Historic Bios
Thomas Edison, an American inventor and businessman, profoundly impacted the world with inventions like the phonograph, motion picture camera, and the long-lasting electric light bulb. His approach to mass production and large-scale teamwork in invention pioneered the concept of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison, born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, grew up in Port […]
Charlemagne was born in 742, in the city of Aachen, in modern-day Germany. He was the son of Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. His father was the first Carolingian King of the Franks, and his mother was a Frankish noblewoman. Charlemagne was educated by the finest scholars of his day and was an […]
Woodrow Wilson was born in 1856 in Virginia. He was the 28th president of the United States and served two terms in office, from 1913 to 1921. Wilson was a Democrat and a progressive reformer. He is best known for his leadership during World War I and for his advocacy of the League of Nations. […]
Galileo Galilei was a world renowned mathematician, physicist and astronomer who made significant contributions to the scientific revolution. He was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo’s father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a well-known musician and his mother, Giulia Ammannati, came from a noble family. Galileo was the oldest of seven children. Galileo showed […]
Michael Faraday was one of the most influential scientists of his time. His work on electricity and magnetism laid the foundations for the modern day understanding of these phenomena. Faraday was born in Newington Butts, England, on September 22, 1791. He was the third of four children born to James Faraday, a blacksmith, and Margaret […]
Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling […]
Franklin D. Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of his wealthy parents, James and Sara Roosevelt. Growing up, he was tutored at home and attended Groton School, a prestigious private school in Massachusetts. Roosevelt entered Harvard University in 1900 and graduated in 1903. He […]
Max Planck was born in 1858 in Kiel, Germany. His father was a professor of comparative literature at the University of Kiel. Max was an excellent student, completing his undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Munich in 1879. He then went on to study theoretical physics under the guidance of Ludwig […]
Baseball legend Ty Cobb was born in rural Georgia in 1886. He was a small, wiry kid who loved to play baseball and was immensely competitive. He started his professional career in the minor leagues in 1904, and by 1905 he was playing for the Detroit Tigers. He quickly established himself as one of the […]
Stephen Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. His father, a research biologist, and his mother, a medical secretary, had high hopes for their only son. Stephen was a bright child but he was not a diligent student. At Oxford, he studied physics […]
Cleopatra was born in Ptolemaic Egypt in late 69 BC and was raised in Alexandria. She was born into a family with a long and rich history; her father was Ptolemy XII Auletes, a direct descendant of Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy I Soter, while her mother was Cleopatra V Tryphaena, a descendant of the […]