. The birth of Edward on October 12, 1537 was difficult, and his mother died 12 days after his entry into this world. He became king aged nine when his father died. The first Protestant ruler of England, because he was so young, the realm was governed by a Regency Council. Edward's reign is mainly remembered for the changes made to the Church of England while he was king. He died of tuberculosis when he was 15.
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| Prince Edward in 1539, by Hans Holbein the Younger |
Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on October 12, 1872, in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, the son of a clergyman. The dominant English composer of the early 20th century, Vaughan Williams broke the ties with continental Europe that for two centuries - notably through Handel and Mendelssohn - that had made Britain virtually a musical province of Germany.
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| Vaughan Williams c. 1920 |
Second generation German-American, Henry John Heinz was born on October 11, 1844.
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| Roosevelt as a child, 1887 |
The English scientist Henry Cavendish was born on October 10, 1731 in Nice, where his family was living at the time. His mother was Lady Anne Grey and his father was Lord Charles Cavendish, third son of William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire. Henry Cavendish was the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a discrete substance, by naming the gas from a metal-acid reaction "flammable air". He is usually given credit for its discovery as an element.
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| Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 |
French composer and conductor Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was born on October 9, 1835, in Paris. When Charles-Camille was three months old his father died after which he was raised by his mother and an aunt, who taught him to play the piano. The precocious child composed a piano piece soon after his third birthday and he gave a full debut concert in 1846. His best-known works include Danse macabre (1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
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| Photo by Roy Kerwood. Wikipedia Commons |
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron was born on October 9, 1966 in Marylebone, London. His father was Ian Donald Cameron a stockbroker, and his mother is Mary Fleur (née Mount) a retired Justice of the Peace. He helped form and lead the United Kingdom's first coalition government since World War II. When the 43-year-old Cameron took office in 2010 he was the youngest British Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool 198 years earlier.
Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen of Norway was born in Grytviken on the island territory of South Georgia on October 8, 1913. She was the first person born and raised South of the Antarctic Convergence, Solveig also had claims to be the actual first Antarctica birth as that territory is sometimes considered part of Antarctica.
English archbishop and academic William Laud was born at Reading, Berkshire on October 7, 1573, the only son of William Laud, a clothier, and Lucy, née Webbe. When the Personal Rule of King Charles I began in 1629, Laud quickly became a key part of it as his High Church views fitted in well with the monarch's beliefs.
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| William Laud Portrait by Anthony van Dyck c. 1636 |
The Swedish songbird Johanna Maria “Jenny” Lind was born in Stockholm on October 6, 1820, the illegitimate daughter of Niclas Jonas Lind, a bookkeeper, and Anne-Marie Fellborg, a schoolteacher. When Lind was about nine years old, her singing was overheard by the maid of Mademoiselle Lundberg, the principal dancer at the Royal Swedish Opera. An audition was arranged and she was accepted into the acting school of Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre.
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| Roland Garros Wikipedia Commons |
The pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, the only son of 11 children on October 5, 1703. Edwards was a child prodigy, writing a semi-humorous essay on the nature of the soul at the age of ten. He was interested in natural history, and at the age of twelve young Jonathan wrote a remarkable essay on the habits of the "flying spider."
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| Jonathan Edwards Princeton portrait |
The 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, was born in Delaware, Ohio on October 4, 1822, the son of Rutherford Hayes, Jr. and Sophia Birchard. Hayes's father, a storekeeper, died ten weeks before Rutherford's birth. Sophia took charge of the family, bringing up Hayes and his sister. As President, Hayes is remembered for ending Reconstruction and initiating the beginnings of civil service reform.
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| Rutherford Hayes |
James Herriot was the nom de plume of English veterinary surgeon and writer James Alfred "Alf" Wight who was born on October 3, 1916. Wright used his many years of experiences as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales to write a series of books each consisting of stories about animals and their owners. He is best known for these semi-autobiographical works, beginning with If Only They Could Talk in 1970, which spawned a series of movies and television series.
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| James Alfred "Alf" Wight (James Herriot) Wikipedia |
Richard III of England was born on October 2, 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle, the twelfth of thirteen children of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville. Young Richard was a sickly, stunted baby. He was bought up at Fotheringhay Castle and saw his parents only rarely. He grew up pious and cultured and received instruction in Chivalry, Etiquette, Law, Latin, Mathematics, Music and Religion. Richard III reigned from 1483 until 1485, as the last king from the House of Plantagenet.
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| Late 16th-century portrait of Richard III |
Henry III of England was born in Winchester Castle on October 1, 1207. He was the eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême. When his father died in 1216 the nine-year-old Henry III became King of England. England was then ruled by regents until he assumed formal control of his government in January 1227. He ruled for 56 years, a reign unsurpassed in length by an English king until George III clocked up 59 years five centuries later.
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| Jimmy Carter |
William Mills Wrigley Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 30, 1861. In 1891, Wrigley moved from Philadelphia to Chicago where he formed a business to sell Wrigley's Scouring Soap.
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| William Wrigley Jr. |
Wrigley started offering baking powder as a premium with each box of soap, and when baking powder proved to be more popular than soap, he switched to the baking powder business. One day Wrigley got the idea of offering two packages of chewing gum with each can of baking powder. The offer was a big success. By the following year he had decided that chewing gum is the product with the potential he had been looking for, so he begun marketing it under his own name.
The first brand of Wrigley's chewing gum was called "Vassar", after the New England woman's college. Next were "Lotta" and "Sweet Sixteen Orange."
In 1915 William Wrigley collected every telephone directory in the United States and mailed three sticks of Wrigley Gum to every name and address listed. The ploy worked and sales skyrocketed.
William Wrigley passed away at the age of 70 with an estimated net worth of $34 million or about $582 million today.
For more September 30th anniversaries, including the first marriage in the American colonies, the beginning of the construction of The Hoover Dam, and the premiere of The Flintstones, check out OnThatDay.Horatio Nelson was born on September 29, 1758 in a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England, the sixth of eleven children of the Reverend Edmund Nelson and his wife Catherine Suckling. A weak, sickly child, when he was sent to sea at the age of 12 as a midshipman on the Raisonnable Horatio was so lonely and homesick, he was nicknamed "Poor Horace Captain."
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| Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott |
It is generally thought that the Chinese sage Confucius was born on September 28, 551 BC. The son of a once noble family who had recently fled from the State of Song, his father, Kong He, was seventy and his concubine mother, Yan Zhengzai, only fifteen at his birth. Confucius had nine older sisters and a crippled brother. Confucius developed a philosophy called Confucianism, which was a complete system of moral, social, political, and religious thought, and has had a large influence on the history of Chinese civilization.
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| A portrait of Confucius by the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi (680–740) |
English plumber Thomas Crapper was born in Thorne, Yorkshire, in 1836; the exact date is unknown, but he was baptized on September 28, 1836. Crapper is best known for perfecting the siphon flush, which, by drawing water uphill through a sealed cistern, is both effective and hygienic. He first demonstrated it in 1863.
Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris on September 28, 1934 to Louis Bardot and Anne-Marie "Toty" Bardot. Bardot together with Marilyn Monroe was the icon of female sexuality in the 1950s and 1960s. Whenever she made public appearances in the United States, her every move was covered by a horde of media.
For more September 28th anniversaries, including the first night football game, Camp Gillette's founding of the American Safety Razor Company and the completion of the longest journey by skateboard, check out OnThatDay.
The cartoonist Thomas Nast was born in military barracks in Landau, Germany (now in Rhineland-Palatinate) on September 27, 1840. His military trombonist father sent his wife and children to New York City, and at the end of his enlistment in 1850, he joined them there.
Nast's drawings appeared for the first time in Harper's Weekly on March 19, 1859, when he illustrated a report exposing police corruption; Nast was 18 years old at that point.
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| Self-caricature of Thomas Nast |
On January 15, 1870 a cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled, A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion, appeared in Harper’s Weekly. The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party. The symbol gave everyone such a ‘kick’ that it has stuck to the Democrats to this day.
The traditional mascot of the Republican party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol.
At first Santa Claus was drawn in his bishop robes, but with possible influences from the earlier English figure of Father Christmas. German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast's image of him, based on the traditional German figures of Sankt Nikolaus and Weihnachtsmann began the journey towards today's image of him as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man.
Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, supplied barrels of beef to the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 between the USA and Great Britain. Each of the barrels was stamped with "US" for United States but soldiers referred to the chow as "Uncle Sam's." The character and legend of Uncle Sam grew and his story was enhanced by Thomas Nast. In time it became an accepted nickname for the United States government.
Tennis player Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan on September 26, 1981 to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She is regarded by many as the greatest-ever female tennis star, having captured 23 Grand Slam singles titles to go along with 14 doubles titles alongside her sister Venus Williams. Her total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles is second on the all-time list behind Margaret Court (24).
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| At the 2009 Australian Open By Sascha Wenninger, Melbourne, Australia. |
The Macon, Georgia, slave William Craft was born on September 25, 1824. He and Ellen Craft escaped to the North in December 1848 by traveling openly by train and steamboat, arriving in Philadelphia on Christmas Day. Ellen, who was light skinned, dressed as a white male printer with a sling to hide the fact that she could not write and passed as William's slave owner. Eventually, they fled to Liverpool, England. The Crafts published a written account, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, which reached wide audiences in Great Britain and the United States.
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| Ellen and William Craft |
English novelist Horace Walpole was born in London on September 24, 1717. He was the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and his wife Catherine. His 1764 The Castle of Otranto is considered to be the first Gothic novel, a genre of literature which combines parts of both horror and romance.
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| Dwight D. Eisenhower with his wife Mamie and infant son Icky |
The Roman emperor Augustus was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum in Rome on September 23, 63 BC. His full name was Gaius Octavius Thurinus, possibly commemorating his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves. In 27 BC Gaius was given the title of Augustus by the Roman Senate meaning "venerable, grand, majestic."
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| By Till Niermann - Wikipedia Commons |
British scientist Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791 in Newington Butts, now part of the London Borough of Southwark. The 14-year-old Faraday was apprenticed to the Huguenot bookbinder George Riebau, and he picked up a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which had been brought in to be rebound. An article on electricity captivated him and from then on he sought to devote himself to science. Faraday's main discoveries included the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.
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| Michael Faraday by Thomas Phillips 1841-1842 |
Italian Dominican friar and preacher Girolamo Savonarola was born on September 21, 1452 in Ferrara, which was the capital of the independent Duchy of Ferrara. Savonarola preached in Florence against the moral corruption of the clergy and the Church of Rome.
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| Girolamo Savonarola by Moretto da Brescia, c. 1524. |
In 1497, Savonarola and his followers went to the Piazza della Signoria, and organised a "bonfire of the vanities" at the carnival celebration before Lent, in which Florentine luxury goods, works of art, pornographic books, mirrors, cosmetics, musical instruments, fine dresses and gambling equipment were publicly burnt by his followers.
The English writer H.G. Wells was born Herbert George Wells at Atlas House, 162 High Street in Bromley, Kent on September 21, 1866. The youngest of four children of a china shop owner and a housekeeper, he was called "Bertie" in the family.
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| H.G. Wells by George Charles Beresford, 1920 |
Lionized in America and regarded as a prophet by the young in England, Wells' works were translated into every major language. He wrote around 100 books and is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. He is often called the "father of science fiction."
For more September 21 anniversaries, including the murder of King Edward II of England, the trial run of America's first gas-powered highway automobile, the world's first motorway and the publication of The Hobbit, check out OnThatDay.
Novelist George R.R. Martin was born George Raymond Martin (he later adopted the confirmation name Richard) on September 20, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey, He studied at Northwestern University, where he earned his master's degree in Journalism. He is best known for his series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the HBO television drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2019).
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| Martin in 2017 by Henry Söderlund |
George R.R. Martin once revealed that Game of Thrones began as stories about his pet turtles.
Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, takes place on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and chronicles the power struggles among noble families as they fight for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. The series premiered on April 17, 2011, on HBO. The series holds the Emmy Award record for most wins for a scripted television series, with 59 wins.
British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding was born in his maternal grandmother's house, 47 Mount Wise, Newquay, Cornwall on September 19, 1911. While a teacher at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, Golding began writing a manuscript for a novel initially titled Strangers from Within in 1951. After around 20 rejections from other publishers, he sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber, where it was championed by Charles Monteith, a new editor at the firm. Monteith asked for some changes to the text and the novel was published in 1954 as Lord of the Flies.
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| Golding in 1983 Dutch National Archives |
The Roman emperor Trajan was born into a non-patrician family in the city of Italica (close to modern Seville), on September 18, 53. He distinguished himself during the reign of Emperor Domitian. When serving as a general in the Roman army along the German frontier, he successfully put down the revolt of Antonius Saturninus in 89. Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117 and under his rule the Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent.
English lexicographer Samuel Johnson was born on September 18, 1709 in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Young Samuel was an avid reader with a photographic memory and a nervous tic. Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in London on April 15, 1755. Johnson’s dictionary was the first work to try to include all English words with definitions and examples. When two old ladies complimented Johnson on the omission of coarse words from his dictionary, his reaction was "What! My Dears! Then you have been looking for them!"
The film actress Greta Garbo was born Greta Gustafson in Stockholm, Sweden on September 18, 1905. She studied at the Royal School of Dramatic Art in her native city, while working as a fashion model. Garbo became a star in Sweden when Mauritz Stiller cast her in the 1924 silent movie The Atonement of Gösta Berling.
Francis Chichester was born in the rectory at Shirwell near Barnstaple in Devon, England on September 17, 1901. His parents were Church of England clergyman, Charles Chichester and Emily Annie. He learned how to navigate planes by sextant, becoming the first to use it in a methodical manner in an aircraft and in World War II served as a navigational expert for Britain.
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| Francis Chichester |
For more September 17 anniversaries, including the single largest civilian disaster during the American Civil War, the marriage of Thomas Hardy to Emma Gifford, and the publication of Lord of the Flies, check out OnThatDay.
The Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924. Howard Hawks managed the young actress early in her career. He changed her first name to Lauren, and she chose "Bacall", a Romanian variant of her mother's maiden name. She became an overnight star when cast by Howard Hawks opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944). She and Bogart married a year later.
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| Photo of Lauren Bacall in 1945. |
For more September 16 anniversaries, including the writing of the song "Jingle Bells," the founding of General Motors, the first man-made object to reach the Moon and the release of the first commercial rap hit, check out OnThatDay
Titus Oates was born at Oakham England on September 15, 1649. An Anglican priest, he announced that he had discovered a 'popish plot' to murder Charles II and re-establish Catholicism. The story was entirely false but many innocent Catholics were executed. Oates' crime was uncovered and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1681 incorporating an annual pillory and flogging in the public stocks. In 1689, upon the accession of William of Orange and Mary, Oates was pardoned, but his reputation did not recover.
William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, was born September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft was the American president between 1909-13. His large size and famous chuckle made Taft a memorable figure. He weighed a mighty 332lb — nearly 24 st — at his inauguration in 1909. Taft is said to have got stuck in the White House bath. A replacement was installed, big enough to fit four men.
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| Official White House portrait of Taft by Anders Zorn |
Businessman Maksymilian Faktorowiczr was born on September 15, 1872 in Lodz, Poland. At 22, Faktorowicz opened his own shop in a suburb of Moscow, selling hand-made rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs. Faktorowicz's big break came when he was appointed he official cosmetic expert for the royal family and the Imperial Russian Grand Opera. In 1904, he and his family emigrated to America. He started selling his rouges and creams there under the name given to him at Ellis Island, Max Factor.
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, Devon, England on September 15, 1890. Christie worked at a hospital dispensary between 1915 and 1918 in Torquay. She acquired there an extensive knowledge of poisons, which she later used in her detective novels. Agatha Christie wrote 84 novels, 157 short stories and 19 plays in total. Over four billion copies of her books have been sold world-wide. Her book sales are surpassed only by The Bible and William Shakespeare.
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| Agatha Christie as a child |
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex was born in the lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, on September 15, 1984 at 4.20 pm to Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. He weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces. His proud father told crowds outside his son had hair of "a sort of indeterminate color."
For more September 15 anniversaries, including the shortest papal reign in history, the marriage of James Madison to Dolley Todd, and the world's first railroad passenger fatality, check out OnThatDay.
