Who Am I?
- I was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1466.
- After six years in an Augustinian monastery, I became private secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, and in 1492 a priest.
- In 1498 I moved to England, where I became professor of divinity and Greek at Cambridge.
- After publishing my first satire in 1509 (Encomium Moriae), my masterpiece, Colloquia, appeared in 1519, an audacious attack on church abuses.
- From 1521 I lived in Basel, where despite being controversial, I enjoyed great fame and respect.
- I was the head of the Amsterdam Congregation of my faith.
- I was a great Biblical scholar and a superb linguist.
- I visited London, and met with the leader of the country, who was neither King nor Queen.
- By the force of my arguments regarding the political and economic advantages to be gained, the decision was made to reverse the expulsion of my people that had been in place since the Middle Ages.
- My portrait was painted by Rembrandt.
- I was the hero poet of the Gaels.
- The son of Fingal, I was said to have lived in the third century.
- Between 1762 and 1763, a James Macpherson published what were claimed to be my poems.
- These were based on the exploits of Fingal and his family, translated from the Gaelic.
- The famed Dr Samuel Johnson was dubious of this claim, and the poems have generally been considered spurious.
December 2021
- I was the son of a prosperous businessman who owned textile mills in Prussia and a factory in England.
- I began working in the family firm in Manchester in 1841.
- In my spare time, however, I met with workers and studied the economic conditions of people in England.
- The result was the book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
- At about this time, I began a lifelong friendship with fellow writer and philosopher Karl Marx.
- Together we produced influential books on capitalism and communism.
- I was a US political leader.
- I was born in Primrose, Wisconsin.
- In Congress I served as a member for six years.
- I was elected Wisconsin governor in 1900.
- As a US senator, I became a leader of the national progressive movement, running for president on the Progressive ticket in 1924.
- In 1913 my memoirs appeared ‘Autobiography, A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences’.
- I was an 18th century French musician and chess player.
- I composed many operas.
- I came from a well known musical family.
- Through my Anylyse du jeu des ehecs in 1749, I became one of the most famous names in the early history of chess.
- My ‘Philador’s Defence’ is an example of my tactical mastery of the game
- I am a Roman philosopher, dramatist and statesman.
- My philosophical works are concerned with the wise conduction of life in the spirit of Stoicism.
- The nine tragedies I wrote are the only surviving dramas from the Roman Empire.
- I was the childhood tutor of Nero, and served as his adviser after he became Emperor in 54 CE.
- I was accused of participation in a conspiracy to overthrow Nero and committed suicide at the emperors demand.
- I was born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on June 6, 1584.
- In 1619, I passed the civil service exams and was appointed to the minor post of magistrate in Shaowu County, Fujian.
- I grew to have a military career, assigned in charge of guarding Shanhai Pass and eastern Liaoning.
- My greatest military achievement was to orchestrate the defeat of Nurhaci and the Manchu army in the Battle of Ningyuan.
- I died in shame, however, when I was executed for colluding with the enemy, though the truth of these charges remains debatable to this day.
November 2021
- I am a French epigrammatist, moralist and man of letters.
- I went to Paris to take part in the battles of the Fronde, but as I would recount later, my role in the struggles was largely unsuccessful.
- I received a gunshot wound to the head in 1652, which impaired my sight and led me to withdraw from public life for three years.
- At the death of my father, I succeeded to the title of duke in 1653.
- My chief literary work, the Maximes, is considered a masterpiece of French literature.
- I was born in Cumana, Spanish Granada, in 1796 and went on to have a military career.
- I won significant fame and respect for my military leadership, notably at the Battle of Pichincha in 1822.
- I became Simón Bolívar’s lieutenant and helped free Bolivia from Spanish Rule through the Battle of Ayacucho in 1825.
- I became the second president of Bolivia from 1826, but as a result of domestic pressure was forced to resign in 1828.
- I was assassinated on 4 June 1830 at Berruecos by political rivals.
- I was one of the most accomplished generals in Byzantine history.
- I was especially capable as a commander of heavy cavalry, well ahead of my time.
- I saved the Emperor Justinian’s life and throne in 532 by putting down an uprising in Constantinople.
- Among my conquests include the Vandal state in North Africa and the re-conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.
- I later successfully defended Constantinople against a sudden attack by the Huns.
- I was born in Castleblaney, Ireland, in 1892
- In 1917 I joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), serving with distinction in the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921), rising to become Director of the Army in 1921.
- I become commissioner of the newly formed Irish police, lauded for installing discipline and purpose into the force.
- As an anti-communist, in 1933 I became the leader of the far right Army Comrades Association, the ‘Blueshirts’.
- After this was banned, I formed an Irish brigade to fight for the fascist forces of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and towards the end of my life sought to build Irish links with Nazi Germany.
October 2021
- I was born in Ohio, United States, in 1909.
- Virtually blind from birth, I began playing jazz piano professionally, first in Ohio and then in clubs in New York and Los Angeles.
- By the 1940s I achieved considerable success, recording my music and playing larger established venues.
- Critics were amazed by my prodigious, ambidextrous technique. This enabled me to play some of the most orchestral piano in jazz history.
- My skill and harmonic and melodic invention led many to dub me “God.”
- I was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland.
- I was the eldest of ten siblings.
- I was a brilliant student at University College Dublin, studying English, French and Italian.
- I once wrote “For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world.”
- I was a modernist author best known for Ulysses published in 1922.
- I was an 18thcentury Irish army surgeon.
- I was dismissed in 1808 for dueling.
