Portal:Biography
The Biography Portal
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.
Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.
An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter. (Full article...)
Featured biographies –
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Geoffrey Bent (27 September 1932 – 6 February 1958) was an English footballer who played as a left back for Manchester United from 1948 until 1958. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid-1950s. Bent only made twelve first-team appearances for Manchester United, who already had an international-quality left back in Roger Byrne. Modern writers speculate that at most other teams Bent would have been a regular starter, and he was the subject of interest from fellow First Division clubs, but Busby refused to let him leave. He was one of eight Manchester United players who died in the Munich air disaster, when their aircraft crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport after a European Cup match in Belgrade. (Full article...)
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Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.
An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest. (Full article...) -
The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans the first forty-five years of his life (1936–1981). McCain's father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain was born on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He married the former Carol Shepp in 1965; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together.
As a naval aviator, McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords. (Full article...) -
Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tij Junior Elvis Iginla (/dʒəˈroʊm ɪˈɡɪnlə/; born July 1, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. He played over 1,500 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings between 1996 and 2017. He is widely regarded as one of the best players of his generation.
In junior, Iginla was a member of two Memorial Cup winning teams with the Kamloops Blazers and was named the Western Hockey League (WHL) Player of the Year in 1996. He was selected 11th overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft but was traded to Calgary before making his NHL debut. Nicknamed "Iggy", he led the NHL in goals and points in 2001–02, and won the Lester B. Pearson Award as its most valuable player as voted by the players. In 2003–04, Iginla led the league in goals for the second time and captained the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals, leading the playoffs in goals. (Full article...) -
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (née Kroeber; /ˈkroʊbər lə ˈɡwɪn/ KROH-bər lə GWIN; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".
Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, to author Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Having earned a master's degree in French, Le Guin began doctoral studies but abandoned these after her marriage in 1953 to historian Charles Le Guin. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which have been described by Harold Bloom as her masterpieces. For the latter volume, Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. Several more works set in Earthsea or the Hainish universe followed; others included books set in the fictional country of Orsinia, several works for children, and many anthologies. (Full article...) -
John Richard Clark Hall (1855 – 6 August 1931) was a British scholar of Old English, and a barrister. In his professional life, Hall worked as a clerk at the Local Government Board in Whitehall. Admitted to Gray's Inn in 1881 and called to the bar in 1896, Hall became principal clerk two years later.
Hall's A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary became a widely used work upon its 1894 publication, and after multiple revisions remains in print as of 2021. His 1901 prose translation of Beowulf—the tenth in English, known simply as "Clark Hall"—became "the standard trot to Beowulf ", and was still the canonical introduction to the poem into the 1960s; several of the later editions included a prefatory essay by J. R. R. Tolkien. Hall's other work on Beowulf included a metrical translation in 1914, and the translation and collection of Knut Stjerna's Swedish papers on the poem into the 1912 work Essays on Questions Connected with the Old English Poem of Beowulf. (Full article...) -
Vice Admiral Sir Roy Russell Dowling, KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO (28 May 1901 – 15 April 1969) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). He served as Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), the RAN's highest-ranking position, from 1955 until 1959, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1959 until 1961.
Born in northern New South Wales, Dowling entered the Royal Australian Naval College in 1915. After graduating in 1919 he went to sea aboard several Royal Navy and RAN vessels, and later specialised in gunnery. In 1937, he was given command of the sloop HMAS Swan. Following the outbreak of World War II, he saw action in the Mediterranean theatre as executive officer of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Naiad, and survived her sinking by a German U-boat in March 1942. Returning to Australia, he served as Director of Plans and later Deputy Chief of Naval Staff before taking command of the light cruiser HMAS Hobart in November 1944. His achievements in the South West Pacific earned him the Distinguished Service Order. (Full article...) -
Edmund John Millington Synge (/sɪŋ/; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best-known play The Playboy of the Western World was poorly received, due to its bleak ending, depiction of Irish peasants, and idealisation of parricide, leading to hostile audience reactions and riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre, which he had co-founded with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. His other major works include In the Shadow of the Glen (1903), Riders to the Sea (1904), The Well of the Saints (1905), and The Tinker's Wedding (1909).
Although he came from a wealthy Anglo-Irish background, his writings mainly concern working-class Catholics in rural Ireland, and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their worldview. Owing to his ill health, Synge was schooled at home. His early interest was in music, leading to a scholarship and degree at Trinity College Dublin, and he went to Germany in 1893 to study music. He abandoned this career path in 1894 with a move to Paris where he took up poetry and literary criticism and met Yeats, and then returned to Ireland. (Full article...) -
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records.
Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by motherhood and her mental health journey. Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. (Full article...) -
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His work included music, writing, drawings and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the smart Beatle", Lennon initially was the group's de facto leader, a role he gradually seemed to cede to McCartney. Through his songwriting in the Beatles, he embraced myriad musical influences, initially writing and co-writing rock and pop-oriented hit songs in the band's early years, then later incorporating experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles' career as his songs became known for their increasing innovation. Lennon soon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including How I Won the War, and authoring In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-ins for Peace and left the Beatles to embark on a solo career. (Full article...) -
Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de' Medici, pronounced [kateˈriːna de ˈmɛːditʃi]; French: Catherine de Médicis, pronounced [katʁin də medisis]; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian (Florentine) noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II and the mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, if at times varying, influence on the political life of France.