Ivan Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849. A Russian physiologist and psychologist, Pavlov's experiments on classical conditioning are some of the most famous and influential experiments in psychology. He showed that a neutral stimulus (e.g., the sound of a bell) could be paired with a naturally occurring stimulus (e.g., the presentation of food) to create a conditioned response (e.g., salivation). This process is known as classical conditioning. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904.
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| Jacobo Arbenz Guzman (official) |
For more September 14 anniversaries, including The Fire of Moscow, Francis Scott Key writes the words for The Star-Spangled Banner, the first man-made object to reach the Moon and the first native-born American to be made a saint, check out OnThatDay
Cesare Borgia was born on September 13, 1475, in Subiaco, near Rome, Italy, the illegitimate son of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI) and Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was a member of the powerful and infamous Borgia family. Cesare Borgia is famous for his role as a ruthless military leader and politician during the Italian Renaissance, and as the inspiration for Machiavelli's The Prince.
Samuel Wilson, the source of the personification of the United States was born on September 13, 1766. During the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson, a meat-packer from Troy, New York was shipping meat to the government, which was stamped "U.S. Beef." Soldiers fighting in the war with Great Britain began to call this beef Uncle Sam's beef. The character and legend of Uncle Sam grew and his story was enhanced by cartoonist Thomas Nast. In time it became an accepted nickname for the United States government.
Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna on September 13, 1874. Almost entirely self-taught as a composer, Schoenberg modeled his early work on the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Gradually Schoenberg’s music changed. It became so chromatic that it was no longer in any key at all. When Schoenberg conducted the Vienna Concert Society in a concert of expressionist music on March 31, 1913, it so shocked the audience that they began to riot.
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| Schoenberg |
For more September 13 anniversaries, including the first rhinoceros to be exhibited in the US, the first person killed by a motor vehicle accident in the US, and the release of Super Mario Bros, check out OnThatDay.
Francis I was born in Cognac, France on September 12, 1494. He succeeded his cousin Louis XII as French king in 1515. By the time Francis ascended the throne, the Renaissance had arrived in France, and the new French king became an enthusiastic patron of the arts. He employed Leonardo Da Vinci as the "First Painter, Architect Mechanic of the King." Francis' reign is also remembered for his development of absolute monarchy.
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| Francis I of France |
For more September 12 anniversaries, including The Battle of Marathon, the first American musical, the first American-born female police officer in the US and the wedding of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, check out OnThatDay.
Author and poet D.H. Lawrence was born David Herbert Lawrence on September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England. At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. Today he is remembered for Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love, and the obscenity trial which began on October 20, 1960 against Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The jury would side with Penguin, and within a year D.H. Lawrence’s novel would sell two million copies.
English composer Henry Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street Westminster, the area of London probably on September 10, 1659. The most original English composer of his time, Purcell merged the Italian and French styles with the English madrigal tradition to create a uniquely English form of Baroque music. Many believe he was England’s greatest composer until Sir Edward Elgar emerged 200 years later.
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| Purcell by John Closterman, probably 1695 |
For more September 10 anniversaries, including the patenting of the first successful sewing machine, the first convicted drunk driver, and the first sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold medal, check out OnThatDay.
Cardinal Richelieu was born Armand du Plessis in Paris on September 9, 1585, to François du Plessis, seigneur de Richelieu, a soldier and courtier who served as the Grand Provost of France and his mother, Susanne de La Porte, was the daughter of a famous jurist. After Richelieu became King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624 he was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister". As a result, he is sometimes said to be the world's first Prime Minister.
Leo Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate in Russia on September 9, 1828 to Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya (née Volkonskaya). In 1836 a tutor predicted literary fame for the young Leo. Leo's mother died when he was 6, after the birth of daughter Mary, and his father when he was 9. He was bought up by relatives (he finally went to live with his aunt in 1841) but Leo mainly had a happy childhood.
Harland Sanders, also known as Colonel Sanders, was born on September 9, 1890. He learned how to cook when his father died and he became responsible for his younger siblings. Sanders took over a Shell filling station on US Route 25 just outside North Corbin, Kentucky, in 1930. He started to serve to travelers the recipes that he had learned as a youngster including fried chicken,. Saunders finalized in July 1940 his Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe with a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. |
| Colonel Harland David Sanders Wikipedia Commons |
For more September 9 anniversaries, including the last British king to die in battle, the coronation of 9-month-old Mary Queen of Scots, the admission of California as the thirty-first U.S. state, and the first and only baby born in the White House, check out OnThatDay.
King Richard I of England was born on September 8, 1157 at Beaumont Palace, Oxford. His mother was Eleanor of Aquitaine, his father King Henry II. He was the favorite son of Eleanor of Aquitaine and was bought up at his mother's court at Poitiers, speaking French and Provencal. Richard spoke very little English during his lifetime. Richard spent much of his earlier life with his brothers fighting his father, Henry II. He was dissatisfied with the lands his father had granted him.
Czech composer Antonín Dvorák was born on September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, near Prague, now in the Czech Republic.Antonin's father was a butcher and innkeeper, who also played the zither and composed a few simple dances. Antonín was exposed to music in and around his father's inn and started to have violin lessons from the village schoolmaster. The youngster became an accomplished violinist playing with amateur musicians at local dances.
Did you know Dvorak had a life-long love of trains? In Prague, he would pay daily visits to the Franz-Josef station and the shunting yards to note down the names and numbers of the engines. Dvorak never lost an opportunity to visit a railway station when he was on tour to indulge in a bit of transporting and chat with the drivers and engineers. During his final years he visited Prague’s railway stations on an almost daily basis.
For more September 8 anniversaries, including the start of the first ever English football league season, the first episode of Star Trek and the independence of Macedonia, check out OnThatDay.
Queen Elizabeth I of England was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace to King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. When Elizabeth was three her mother was executed on charges of adultery and she was declared illegitimate and excluded from succession. Foreign ambassadors talked of Princess Elizabeth's good looks and musical talent. However her father paid little attention to her until Henry’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr brought Elizabeth back to court.
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| The Lady Elizabeth in about 1546, by an unknown artist |
For more September 7 anniversaries, including the founding of Boston, Massachusetts, Led Zeppelin's first performance, and the largest ever wedding reception, check out OnThatDay
The British chemist John Dalton was born on September 6, 1766. He proposed the existence of atoms, which he considered to be the smallest parts of matter. The idea of atoms was already known at the time, but not widely accepted. Dalton's theory of atoms was based on actual observation. Before this, ideas about atoms were based more on philosophy. Dalton began using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements on September 6, 1803.
Catharine Beecher was born on September 6, 1800 in East Hampton, New York, She was the daughter of religious leader Lyman Beecher and sister of Uncle Tom's Cabin writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and preacher Henry Ward Beecher. Catharine was engaged to marry Professor Alexander M. Fisher, but he died at sea before the wedding took place. After her fiancée’s death, Catharine founded the Hartford Female Seminary, launching a life-long campaign as lecturer, writer, and advocate for women's education.
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| Catharine Beecher |
For more September 6 anniversaries, including the independence of Swaziland, The approval by the Russian parliament of the name change of Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg and Princess' Diana's funeral, check out OnThatDay.
Louis XIV of France was born on September 5, 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria. He was born after 23 years of childless marriage and four stillbirths and his parents regarded him as a divine gift. He was christened "Louis-Dieudonné" (the latter word meaning "God-given"), Anne of Austria compared herself with mothers in the Bible who had born a child in their later years, so from an early age a Christ like mythology was attached to Louis.
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| Louis-Dieudonné, Dauphin of France, in 1643 by Claude Deruet |
Freddie Mercury was born an Indian Parsi with the birth name Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. He grew up there and in India until his mid-teens, before moving with his family to Middlesex, England. Bulsura formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor and changed his name to Freddie Mercury after the lyrics "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in "My Fairy King".
For more September 5 anniversaries, including the beginning of The French Revolution's Reign Of Terror, the first legal forward pass in American football, and the first Waffle House, check out OnThatDay.
Singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles-Carter was born on September 4, 1981, in Houston, Texas, to Celestine "Tina" Knowles (née Beyoncé), a hairdresser and salon owner, and Mathew Knowles, a Xerox sales manager.