- I was on the Bellerophon when Napoleon came on board and accompanied him as a private physician to St Helena.
- I took part in the ex-French emperor’s squabbles with Sir Hudson Lowe and was forced to resign in 1818.
- A letter I wrote to the British Admiralty asserted that Lowe had ‘dark designs’ against Bonaparte, thus fuelling later suspicions that he had been poisoned.
- My book Napoleon in Exile published in 1822 created a sensation.
- I was born in Ohio in 1820.
- A member of a prominent political family, I graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840.
- When the American Civil War (1861-1865) began, I served with distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861). In 1864 I was appointed commander of Union Forces in the West.
- I set out with 60,000 men on the famous ‘March to the Sea’, from Atlanta to Savannah in Georgia.
- I later served as commander of the U.S. army from 1869 to 1884.
September 2021
- I was born in Miletus, Anatolia, in the fifth century BCE.
- An immigrant to Athens, I became a prominent intellectual in the city.
- I was regularly lampooned in Greek comedy and satire but was later held in high regard by Socrates (?-399 BCE) and his followers.
- I served as an inspiration to the Athenian statesman Pericles (495-429 BCE) and became his partner after his separation from his Athenian wife.
- My life is of interest to historians as I am one of the few women discussed in the histories of Ancient Greece.
- I was born in 1729 in New York.
- I served in the Seven-Years War in the colonial militia and became a member of the Continental Congress.
- In 1777 I became governor of New York and held the post for over 20 years. I argued against ratification of the US Constitution and acted as a prominent anti-Federalist and leader of the Democratic-Republicans.
- In 1805, I became vice-president to Thomas Jefferson, a position I maintained on the accession of James Madison to the presidency in 1809.
- I died in 1812, while still vice-president.
- I was born in Indiana, United States of America, in 1859.
- I moved to Texas, where I drove cattle, and later to Colorado, where I attempted gold mining.
- Aged 43 I began writing; my authentic accounts of American life in the days of the open range and westward expansion became immensely popular.
- My most famous work was the The Log of a Cowboy (1903), which depicts a five-month drive of cattle from Texas to Montana. It is considered a classic of western fiction.
- My other works include The Outlet (1905), Wells Brothers (1911) and The Ranch of the Beaver (1927)
- I was a 16th and 17th century Italian composer, string player and choirmaster.
- A creator of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, I was a key transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque music.
- I was court musician to the Duke of Mantus from 1590 to 1612.
- I became master of the chapel of St Mark’s in Venice, a position I held until my death.
- My works include the operas Orfeo (1607), The Coronation of Poppea (1642) and Vespers (1610)
- I was born in Kirkilston, Scotland, in 1870.
- Trained as a surgeon, I worked for the British African Merchants Committee in Anomabu, modern day Ghana, where I soon started slave-trading on my own account.
- I steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a successful administrator and rich slaver, before virtually my entire wealth was seized by a privateer while being shipped to Florida.
- Humiliated and bankrupt, I tried my hand at a range of employments including as a wine merchant, pirate and bookseller, to little success.
August 2021
- I was born in Bar-le-Duc, France, in 1615.
- I was the daughter of Claude of Lorraine. In 1534 I married Louis of Orleans, but after he died in 1537 I married James V of Scotland.
- When James died in 1542, I was left with one child, Mary Queen of Scots.
- During the troubled years that followed, I acted with wisdom and moderation in my role as Queen Mother, and in 1554 acceded to the regency.
- I let my French political allies have considerable power in court, however, leading to the resentment that resulted in Protestant nobles raising a rebellion in 1559. I died at Edinburgh Castle in 1560.
- I was born in 1494 in Chinon, France
- After a period with the Franciscan order, I studied medicine at Montpellier and became a physician at Lyon.
- Here I began the sequence of books for which I am remembered, starting with the comic and satirical ‘Pantagruel’ (1532) and ‘Gargantua’ (1534), published under a pseudonym
- Both were highly successful, though condemned by the Church for their unorthodox ideas and mockery of religious practices.
- In 1546 I published ‘Tiers Livre’ under my own name. It was again condemned and I fled to Metz, where I continued to practice medicine.
- I was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1466.
- After six years in an Augustinian monastery, I became private secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai and in 1492 a priest.
- In 1498 I moved to England, where I became professor of divinity and Greek at Cambridge.
- From 1521 I lived in Basel, where despite being engaged in continual controversy, I enjoyed great fame and respect.
- I was born of Scottish parents in Moscow.
- I wrote from an early age.
- A poem I wrote in 1837 on the death of Alexander Pushkin caused my arrest.
- Much of my work was not published until after my death whereby I received posthumous fame.
- I had a duel with the son of the French Ambassador.
- I died from a second duel.
July 2021
- I was born in 1827 in Darmstadt, Germany
- I studied engineering and architecture at Darmstadt, before emigrating to the United States in 1849.
- In 1852 I invented a form of truss which became widely used on US and other railway bridges, as well as to support roofs of buildings.
- I carried out pioneering studies of transportation costs, arguably inaugurating the discipline of railway economics.
- In 1878 I was made president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- I was born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on June 6, 1584.
- In 1619, I passed the civil service exams and was appointed to the minor post of magistrate in Shaowu County, Fujian.
- I grew to have a military career, assigned in charge of guarding Shanhai Pass and eastern Liaoning.
- My greatest military achievement was to orchestrate the defeat of Nurhaci and the Manchu army in the Battle of Ningyuan.
- I died in shame, however, when I was executed for colluding with the enemy, though the truth of these charges remains debatable to this day.