Catherine was born in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. In 1533, at the age of 14, Catherine married Henry, the second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France, who would become Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536. Catherine's marriage was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII. During his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded much influence over him. Henry's death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail 15-year-old Francis II. When Francis II died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old son Charles IX and was thus granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life but outlived her by just seven months. (Full article...) -
Dona Teresa Cristina (14 March 1822 – 28 December 1889), nicknamed "the Mother of the Brazilians", was Empress of Brazil as the consort of Emperor Dom Pedro II from their marriage on 30 May 1843 until 15 November 1889, when the monarchy was abolished. Born a princess of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in present-day southern Italy, Teresa Cristina was the daughter of King Don Francesco I (Francis I) of the Italian branch of the House of Bourbon and his wife Maria Isabel (Maria Isabella). It was long believed by historians that the Princess was raised in an ultra-conservative, intolerant atmosphere which resulted in a timid and unassertive character in public and an ability to be contented with very little materially or emotionally. Recent studies revealed a more complex character, who despite having respected the social norms of the era, was able to assert a limited independence due to her strongly opinionated personality as well as her interest in learning, sciences and culture.
The Princess was married by proxy to Pedro II in 1843. Her spouse's expectations had been raised when a portrait was presented that depicted Teresa Cristina as an idealized beauty, but he was displeased by his bride's appearance upon their first meeting later that year. Despite a cold beginning on the part of Pedro, the couple's relationship improved as time passed, due primarily to Teresa Cristina's patience, kindness and generosity. These traits also helped her win the hearts of the Brazilian people, and her distance from political controversies shielded her from criticism. She also sponsored archaeological studies in Italy and Italian immigration to Brazil. (Full article...) -
Louis Riel (/ˈluːi riˈɛl/; French: [lwi ʁjɛl]; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
The first resistance movement led by Riel was the Red River Resistance of 1869–1870. The provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the new province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation. However, while carrying out the resistance, Riel had a Canadian nationalist, Thomas Scott, executed. Riel soon fled to the United States to escape prosecution. He was elected three times as member of the House of Commons, but, fearing for his life, never took his seat. During these years in exile he came to believe that he was a divinely chosen leader and prophet. He married in 1881 while in exile in the Montana Territory. (Full article...) -
Manuel I Komnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouḗl Komnēnós; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (Greek: Πορφυρογέννητος; "born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. His reign saw the last flowering of the Komnenian restoration, during which the Byzantine Empire had seen a resurgence of its military and economic power and had enjoyed a cultural revival.
Eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the superpower of the Mediterranean world, Manuel pursued an energetic and ambitious foreign policy. In the process he made alliances with Pope Adrian IV and the resurgent West. He invaded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, although unsuccessfully, being the last Eastern Roman emperor to attempt reconquests in the western Mediterranean. The passage of the potentially dangerous Second Crusade through his empire was adroitly managed. Manuel established a Byzantine protectorate over the Crusader states of Outremer. Facing Muslim advances in the Holy Land, he made common cause with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and participated in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Manuel reshaped the political maps of the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, placing the kingdoms of Hungary and Outremer under Byzantine hegemony and campaigning aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and in the east. (Full article...) -
Matthew Boulton FRS (/ˈboʊltən/ ⓘ BOHL-tən; 3 September 1728 – 17 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
Born in Birmingham, he was the son of a Birmingham manufacturer of small metal products who died when Boulton was 31. By then Boulton had managed the business for several years, and thereafter expanded it considerably, consolidating operations at the Soho Manufactory, built by him near Birmingham. At Soho, he adopted the latest techniques, branching into silver plate, ormolu ("gilt bronze") and other decorative arts. He became associated with James Watt when Watt's business partner, John Roebuck, was unable to pay a debt to Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's share of Watt's patent as settlement. He then successfully lobbied Parliament to extend Watt's patent for an additional 17 years, enabling the firm to market Watt's steam engine. The firm installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines in Britain and abroad, initially in mines and then in factories. (Full article...)
Did you know... -
- ... that British child artist Noah created the backgrounds for paintings by worldwide celebrities including Ed Sheeran?
- ... that Hindu religious leader Siddeshwar Swami declined the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honor?
- ... that the musician Bou went from being fired from an IT apprenticeship for producing beats during company time to having songs rank on the UK Singles Chart?
- ... that for the Better Call Saul episode "Breaking Bad", writer and director Thomas Schnauz filmed the cameos of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman seven months before the main production?
- ... that in July 2023, Giulia Dragoni became the youngest person to represent any Italian senior national football team – including both men and women – in the 21st century?
- ... that before discovering a rudimentary audio workstation on his mother's phone, the French musician Lewis OfMan wanted to be a perfumer?
- ... that after serving as President of the Oregon State Senate, Brady L. Adams founded BearFest in Grants Pass, Oregon, which featured playful fiberglass bear statues placed around the town?
- ... that The Man Without Talent is an I-novel, a genre of semi-autobiographical confessional literature that has been popular in Japan since the early twentieth century?
- ... that the portrayal of a transgender child by Sofía Otero made her the youngest actor to win the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance?
- ... that Anne Baker's book Wings over Kabul: The First Airlift describes the first significant use of airpower in an insurgency campaign?
- ... that land for a library built for African Americans in Virginia was donated by Pope Pius XII?
- ... that Margaret C. Roberts was encouraged to study medicine by LDS Church leader Brigham Young to reduce mortality rates during childbirth?
General images
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Eminent Victorians set the standard for 20th century biographical writing, when it was published in 1918. (from Biography)
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Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, 1793 (from Autobiography)Cover of the first English edition of
- Einhard as scribe (from
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James Boswell wrote what many consider to be the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1791. (from Biography)
- Third volume of a 1727 edition of
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John Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, was one of the earliest English-language biographies. (from Biography)
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Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions, the first Western autobiography ever written, around 400. Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century. (from Autobiography)
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Baburnama (from Autobiography)A scene from the
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Selected portrait
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Photograph credit: Tati Studio; restored by Chris WoodrichAminah Cendrakasih (born 29 January 1938) is an Indonesian actress. She started in films in her teens, her first starring role being in 1955. She continued acting into her seventies, appearing in almost 120 feature films during her career, as well as in several television roles. In 2012, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bandung Film Festival, and received another at the 2013 Indonesian Movie Awards.
