Historic Figures

8/8/2019 Historic Figures

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Historic Figures

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to

classic English literature. He was the quintessential Victorian

author. His epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive

depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.

His own story is one of rags to riches. He was born in

Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens.

The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine wasshort-lived because his father, inspiration for the character of Mr

Micawber in 'David Copperfield', was imprisoned for bad debt.

The entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea

along with their patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's

blacking factory and endured appalling conditions as well as

loneliness and despair. After three years he was returned to

school, but the experience was never forgotten and became

fictionalised in two of his better-known novels 'DavidCopperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.

Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist.

His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the

journals 'The Mirror of Parliament' and 'The True Sun'. Then in

1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning

Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish

a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In April 1836,

he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who

edited 'Sketches by Boz'. Within the same month came the

publication of the highly successful 'Pickwick Papers', and from

that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.

As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography,

edited weekly periodicals including 'Household Words' and 'All

Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable

organisations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays andperformed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was
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inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example

lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy

with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a

contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished

novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'.

He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their

ten children, but maintained relations with his mistress, the

actress Ellen Ternan. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at

Westminster Abbey.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)One of the greatest military leaders in history and emperor of

France, he conquered much of Europe.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica

into a gentry family. Educated at military school, he was rapidly

promoted and in 1796, was made commander of the French

army in Italy, where he forced Austria and its allies to make

peace. In 1798, Napoleon conquered Ottoman-ruled Egypt in anattempt to strike at British trade routes with India. He was

stranded when his fleet was destroyed by the British at the

Battle of the Nile.

France now faced a new coalition - Austria and Russia had

allied with Britain. Napoleon returned to Paris where the

government was in crisis. In a coup d'etatin November 1799,

Napoleon became first consul. In 1802, he was made consul for

life and two years later, emperor. He oversaw the centralisationof government, the creation of the Bank of France, the

reinstatement of Roman Catholicism as the state religion and

law reform with the Code Napoleon.

In 1800, he defeated the Austrians at Marengo. He then

negotiated a general European peace which established French

power on the continent. In 1803, Britain resumed war with

France, later joined by Russia and Austria. Britain inflicted anaval defeat on the French at Trafalgar (1805) so Napoleon


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abandoned plans to invade England and turned on the Austro-

Russian forces, defeating them at Austerlitz later the same year.

He gained much new territory, including annexation of Prussian

lands which ostensibly gave him control of Europe. The Holy

Roman Empire was dissolved, Holland and Westphalia created,

and over the next five years, Napoleon's relatives and loyalists

were installed as leaders (in Holland, Westphalia, Italy, Naples,

Spain and Sweden).

In 1810, he had his childless marriage to Josephine de

Beauharnais annulled and married the daughter of the Austrian

emperor in the hope of having an heir. A son, Napoleon, was

born a year later.

The Peninsular War began in 1808. Costly French defeats over

the next five years drained French military resources.

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 resulted in a disastrous

retreat. The tide started to turn in favour of the allies and in

March 1814, Paris fell. Napoleon went into exile on the

Mediterranean island of Elba. In March 1815 he escaped and

marched on the French capital. The Battle of Waterloo ended his

brief second reign. The British imprisoned him on the remote

Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.

Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

Adolf Hitler, military and political leader of Germany 1933 -

1945, launched World War Two and bears responsibility for the

deaths of millions, including six million Jewish people in theNazi genocide.

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn on

the Austrian-German border. His father was a customs official.

Hitler left school at 16 with no qualifications and struggled to

make a living as a painter in Vienna. This was where many of

his extreme political and racial ideas originated.

In 1913, he moved to Munich and, on the outbreak of WorldWar One, enlisted in the German army, where he was wounded


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and decorated. In 1919, he joined the fascist German Workers'

Party (DAP). He played to the resentments of right-wingers,

promising extremist 'remedies' to Germany's post-war problems

which he and many others blamed on Jews and Bolsheviks. By

1921 he was the unquestioned leader of what was now the

National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or Nazi

Party).