- I was born in London, England, in 1880.
- I studied at Eton College, joined the British Army and served in South Africa.
- In 1910 I joined Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic Expedition in charge of the ponies, and was one of the party of five to reach the South Pole in 1912.
- On the doomed journey back I was weakened by severe frostbite, and convinced that my condition would fatally handicap my companions prospect of survival, I walked out into a blizzard and sacrificed my life.
- My famous last words, ‘I am just going outside, I may be some time’, have become a symbol of quiet heroism.
- I am a poet and soldier, born in Shropshire, England.
- After studying at Shrewsbury Technical School, I left England to teach English in Bordeaux in 1913, where I first began to write.
- After enlisting as a soldier in the First World War (1914-1918), I was wounded and sent to recuperate near Edinburgh. Here I met Siegfried Sassoon, who encouraged my poetry writing.
- My poems, expressing a horror of the cruelty and futility of war, were first collected in 1920 by Sassoon.
- I was killed in action on the Western Front, a week before the armistice.
- I was born in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1885
- I studied at Krakow and then Bern, after which I became a journalist.
- I helped organise the German Communists during the Spartacus uprising of 1919, and was later imprisoned as a consequence.
- I went to the Soviet Union, where I became a leading figure in the Communist International, but my increasing distrust of extremist tactics lead many to doubt my commitment.
- In 1927 I was charged as a Trotsky supporter, and expelled from the Russian Communist party. I was later a victim of Stalin’s show trials.
June 2021
- I was a statesman and financier born in Geneva.
- Initially a banker’s clerk, I moved to Paris in the 1760s.
- I was made director of the French treasury and director-general of finances.
- I engaged in heavy borrowing while concealing a big state deficit.
- I was dismissed, then recalled, and dismissed again, which provoked events which lead to the storming of the Bastille.
- I was born in Antium, near Rome, in 37 CE
- I owed my name and position to the driving ambition of my mother, who engineered my adoption by the Emperor Claudius, therefore putting me as his successor as emperor.
- Initially my reign was good, aided by the sound advice of my mother, the Praetorian Prefect Burris and the philosopher Seneca.
- When these three fell from favour, however, I became more interested in sex, singing and chariot-racing, and neglected the affairs of state, allowing corruption to set in.
- My tyrannical and haphazard rule was brought to an end when I was overthrown by the army and forced to commit suicide.
- I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1898.
- I began a singing career in the modest circuit of vaudeville tents and small theatres.
- I soon gained recognition as one of the prominent African American artistes of my day, thanks to my magnificent voice and blues-based repertoire.
- I made a series of recordings throughout the 1920s, accompanied by leading jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong. These are considered classic blues statements.
- I was nicknamed ‘Empress of the Blues.’ and later starred in the 1929 film, ‘St Louis Blues.’
- I was born in Genoa, Italy in 1805.
- I trained as a lawyer, where I became an ardent liberal, founding the Young Italy Association in 1833.
- Expelled from France, I travelled around Europe advocating insurrection and republicanism.
- In 1848 I became involved in the Lombard revolt, and collaborated with Garibaldi in attempting to keep the struggle alive in the Alps.
- During the key events of 1859-1860, my supporters and I attempted in vain to build a new Republican Italy.
May 2021
- I was born in Foshan, China, in 1893.
- From the age of seven I started learning the Chinese Martial Art of Wing Chun, learning from famed master Chan Wah-Shun (1836-1909).
- A police officer by day, I maintained my study on Wing Chun, informally training others in the Foshan area.
- As a member of the Kuomintang, I fled China in 1949 after the Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War (1946-1949), settling in Hong Kong.
- Here I opened a Wing Chun school, becoming the first martial arts master to train students publicly, and my skills were renowned worldwide with the fame of Bruce Lee, who studied under me in 1953.
- I was born in 1466 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
- The illegitimate son of a priest, I too was ordained in 1492 and studied in Paris. From 1499 I began traveling and writing on a variety of topics.
- Much of my early work centred on my perception of backwardness in the church, notably my famous satire ‘The Praise of Folly”, first published in 1509.
- Despite this, I remained a committed Catholic during the Reformation and in my famous “The Freedom of Will” attacked the views of Martin Luther.
- I died in Basel in 1536. I am often cited as a leading Renaissance humanist.
- I was born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire, in 1870. My birth name was Vladimir Ulyanov.
- Born into a middle-class family, I embraced socialist politics from a young age, serving a period of exile from Russia for my beliefs.
- In 1917 I established Bolshevik control of Russia after the overthrow of the Tsar and Provisional Government, and in 1918 became the Head of State of the Soviet Union.
- With the assistance of Leon Trotsky, I defeated the White counter-revolutionary forces in the Russian Civil War (1917-1922) but was forced to moderate Soviet polices to allow the country to recover the from effects of constant war.
- I suffered a stroke in 1922, leading to a power struggle among my potential successors, and died in 1924.
- I was born on the Isle of Wight, England, in 1635.
- I was passionate about scientific inquiry from a young age but struggled to support my work until I became Surveyor to the City of London after the great fire of 1666.
- I formulated the law of elasticity, proposed an undulating theory of light, introduced the term cell to biology, and proposed the inverse square law of gravitational attraction.
- I also developed a number of scientific instruments and mechanical devices and designed a number of buildings in London.
- My achievements led me to be dubbed by one historian as “England’s Leonardo Da Vinci”.
April 2021
- I was one of the most accomplished generals in Byzantine history.
- I was especially capable as a commander of heavy cavalry, well ahead of my time.