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Photo: Carolyn DjanoglyStephen Merchant (b. 1974) is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, with whom he co-wrote and co-directed the popular British sitcom The Office, co-hosts The Ricky Gervais Show, and co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in Extras.
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Engraver: John James Hinchliff; Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn engraving of Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre, from an 1864 English edition of the Heptaméron, a collection of her own short stories. She was a patron of humanists and reformers, and as the older sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite held tremendous influence in France, so much so that French historian Jules Michelet called her the "Mother" of the French Renaissance and American scholar Samuel Putnam called her the "First Modern Woman".
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L-to-R: Allan Pinkerton, Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. John A. McClernandPhoto credit: Alexander GardnerAllan Pinkerton (left), President Abraham Lincoln (center), and Major General John A. McClernand (right). This photo was taken not long after the Civil War's first battle on northern soil in Antietam, Maryland, on October 3, 1862. Pinkerton was the head of Union Intelligence Services at the time. He also, allegedly, foiled an assassination attempt against Lincoln. His wartime work was critical in Pinkerton's development, which he later used to pioneer the American private detective industry when he formed the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
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Raden Saleh (1811–1880) was a Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Born in Semarang, in 1829 he was sent to the Netherlands to study portraiture and landscape painting under artists such as Cornelis Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. Upon returning to Java in 1851, Saleh focused predominantly on the day-to-day lives of the Javanese, although he also completed his magnum opus, The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro, in this period.
This painting, though long thought to be a self-portrait, is now attributed to Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel, a German artist whom Saleh knew during his time in Europe. -
Image credit: Illustrated London NewsThe obituary of Robert William Thomson as it appeared in the Illustrated London News on 29 March 1873. Thomson was the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, the elliptic rotary steam engine and locomotive traction engine, the portable steam crane, and numerous other inventions. The obituary preceding his is for Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington.
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Photograph: Mary Garrity; restoration: Adam CuerdenIda B. Wells (1862–1931) was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, and an early leader in the civil rights movement. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells and her family were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Despite losing her parents to yellow fever when she was sixteen, Wells attended Fisk University and became a teacher. Politically active since her youth, she also became a writer on race issues and campaigned against lynching; in this latter capacity she published two influential pamphlets and traveled throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Wells also helped establish the National Association of Colored Women and the National Afro-American Council.
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Image credit: Illustrated London NewsCrown Prince Frederick William of Prussia, later Frederick III, in the August 20, 1870 issue of the Illustrated London News, during his time as commander of one of the three divisions of the German Army in the Franco-Prussian War. He was noted for his fondness for liberal democracy and pacifism, but died less than a year after he became king, before he could institute any real reforms. His death and replacement by his more militaristic son, without the reforms that might have impeded his son's urges, is often considered one of the factors that led to World War I. This engraving is based on a portrait photograph of him taken in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (b. 1954) is the current Finance Minister of Nigeria. An economist who earned her degrees at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, she also served as a managing director of the World Bank, and Foreign Minister of Nigeria. She is credited with bringing increased transparency to her country's government, as well as helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating.
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Photo: John O'Neill; edit: JJ HarrisonBrian Nankervis (b. 1956), an Australian comedian and writer, shown here during a live performance. Nankervis rose to popularity while playing Raymond J. Bartholomeuz on Hey Hey It's Saturday; since 2005 he has been a host of the gameshow RocKwiz.
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Photo credit: Underwood and UnderwoodU.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (left) and nature preservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, stand together on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background can be seen Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. During this trip in 1903, Muir convinced Roosevelt to add Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to the park, which had been established in 1890.
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Photograph credit: Djakartawood Studio; restored by Chris WoodrichLies Noor (c. 1938 – 1961) was an Indonesian actress. She first appeared on film in Pulang (Homecoming) in 1952, while she was still at school. She rose in popularity with a string of successful films, and was able to command high fees for her roles. In the mid-1950s, having married and had a child, she took a break from her career to care full-time for her son. After returning to acting in 1960, however, she developed encephalitis the next year and died in hospital two days later. This photograph of Noor was taken around 1956.
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Photo credit: D.F. BarrySitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man. He is notable in American and Native American history in large part for his major victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against Custer's 7th Cavalry, where his premonition of defeating them became reality. Even today, his name is synonymous with Native American culture, and he is considered to be one of the most famous Native Americans in history. Years later, he also participated in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, where he frequently cursed audiences in his native tongue as they applauded him.
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Photo credit: Bain News ServiceMary of Teck was the queen consort of King George V as well as the Empress of India. Before her accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales. By birth, she was a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, with the style Her Serene Highness. To her family, she was informally known as May, after her birth month. Queen Mary was known for setting the tone of the British Royal Family, as a model of regal formality and propriety, especially during state occasions. She was the first Queen Consort to attend the coronation of her successors. Noted for superbly bejewelling herself for formal events, Queen Mary left a collection of jewels now considered priceless.