In 1923, Hitler attempted an unsuccessful armed uprising in

Munich and was imprisoned for nine months, during which time

he dictated his book 'Mein Kampf' outlining his political

ideology. On his release he began to rebuild the Nazi Party and

used new techniques of mass communication, backed up withviolence, to get his message across. Against a background of

economic depression and political turmoil, the Nazis grew

stronger and in the 1932 elections became the largest party in

the German parliament. In January 1933, Hitler became

chancellor of a coalition government. He quickly took

dictatorial powers and began to institute anti-Jewish laws. He

also began the process of German militarisation and territorial

expansion that would eventually lead to World War Two. Heallied with Italy and later Japan to create the Axis.

Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 began World War

Two. After military successes in Denmark, Norway and Western

Europe, but after failing to subdue Britain in 1941, Hitler

ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Jewish

populations of the countries conquered by the Nazis were

rounded up and killed. Millions of others whom the Nazis

considered racially inferior were also killed or worked to death.

In December 1941, Hitler declared war on the United States.

The war on the eastern front drained Germany's resources and in

June 1944, the British and Americans landed in France. With

Soviet troops poised to take the German capital, Hitler

committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on 30 April 1945.

Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603)


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Tudor queen of England and Ireland, nicknamed 'Gloriana' and

the 'Virgin Queen' who overcame many challenges and threats

at home and from abroad to preside over a perceived 'golden

age' in English history.

Elizabeth was born in Greenwich on 7 September 1533, the only

daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

When Elizabeth was two, Anne was beheaded for adultery on

the orders of Henry, and Elizabeth was exiled from court. Her

childhood was difficult, although she received a thorough

Protestant education.

In 1553, Elizabeth's older half-sister Mary became queen. Mary

was determined to re-establish Catholicism in England and

viewed the Protestant Elizabeth as a direct threat, briefly

imprisoning her in the Tower of London. When Elizabeth

succeeded to the throne in 1558 one of her priorities was to

return England to the Protestant faith and one of her greatest

legacies was to establish and secure an English form of

Protestantism. Elizabeth's reign also saw England significantly

expand its trade overseas while at home, Shakespeare, Spenser

and Marlowe were at the forefront of a renaissance in poetry and

drama.

Catholic challenges and plots persisted through much of

Elizabeth's reign. The focus of most of these was Elizabeth's

cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic with a strong claim to

the English throne, who sought exile in England in 1568.

Elizabeth imprisoned her and she remained a prisoner for 20

years until Elizabeth was persuaded to agree to her execution in1587.

The ill-fated Spanish Armada was launched by Philip II of Spain

the following year, bringing to a climax the threat posed to

English independence from Spain since Elizabeth's accession.

Always a popular monarch, and a brilliant public speaker,

Elizabeth proved a focus to unite the country against a common

enemy.


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Despite pressure from her advisers, particularly her chief

secretary, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth always

refused to marry. She had a close relationship with Robert

Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and was not averse to using the

promise of marriage for diplomatic purposes, but asserted her

independence until the end of her life. When she died on 23

March 1603, she was succeeded by the Protestant James VI of

Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)

Famous for her work in the military hospitals of

the Crimea, Nightingale established nursing as arespectable profession for women.

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820,and named after the Italian city of her birth. Herwealthy parents were in Florence as part of a tourof Europe. In 1837, Nightingale felt that God wascalling her to do some work but wasn't sure whatthat work should be. She began to develop aninterest in nursing, but her parents considered it tobe a profession inappropriate to a woman of herclass and background, and would not allow her totrain as a nurse. They expected her to make agood marriage and live a conventional upper classwoman's life.

Nightingale's parents eventually relented and in1851, she went to Kaiserwerth in Germany forthree months nursing training. This enabled her tobecome superintendent of a hospital forgentlewomen in Harley Street, in 1853. Thefollowing year, the Crimean War began and soonreports in the newspapers were describing the

desperate lack of proper medical facilities forwounded British soldiers at the front. Sidney


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Herbert, the war minister, already knewNightingale, and asked her to oversee a team ofnurses in the military hospitals in Turkey. In

November 1854, she arrived in Scutari in Turkey.With her nurses, she greatly improved theconditions and substantially reduced the mortalityrate

She returned to England in 1856. In 1860, sheestablished the Nightingale Training School fornurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Once the

nurses were trained, they were sent to hospitals allover Britain, where they introduced the ideas theyhad learned, and established nursing training onthe Nightingale model. Nightingale's theories,published in 'Notes on Nursing' (1860), werehugely influential and her concerns for sanitation,military health and hospital planning establishedpractices which are still in existence today. She

died on 13 August 1910.

Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968)

King was an American clergyman, Nobel Peace

Prize winner and one of the principal leaders of theUnited States civil rights movement.

King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta,Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, hismother a schoolteacher. Originally named Michael,he was later renamed Martin. He enteredMorehouse College in 1944 and then went toCrozer Religious Seminary to undertakepostgraduate study, receiving his doctorate in1955.


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Returning to the South to become pastor of aBaptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King firstachieved national renown when he helped mobilise

the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a blackwoman, refused to give up her seat on the bus toa white man - in the segregated south, blackpeople could only sit at the back of the bus. The382-day boycott led the bus company to changeits regulations, and the supreme court declaredsuch segregation unconstitutional.

In 1957, King was active in the organisation of theSouthern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC),formed to co-ordinate protests againstdiscrimination. He advocated non-violent directaction based on the methods of Gandhi, who ledprotests against British rule in India culminating inIndia's independence in 1947.

In 1963, King led mass protests againstdiscriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabamawhere the white population were violently resistingdesegregation. The city was dubbed 'Bombingham'as attacks against civil rights protesters increased,and King was arrested and jailed for his part in theprotests.

After his release, King participated in theenormous civil rights march on Washington inAugust 1963, and delivered his famous 'I have adream' speech, predicting a day when the promiseof freedom and equality for all would become areality in America. In 1964, he was awarded theNobel Peace Prize. In 1965, he led a campaign to

register blacks to vote. The same year the USCongress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing


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the discriminatory practices that had barred blacksfrom voting in the south.

As the civil rights movement became increasingly

radicalised, King found that his message ofpeaceful protest was not shared by many in theyounger generation. King began to protest againstthe Vietnam war and poverty levels in the US. Hewas assassinated on 4 April 1968 during a visit toMemphis, Tennessee. To celebrate King's life thereis a federal holiday honoring him each year in the

United States, which takes place on the thirdMonday in January.

Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)

Alexander III of Macedon, better known asAlexander the Great, single-handedly changed the

nature of the ancient world in little more than adecade.

Alexander was born in the northern Greek kingdomof Macedonia in July 356 BC. His parents werePhilip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias.Alexander was educated by the philosopherAristotle. Philip was assassinated in 336 BC and

Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatilekingdom. He quickly dealt with his enemies athome and reasserted Macedonian power withinGreece. He then set out to conquer the massivePersian Empire.

Against overwhelming odds, he led his army tovictories across the Persian territories of Asia

Minor, Syria and Egypt without suffering a single


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defeat. His greatest victory was at the Battle ofGaugamela, in what is now northern Iraq, in 331BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the

Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh ofEgypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age of25.

Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king,commander, politician, scholar and explorer,Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles,founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that

stretched across three continents and coveredaround two million square miles. The entire areafrom Greece in the west, north to the Danube,south into Egypt and as far to the east as theIndian Punjab, was linked together in a vastinternational network of trade and commerce. Thiswas united by a common Greek language andculture, while the king himself adopted foreign

customs in order to rule his millions of ethnicallydiverse subjects.

Alexander was acknowledged as a military geniuswho always led by example, although his belief inhis own indestructibility meant he was oftenreckless with his own life and those of his soldiers.The fact that his army only refused to follow him

once in 13 years of a reign during which there wasconstant fighting, indicates the loyalty he inspired.

He died of a fever in Babylon in June 323 BC.

Augustus (63 BC - AD 14)

Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. Hereplaced the Roman republic with an effective


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monarchy and during his long reign brought peaceand stability.

Augustus was born Gaius Octavius on 23

September 63 BC in Rome. In 43 BC his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, was assassinated and in hiswill, Octavius, known as Octavian, was named ashis heir. He fought to avenge Caesar and in 31 BCdefeated Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle ofActium. He was now undisputed ruler of Rome.

Instead of following Caesar's example and making

himself dictator, Octavian in 27 BC founded theprincipate, a system of monarchy headed by anemperor holding power for life. His powers werehidden behind constitutional forms, and he tookthe name Augustus meaning 'lofty' or 'serene'.Nevertheless, he retained ultimate control of allaspects of the Roman state, with the army underhis direct command.

At home, he embarked on a large programme ofreconstruction and social reform. Rome wastransformed with impressive new buildings andAugustus was a patron to Virgil, Horace andPropertius, the leading poets of the day. Augustusalso ensured that his image was promotedthroughout his empire by means of statues andcoins.