For more September 4 anniversaries, including the founding of Los Angeles, the first heart surgery, the founding of eBay and the incorporation of Google, check out OnThatDay.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. After escaping to freedom on September 3, 1838, he eventually became the first African American to hold high political office, as consul-general to the Republic of Haiti.
Boston architect Louis Sullivan was born on September 3, 1856. Known as the "father of skyscrapers," his productive years began in 1880 when Sullivan became a partner in the firm Dankmar Adler. He designed buildings as many as ten stories high by using the new method of construction made possible by the use of special steel girders. Sullivan was particular known for his office buildings built in the early 1890s, including the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri.
Ferdinand Porsche was born to German-speaking parents in Maffersdorf, northern Bohemia, part of the Austrian Empire at that time, and today part of the Czech Republic on September 3, 1875. As a young engineer, Ferdinand Porsche designed the first electric/gasoline hybrid, the System Lohner-Porsche vehicle in 1898. The German automotive engineer later created the Volkswagen Beetle and the early Porsche cars.
For more September 3 anniversaries, including the end of the English Civil War, the marriage of Christopher Wren to Faith Coghill, and the first openly professional American football player, check out OnThatDay.
Liliʻuokalani, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was born on September 2, 1838. Queen Liliʻuokalani ascended the Hawaiian throne in 1891 upon the death of her brother, King Kalakaua. Her refusal to recognize the constitutional changes inaugurated in 1887 precipitated a revolt, fostered largely by sugar planters—mostly American residents of Hawaii. This led to her dethronement early in 1893 and the establishment of a provisional government.
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| Liliʻuokalani |
For more September 2 anniversaries, including the marriage of Winston Churchill to Clementine Hozier, the founding of Unilever, and the Internet's first search engine, check out OnThatDay.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois to businessman and Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs and his wife Mary. An enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. Cavalry Burroughs was discharged with a heart problem and worked a number of different jobs. He published his first magazine story in 1912 about an abandoned English boy raised by African apes. Tarzan, "King of the Jungle," who became one of the 20th century's best-known fictional characters.
The Roman emperor Caligula was born Gaius Caesar in Antium (modern day Anzio) on August 31, 12AD. His Roman general father, Germanicus Caesar was the adopted son of Tiberius. The infant Gaius traveled with his parents among the legions of Rome and the soldiers were amused when he wore a miniature soldier costume He was soon given his nickname "Caligula" (or Caligulae), meaning "Little Soldier('s boots)" in Latin, after the small boots he wore as part of his costume.
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| Emperor Caligula, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. By Louis le Grand |
Roman emperor Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus was born on August 31, 161 in Lanuvium, near Rome. He was the son of the reigning emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius' first cousin, Faustina the Younger, the youngest daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Commodus ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His accession as emperor in 180 was the first time a son had succeeded his father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79.
For more August 31 anniversaries, including the first bank robbery in the United States, the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims and the independence of Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago and Kyrgyzstan, check out OnThatDay.Frankenstein author Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin at The Polygon in Somers Town, London on August 30, 1797. Her father, the anarchist philosopher William Godwin, and her feminist mother Mary Wollstonecraft, were both political writers. Wollstonecraft died of puerperal fever ten days after Mary's birth leaving Godwin to bring up Mary and her older half-sister, Under her father’s tutelage, Mary received an excellent education, which was unusual for girls at the time.
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| The Polygon (left) where Mary Shelley was born and raised |
Physicist and chemist Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 on a small farm at Brightwater near Nelson, New Zealand. His father, James Rutherford, was a farmer, and his mother, Martha Thompson, a schoolteacher. The father of nuclear physics, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908, for his work on nuclear physics, and for the theory of the structure of the atom. In 1917 he became the first person to split the atom in a nuclear reaction.
American microbiologist Maurice Hilleman was born on August 30, 1919. Eight of the fifteen vaccines that are routinely recommended today were developed by him. They are the ones those for measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. He is credited with saving more lives than any other medical scientist of the 20th century.
For more August 30 anniversaries, including the founding of the cities of Melbourne and Houston, the first African American man to be confirmed as a judge, and the introduction of the cassette, check out OnThatDay.The film star Ingrid Bergman was born on August 29, 1915 in Stockholm, to a Swedish father, Justus Bergman, and his German wife, Frieda (née Adler) Bergman. She was named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden. Bergman's first acting role in America came when Hollywood producer David O. Selznick brought her to America in 1936 to star in Intermezzo: A Love Story. Bergman's nickname on set early in her career was ‘Betterlater’, owing to her saying after nearly every take: "I’ll be better later."
The jazz saxophone giant Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas on August 29, 1920. He was the only child of Adelaide "Addie" (Bailey) and Charles Parker. In 1939 Charlie Parker (playing at a Harlem jam session) begins experimenting with a style which was first called ReBop, then Bebop. Bebop is synonymous with fast improvisation and complicated chord structures and Charlie Parker's exciting alto saxophone flights won him the popular nickname of Bird.
Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was the eighth of Katherine and Joe Jackson's ten children. Jackson's father was a steel mill worker. In 1965, Michael joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father and which included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. When Jackson was 8 he started being the band's main singer with Jermaine. The group's name then changed to The Jackson 5.
For more August 29 anniversaries, including Vasco De Gama's arrival back in Lisbon from India, the patenting of the zip fastener, and Hurricane Katrina devastation of the US Gulf Coast, check out OnThatDay.
German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt-am-Main, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire to retired lawyer Johann Kaspar Goethe, and Katharine Elisabeth Textor. A precocious youngster, Johann wrote a story in seven languages when he was only 10. He acquired from his mother the knack of story telling; and from a toy puppet show in his nursery his first interest in the stage. Johann wrote his first plays for this small puppet theater.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, was born to a socially prominent New York Episcopalian family on August 28, 1774. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley was a surgeon who served as Chief Health Officer for the Port of New York. He later served as the first professor of anatomy at Columbia College.
For more August 28 anniversaries, including the release of all slaves in the British Empire, the first meeting of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and the founding of UPS, Toyota and Subway, check out OnThatDay.
Serial killer and bodysnatcher Edward Gein was born on August 27, 1906. The crimes Ed Gein committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. The movie characters Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs) were all based on Gein
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| Ed Gein |
For more August 27 anniversaries, including the world's first commercially successful oil well, the shortest war on record, and publication of the first Guinness Book of World Records, check out OnThatDay.
Robert Walpole was born in Houghton, Norfolk on August 26, 1676. One of 19 children, he was the third son and fifth child of Robert Walpole, who was the most influential Whig leader in Norfolk. He entered office in 1721 as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I. Walpole pursued a policy of peace abroad and efficient financial management at home. Under Walpole's leadership the British economy boomed as never before.
Prince Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany on August 26, 1819, the second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert's future wife, Queen Victoria, was born earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. After their first meeting, Queen Victoria said Prince Albert was "extremely handsome." She wrote in her diary: "His hair is about the same color as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth."
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), Ottoman Empire. She was the youngest child of Nikollë Bojaxhiu a merchant who was in sympathy with Albanian patriots and Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai). Agnes left home in 1928 at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English with the view of becoming a missionary; She never saw her mother or her sister again.
For more August 26 anniversaries, including the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history, the first televised major-league baseball game, and the world’s first battery operated heart, check out OnThatDay.
Ivan The Terrible was born August 25, 1530 to Vasili III and his second wife, Elena Glinskaya at Kolomenskoye, a royal estate situated several miles to the southeast of Moscow. At his birth a holy man prophesied Ivan would be an evil son whose nation would fall prey to terror and tears. As a child Ivan took a grim pleasure in throwing live animals to their deaths. He ordered his first murder at 13 and had a man’s tongue cut out at 15 for swearing.
The actor Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland on August 25, 1930. At the age of nine, Connery supported his impoverished family with a milk run in his hometown of Edinburgh. On his round the Scottish youngster delivered to Fettes School, which according to Ian Fleming, was the same school, which James Bond attended following his expulsion from Eton. Sean Connery made his Bond debut in 1962 in Dr No.
For more August 25 anniversaries, including the formation of the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, The Great Moon Hoax article, and the first person to swim the English channel, check out OnThatDay.
William Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire on August 24, 1759 to wealthy merchant Robert Wilberforce and Elizabeth. The young Wilberforce had developed an interest in politics and at the age of 21, whilst still a student, he was elected MP for Kingston Upon Hull. Wilberforce became interested in humanitarian affairs and saw that God was calling him to be a figurehead of the anti-slavery movement. He made his first major speech on abolition in the House of Commons in 1789.
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William Wilberforce by Karl Anton Hickel, c. 1794 |
For more August 24 anniversaries, including The Visigoths pillage of Rome, the marriage of King John of England to Isabella of Angoulême, and the patenting of the stove-top waffle iron, check out OnThatDay
Louis XVI of France was born Louis-Auguste in the Palace of Versailles on August 23, 1754. He was the second son of Louis, the Dauphin of France, and the grandson of Louis XV of France. He became the French Dauphin upon the death of his father from tuberculosis and succeeded to the throne upon the death of his grandfather when he was 19 years old. Louis' indecisiveness and conservatism contributed to the crisis that brought on the French Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy.
Zoologist and naturalist Georges Cuvier was born in Montbeliard, France on August 23, 1769 to Jean George Cuvier, a lieutenant in the Swiss Guards and Anne Clémence Chatel. His fascination with natural history was ignited by an encounter at the age of 10 with a copy of Gesner's Historiae Animalium. He laid the foundations of the sciences of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils.
For more August 23 anniversaries, including King George III's Proclamation of Rebellion, the marriage of markswoman Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, and the unveiling of The Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen harbor, check out OnThatDay.
Claude Debussy was born at St Germain-en-Laye on August 22, 1862. His father was a travelling salesman and his mother worked as a seamstress. He had his first piano lesson aged 10 and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the same age. Within three years Debussy was playing Chopin piano concertos. "A pupil with a considerable gift for harmony but desperately careless" (From Debussy's Conservatoire report 1879).
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Debussy by Marcel Baschet, 1884 |
For more August 22 anniversaries, including the first air raid in history, the patenting of liquid soap, the marriage of Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Dent, and the founding of Cadillac, check out OnThatDay.
William IV of the United Kingdom was born on August 21, 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was the younger brother of King George III's successor George IV. William joined the Navy aged 13 and served in the West Indies under Horatio Nelson. He gave away the bride at Nelson's wedding. William IV became king in June 1830, aged 64, the oldest ever person to have come to the British or English throne.
The sprinter Usain Bolt was born on August 21, 1986, in the rural town of Sherwood Content in Trelawny parish, Cornwall County, Jamaica. His parents Jennifer and Wellesley ran the local grocery store. Usain spent much of his free time as a child playing soccer and cricket with his brother Sadeeki. He is the only man to win gold in the 100 meter and 200 meter titles at three consecutive Olympics in 2008, 2012 and 2016, earning the nickname "Lightning Bolt."
For more August 21 anniversaries, including the patenting of the first successful adding machine in the US, the stealing of the Mona Lisa and the founding of the first Gap store, check out OnThatDay.
Methodist preacher Francis Asbury was born at Hamstead Bridge, Staffordshire in England on August 20, 1745. Asbury arrived in British North America in 1771 and started touring the colonies and the Mississippi territory on horeseback. By covering thousands of miles each year as a circuit rider, Francis Asbury established Methodism as one of the leading American denominations. He saw the new denomination grow from under 500 members to over 200,000 by the time of his death in 1816.
Benjamin Harrison the 23rd president of the USA was born on August 20, 1833 in North Bend, Ohio. He was the second of eight children born to John Scott Harrison and Elizabeth Ramsey (Irwin). Benjamin was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. He was the only president to be the grandson of a former president. The Republican candidate, Harrison was elected to the White House in 1888, beating Grover Cleveland, serving one full term.
For more August 20 anniversaries, including the canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen, the first 20 African slaves brought to England's American territories and the premiere of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, check out OnThatDay.
Aviation pioneer Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 19, 1871. He had five other siblings including his older brother Wilbur. His father the Rev Milton Wright, was an editor, clergyman later a non-conformist Bishop. He once preached a sermon saying, "If God wanted to fly he would have given us wings". Three months later his sons Orville and Wilbur had made their first powered flight.
Gabrielle Chanel was born in Saumur, France on August 19, 1883 to an unwed laundrywoman mother and itinerant street vendor father. After the death of her mother she was sent to live at the convent of Aubazine, where she learnt to sew. At the age of 23 Chanel became the mistress of the wealthy textile heir Étienne Balsan, and while with him she began designing hats. She became a licensed milliner in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris named Chanel Modes.
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, died in a car accident, three months before Clinton was born. His nurse anesthetist mother, remarried when William was four to car salesman Roger Clinton. William took the last name Clinton in high school. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech so impressed a teenage Clinton that he memorized the entire speech right after it was given.
For more August 19 anniversaries, including the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, the marriage of Elizabeth Fry to Quaker banker Joseph Fry and news reaching the US East Coast of the California gold rush, check out OnThatDay.
Virginia Dare, born on August 18, 1587 on Roanoke Island, was the first baby born of English parents in the New World. She was born to English parents Ananias Dare and Eleanor Whit and named after the Virginia Colony. Her grandfather was Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke.
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| Baptism of Virginia Dare, wood-engraving, 1880 |
Robert Anthony De Niro was born in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, New York on August 17, 1943. His father, Robert De Niro Sr. was a noted abstract Expressionist artist, and his mother was a painter. Later, his father came out as gay. As a boy his nickname was 'Bobby Milk', after his pale skinny frame. At the age of 10, Robert De Niro played the Lion in a local production of the Wizard of Oz.
Thomas Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888 in Tremadog, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd), Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge. Lawrence first went to the Middle East in 1909 when he traveled to Syria as part of his Oxford studies. He fought with Arab leaders in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turkish rule during World War I, and was the inspiration for the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Donnie Dunagan (born August 16, 1934) enlisted in the Marine Corps and became the Marines' youngest-ever drill instruction. He served three tours in Vietnam and was wounded several times, earning three purple hearts. Dunagan managed to keep a big secret throughout his entire military career. He was a voice actor in Walt Disney's Bambi movie, providing the voice of young Bambi.
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born to "Tony" Ciccone and Madonna Louise Fortin in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958. Since Madonna had the same name as her mother, family members called her "Little Nonni". Madonna moved from Michigan to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. In 1979 Madonna became romantically involved with musician Dan Gilroy. Together, they formed her first band, the Breakfast Club, for which Madonna sang and played drums and guitar.
For more August 16 anniversaries, including the marriage of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini and French artists' model and hostess Olympe Pélissier, Usain Bolt's world record run for the 100 metres, and the first smartphone, check out OnThatDay.
Napoléon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the palatial Maison Bonaparte on the River Saint Charles in the old part of Ajaccio on the west coast of Corsica.. His parents were of of minor Corsican nobility. Napoleon's mother was the dominant influence of his childhood. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). At the age of 9, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château.
Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in a third-floor flat on College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Following a childhood bout of polio, Walter was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, During his time at Sandyknowe, Walter was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work.
Founder of UK's Labour Party James Keir Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire, Scotland on August 15, 1856. The illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a domestic servant, James grew up in desperate poverty. He started working as a coal miner at the age of ten. Hardie's bosses stopped him from working down the mine when he organised a union. Together with various trade unions and the Fabian Society he founded the Independent Labour Party in 1893 to represent the laboring classes in Parliament.
For more August 15 anniversaries, including the death of the Scottish king Macbeth, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States, and the invention of bubble gum, check out OnThatDay.
John William Friso, Prince of Orange was born on August 14, 1687. He is the ancestor of all European monarchs occupying the throne today. Due to the intermarriage of the European royal houses, many kings and queens are descended from Friso in more than one way.
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| John William Friso, Prince of Orange (1710) by Lancelot Volders |
Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. was born on August 14, 1959. Magic Johnson earned significant earnings during his career as a point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. After retiring from basketball due to his HIV diagnosis in 1991, he went on to establish a successful business empire under the name "Magic Johnson Enterprises."
For more August 14 anniversaries, including the first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer, the marriage of Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan and the stage debut of John Wilkes Booth, the American actor who shot Abraham Lincoln, check out OnThatDay.