- I saved the Emperor Justinian’s life and throne in 532 by putting down an uprising in Constantinople.
- Among my conquests include the Vandal state in North Africa and the re-conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.
- I later successfully defended Constantinople against a sudden attack by the Huns.
- I was born in Castleblaney, Ireland, in 1892
- In 1917 I joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), serving with distinction in the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921), rising to become Director of the Army in 1921.
- After the conflict I become the commissioner of the newly formed Irish police, earning great credit for installing discipline and purpose into the new force.
- I became increasingly involved in far-right and anti-communist politics, and in 1933 I became the leader of the Army Comrades Association, popularly known as the “Blueshirts”, a far right street organisation.
- After this was banned, I formed an Irish brigade to fight for the fascist forces of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and towards the end of my life sought to build Irish links with Nazi Germany.
- I was born in Walthamstow, Greater London, in 1834.
- Educated at Marlborough College, I studied for holy orders at Oxford, but renounced the Church, studied architecture and then became a professional painter (1857-1862).
- In 1861, after designing and furnishing my marital home, I founded a design firm which revolutionised the art of house decoration and furniture in England.
- I believed that the excellence of mediavel arts and crafts were destroyed by Victorian mass-production, a view which led me to join the Social Democratic Foundation in 1883.
- I was also a writer, with my most famous work The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Nibelungs inspired by trips to Iceland.
- I reorganized the Persian Empire and consolidated its frontiers.
- In 515 BCE I crossed the Bosphorus and led an army against the Scythians.
- The revolt of the Greek cities of Asia Minor caused me to undertake the first Persian invasion of Greece in 490.
- In this conflict, the Persians were defeated at Marathon.
- I succeeded Cambyses.
- I was born in Aragon, Spain, in 1746.
- My father was a painter, and I quickly followed his profession, being apprenticed to a local artist aged 14. In 1763 I went to Madrid to study under Francisco Bayeu.
- My career quickly developed and in 1775 I began designing for the Royal Tapestry Factory, followed by being appointed court painter to Charles IV in 1786.
- In the winter of 1792 I became seriously ill and was left totally deaf, which altered my career dramatically. My previous Rococo style was replaced by dark subjects and a more expressionistic emphasis.
- In 1824, I was forced to going into exile due to political upheavals, and I died in France in 1828.
March 2021
- I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1750.
- I studied law in London before returning to South Carolina and serving with distinction in the Revolutionary War.
- I became Governor of South Carolina (1787-1789) and ambassador to Great Britain (1792-1796).
- In 1705 I negotiated a key treaty with Spain, which established territorial and traffic rights on the Mississippi River.
- I later served as a Federalist in the US House of Representatives (1797-1801) and acted as a major-general during the War of 1812.
- I was born on the cusp of two centuries.
- I served as prime minister of Portugal for 27 years.
- I was well regarded for my decisive leadership in the wake of the deadly earthquake in Lisbon in 1755.
- I was a considerable reformer in economic and social matters, and abolished slavery, being one of the first European leaders to do so.
- I also pursued secularist policies, undermining the power of the Portuguese Inquisition.
- I was a writer born in Lebedyan, Russia.
- In 1914 I wrote a novella satirising the lives of army officers and was subsequently tried for ‘maligning the officer corps.’
- Between 1916 and 1917 I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, where I wrote two satires on the British.
- In 1920 I wrote My (We), a fantasy set in the 26th century which prophesied the Russian totalitarian state.
- Hounded by Russian authorities, in 1931 I left Russia with the aide of Maxim Gorky and settled in Paris.
Click for answer
- I was born in Guangdong province, China, in 1814
- Though my family was poor, they educated me, but I on numerous occasions failed the examination for the prestigious shengyuan
- While studying in Guanzhou, I acquired a religious tract “Good Words for Exhorting the Age”, which strongly influenced my thinking.
- I experienced a number of religious visions, including one where I was urged to slay demons, and interpreted these as evidence that I was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.
- I gathered a group of followers and was proclaimed ‘Heavenly King’ during the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), but died in July 1864 as my heavenly kingdom was being attacked by Qing soldiers.
February 2021
- I was born in New York City, USA, in 1852
- I studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, and in Vienna.
- A professor at John Hopkins University from 1886, I established the first surgical school in the United States.
- I successfully developed a cocaine injection for local anaesthesia, but in the process became an addict and had to be rehabilitated before returning to my role at John Hopkins.
- I was a surgical pioneer, developing new surgical techniques for cancer and inguinal hernia, as well as using rubber gloves and sterile conditions in surgery for the first time.
- I was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1809
- My mother had been a slave, but she was freed as a young age, and I grew up a free man.
- I immigrated to Liberia in 1829, part of the movement to establish a country on the African continent for former African American slaves and their free black descendants.
- I opened a store in Monrovia, and later engaged in politics, rising in prominence to become the first Black American President (1848-1856) when Liberia became independent on July 27, 1847.
- After office I served as a general in the Liberian army, before serving as the country’s President (1872-1876) for a second term.
- I was born in Fromenteau, France, around 1422.
- From a family of lesser nobility, I originally held a position in the household of Isabel of Lorraine, related by marriage to King Charles VIII (1403-1461).
- Noted for my beauty, I was introduced to the King aged 20, and from 1444 was his mistress.
- I was the first to be publicly acknowledged as the ‘official’ mistress of the king, a position of significance in the Ancien Regime.
- Soon after the birth of my fourth child with Charles, I died of dysentery aged only 28.