Abroad, he created a standing army for the firsttime, and embarked upon a vigorous campaign ofexpansion designed to make Rome safe from the'barbarians' beyond the frontiers, and to securethe Augustan peace. His stepsons Tiberius andDrusus undertook the task (Augustus had marriedtheir mother Livia in 38 AD). Between 16 BC and 6


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AD the frontier was advanced from the Rhine tothe Elbe in Germany, and up to the Danube alongits entire length. But Drusus died in the process

and in 9 AD the annihilation of three Romanlegions in Germany (out of 28 overall), in theVarian disaster, led to the abandonment ofGermany east of the Rhine.

Augustus was determined to be succeeded bysomeone of his own blood, but he had no sons,only a daughter, Julia, the child of his first wife.

His nephew Marcellus and his beloved grandsonsGaius and Lucius pre-deceased him, so hereluctantly made Tiberius his heir.

Military disaster, the loss of his grandsons and atroubled economy clouded his last years. Hebecame more dictatorial, exiling the poet Ovid (8AD), who had mocked his moral reforms. He diedon 19 August 14 AD.

George Bush (1924( -

George Bush, 1989 Bush was the41st president of the United States whose term in

office was dominated by foreign affairs.

Bush was born on 12 June 1924 in Massachusetts.

In his infancy, the Bush family moved toGreenwich, Connecticut. Bush served as a naval
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pilot during World War Two. He returned to YaleUniversity to complete his education and thenmoved to Texas to work in the oil industry.

In 1964, Bush ran unsuccessfully for the Senate asa Republican. In 1966 he was elected to the Houseof Representatives. In 1970, he again ranunsuccessfully for the Senate. In 1971, PresidentRichard Nixon appointed Bush as US Ambassadorto the United Nations, the first of several highprofile appointments Bush was to receive during

the 1970s. In 1973, he was chosen to head theRepublican Party National Committee. He took upthe post as the Watergate scandal deepened, andshowed his loyalty to the party and Nixon in hisconsistent defences of Nixon's conduct. GeraldFord appointed Bush to be chief US liaison toChina, then in 1976 persuaded him to becomedirector of the CIA, serving for a year.

In 1979, Bush announced he would seek theRepublican nomination for the presidency. RonaldReagan won the nomination and chose Bush to behis vice-presidential running mate. He served twofour-year terms as vice president. In 1988, he ranfor president and won. Foreign policy dominatedhis presidency. At Bush's meeting with Soviet

President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Malta summitin December 1989, the two leaders declared anend to the Cold War. In 1990 - 1991, Bushconstructed the international coalition whichousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's armiesfrom Kuwait, defeating Iraq in February 1991.

However, Bush was unable to shake off the

perception that he was not concerned with growingproblems caused by a recession in the US


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economy, and he fought a lacklustre re-electioncampaign in 1992. He was defeated and retiredfrom politics. In 2000, his son George W Bush was

elected president, the first time a father and sonhad been president since John Quincy Adams(1825 - 1829) succeeded his father John (1797 -1801).

Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506(Known as 'the man who discovered America',

Columbus was in fact trying to find a westward seapassage to the Orient when he landed in the NewWorld in 1492. This unintentional discovery was tochange the course of world history.

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa betweenAugust and October 1451. His father was a weaverand small-time merchant. As a teenager,

Christopher went to sea, travelled extensively andeventually made Portugal his base. It was herethat he initially attempted to gain royal patronagefor a westward voyage to the Orient - his'enterprise of the Indies'.

When this failed, and appeals to the French andEnglish courts were also rejected, Columbus found

himself in Spain, still struggling to win backing forhis project. Finally, King Ferdinand and QueenIsabella agreed to sponsor the expedition, and on3 August 1492, Columbus and his fleet of threeships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nia, setsail across the Atlantic.

Ten weeks later, land was sighted. On 12 October,

Columbus and a group of his men set foot on an


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island in what later became known as theBahamas. Believing that they had reached theIndies, the newcomers dubbed the natives

'Indians'. Initial encounters were friendly, butindigenous populations all over the New Worldwere soon to be devastated by their contact withEuropeans. Columbus landed on a number of otherislands in the Caribbean, including Cuba andHispanola, and returned to Spain in triumph. Hewas made 'admiral of the Seven Seas' and viceroyof the Indies, and within a few months, set off on a

second and larger voyage. More territory wascovered, but the Asian lands that Columbus wasaiming for remained elusive. Indeed, others beganto dispute whether this was in fact the Orient or acompletely 'new' world.

