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No other historical figure from the Old West has stirred up more controversy and eluded historians and biographers than Billy the Kid alias William H. Bonney. This young man in his short life has established his place in history and legend, but there is more to the myth there’s the man, which in my opinion…

A century ago, Leo Tolstoy – perhaps the greatest novelist of all time – died at a remote train station. He had embarked on a journey to find the simple life he believed in – partly due to early German influences…[more]

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die…[more]

MICHAEL WOODRUFF, one of the pioneer surgeons in transplantation, was undoubtedly a lateral thinker, a most unusual trait in a surgeon and one illustrated no better than by his outstanding work on dietetic deficiencies while a prisoner in the notorious Changi camp in Singapore during the Second World War….[more]

George was elector of Hanover and second Hanoverian king of Great Britain and Ireland. George was born in Hanover, Germany on 10 November 1683, the only son of the elector of Hanover. In 1705 he married Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and they had nine children…[more]

Cassius Marcellus Clay (October 19, 1810 – July 22, 1903), nicknamed “The Lion of White Hall”, was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States. He was a cousin of Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay…[more]

Louis XIII of France was born in 1601 and died in 1643. Louis was the son of Henry IV and Marie de Medici. He was king from 1610 on, the year of his father’s assassination. His monarchy was dominated by the careers of the Duke de Luynes and Cardinal Richelieu. His monarchy saw an expansion…

A special court was appointed and in October 1660 those Regicides who were still alive and living in Britain were brought to trial. Ten were found guilty and were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. This included Thomas Harrison, John Jones, John Carew and Hugh Peters. Others executed included Adrian Scroope, Thomas Scot, Gregory…

But did it really happen?! Read more

Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë…[more]

Sylvia Pankhurst, the daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, was at Drayton Terrace, Old Trafford, Manchester on 5th May, 1882. Her father was a committed socialist and a strong advocate of women’s suffrage. He had been responsible for drafting an amendment to the Municipal Franchise Act of 1869 that had resulted in unmarried…

Presidential Debate 1960On 26 September 1960, 70 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard Nixon in the first-ever televised presidential debate. It was the first of four televised “Great Debates” between Kennedy and Nixon. The first debate centered on domestic issues. The high point of the…

By the 1970s, she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary and book Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother…

The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet Union airspace. The United States government at first denied the plane’s purpose and mission, but…

The Florence Nightingale museum is a good place to start learning about the famous nurse. You may also like to listen to this rare recording of Nightingale speaking in 1890.

Annie Oakley (August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926), born Phoebe Ann Mosey, was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley’s amazing talent and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar…[wikipedia article]

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, of Isolabella and of Leri (August 10, 1810 – June 6, 1861) was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was the founder of the original Italian Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a…

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural…

Two of the greatest artists of the Renaissance.

Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American author, best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the United States for her contribution to literature in 2007…[more]

Aneurin Bevan was one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour government and the chief architect of the National Health Service…[more]

Barnum is widely but erroneously credited with coining the phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute.”…[more]

As a result of this heavyweight boxing match, race riots broke out across the United States. YouTube Video

Prolific Italian astronomer whose research ranged widely but whose name is forever associated with Mars, and the controversy over the Martian “canals” which, unwittingly, he helped to unleash…[more]

Goodyear’s discovery of what came to be known as vulcanization strengthened rubber so it could be applied to a vast variety of industrial uses, including, eventually, automobile tyres…[more]

Seeking to score a point against Darwin’s disciples, the Bishop of Oxford unwisely baited Thomas Henry Huxley by enquiring whether he would prefer to think of himself descended from an ape on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side. According to legend he quickly had his comeuppance. Huxley whispered to a neighbour: “The Lord hath delivered him…

This strange and unusual story begins in 1910 London, with 48 year old American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, MD. (who also enjoyed practicing dentistry) Dr. Crippen was married to Cora, who preferred her stage name ‘Belle Elmore.’ ‘Belle’ was a mediocre theatrical singer in her early 30’s originally from New York and the couple…

A legendary bluesman and massive influence upon rock groups such as Led Zeppelin. Take a look at the great man in action here: video.

Schumann’s parents were not musical but they encouraged his interest in music with Piano lessons from the age of 10. However his family was later to be beset by tragedy. When Schumann was in his teens, his father died and his sister committed suicide in quick succession, events that were to have a deep impact…

The hovercraft was invented by Christopher Cockerell in 1956. The theory behind one of the most successful inventions of the 20th century, the Hovercraft, was originally tested in 1955 using an empty KiteKat cat food tin inside a coffee tin, an industrial air blower and a pair of kitchen scales. link

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910) was the first female doctor in the United States. She was the first openly identified woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in educating women in medicine in the United States, and was prominent in the emerging women’s rights movement. (from Wikipedia entry).

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (Russian: ?????? ??????????? ??????????) (10 February 1890 – 30 May 1960) was a Nobel Prize-winning Russian and Soviet poet, novelist and translator of Goethe and Shakespeare. In Russia, Pasternak is most celebrated as a poet. My Sister Life, written in 1917, is arguably the most influential collection of poetry published in the…

Heinrich Herman Robert Koch (11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis (1877), the Tuberculosis bacillus (1882) and the Vibrio cholerae (1883) and for his development of Koch’s postulates. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his tuberculosis findings in 1905….

For some of Botticelli’s most famous paintings, take a look at this page. Wikipedia also has a good entry.

This was a major event in the Cold War as it suggested that the USSR were getting the upper hand in the Space Race. The USA became increasingly paranoid about the threat posed by the Soviet Union.