- I am a Greek sophist from Abdera in Thrace.
- My religious scepticism was due, I declared, to my ignorance of the existence of the gods.
- This reflected my perception of the ‘obscurity of the subject and the shortness of human life’.
- I am remembered for the maxim ‘Man is the measure of all things, of the existence of the things that are, and the non-existence of the things that are not’.
- My teaching was aimed at the encouraging good and efficient conduct.
- I am portrayed in Plato’s dialogue, bearing my name.
January 2021
- I was a prince of Japan, army officer, politician and prime minister.
- I was responsible for the Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902.
- I successfully advocated the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 and 1905.
- I was instrumental in the annexation of Korea in 1910.
- Not surprisingly, I was in favour of re-armament, was against political parties and liked oligarchic rule.
- My third ministry as prime minister only lasted seven weeks.
- I was born in Sinope, on the Black Sea, in 412 BCE.
- My father was a magistrate accused of “defacing the currency”, resulting in me being forced into poverty.
- I found that this enabled me to live in accordance with my belief in entire self-sufficiency.
- I spent a wandering life begging my way and sleeping in the open in any such shelter I could find, leading to me being dubbed a “Cynic” in Athens.
- I died, legend has it, by eating raw cuttlefish in order to prove that cooking it was unnecessary.
- I was one of the most accomplished generals in Byzantine history.
- I was especially adept as a commander of heavy cavalry, well ahead of my time.
- I saved the Emperor Justinian’s life and throne in 532 by putting down an uprising in Constantinople.
- Among my conquests include the Vandal state in North Africa and the re-conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.
- I later successfully defended Constantinople against a sudden attack by the Huns.
- I was born in France in the middle of the 19th century.
- I was employed by a Russian grand duke.
- I was chef du cuisine to the general staff of the Rhine Army during the Franco-Prussian War.
- Famous hotelier Cesare Ritz persuaded me to work for him.
- I invented Bombe Nero and Flaming Ice and am regarded as one of history’s greatest in my field.
December 2020
- I was elector palatine of the Rhine between 1610 and 1623.
- I was king of bohemia between 1619 and 1620 – for one winter, hence the sobriquet applied to me.
- I had been chosen by the Protestant Bohemians as ruler after the deposition of the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II.
- My selection was the cause of the Thirty Years War.
- I was defeated by the army of the Catholic league at the Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, in November 1620.
- Following this defeat I fled to Holland where I remained until my death.
- I was a 19th century French anarchist
- Born in Vroncourt, I taught in Paris.
- I spent many years advocating revolution and was imprisoned numerous times.
- I lived in London for ten years and returned to Paris to specialise in the publication of anarchist propaganda.
- I wrote Memoires in 1886 and a variety of other works having as their central theme the destruction of the status quo.
- I was born at Braywich, Ireland, in 1750 into a military family.
- At aged 17 I was made colonel of the family regiment, the Dillon’s Regiment, one of the Irish Brigades which served the King of France.
- When France went to war with Britain in 1778, I was sent to North America, where I served with distinction at the Siege of Savannah.
- Elected to the Estates-General in 1789, I continued to serve during the French Revolution, skilfully leading the Army of the North during the 1793 campaigns.
- I was falsely accused of collaborating with the enemy, tried and condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal.
- I was born in 1846 in Avondale, Ireland
- I studied at the University of Cambridge, and in 1875 was elected to Parliament
- I was an ardent believer in Irish Home Rule and gained popularity in Ireland by my willingness to use obstructive parliamentary tactics.
- In 1878 I was elected president of the Irish National Land League, and in 1886 allied with the Liberals in support of Prime Minister William Gladstone’s Home Rule bill.
- I remained an influential figure until 1890, when I was cited as a co-respondent in a divorce case and was forced to retire.
- I was a writer born in Lebedyan, Russia
- In 1914 I wrote a novella satirising the lives of Army officers and was subsequently tried for ‘maligning the officer corps.’
- Between 1916 and 1917 I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, where I wrote two satires on the British.
- In 1920 I wroteMy (We), a fantasy set in the 26th century which prophesied the Russian totalitarian state.
- Hounded by Russian authorities, in 1931 I left Russia with the aid of Maxim Gorky and settled in Paris.
November 2020
- I was an Irish Church reformer.
- Between 1129 and 1137, I was Archbishop of Armagh.
- In 1139, I was appointed legate of Ireland.
- I worked relentlessly for reform of the Irish Church along continental lines.
- My friend, St Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a highly respected biography about me.
- I was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom, in 1830.
- Originally a bookseller, I emigrated to California in 1852. I became a professional photographer and later chief photographer for the US government, focusing on action sequence shots.
- In 1880 I devised the zoopraxiscope to show my picture sequences, a basic form of cinematography. My “Zoopraxographical Hall” in Chicago (1893) was considered by some the first motion picture theatre.
- I also carried out an extensive survey of the movements of animals, publishing Animal Locomotion in 1887.
- I retired in 1900, after which I returned to the UK. I died in 1904.
- I was a 16th century English dramatist.
- My most important work was the revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy, written at the time of the Spanish Armada.
- This was very popular at its time serving as the model for Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.
- I was a close associate of the more famous and widely known English dramatist Thomas Marlowe.
- I died in poverty in 1594.
- This was after being tortured for denying the divinity of Christ.
- I was born in Hanan, China, in 259 BCE.
- A prince of the Qin royal family, I became King of Qin in 247 BCE at the age of 13.
- I conquered all the other Chinese warring states and in 221 BCE changed my title to ‘emperor’.