Columbus made two further voyages to thenewfound territories, but suffered defeat and

humiliation along the way. A great navigator,Columbus was less successful as an administratorand was accused of mismanagement. He died on20 May 1506 a wealthy but disappointed man.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 -1519(

Leonardo Da Vinci Da Vinci

was one of the great creative minds of the ItalianRenaissance, hugely influential as an artist and
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sculptor but also immensely talented as anengineer, scientist and inventor.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 near

the Tuscan town of Vinci, the illegitimate son of alocal lawyer. He was apprenticed to the sculptorand painter Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence andin 1478 became an independent master. In about1483, he moved to Milan to work for the rulingSforza family as an engineer, sculptor, painter andarchitect. From 1495 to 1497 he produced a mural

of 'The Last Supper' in the refectory of theMonastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

Da Vinci was in Milan until the city was invaded bythe French in 1499 and the Sforza family forced toflee. He may have visited Venice before returningto Florence. During his time in Florence, he paintedseveral portraits, but the only one that survives isthe famous 'Mona Lisa' (1503-1506).

In 1506, da Vinci returned to Milan, remainingthere until 1513. This was followed by three yearsbased in Rome. In 1517, at the invitation of theFrench king Francis I, Leonardo moved to theChteau of Cloux, near Amboise in France, wherehe died on 2 May 1519.

The fame of Da Vinci's surviving paintings hasmeant that he has been regarded primarily as anartist, but the thousands of surviving pages of hisnotebooks reveal the most eclectic and brilliant ofminds. He wrote and drew on subjects includinggeology, anatomy (which he studied in order topaint the human form more accurately), flight,gravity and optics, often flitting from subject tosubject on a single page, and writing in left-


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handed mirror script. He 'invented' the bicycle,airplane, helicopter, and parachute some 500years ahead of their time.

If all this work had been published in an intelligibleform, da Vinci's place as a pioneering scientistwould have been beyond dispute. Yet his truegenius was not as a scientist or an artist, but as acombination of the two: an 'artist-engineer'. Hispainting was scientific, based on a deepunderstanding of the workings of the human body

and the physics of light and shade. His science wasexpressed through art, and his drawings anddiagrams show what he meant, and how heunderstood the world to work.

Khufu (2609 BC - 2584 BC(Also known by his Greek name, Cheops, the

Egyptian pharaoh Khufu was the second pharaohof the Fourth Dynasty, famous for building the

Great Pyramid at Giza.

Khufu's full name was Khnum-Khufwy, whichmeans '[the god] Khnum protect me'. He was theson of Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres I, and isbelieved to have had three wives. He is famous for

building the Great Pyramid at Giza, one of theseven wonders of the world, but apart from this,we know very little about him. His only survivingstatue is, ironically, the smallest piece of Egyptianroyal sculpture ever discovered: a 7.5 cm (3 inch)high ivory statue found at Abydos.

Khufu came to the throne, probably during his

twenties, and at once began work on his pyramid.The entire project took about 23 years to


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complete, during which time 2,300,000 buildingblocks, weighing an average of 2.5 tons each,were moved. His nephew Hemiunu was appointed

head of construction for the Great Pyramid. Khufuwas the first pharaoh to build a pyramid at Giza.The sheer scale of this monument stands astestament to his skills in commanding the materialand human resources of his country. It is nowbelieved the pyramids were built using conscriptedlabour rather than slaves. The idea that Khufuused slaves to build the pyramid comes from

Greek historian Herodotus. He also describesKhufu as a cruel and wicked leader who prostitutedhis daughter when he ran short of money. But theWestcar Papyrus describes Khufu as a traditionaloriental monarch: good-natured, amiable to hisinferiors and interested in the nature of humanexistence and magic.

Despite not being remembered as fondly as hisfather, the funerary cult of Khufu was still followedin the 26th Dynasty, and he became increasinglypopular during the Roman period.

Khafra (Khephren) (c.2558 BC - c.2532 BC(The builder of Giza's second pyramid, Khafra is

perhaps best known because his face was themodel for that of the Great Sphinx, which guardshis tomb site.