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Artwork credit: Jan van EyckThe Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati is an oil-on-oak-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dating to the 1430s. It is of considerable interest to art historians because van Eyck's preliminary drawing survives. The work depicts Niccolò Albergati, an Italian cardinal and a diplomat working under Pope Martin V, as a visibly ageing cleric, his face seamed with deep lines below the eyes; it is accompanied by notes on the colours to be used in the final painting. A comparison between this drawing and the portrait shows that van Eyck changed several details, such as the depth of the shoulders, the lower curve of the nose, the depth of the mouth and the size of the ear. The finished painting hangs at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, while the drawing is in the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
On this day – April 19
Births
- 1903 – Eliot Ness, American lawman (d. 1957) (pictured)
- 1933 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, musician, comedian, composer (d. 2002)
- 1946 – Tim Curry, British actor
Deaths
- 1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
- 1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist (b. 1809)
- 1906 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
- 1989 – Daphne du Maurier, British novelist (b. 1907)
- 1993 – David Koresh, leader of Branch Davidians (b. 1959)
- 1998 – Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
In the news
- 13 February 2024 – Estonia–Russia relations
- Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas is reportedly placed on the Russian Interior Ministry's register of wanted people due to the country's removal of Soviet War Memorials, making Kallas the first known government leader to be added to a wanted list by Russian authorities. (The Guardian)
- 4 February 2024 – 66th Annual Grammy Awards
- Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year for Midnights, becoming the first artist to win the award four times. She also announces the release of a new album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19. (Variety)
- 27 January 2024 –
- Venezuela's Supreme Court ratifies a ban from seeking any political office for 15 years on María Corina Machado, opposition leader backed by the United States. (Le Monde) (The Economist)
- 24 January 2024 –
- The Constitutional Court of Thailand acquits former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat for owning shares in the defunct media company iTV, thereby allowing Limjaroenrat to resume serving as a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives. (AP)
- 23 January 2024 –
- North Korea demolishes the Arch of Reunification in Pyongyang after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ruled out peaceful reunification with South Korea. (NDTV)
- The Senate of the Philippines' committee on women conducts a public hearing regarding the alleged abuses within the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Three women, two Ukrainian nationals and one Filipino, accuse church leader Apollo Quiboloy of sexually abusing them. (CNN Philippines)
Quote of the week
"Just how difficult it is to write a biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the truth about his or her love affairs."
In Vogue, 1 November 1952
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- 1937 tour of Germany by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
- DJ AM
- Aaliyah
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- Margaret Abbott
- Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
- Ibn al-Ash'ath
- Abishabis
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- Æthelberht, King of Wessex
- Æthelberht of Kent
- Æthelflæd
- Æthelred I of Wessex
- Æthelred of Mercia
- Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians
- Æthelstan A
- Æthelstan
- Æthelwold ætheling
- Æthelwulf, King of Wessex
- Ben Affleck
- Afonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil
- Sadruddin Aga Khan
- Jonathan Agnew
- Spiro Agnew
- Ahmose I
- Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale
- Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Alboin
- Leelah Alcorn
- Aldfrith of Northumbria
- Buzz Aldrin
- Alexander II Zabinas
- Alexander of Lincoln
- Raymond Pace Alexander
- Alexander of Greece
- Alexandra of Denmark
- Prince Alfred of Great Britain
- Hadji Ali
- Princess Alice of Battenberg
- Alice in Chains
- Charles-Valentin Alkan
- Gubby Allen
- Nadezhda Alliluyeva
- Ike Altgens
- Tommy Amaker
- Herman Vandenburg Ames
- Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
- Anna Anderson
- William Anderson (RAAF officer)
- William T. Anderson
- Maya Angelou
- Anna of East Anglia
- Anne, Queen of Great Britain
- Anne of Denmark
- Mary Anning
- Anthony Roll
- Antiochus XII Dionysus
- Marshall Applewhite
- Angel Aquino
- Yasser Arafat
- Archimedes
- Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
- Lilias Armstrong
- Neil Armstrong
- Chester A. Arthur
- King Arthur
- Wilfred Arthur
- Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield
- Shooting of James Ashley
- Elias Ashmole
- Andjar Asmara
- Aspasia
- Asser
- Asylum confinement of Christopher Smart
- Atlanersa
- Attalus I
- James T. Aubrey
- Audioslave
- Augustine of Canterbury
- Augustus
- Alice Ayres
- BTS
- Ba Cụt
- Kroger Babb
- Walter Bache
- Alexis Bachelot
- Daisy Bacon
- Peter Badcoe
- Ivan Bagramyan
- Hobey Baker