- I instituted rapid cultural and intellectual change. I initiated the Great Wall of China and the mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army.
- The zeal and reforms of my reign have been a major factor in the cultural unity that China has maintained ever since.
October 2020
- I am a Chinese military officer.
- Between 138 BCE and 125 BCE, I was sent westwards by Han Emperor Wudi to ally with Bactria (modern Balkh, Afghanistan) to protect the Silk Road against the Huns.
- On my return, I was put in charge of the foreign office, and was dubbed the ‘Great Traveler’.
- I successfully returned westwards in 115 BCE, and my expeditions helped generate Chinese interest in the west, demonstrated by Ban Chao over a century later.
- My writings, preserved in Sima Qian’s Shi Ji (100 BCE), remain a major source for this era in Central Asian history.
- I was born in Athens in 495 BCE to the aristocratic Alcmaeonid family.
- I used my skill, oratory and family influence to rise to a leadership role, acting as virtually an uncrowned king.
- Politically a radical, I helped push through constitutional reforms that brought about full Athenian democracy (462-461 BCE).
- A major opponent of Sparta, it was my unremitting opposition which led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).
- To my death I remained a passionate advocate for Athens’ democratic principles and system of government.
- I was born in Berlin, Prussia in 1769.
- I was educated at Frankfurt, Göttingen and Hamburg Universities where I studied a range of subjects including botany and the natural sciences. In 1790 I travelled abroad and published my first works in botanical and chemical journals.
- In 1796, on the death of my mother, I received a large inheritance. This allowed me to travel considerably. Significant expeditions I took during my life included spending five years in the Americas from 1799 and a journey to Russia and Central Asia in 1829.
- I used these journeys to make several stunning observations in disciplines such as botanic geography, meteorology and even climate change.
- I am considered one of the great speculative scientific travellers of the nineteenth century.
- I was a French engineer.
- I designed the structure for New York’s Statue of Liberty.
- I designed the locks for the first Panama Canal, which subsequently embroiled me in controversy.
- Later in my life I conducted pioneering research into aerodynamics and the use of wind tunnels.
- My most famous construction was built to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution and stands today as one of the most recognisable features of Paris.
- I graduated from Ivy league institution Yale University in 1805.
- After studying at institutions for the deaf in Europe, I founded the American Asylum for Deaf Mutes.
- This was the first instance of US government aid for the disabled.
- In 1865, Amos Kendall founded a small school for the deaf which is now a university named after me.
September 2020
- I was born on 27 January 1859 in Berlin.
- My left arm was withered from birth, becoming around six inches shorter than my right.
- In 1890 I dismissed one of the most successful diplomats in European history.
- I began my reign as German emperor in 1888.
- I died in 1941 in the Netherlands having abdicated in November 1918.
- I was born on 29 April 1901 in Tokyo.
- I was the first son of the 21-year-old Crown Prince and 17-year-old Crown Princess.
- I was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge.
- I began my reign as Emperor of Japan in 1926.
- I died in 1987 and was given a state funeral.
- I was born 23 September 63 BCE in Rome.
- I was a statesman and military leader.
- Through my leadership and strategy I laid the foundations of the Roman Empire and even have a month named after me.
- I was described as ‘unusually handsome’.
- I was the first Roman Emperor.
- I was born in March 1822 in Maryland, USA.
- I was born into slavery but escaped.
- I took part in 13 missions to rescue slaves, using the so-called Underground Railroad.
- I rescued around 70 enslaved people.
- During the American Civil War I served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army.
August 2020
- I was born 23 September 63 BCE in Rome.
- I was a statesman and military leader.
- Through my leadership and strategy I laid the foundations of the Roman Empire and even have a month named after me.
- I was described as ‘unusually handsome’.
- I was the first Roman Emperor.
- I was born on 2 April 1840 in Paris.
- I was nominated for two Nobel Prizes in Literature, in 1901 and 1902.
- I was a novelist and practitioner of the literary school of ‘naturalism’.
- I was famed for aiding in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935).
- I died in 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning.
- I was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland.
- I was the eldest of ten siblings.
- I was a brilliant student at University College Dublin, studying English, French and Italian.
- I once wrote “For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world.”
- I was a modernist author best known for Ulysses published in 1922.
- I was a late 18th century and early 19th century English poet and critic.
- With my friend Wordsworth I published Lyrical Ballads in 1798.
- This was a significant landmark in English poetry in its rejection of a special ‘poetic’ language and advocacy of clear, everyday language.
- A radical in my youth, I became a staunch conservative in politics, for which I was attacked by George, Lord Byron.
- I have been admired over the years for the many insights my work provides into the creative process, although sometimes my meaning has been criticised for being somewhat obscure.
- A well known example of my functional style is ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.
July 2020
- I was a Flemish painter and diplomat.
- I went to Italy in 1600, studying the works of Titian and Veronese in Venice before entering the service of the Duke of Mantua.
- I became court painter to the Spanish viceroys in Antwerp in 1609.
- I was already famous when I painted my masterpiece, the triptych ‘Descent from the Cross’, between 1611 and 1614.
- In 1629, I was sent to England to negotiate peace with King Charles I, who would in time be beheaded by his people.
- The king knighted me and while in England I painted ‘Peace and War’.
- I was a late 19th century and early 20th century English suffragette and feminist.
- My daughter and I founded the suffrage campaigning group the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903.
- With other suffragettes, I was frequently imprisoned then immediately released.
- This was done under the ‘Cat and Mouse’ act, a government stratagem to avoid the publicity gained through suffragette hunger strikes.