The son of a Scottish minister, television pioneer John Logie Baird, was born in Helensburgh, a small coastal town in the west of Scotland on August 13, 1888. An inventor from a young age, as a boy Baird installed not only a telephone exchange in his father’s manse but also a system of electric lighting, even entangling passing traffic in the wires. He demonstrated the first wirelessly transferred image in January 1926.
The movie director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in Leytonstone, which is now part of London. Around the age of five, young Alfred was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for five minutes as punishment for behaving badly. This incident not only implanted a lifetime fear of policemen in him, but such harsh treatment and wrongful accusations would be found frequently throughout his films.
Fidel Castro was born out of wedlock at his father's Cuban farm on Friday August 13, 1926. Known as a rebellious, loud, and troublesome child, Fidel Castro was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Santiago de Cuba, where he was often teased by his wealthier classmates who called him a "peasant." Castro became embroiled in student activism while studying law at the University of Havana After Batista's overthrow in 1959, he established a government based on Marxist-Leninist principles.
For more August 13 anniversaries, including the birthdays of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Fiat S.p.A. founder Giovanni Agnelli and Ethel Roosevelt Derby, the youngest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, check out OnThatDay.
Philanthropist Jonas Hanway was born on August 12, 1712. Hanway became the first Englishman to display an umbrella as part of a city "uniform" in around 1750. He had to suffer ridicule by carrying one habitually in London, suitably fortified against the inclement English climate. The hackney coachmen tried to hoot and hustle him down as they saw a threat to their livelihood in the new contraption. But in spite of the abuse, Hanway continued to carry his "guard from chilly showers."
George IV of the United Kingdom was born at St James's Palace, London, on August 12, 1762. He was the first child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father's final mental illness. However, once he became king in 1820, George's s heavy drinking, indulgent lifestyle, callousness and weak-mindedness made him unable to govern effectively.
For more August 12 anniversaries, including the deaths of England's Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake, George Stephenson, the "father of railways," James Bond creator Ian Fleming and legendary actress Lauren Bacall, check out OnThatDay.
Children's author Enid Mary Blyton was born on August 11, 1897 in East Dulwich, London to Thomas Carey Blyton, a cutlery salesman, and his wife Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton. She was educated at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham leaving as head girl. In 1922 Enid Blyton published her first book, Child Whispers, a collection of verse, but it was in the late 1930s that she began writing her many children's stories featuring such characters as Noddy, the Famous Five, and the Secret Seven.
31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German and Swiss ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was of English and Irish ancestry. Both of his parents were Quakers. As a child, young Bertie was often called by his father "my little stick in the mud", since he repeatedly was trapped in the mud while crossing an unpaved street.
King Henry V of England was born in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in the Principality of Wales on August 9, 1387. His father was Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, and his mother Mary de Bohun, who died in 1394 giving birth to her last child, a daughter, Philippa of England. As king, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe.
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| Detail of a miniature of Henry V of England. |
Roger Federer was born at the Basel Cantonal Hospital in Basel, Switzerland on August 8, 1981 to a Swiss father Robert Federer and South African mother, Lynette Federer (born Durand), whose ancestors were Dutch and French Huguenots. Roger Federer holds both Swiss and South African citizenships.
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| By Sirquine - Own work, CC BY 3.0, $3 |
Hungarian noblewoman Countess Elizabeth Báthory was born on August 7, 1560. Báthory was the most prolific female serial killer of all time. She tortured and killed over 650 people, believing the blood of young girls would maintain her youth. For a long time, she was protected by her high social status.
Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle who was born on August 7, 1876. A Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer, she had relationships with both German and French officers during World War I and was the archetype of the seductive female spy. She was arrested in February 1919, put on trial and found guilty of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Mata Hari was executed by a firing squad of the French Army in October 1917.
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| Mata Hari In Amsterdam, 1915 |
For more August 7 birthdays, including first documented performance of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the first woman to complete a transatlantic US car trip and the first person to shoot 58 on the PGA Tour, check out OnThatDay.
The poet Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. Alfred's father, the Reverend George Tennyson, had fallen out with his family and been disinherited; he drank heavily, was an opium addict and had become mentally unstable. Alfred and two of his elder brothers, Charles and Frederick were writing poetry in their teens. A collection of poems by Alfred and Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers, was published locally when Alfred was seventeen.
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| Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing |
Scottish physician and microbiologist Sir Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 at Lochfield, a remote small sheep farm outside Darvel, a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland east of Kilmarnock. Alexander's parents ran an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house. The four Fleming children spent much of their time ranging through the streams, valleys, and moors of the countryside. "We unconsciously learned a great deal from nature," Fleming said later in his life
Actress and comedienne Lucille Ball was born to Henry and Desiree Ball in Jamestown, New York on August 6, 1911. Her father contracted typhoid fever and died when she was three. Ball recalls little from the day she lost her father, only fleeting memories of a picture falling and a bird getting trapped in the house. Ever since that day she had an intense bird phobia. She banned all pictures of birds from her house and any hotel room she was staying in.
For more August 6 anniversaries, including the founding of the Colombian city of Bogotá, the first woman to swim the English Channel and the largest ever bank robbery, check out OnThatDay.
Joseph Merrick, whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man," was born on August 5, 1862. Merrick had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel in Auglaize County, near Wapakoneta, Ohio. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and served in the Korean War. He flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, most of which was in January 1952. After the war, he served as a test pilot before joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962.
The engineer William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi on August 5, 1987. At the age of 15 he taught himself how to build windmills out of junk from the scrap yard to provide electricity for his family. Later on he built another windmill to power water pumps to irrigate fields. He did all of this through library books, as his family couldn't afford schooling.
For more August 5 birthdays, including Leonardo Da Vinci's earliest known dated work, the first recorded user of a fountain pen and the first ever recreational rock climb, check out OnThatDay
Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born into a very poor family on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Raised by his mother in extreme poverty, at the age of 12 Louis served a term for delinquency at the Colored Waifs Home, after celebrating the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol. It was at the Colored Waifs Home, where Louis Armstrong learned to play the the bugle and the clarinet. He eventually became the leader of the home's brass band.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii only became a state in 1959. If it had become a state two years later than it did, Obama could not have become US president. His father was a black exchange student from Kenya named Barack Obama Sr. His mother was a white woman from Kansas named Ann Dunham, who was an anthropologist.
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| Obama (right) with his father in Hawaii. ca. 1971 Wikipedia |
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex was born Rachel Meghan Markle on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, worked as a lighting director on Married…with Children and General Hospital. Her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, is a social worker and yoga instructor. She calls her famous daughter "Flower," Meghan's parents divorced when she was six years old.
For more August 4 birthdays, including romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, French author Jules Verne's only child, and Sir Harry Lauder the first British singer to sell a million records, check out OnThatDay.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born on August 3, 1922, in Panama. John served in the United States Army, retired as a brigadier general, became an author and served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971.
Creme Puff, the oldest cat ever recorded was born on August 3, 1967. She died 38 years and 3 days later on August 6, 2005. Creme Puff lived with her owner, Jake Perry, in Austin, Texas. Perry also owned Granpa, who died in 1998, aged 34. Both cats lived off a diet of bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.
For more August 3 anniversaries, including the first time an official US flag was flown during battle, the introduction of the Mickey Mouse wristwatch, and the opening of the world's first themed amusement park, check out OnThatDay
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski on August 2, 1923 in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Sara and Yitzhak Perski. In 1932, Peres's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. The family followed him two years later. Peres became involved in Israeli politics and was a member of twelve cabinets over the course of his career. As Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Rabin, Peres engineered the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat.
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| Peres in 2009. By Elza Fiúza - Agência Brasil |
For more August 2 anniversaries, including the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok in the back as he played poker, Robert Zimmerman legally changing his name to Bob Dylan and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq leading to the Gulf War, check out OnThatDay.
The Roman Emperor Claudius was born at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls in what is now Lyon, France on August 1, 10BC. His uncle was the second Emperor Tiberius and Mark Antony was one of his grandfathers. Claudius had a stammer as well as a limp when walking, and his family kept him from public office until he was 38. He became Roman Emperor in January 41AD following the assassination of his nephew Caligula.