- Thomas Baker (aviator)
- Betsy Bakker-Nort
- Vidya Balan
- Mark Baldwin (baseball)
- Baldwin of Forde
- Christian Bale
- Albert Ball
- John Balmer
- George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
- Honoré de Balzac
- Eric Bana
- Bronwyn Bancroft
- Edward Mitchell Bannister
- Ann Bannon
- Alexandre Banza
- Joseph Barbera
- John Barbirolli
- Alben W. Barkley
- William Barley
- Sid Barnes
- Sid Barnes with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- Natalie Clifford Barney
- Nicky Barr
- Richard Barre
- John Barrymore
- Basiliscus
- Cyril Bassett
- Billy Bates (baseball)
- Arnold Bax
- Thomas F. Bayard
- Hugh Beadle
- Louis H. Bean
- The Beatles
- Felice Beato
- Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
- Kevin Beattie
- Ormond Beatty
- Otto Becher
- J. C. W. Beckham
- Thomas Beecham
- Isabella Beeton
- Bix Beiderbecke
- Mary Bell (aviator)
- Jean Bellette
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Belyayev circle
- Ben&Ben
- Judah P. Benjamin
- Cora Agnes Benneson
- Arnold Bennett
- William Sterndale Bennett
- Geoff Bent
- Beorhtwulf of Mercia
- Moe Berg
- Gottlob Berger
- Hector Berlioz
- David Berman (musician)
- Frank Berryman
- John W. Beschter
- Biddenden Maids
- Big Star
- Steve Biko
- Golding Bird
- Georges Bizet
- Blackbeard
- Arthur Blackburn
- Luke P. Blackburn
- Anna Blackburne
- Frank Bladin
- James G. Blaine
- Thomas Blamey
- Sophie Blanchard
- Enid Blyton
- Bodashtart
- R. V. C. Bodley
- Barthélemy Boganda
- Niels Bohr
- Jean Bolikango
- John F. Bolt
- Margaret Bondfield
- Stede Bonnet
- William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville
- Daniel Boone
- Brian Booth
- William Borah
- Carsten Borchgrevink
- Frank Borman
- Bernard Bosanquet (cricketer)
- Oliver Bosbyshell
- Harriet Bosse
- William Bostock
- Horatio Bottomley
- Pierre Boulez
- Adrian Boult
- Matthew Boulton
- Boulton and Park
- Luc Bourdon
- David Bowie
- James Bowie
- William D. Boyce
- James E. Boyd (scientist)
- Juan Davis Bradburn
- Bessie Braddock
- Guy Bradley
- William O'Connell Bradley
- Don Bradman
- Don Bradman with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- Caroline Brady (philologist)
- Will P. Brady
- Lester Brain
- Joel Brand
- William M. Branham
- John C. Breckinridge
- Political career of John C. Breckinridge
- Matthew Brettingham
- Eric Brewer (ice hockey)
- William Brill (RAAF officer)
- Benjamin Britten
- C. O. Brocato
- Isaac Brock
- Martin Brodeur
- Neil Brooks
- Bill Brown (cricketer)
- Donald Forrester Brown
- Jesse L. Brown
- John Y. Brown (politician, born 1835)
- William Robinson Brown
- Raymond Brownell
- Frederick Browning
- Stanley Bruce
- Steve Bruce
- William Bruce (architect)
- William Speirs Bruce
- Avery Brundage
- Louise Bryant
- Martin Bucer
- Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham
- Simon Bolivar Buckner
- Paige Bueckers
- David Hillhouse Buel (priest)
- Morgan Bulkeley
- William Burges
- Guy Burgess
- Burke and Hare murders
- Robert Burnell
- Henry Cornelius Burnett
- Henry Burrell (admiral)
- William Henry Bury
- The Bus Uncle
- Alan Bush
- Barbara Bush
- James Wood Bush
- Vannevar Bush
- Josephine Butler
- Pedro Álvares Cabral
- Cædwalla
- Cai Lun
- William de St-Calais
- William Calcraft
- John C. Calhoun
- John Calvin
- Marjorie Cameron
- Elizabeth Canning
- Richard Cantillon
- Georg Cantor
- Mike Capel
- Rudolf Caracciola
- Neville Cardus
- Mariah Carey
- Ian Carmichael
- Caroline of Ansbach
- Charles Carroll the Settler
- Rachel Carson
- Rudolph Cartier
- Nancy Cartwright
- Carlos Castillo Armas
- Robert Catesby
- Catherine de' Medici
- Ceawlin of Wessex
- James Chadwick
- Roger B. Chaffee
- Neville Chamberlain
- Rise of Neville Chamberlain
- Happy Chandler
- Charlie Chaplin
- Percy Chapman
- Ian Chappell
- Charles I of England
- Charles I of Anjou
- Charles II of England
- Colin Robert Chase
- Jessica Chastain
- Harry Chauvel
- Robert de Chesney
- V. Gordon Childe
- Choe Bu
- Frédéric Chopin
- Priyanka Chopra
- Murray Chotiner
- Chrisye
- Colley Cibber
- Clarence 13X
- Caitlin Clark
- Dudley Clarke
- Rebecca Clarke (composer)
- Clement of Dunblane
- Cleopatra
- Death of Cleopatra
- Cleopatra Selene of Syria
- Frances Cleveland
- Grover Cleveland
- Henry Clifford, 10th Baron Clifford
- Kim Clijsters
- Cliff Clinkscales
- Harry Cobby
- Jane Cobden
- Coenred of Mercia
- Coenwulf of Mercia
- Adrian Cole (RAAF officer)
- Paul Collingwood
- A. E. J. Collins
- Martha Layne Collins
- Michael Collins (astronaut)
- Bert Combs
- James B. Conant
- Constantine II of Scotland
- Constantine III (Western Roman emperor)
- Learie Constantine
- Constantine (son of Basil I)
- Constantine (son of Theophilos)
- Henry Conwell
- William Cooley
- Calvin Coolidge
- Bradley Cooper
- Gary Cooper
- John Sherman Cooper
- Edward Drinker Cope
- William de Corbeil
- Richard Cordray
- Corinna
- Walter de Coutances
- Stan Coveleski
- Walter de Coventre
- Noël Coward
- William Cragh
- Ian Craig
- Stephen Crane
- Thomas Cranmer
- Jack Crawford (cricketer)
- O. G. S. Crawford
- Tom Crean (explorer)
- Dick Cresswell
- Thomas Crisp
- John J. Crittenden
- Ben Crosby
- C. R. M. F. Cruttwell
- Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
- Urse d'Abetot
- Roderic Dallas
- Damageplan
- Edward Dando
- Edward Thomas Daniell
- Richard Dannatt
- Charles Darwin
- Homer Davenport
- Phillip Davey
- David I of Scotland
- Elizabeth David
- David (son of Heraclius)
- Harold Davidson
- Randall Davidson
- Russell T Davies
- S. O. Davies
- George Andrew Davis Jr.