- I abandoned my campaign on the outbreak of World War One and in 1926 joined the Conservative Party.
- Another daughter was also a suffragette as well as a pacifist.
- I was a Roman 3rd and 2nd BCE Roman dramatist.
- My comedies were often adaptations of lost originals of the Greek dramatist Menander of a century earlier.
- I wrote about 130 plays, of which 20 still exist.
- They feature such stock characters as the wise servant who knows more than his master.
- This theme is echoed in P G Wodehouse’ Jeeves character.
- Many of my plots have been adapted by others.
- Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors is an adaptation of one of my plays.
- I was a 19th century Irish politician.
- An ardent advocate of Home Rule, I became a member of parliament for Cork in 1880.
- I organised a clever campaign of obstruction to disrupt parliament and gain Home Rule for Ireland.
- British prime minister William Ewert Gladstone converted to the cause around this time.
- In 1899 I successfully sued The Times newspaper for printing forgeries that said I was in favour of violence to achieve my goals.
- My career began to dissipate after I was cited in a divorce case involving one ‘Kitty’ O’Shea, who I subsequently married.
- I was a 16th century English poet, dramatist and pamphleteer.
- My tracts on the Elizabethan underworld are valuable for their description of lower-class life and language.
- I also attacked the seemingly unassailable William Shakespeare.
- This was done in my 1592 Groats Worth of Wit.
- In this he warns his fellow university educated dramatists against the ‘upstart crow’, meaning Shakespeare.
- The publisher of this attack afterwards apologised for the remark.
June 2020
- I was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom, in 1830.
- Originally a bookseller, I emigrated to California in 1852. I became a professional photographer and later chief photographer for the US government, focusing on action sequence shots.
- In 1880 I devised the zoopraxiscope to show my picture sequences, a basic form of cinematography. My “Zoopraxographical Hall” in Chicago (1893) was considered by some the first motion picture theatre.
- I also carried out an extensive survey of the movements of animals, publishing Animal Locomotion in 1887.
- I retired in 1900, after which I returned to the UK. I died in 1904.
- I was born in Ohio, United States, in 1859.
- The child of a prominent family, I studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- I designed the first tower skyscraper, the 60-storey Woolworth Building in New York City (1912), at the time the tallest building in the world.
- I also designed several educational and civic buildings, including the US Customs House in New York City (1907) and the United States Supreme Court Building. These were designed in the Beaux-Arts style, reflecting the view that America was an heir to Greek democracy.
- Contemporaries recognised me as a pioneer of American architecture.
- I was born in Hull, UK, in 1903.
- Originally a typist, I took up flying as a hobby, obtaining an amateur licence in 1929.
- In May 1930, I became the first woman to fly solo from the UK to Australia. The act inspired a world struggling with the Great Depression, and I became a celebrity overnight.
- I later completed several other long-distance flying records, often with my husband Jim Molison (1905-1959).
- My aeroplane disappeared over the Thames Estuary during the Second World War and my body was never found.
- I was born in Anshan, Persia (modern Iran) in 600 BCE
- I succeeded to the throne of Anshan in 559 BCE following the death of my father.
- I conquered the empires of Media, Lydia and Babylonia among other territories. In doing so, I established the Achaemenid Empire, one of the largest the world had ever seen.
- Despite the diverse territory of the empire, my able administration and tolerance of the different cultures brought considerable success. My empire became a blueprint for a multi-ethnic state that allowed cultural diversity.
- My rule was later the subject of study by many prominent statesmen, and I remain a revered figure in modern Iran.
May 2020
- I was born in Ohio, United States, in 1909.
- Virtually blind from birth, I began playing jazz piano professionally, first in Ohio and then in clubs in New York and Los Angeles.
- By the 1940s I achieved considerable success, recording my music and playing larger established venues.
- Critics were amazed by my prodigious, ambidextrous technique. This enabled me to play some of the most orchestral piano in jazz history.
- My skill and harmonic and melodic invention led many to dub me “God.”
- I was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1494.
- A gifted linguist and scholar, I became a chaplain and tutor. Influenced by the reformation, I developed increasingly radical religious views.
- I sought to translate the new testament into English, something never previously attempted. I received little support and instead moved to Europe to carry out my work.
- My first English translation was published in 1525, and by 1526 copies had been smuggled into England. They were denounced as heretical and publicly burnt.
- In 1535 I was seized, accused of heresy, imprisoned and executed. My work became the basis of later English translations of the Bible, including the King James version.
- I was born in Prussia the year after major revolution in Europe.
- A famous navy man, I asserted that building a fleet was ‘the work of a generation’.
- A grand admiral, I became secretary of state for the German navy.
- Having built up an enormous naval fleet for my country, I became a strong advocate of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- I wrote my memoirs in the year following the end of World War One.
- I was a late 15th and early 16th century Italian painter from Urbino.
- I had considerable standing as a leading figure of the High Renaissance.
- I had studied under Perugino and was greatly influenced by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, during a trip to Florence in 1504.
- At just 25 my reputation was such that I was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II, where I painted the School of Athens fresco in 1509.
- The rest of my career was spent in Rome where I enjoyed great success.
- I am credited with depicting religious figures in a deeply pious light combining Christian ideals with the grace and grandeur of classical antiquity.
April 2020
- I was an English scientist and explorer.
- A cousin of famed botanist Charles Darwin, I travelled widely in Africa and made important contributions to meteorology, particularly my work on cyclones.
- My most important labours were in the study of heredity.
- I was regarded as the founder of the now somewhat controversial subject of eugenics.