One of the younger sons of the pharoah Khufu, byhis wife Henutsen, Khafra succeeded his half-brother Djedefra (c.2566BC - c.2558 BC) tobecome fourth king of the Fourth Dynasty. Khafra

also adopted the title 'Son of Ra' (sa Ra), which his


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half-brother had initiated to reflect the importanceof the cult of the sun god Ra at this time.

Unlike Djedefra, who built his pyramid at the site

of Abu Roash, Khafra returned to Giza to build hisown tomb - close to that of his father, Khufu.Although a little smaller than his father's, Khafra'spyramid was built on slightly higher ground, tolessen the difference in height. Its ancient name,Khafra is Great, reflects the status of itsomnipotent owner.

Khafra's pyramid complex is also the mostcomplete example of such a complex to havesurvived. From the king's huge funerary temple atthe base of his pyramid, a long causeway runsdown to his valley temple, where mummification ofhis body would most likely have taken place. Thegranite-lined temple, with its floor of whitealabaster, was once adorned with 23 superbstatues of the king and Horus the falcon god, madeof diorite obtained from Nubian quarries almost155 miles (250km) to the south.

His wife, Meresankh III, outlived him and wasburied in a splendid tomb close to her husband'spyramid. Its wall scenes show the queen with herhair cropped short, wearing the leopard-skin robesdenoting her additional priestly role. Close besideher stands her powerful mother, the dowagerqueen Hetepheres II. Both these royal ladiesreflect the prominent roles played by women atKhafra's court.

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896(


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Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist and theinventor of dynamite, who established the NobelPrize.

Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 inStockholm, Sweden. His father was an engineerand inventor. In 1842, Nobel's family moved toRussia where his father had opened an engineeringfirm providing equipment for the Tsar's armies. In1850, Nobel's father sent him abroad to studychemical engineering. During a two-year period

Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and theUnited States. He returned to Sweden in 1863 withhis father after the family firm went bankrupt.

Back in Sweden, Nobel devoted himself to thestudy of explosives. He was particularly interestedin the safe manufacture and use of nitro-glycerine,a highly unstable explosive. Nobel's brother Emilhad been killed in a nitro-glycerine explosion in1864. Nobel incorporated nitro-glycerine into silica,an inert substance, which made it safer and easierto manipulate. This he patented in 1867 under thename of 'dynamite'. Dynamite established Nobel'sfame and was soon used in blasting tunnels,cutting canals and building railways and roads allover the world. Nobel went on to invent a number

of other explosives.In the 1870s and 1880s, Nobel built up a networkof factories all over Europe to manufactureexplosives. In 1894, he bought an ironworks atBofors in Sweden that became the nucleus of thewell-known Bofors arms factory. Although he livedin Paris, Nobel travelled widely. He continued to

work in his laboratory, inventing a number of


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synthetic materials and by the time of his death hehad registered 355 patents.

In November 1895, Nobel signed his will providing

for the establishment of the Nobel Prizes. He setaside the bulk of his huge fortune to establishannual prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology orMedicine, Literature and Peace. An Economics Prizewas added later.

Nobel died at his home in Italy on 10 December1896. He is buried in Stockholm.

Marco Polo (c.1254 - 1324(Polo was a Venetian traveller and writer who wasone of the first westerners to visit China.

Marco Polo was born in around 1254 into a wealthyand cosmopolitan Venetian merchant family. Polo's

father and uncle, Niccol and Maffeo Polo, werejewel merchants. In 1260, they left Venice totravel to the Black Sea, moving onwards to centralAsia and joining a diplomatic mission to the courtof Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China. Khanasked the Polo brothers to return to Europe andpersuade the pope to send scholars to explainChristianity to him. They arrived back in Venice in

1269.

In 1271, they set off again, accompanied by twomissionaries and Marco, and in 1275 reachedKhan's summer court. For the next 17 years thePolos lived in the emperor's lands. Little is knownof these years, but Marco Polo was obviouslypopular with the Mongol ruler and was sent on


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various diplomatic missions which gave him theopportunity to see many parts of China.

Around 1292, the Polos offered to accompany a

Mongol princess who was to become the consort ofArghun Khan in Persia. The party sailed from asouthern Chinese port via Sumatra, Ceylon (nowSri Lanka), southern India, and the Persian Gulf.After leaving the princess in Iran, the Polostravelled overland to Constantinople and then toVenice, arriving home in 1295.