- Jefferson Davis
- Emily Davison
- John Day (printer)
- Claude Debussy
- Len Deighton
- Frederick Delius
- Annie Dove Denmark
- Bill Denny
- Tom Derrick
- Joseph Desha
- Hermann Detzner
- Deusdedit of Canterbury
- Phoolan Devi
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Emily Dickinson
- John Diefenbaker
- Diocletian
- Walt Disney
- Benjamin Disraeli
- D. Djajakusuma
- Djedkare Isesi
- Sumitro Djojohadikusumo
- Momčilo Đujić
- Steve Dodd
- Charles Domery
- Domitian
- Walter Donaldson (snooker player)
- Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick
- James A. Doonan
- John Doubleday (restorer)
- Alec Douglas-Home
- John Douglas (English architect)
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas
- Theodore Komnenos Doukas
- Neal Dow
- Roy Dowling
- Rupert Downes
- Nick Drake
- Uroš Drenović
- Tom Driberg
- Montague Druitt
- Peter Drummond (RAF officer)
- Vance Drummond
- W. E. B. Du Bois
- Du Fu
- Charles Duke
- Tim Duncan
- Bud Dunn
- Kirsten Dunst
- Don Dunstan
- Pavle Đurišić
- Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah
- Bob Dylan
- Eadbald of Kent
- Eadred
- Eadwig
- Ealdred (archbishop of York)
- Eardwulf of Northumbria
- John Early (educator)
- Tom Eastick
- Brian Eaton
- Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
- Isabelle Eberhardt
- Ecgberht, King of Wessex
- Adam Eckfeldt
- Edgar, King of England
- Edmund I
- Edward I of England
- Edward II of England
- Edward III of England
- Edward VI
- Edward VII
- Edward VIII
- Edward the Elder
- Edward the Martyr
- Duncan Edwards
- Henry Edwards (entomologist)
- Monroe Edwards
- Michael Francis Egan
- Jürgen Ehlers
- Edward Elgar
- Elizabeth I
- Elizabeth II
- Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
- Thomas Ellison
- Ray Emery
- William Hayden English
- Antiochus XI Epiphanes
- Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover
- Thomas Erpingham
- William Etty
- Demetrius III Eucaerus
- Leonhard Euler
- Antiochus X Eusebes
- David Evans (RAAF officer)
- Edmund Evans
- Hiram Wesley Evans
- Peter Evans (swimmer)
- Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England
- Neil Hamilton Fairley
- Fakhr al-Din II
- Family of Gediminas
- Richie Farmer
- Ray Farquharson
- Adolfo Farsari
- Gabriel Fauré
- Guy Fawkes
- William Feiner
- Felix of Burgundy
- Bob Feller
- Percy Fender
- Benedict Joseph Fenwick
- Enoch Fenwick
- Hughie Ferguson
- Enrico Fermi
- Kathleen Ferrier
- Georges Feydeau
- Richard Feynman
- Nikita Filatov
- Millard Fillmore
- Anna Lee Fisher
- John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter
- Pain fitzJohn
- Five Go Down to the Sea?
- Ian Fleming
- Ernie Fletcher
- Murder of Yvonne Fletcher
- Theoren Fleury
- Howard Florey
- Gilbert Foliot
- Eunice Newton Foote
- Joseph B. Foraker
- Wendell Ford
- George Formby
- George Formby Sr
- Georg Forster
- Terry Fox
- Eduard Fraenkel
- Rakoto Frah
- Anne Frank
- Ursula Franklin
- Frederick the Great
- Frederick III, German Emperor
- Robin Friday
- Caspar David Friedrich
- Florence Fuller
- Margaret Fuller
- Melville Fuller
- Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
- Fuzuli (poet)
- Dave Gallaher
- Ronnie Lee Gardner
- James A. Garfield
- Robert Garran
- James Garrard
- Ragnar Garrett
- William Garrow
- Ben Gascoigne
- Death of Kevin Gately
- Jacob Gens
- Geoffrey (archbishop of York)
- George I of Great Britain
- George I of Greece
- George II of Great Britain
- George III
- George IV
- George V
- George VI
- Prince George of Denmark
- Eddie Gerard
- Gerard (archbishop of York)
- Lisa del Giocondo
- Bobby Gibbes
- Stella Gibbons
- Josiah Willard Gibbs
- William Gibson
- John Gielgud
- W. S. Gilbert
- Adam Gilchrist
- Arthur Gilligan
- Nicolo Giraud
- Hannah Glasse
- John Glenn
- Harry Glicken
- Prince William, Duke of Gloucester
- Glycerius
- Stanley Goble
- Godsmack
- Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley
- Vincent van Gogh
- Emma Goldman
- Michael Gomez
- E. Urner Goodman
- Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet
- George Gosse
- George H. D. Gossip
- Arthur Gould (rugby union)
- Mckenna Grace
- Chris Gragg
- Otto Graham
- Percy Grainger
- Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange
- Margaret Macpherson Grant
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Giovanni Antonio Grassi
- John de Gray
- El Greco
- Horace Greeley
- Charles Green (Australian soldier)
- Debora Green
- Stanley Green
- Herbert Greenfield
- Lady Gregory
- Wayne Gretzky
- George Griffith
- Terry Griffiths
- Jane Grigson
- Joseph Grimaldi
- Rufus Wilmot Griswold
- Orval Grove
- Leslie Groves
- Rhys ap Gruffydd
- Bryan Gunn
- Jake Gyllenhaal
- Maggie Gyllenhaal
- H.D.