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| Claudius Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011) Wikipedia |
The author Herman Melville was born in New York City August 1, 1819 as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods. In 1840 Melville signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands, where he lived for a time with a tribe of cannibals. Melville's further adventures included working as a beachcomber in Tahiti. Moby-Dick his epic and tragic novel about the whaling industry, was first published in October 1851.
For more August 1 anniversaries, including the start of the Georgian era in British history, the admission of Colorado as the 38th U.S. state, and the first scout camp, check out OnThatDay.
Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson was born on July 31, 1803. He came to New York in 1839 with a commission to build a ship for the U.S. Navy. His propulsion system was adopted by commercial steamers and by the USS Princeton (1844), the world's first screw-propelled war vessel.
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born on July 31, 1923. Kwolek's career at the chemical company DuPont spanned over forty years. She is best known for inventing the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness, Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof vests. The Kevlar Survivors Club, founded by police officers whose lives were saved by Kevlar body armor, has more than 3,000 members.
Harry Potter author Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England. The original concept for Harry Potter came to Rowling in 1990 on a Manchester to London train that was delayed for four hours. She was staring out of the train's window of the train when the idea, plot and characters came to her.
For more July 31 anniversaries, including the first European to visit the island of Trinidad, the first U.S. patent, and the release of the Game Boy device in North America, check out OnThatDay.
Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë was born in a bleak, Georgian Vicarage in Market Street, Thornton, West Yorkshire on July 30, 1818. Emily had four sisters including Charlotte who wrote Jane Eyre and Anne who penned Agnes Grey. They were bought up by their Irish clergyman father, Patrick, at Haworth Rectory, in Church Street, Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Their Cornish mother, Maria, had died in 1821 at the age of 37 of cancer.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a prosperous farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. Henry was passionate about mechanics, preferring to tinker in his father's shop over doing farm chores. He became fascinated by engines and one day Henry noticed a tractor parked by the side of the road. He studied the mechanism and asked the driver how fast the engine could run. The reply of 200 turns a minute gave Henry the inspiration for the motor car business.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal, a small village in Austria to Aurelia (née Jadrny) and Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was the local chief of police. Schwarzenegger began weight training at the age of 15. and won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 . He is widely considered to be among the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Two years after he immigrated to America in 1968, Schwarzenegger made his film debut with Hercules in New York a.k.a. Hercules Goes Bananas
For more July 30 anniversaries, including the founding of Baghdad, the first football World Final, and the signing into law of Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, check out OnThatDay.
Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna, Italy. His father, Alessandro was a socialist blacksmith, who bored his customers with his relentless propaganda. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was a devoutly Catholic school teacher. Always in trouble, Benito caused his family much worry and in 1894 Benito he was expelled from his catholic boarding school for stabbing a fellow student in the buttocks with a pen knife.
Silent movie actress Clara Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn, to a schizophrenic mother and a chronically destitute, physically abusive father. Her last name "Bow" was short for her actual last name "Bowtinelli". Her best friend Johnny burned to death in her arms when she was 10 years old. Years later, she could make herself cry at will on a movie set by listening to the lullaby "Rock-A-Bye Baby". She claimed it reminded her of her small friend.
The British polymath Robert Hooke was born on July 28, 1635. When Hooke published his 1665 masterpiece, Micrographia, people were astounded by its depictions of the miniature world. Samuel Pepys called it "the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life". Until then, few people knew that fleas had hairy legs or that plants comprised cells (Hooke coined the term "cell"). Hooke used a hand-crafted, leather and gold-tooled microscope to make the observations for Micrographia,
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866 at 2 Bolton Gardens, West Brompton, Kensington, London. Beatrix was educated by three able governesses, the last of whom was Annie Moore (née Carter), just three years older than Beatrix. Annie and Beatrix remained friends throughout their lives and Annie's eight children were the recipients of many of Potter's delightful picture letters. It was Annie who later suggested that these letters might make good children's books.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 37th First Lady of the United States, was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, Long Island on July 28, 1929 to Wall Street stockbroker John "Black Jack" Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. When a 12-year-old Jackie toured the White House with her mother and sister, she found it frustrating that there was so little information offered to visitors. So when Jackie eventually moved into the White House herself, she made it her mission to fix this.
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| Six-year-old Bouvier in 1935 |
French explorer and botanist Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740. An assistant botanist on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769 that explored the Southern Hemisphere. Baret is recognized as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe. Because French naval regulations prohibited female crew members, she spent most of the voyage disguised as a young man, calling herself Jean Baret. She extensively collected and categorized plants during her travels.
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| Hilaire Belloc portrait by E. O. Hoppé (1915) |
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and critic who had a major influence on Western theater, culture and politics. He was born July 26, 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, Dublin to retail corn merchant George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw. George attended four schools in Dublin, all of which he hated. He was lazy in class and disliked games, but the Irish youngster was an early reader, (Shaw was reading Shakespeare before he was 10).
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| Shaw's birthplace By J.-H. Janßen |
American author Paulette Cooper was born July 26, 1942. Her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology, resulted in series of lawsuits against her by The Church of Scientology. As she continued to investigate the movement, Cooper became the target of harassment campaigns, which included an attempt to get her committed to a psychiatric ward, subscribing her to pornographic mail lists, and faking bomb threats with her stationary and fingerprints.
For more July 26 anniversaries, including New York becoming the 11th state of the United States, the opening of the world's first public railway and the establishment of the FBI, check out OnThatDay.
German judge Daniel Paul Schreber was born on July 25, 1842. A paranoid schizophrenic, Schreber believed he was receiving cosmic rays through his anal glands by God in order to transform him into a woman so that he could herald and breed a new race. He described his mental illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, an account which served as Sigmund's Freud's primary source to understand the condition.
English chemist Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920. She is considered to be the unsung hero of DNA research; James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Many believe she should have shared in their Nobel Prize.
The world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978 at Oldham General Hospital, in Oldham, England. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years.
For more July 25 anniversaries, including the marriage of Mary I of England to Philip of Spain, the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history and the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, check out OnThatDay.
Eugene Vidocq, the French father of modern criminal investigation, was born on July 24, 1775. He introduced record keeping and the science of ballistics into police work. Originally a crook, as a fugitive from French justice, Vidcoq offered his services as a police informer. Later Vidcoq became so successful at catching criminals that he was named the first chief of police at the Surete in 1811. Vidocq eventually directed a force of 28 detectives, all of whom were former criminals.
Alexandre Dumas was born in Paris, France on July 24, 1802. He was the grandson of a woman slave from the Saint Domingue island (later renamed, Haiti), where his French father was born in 1762, and lived a large part of his life. Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime. He is best known for his adventure novels with historical elements, which include The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
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| Dumas in 1855 |
Pioneering aviation pilot Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. As a child, Milly spent long hours playing with her younger sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle and "belly-slamming" her sled downhill. Earhart wasn't impressed the first time she saw an airplane at the age of 10. In Last Flight, a collection of diary entries published posthumously, she recalled feeling unmoved by “a thing of rusty wire and wood” at the Iowa State Fair in 1908.
For more July 24 anniversaries, including the founding of Detroit, the rediscovery of the 15th-century Inca citadel Machu Picchu, and the launch of the first successful instant coffee check out OnThatDay
British artist and illustrator Edward Frank Gillett was born on July 23, 1874. He passed away on May 1, 1927, but still competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics. Two of his works were in the Olympics art competition.
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| Judit Polgár, 2008 By Stefan64 - Self-photographed |
Prince George of Cambridge, the third in line to the British throne, was born on July 22, 2013. The eldest child of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the little prince was born weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His birth certificate reveals an officially long, royal-sounding name: Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. Along with his parents names on the sheet of paper are their jobs which they list as as “prince” and “princess.” For his first public appearance, Prince George wore an Aden + Anais swaddling blanket that quickly sold out in the UK.
For more July 22 anniversaries, including the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, the loudest airplane ever built, and the longest dive by a pig, check out OnThatDay.
The writer Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a physician, and Grace Hall-Hemingway, a painter and musician. His mother dressed and raised Ernest as a girl for some of the early part of his life, calling him "Ernestine". His boyhood was spent in the wild country round the Great Lakes which gave him a love for the outdoor life.
Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted by combat, was born on July 21, 1916. He saved his regiment from mustard gas attacks comforted the wounded and notified his troop of oncoming artillery. Back home, his exploits were front page news in major newspapers. After the war, Sergeant Stubby led parades across the country met three presidents and became a university mascot.
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| Sergeant Stubby wearing military uniform and decorations. |
The comedian and actor Robin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951. Robin Williams was one of just 20 students accepted into Julliard School in New York City in 1973. While his comedic genius was immediately obvious, he wasn't taken seriously until his portrayal of a wheelchair-bound old man in the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana during a third-year acting class. Christopher Reeve was Williams' roommate and best friend at Juilliard.
For more July 21 anniversaries, including the creation of Central Park, the conviction of John T. Scopes for teaching the theory of evolution to his class, and the christening of the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, check out OnThatDay.
Alexander the Great was born on the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Hekatombaion, which is thought to correspond to July 20, 356 BC, in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedon.
Alexander's father was Philip II, King of Macedon and his mother was Olympias, the hot tempered princess of Epirus. Between the ages of 13 and 16, Alexander came under the tuition of the philosopher Aristotle. From him he learnt rhetoric, medicine, geometry, art, literature and music.
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| Bust of a young Alexander the Great |
Ziona Chana was born on July 20, 1945 at Hmawngkawn village in Serchhip district, India. The leader of the "Chana" sect, which allows polygamy, he lived in a 100-room four storey mansion with his jumbo sized family in Baktawng village, Mizoram, India. His family consisted of 39 wives, 94 children, 14-daughters-in-laws and 33 grandchildren, setting the world record for the "world's largest existing family."
For more July 20 anniversaries, including the patenting of the world's first internal combustion engine, the live debut of Elvis Presley and The Blue Moon Boys and the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, check out OnThatDay.
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born July 19, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts, to successful property developer Andrew Borden and his wife Sarah. Three years after the death of Lizzie mother Sarah, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray. Lizzie believed that Abby had married her father for his wealth.
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| Borden in 1889 |
Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, Transkei South Africa on July 18, 1918 to a Thembu royal family. Mandela's original name was Rolihlahla Mandela. In his Xhosa tribe, the name means pulling the branch of a tree or troublemaker. The name "Nelson" was given to him by his teacher Miss Mdingane on his first day of elementary school. African children were given English names so colonial masters could pronounce them easily.
The astronaut and politician John Glenn was born on July 18, 1921. He became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes abroad Friendship 7 in 1962.
Following his retirement from NASA, Glenn served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States senator from Ohio. In 1998, he flew into space again at age 77 becoming the oldest astronaut ever.
Businessman Richard Branson was born in Blackheath, London on July 18, 1950. Despite being dyslexic, he started a magazine called Student whilst at school, which was relatively successful at selling ads. Branson is the founder of Virgin. He chose the company name after it was suggested by one of his friends that they were all 'virgins' in business.
For more July 18 anniversaries, including the Great Fire of Rome, the first black soldier to earn the Medal of Honor, and gymnnast Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics, check out OnThatDay.
The father of English hymnody Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England on July 17, 1674. He was brought up in a home of committed Christians; his father, also Isaac Watts, was a respected nonconformist who had twice been imprisoned for his religious beliefs. His mother was of Huguenot origin. Watts is credited with some 750 hymns, as well as many books. His joyful hymns expressed wonder, praise and adoration covering the whole range of Christian experience.
Businessman and philanthropist John Jacob Astor was born on July 17, 1763 in Germany. Astor moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War. He entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast, becoming America's first multi-millionaire. He got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate.
For more July 17 anniversaries, including the first performance of Handel's Water Music, the execution of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his family, and the first town powered entirely by nuclear power energy, check out OnThatDay.
Mary Baker Eddy was born in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1821. Mary spent much of her youth sick with obscure nervous disorders. Inspired by a miraculous healing Eddy experienced after reading the account in Matthew 9 of how Jesus healed the paralytic, her success led her to developing the Christian Science sect, which regards sickness as a mere illusion to be overcome by right thinking.
Roald Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg on July 16, 1872. Amundsen's father, Jens was a ship owner and many of his family were also ship owners and captains. His mother encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. This freed him to become an explorer and he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
Gemina was a 12-foot-tall Baringo giraffe who lived in the Santa Barbara Zoo in California. Born on July 16, 1986, when she was three years old her neck vertebrae began to jut out from her neck. Gemina's crooked neck was an inspiration to disabled children and was featured in an episode of a reality show about a girl with scoliosis. Despite her mysterious deformity Gemina lived longer than the average giraffe by about six years.
For more July 16 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Islamic calendar, the banning of kissing in England, Mozart's most successful opera during his lifetime and the installation of the world’s first parking meter, check out OnThatDay.
The artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands. In 1621 Rembrandt to dedicate himself fully to painting. His parents apprenticed him to a history artist, Jacob van Swanenburgh in his home town of Leiden, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but important apprenticeship in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden
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| Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659), |
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was born Emmeline Goulden on July 15, 1858 in the Manchester suburb of Moss Side. Her father was a prosperous Calico printer with radical sympathies. A pretty, spirited girl, when she was small, Emmeline was consuming the Odyssey, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Pilgrim's Progress and abolitionist materials. Emmeline's earliest memories included hearing US suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton speak.
For more July 15 anniversaries, including the first European landfall in Alaska, the creation of margarine, the first shut out in baseball and the first sale of a Ford car, check out OnThatDay.
Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was born on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska. Ford was involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He was the only American president who was an Eagle Scout. A male model during his time between leaving for World War II and graduating from Yale Law, Ford was in Look magazine and on the cover of a 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan.
Julius Caesar was born on July 13, 100 BC. in Rome. He was untimely ripped from his mother's womb at birth hence his name Caesarian. (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere). His father Caius Julius Caesar, was a Roman Praetor of the most ancient and aristocratic lineage who had encountered hard times. As a young child Caesar used to race around in a little cart pulled by a goat. A show-off as he grew older he would ride at top speed without stirrups with his hands behind his head.
| The only surviving statue created during Caesar's lifetime Wikipedia |
Harrison Ford was born July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois's Swedish Covenant Hospital and graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1960. Hillary Clinton attended Maine East from 1961–1964. Though Ford didn't meet her at the school, he later became a close friend and golf partner of Bill Clinton. Ford worked as a carpenter in Los Angeles before achieving fame in movies, garnering a reputation as one of the best cabinetmakers in the city.
The pottery designer and manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood was born on July 12, 1730 in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. By the age of nine, Josiah was proving himself to be a skilled potter. However a bout of smallpox limited his strength in his leg and ultimately left him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. Wedgwood originally worked in the family pottery business. In 1754 he became a partner of Thomas Whieldon, and began to devise improved wares.
George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, was born on July 12, 1854. Interested in photographic processes from an early age, he started a company in 1881 that made photographic plates for photographers. The company released its first hand-held camera that uses roll film in April 1888, which Eastman called the Kodak. Eastman began to mass produce his inventions, transforming photography from an expensive hobby of the few to a relatively inexpensive, popular pastime.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko of the Soviet Union was born on July 12, 1916. She was the most successful female sniper in history with 309 credited kills during World War II. Lyudmila Pavlichenko toured the US in 1942 to gain support for a second front in Nazi-occupied Europe; the press was more interested in her appearance and if she wore make-up on the front lines.
Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was born on July 11, 1274. He was likely born at Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, the head of his mother's earldom. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marriage. A key figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, his coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace.
The inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Nikola was able to do integral calculus in his head, leading his teachers to believe he was cheating. The picture below shows Tesla's house (parish hall) in Smiljan where he was born, and the rebuilt church, where his father served.
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| By I, MayaSimFan, Wikipedia |
Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, was born on July 9, 1819. Howe was working in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, cotton machinery factory when he dreamed up the idea of a machine that could sew. The idea fascinated him, and he spent all his spare time during the next five years developing a practical sewing machine. Eventually, Howe left his job to work on his invention. Howe eventually completed his first successful sewing machine in 1845.
German general Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born July 8, 1838 in Konstanz, Grand Duchy of Baden. On retiring from the army in 1891, von Zeppelin devoted himself to the study of aeronautics, and his first airship was built and tested in 1900. During World War I a number of Zeppelin airships were employed in bombing England: they were also used for passenger transport.