The Polos eventually departed for Europe andreached Venice in 1295. Marco became involved ina naval conflict between Venice and Genoa and in1298 was captured by the Genoese. In prison, hisstories attracted the attention of a writer fromPisa, Rustichello, who began to write them down,frequently embellishing them as he went. Theresulting book was extremely popular and wastranslated into many languages under a number oftitles, including 'The Million' and the 'Travels ofMarco Polo'.

After Polo was released he returned to Venice,where he remained for the rest of his life. He diedon 8 January 1324.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616(Shakespeare's reputation as dramatist and poet

actor is unique and he is considered by many to bethe greatest playwright of all time, although many

of the facts of his life remain mysterious.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-

Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised on 26 April


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1564. His father was a glovemaker and woolmerchant and his mother, Mary Arden, thedaughter of a well-to-do local landowner.

Shakespeare was probably educated in Stratford'sgrammar school. The next documented event inShakespeare's life is his marriage in 1582 to AnneHathaway, daughter of a farmer. The couple had adaughter the following year and twins in 1585.There is now another gap, referred to by somescholars as 'the lost years', with Shakespeare onlyreappearing in London in 1592, when he was

already working in the theatre.

Shakespeare's acting career was spent with theLord Chamberlain's Company, which was renamedthe King's Company in 1603 when Jamessucceeded to the throne. Among the actors in thegroup was the famous Richard Burbage. Thepartnership acquired interests in two theatres in

the Southwark area of London, near the banks ofthe Thames - the Globe and the Blackfriars.

Shakespeare's poetry was published before hisplays, with two poems appearing in 1593 and1594, dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothesley,Earl of Southampton. Most of Shakespeare'ssonnets were probably written at this time as well.

Records of Shakespeare's plays begin to appear in1594, and he produced roughly two a year untilaround 1611. His earliest plays include 'Henry VI'and 'Titus Andronicus'. 'A Midsummer Night'sDream', 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Richard II'all date from the mid to late 1590s. Some of hismost famous tragedies were written in the early1600s including 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King Lear' and

'Macbeth'. His late plays, often known as the


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Romances, date from 1608 onwards and include'The Tempest'.

Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in

Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He died on 23April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church inStratford. The first collected edition of his workswas published in 1623 and is known as 'the FirstFolio'.

Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901(

Victoria was the longest reigning British monarchand the figurehead of a vast empire. She oversaw

huge changes in British society and gave her nameto an age.

Victoria was born in London on 24 May 1819, theonly child of Edward, Duke of Kent, and VictoriaMaria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. She succeeded her

uncle, William IV, in 1837, at the age of 18, andher reign spanned the rest of the century. In 1840,she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. For the next 20 years they lived inclose harmony and had a family of nine children (5girls and 4 boys), many of whom eventuallymarried into the European monarchy.

On her accession, Victoria adopted the Whig primeminister Lord Melbourne as her political mentor. In1840, his influence was replaced by that of PrinceAlbert. The German prince never really won thefavour of the British public, and only after 17 yearswas he given official recognition, with the title of'prince consort'. Victoria nonetheless relied heavily

on Albert and it was during his lifetime that shewas most active as a ruler. Britain was evolving


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into a constitutional monarchy in which themonarch had few powers and was expected toremain above party politics, although Victoria did

sometimes express her views very forcefully inprivate.

Victoria never fully recovered from Albert's deathin 1861 and she remained in mourning for the restof her life. Her subsequent withdrawal from publiclife made her unpopular, but during the late 1870sand 1880s she gradually returned to public view

and, with increasingly pro-imperial sentiment, shewas restored to favour with the British public. Afterthe Indian Mutiny in 1857, the government ofIndia was transferred from the East India Companyto the Crown. In 1877, Victoria became empress ofIndia. Her empire also included Canada, Australia,New Zealand, and large parts of Africa. During thisperiod, Britain was largely uninvolved in European

affairs, apart from the Crimean War from 1853 -1856.

Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and her DiamondJubilee in 1897 were celebrated with greatenthusiasm. Having witnessed a revolution inBritish government, huge industrial expansion andthe growth of a worldwide empire, Victoria died on

22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle ofWight.

Historic Figures

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