- Al-Hafiz
- James P. Hagerstrom
- John Richard Clark Hall
- Ayumi Hamasaki
- Wally Hammond
- Amir Hamzah
- Valston Hancock
- Winfield Scott Hancock
- Learned Hand
- Mark Hanna
- William Hanna
- Colin Hannah
- Yuzuru Hanyu Olympic seasons
- William Hardham
- Warren G. Harding
- Donald Hardman
- Thomas Hardy (Royal Navy officer, died 1732)
- Benjamin Harrison
- Eric Harrison (RAAF officer)
- Fairfax Harrison
- George Harrison
- Phil Hartman
- Francis Harvey
- Dominik Hašek
- Lindsay Hassett with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- Anne Hathaway
- Simon Hatley
- Eric A. Havelock
- Richard Hawes
- John Hay
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- Frank Headlam
- George Headley
- Patrick Francis Healy
- Charles Heaphy
- Reginald Heber
- Princess Helena of the United Kingdom
- John L. Helm
- William Hely
- Ernest Hemingway
- Paul Henderson
- Canadian drug charges and trial of Jimi Hendrix
- Death of Jimi Hendrix
- Jimi Hendrix
- Henry I of England
- Henry II of England
- Henry III of England
- Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
- Henry (bishop of Finland)
- Patrick Henry
- Thierry Henry
- George Went Hensley
- Katharine Hepburn
- Herman the Archdeacon
- George Herriman
- Edmund Herring
- Herbie Hewett
- Joe Hewitt (RAAF officer)
- Georgette Heyer
- Peter Heywood
- Hi-5 (Australian group)
- Hilary of Chichester
- Clem Hill
- Damon Hill
- Lynn Hill
- William Hillcourt
- Bernard Hinault
- Thomas C. Hindman
- Marie Sophie Hingst
- George Hirst
- Garret Hobart
- Jack Hobbs
- Robert Howard Hodgkin
- Hö'elün
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Ima Hogg
- James Hogun
- Charles Holden
- Les Holden
- Tom Holland
- Disappearance of Natalee Holloway
- Stanley Holloway
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
- Gustav Holst
- Imogen Holst
- Lou Henry Hoover
- Michael Hordern
- Kenneth Horne
- Rogers Hornsby
- E. W. Hornung
- Brian Horrocks
- Nicholas Hoult
- House of Plantagenet
- Margaret Lea Houston
- Art Houtteman
- Juwan Howard
- C. D. Howe
- Robert Howe (Continental Army officer)
- Cedric Howell
- Hu Zhengyan
- Ludwig Ferdinand Huber
- Thomas J. Hudner Jr.
- Robert Hues
- Paterson Clarence Hughes
- Caesar Hull
- James Humphreys (pornographer)
- Josh Hutcherson
- Anne Hutchinson
- Len Hutton
- Hygeberht
- Jarome Iginla
- Fanny Imlay
- Joaquim José Inácio, Viscount of Inhaúma
- Ine of Wessex
- Charles Inglis (engineer)
- Roy Inwood
- Irataba
- Oscar Isaac
- Isabeau of Bavaria
- Ismail I of Granada
- Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay
- Israel the Grammarian
- Satoru Iwata
- Andrew Jackson
- Archie Jackson
- Janet Jackson
- John Francis Jackson
- Michael Jackson
- Mike Jackson (British Army officer)
- Hattie Jacques
- Mick Jagger
- James II of England
- James VI and I
- Jamiroquai
- Eusèbe Jaojoby
- Douglas Jardine
- Peter Jeffrey (RAAF officer)
- Frank Jenner
- Peter Jennings
- Jørgen Jensen (soldier)
- Jesus
- Derek Jeter
- Dobroslav Jevđević
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah
- Joan of Arc
- Jocelin of Glasgow
- Joehana
- Scarlett Johansson
- John Edward Brownlee as Attorney-General of Alberta
- John, King of England
- Andrew Johnson
- Ian Johnson (cricketer)
- Joseph Johnson (publisher)
- Keen Johnson
- Keith Johnson (cricket administrator)
- Ken "Snakehips" Johnson
- Magic Johnson
- Early life of Samuel Johnson
- Samuel Johnson
- Andrew Johnston (singer)
- David A. Johnston
- Angelina Jolie
- The boy Jones
- Murder of Dwayne Jones
- George Jones (RAAF officer)
- Mary Jane Richardson Jones
- Peter Jones (missionary)
- Michael Jordan
- Jane Joseph
- Josquin des Prez
- Jovan Vladimir
- Joy Division
- Ernest Joyce
- James Joyce
- Master Juba
- Julian of Norwich
- Justus
- Ted Kaczynski
- Franz Kafka
- Katrina Kaif
- Edgar Kain
- Jamie Kalven
- Dimple Kapadia
- Kareena Kapoor Khan
- Sonam Kapoor
- Abdul Karim (the Munshi)
- Robert Kaske
- Masako Katsura
- Panagiotis Kavvadias
- J. R. Kealoha
- Maynard James Keenan
- Fred Keenor
- David Kelly (weapons expert)
- Susi Kentikian
- Jomo Kenyatta
- Johannes Kepler
- Mark Kerry
- Albert Ketèlbey
- Khalid ibn al-Walid
- Shah Rukh Khan
- Hasan al-Kharrat
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Bill Kibby
- Craig Kieswetter
- Harmon Killebrew
- Roy Kilner
- Bart King
- Elwyn Roy King
- Bruce Kingsbury
- Thomas C. Kinkaid
- The Kinks
- Otto Klemperer
- Johann von Klenau
- Nigel Kneale
- John Knox
- Kalki Koechlin
- Manuel I Komnenos
- Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Sandy Koufax
- George Koval
- Christopher C. Kraft Jr.
- Theodora Kroeber
- Walter Krueger
- Nikolai Kulikovsky
- Nodar Kumaritashvili
- Kyla (Filipino singer)
- Leah LaBelle
- Lady Gaga
- Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
- Ruby Laffoon
- Nestor Lakoba
- Mathew Charles Lamb
- Daniel Lambert
- Osbert Lancaster
- Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- Franklin Knight Lane
- Cosmo Gordon Lang
- Angela Lansbury
- George Lansbury
- LaRouche criminal trials
- Brie Larson
- Harold Larwood
- Theodore II Laskaris
- Lat (cartoonist)
- Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale
- Laurence of Canterbury
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- John Le Mesurier
- Lê Quang Tung
- William D. Leahy
- John Leak
- Raymond Leane
- Louis Leblanc
- Faith Leech
- Vivien Leigh
- Émile Lemoine
- Etta Lemon
- Suzanne Lenglen
- Vladimir Lenin
- John Lennon
- Dan Leno
- Helmut Lent
- John Lerew
- Leucippus
- Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville
- Albert Levitt
- David Lewis (Canadian politician)
- Maurice Leyland
- Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná
- Li Rui
- Lie Kim Hok
- Marcel Lihau
- Ernst Lindemann
- Trevor Linden
- Lindow Man
- Ray Lindwall with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- Tara Lipinski
- Little Tich
- John Littlejohn (preacher)
- Marie Lloyd
- Stefan Lochner
- Angel Locsin
- Kellie Loder
- Carl Hans Lody
- Huey Long
- James B. Longacre
- William de Longchamp
- James Longstreet
- Joseph A. Lopez
- Lorde
- Prince Louis of Battenberg
- Courtney Love
- Jim Lovell
- Edward Low
- James Russell Lowell
- Sam Loxton
- Sam Loxton with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan
- Shannon Lucid
- Steve Lukather
- Glynn Lunney
- Luo Yixiu
- Roberto Luongo
- Witold Lutosławski
- Marcus Ward Lyon Jr.
- Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines
- James Whiteside McCay
- Douglas MacArthur
- Charlie Macartney
- George Macaulay
- Angus Lewis Macdonald
- John A. Macdonald
- Gregor MacGregor
- Iven Mackay
- William Lyon Mackenzie
- Aeneas Mackintosh
- Archie MacLaren
- Bill Madden (soldier)
- James Madison
- Bernard A. Maguire
- Gustav Mahler
- Miriam Makeba
- Nestor Makhno
- Malcolm X
- Garnet Malley
- Haane Manahi
- Manchester Mummy
- Nelson Mandela
- Bob Mann (American football)
- John Manners (cricketer)
- Olivia Manning
- Marcian
- Margaret (singer)
- Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil
- Clements Markham
- John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
- Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough
- Francis Marrash
- Jack Marsh
- Bob Marshall (wilderness activist)
- Thomas R. Marshall
- Billy Martin
- Martinus (son of Heraclius)
- Marwan I
- Mary II
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- Mary of Teck
- Herbert Maryon
- Evelyn Mase
- George Mason
- Jules Massenet
- Frank Matcham
- Empress Matilda
- Lionel Matthews
- William Matthews (priest)
- W. Somerset Maugham
- Maximian
- Murray Maxwell
- Jimmy McAleer
- Early life and military career of John McCain
- John McCain
- Bill McCann
- Paul McCartney
- John McCauley
- Barbara McClintock
- James B. McCreary
- Lanny McDonald
- Frank McGee (ice hockey)
- Frances Gertrude McGill
- John McGraw
- William McGregor (football)
- William McKinley
- Lesley J. McNair
- Frank McNamara (RAAF officer)
- H. C. McNeile
- Harry McNish
- William McSherry
- Ian Dougald McLachlan
- Alan McNicoll
- Ian Meckiff
- Ezra Meeker
- Jacobus Anthonie Meessen
- Megadeth
- B. Max Mehl
- Manon Melis
- Mellitus
- Danie Mellor
- Felix Mendelssohn
- Menkauhor Kaiu
- Ulf Merbold
- Mercury Seven
- Meshuggah
- André Messager
- Olivier Messiaen
- Metallica
- Bob Meusel
- August Meyszner
- Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident
- Simonie Michael
- Khalid al-Mihdhar
- Military service of Ian Smith
- Harvey Milk
- Keith Miller with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
- Kylie Minogue
- John Minsterworth
- Nancy Mitford
- Muhammad I of Granada
- Arthur Mold
- Emery Molyneux
- Marilyn Monroe
- Madeline Montalban
- Pierre Monteux
- Claudio Monteverdi
- James Moore (Continental Army officer)
- Julianne Moore
- Fred Moosally
- Emanuel Moravec
- Howie Morenz
- Sandra Morgan
- Benjamin Morrell
- Arthur Morris
- Olive Morris
- Edwin P. Morrow
- Meinhard Michael Moser
- Benjamin Mountfort
- Mozart in Italy
- Mu'awiya I
- Al-Mu'tadid
- Al-Mu'tasim
- Muhammad II of Granada
- Muhammad III of Granada
- Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid
- Muhammad IV of Granada
- Rani Mukerji
- Mukhtar al-Thaqafi
- Samuel Mulledy
- Thomas F. Mulledy
- Baron Munchausen
- Douglas Albert Munro
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Alister Murdoch
- Audie Murphy
- Cillian Murphy
- Harry Murray
- Jessie Murray
- Margaret Murray
- Stan Musial
- Al-Musta'li
- Al-Muti'
- R. A. B. Mynors
- Florence Nagle
- Fridtjof Nansen
- Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri
- Wintjiya Napaltjarri
- Makinti Napanangka
- Ram Narayan
- Francis Nash
- Nasr of Granada
- John Neal (writer)
- Francis Neale
- Elizabeth Needham
- Neferefre
- Neferirkare Kakai
- Socrates Nelson
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