- I published Hereditary Genius in 1869 and Natural Inheritance in 1889.
- When not busy on these activities, I also developed the science of fingerprinting.
- I was a 19th century English painter.
- Along with Holman Hunt and Rossetti, I founded the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
- The pre-Raphaelite’s with their posed studied tableaux of clashing colours, were unpopular until championed by Ruskin, whose wife I later married.
- As my popularity and success grew I gradually shed my pre-Raphaelite bravura and I became president of the Royal Academy in 1896.
- My works include The Boyhood of Raleigh in 1870 and the highly sentimental Bubbles painted in 1870. This was used by Pears Soap in an advertising campaign.
- I was a 17th century and early 18th century German philosopher and mathematician.
- Renowned for the range and depth of my intellect, I developed a calculus system at the same time as Sir Isaac Newton.
- I also made important contributions to many different scientific fields, such as optics and probability theory.
- In addition, I argued that the universe was composed of harmonious units, called ‘monads’.
- Sadly, my perception of the world as essentially benevolent was ridiculed by French philosopher Voltaire in his acclaimed book Candide.
- I was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1534.
- The son of a military governor, I became a solider and overthrew the last Ashikaga shogun in 1573, later seeking to unify the whole of Japan.
- I was known as a patron of the arts and a brutal killer, with my official seal reading “rule the empire by force”.
- Once, I had the heads of my defeated opponents dipped in molten gold and sent them as gifts to potential rivals.
- After being betrayed by one of my generals, I disemboweled myself in 1582.
- I was born in Naterre, France, in 422 CE.
- Of strong religious conviction from a young age, I became a nun aged 15.
- When my parents died, I moved to Paris, where I lived a life of great austerity.
- When Atilla the Hun invaded France in 451 CE, I calmed the panic-stricken inhabitants of the city by my absolute assurance, derived from prayer, and, soon justified, that the enemy would pass the city by.
- I am venerated as the patron saint of Paris, and my remains are in the church of Saint-Etienne du Mont.
March 2020
- I was born into a peasant family in Java, modern-day Indonesia, in 1290 CE.
- Despite my lowly station, I rose to became prime minister of the Majapahit Empire, a Javanese Hindu Empire in south-east Asia.
- In 1343 I led a military expedition that conquered Bali, assimilating it within the growing empire.
- Translated into English, my name means Elephant General.
- Indonesia’s first university was named in my honour.
- I was born in the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1530.
- From 1533, I served as Grand Prince of Moscow and from 1547 as Tsar of all Russia.
- I spent most of my rule warring in order to expand Russia’s territory. I appropriated the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Volga and Urals.
- I was dubbed “The Terrible” for my perceived love of cruel executions.
- I had at least 6 wives and eight children, all of whom died in infancy.
- I was born in Sinope, on the Black Sea, in 412 BCE.
- My father was a magistrate accused of “defacing the currency”, and so I was forced into poverty.
- I found that this enabled me to live in accordance with my belief in entire self-sufficiency.
- I spent a wandering life begging my way and sleeping in the open in any such shelter I could find, leading to me being dubbed a “Cynic” in Athens.
- I died, legend has it, by eating raw cuttlefish in order to prove that cooking it was unnecessary.
Click for answer
- I was born in Rohatyn, Kingdom of Poland, in 1505.
- I was captured by slavers as a young girl and eventually taken to Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire.
- I became part of the Imperial Harem, gained influence over the sultan and mastered the political intrigue of the Ottoman palace.
- I became the Sultan’s wife and mothered at least 5 children.
- I patronised several key building projects, including an imperial mosque complex which was one of the largest in the history of Constantinople.
February 2020
- I was a Vietnamese statesman.
- A Marxist nationalist, I led the Viet Minh forces, with US help, against the occupying Japanese in the Second World War.
- I became president of Vietnam between 1945 and 1954 during which time I led his forces to victory against French colonial rule.
- Between 1954 and 1969 I was president of North Vietnam after the country’s partition at the 1954 Geneva convention.
- In my country’s civil war between 1959 and 1975, I supported the Viet Cong guerrillas in the south with the North Vietnamese army.
- I was a 15th century English writer of pamphlets on a variety of subjects.
- These were usually satirical and often lampooned my many literary and religious enemies.
- I was especially condemnatory of the Puritans.
- I was heavily involved in the so-called ‘Martin Marprelate’ pamphlet war.
- I also wrote poems, plays and a remarkably picaresque novel The Unfortunate Traveller written in 1594.
- I was an Indian born English short-story writer, poet and novelist.
- Born in Bombay, I was sent home to be educated.
- On my return to India I soon made a name for myself as a journalist and sarcastic observer of Anglo-Indian society.
- I returned to England in 1889 and became a celebrity for my poems of army life Barrack-Room Ballads published in 1892.
- My subsequent works include two novels, a collection of short stories, children’s books and many beloved poems.
- One of my famous works was Kim.
- I was an 18th century English novelist.
- All my novels were written in epistolary form and all were enormously popular.
- The first was Pamela or Virtue Rewarded in 1740 in which a servant girl ‘marries above her station’ by resisting seduction.
- This book was attacked by contemporary Henry Fielding in his parody Shamela for its questionable morality.
- My later works included Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison.
- My work was lauded by Henry Fielding’s sister Sarah, who was also a novelist.
- Famed English lexicographer and polymath Dr Samuel Johnson praised my work for its insights into the human, especially female, character as well as the darker aspects of the human condition.
January 2020
- I am a late 15th century and early 16th century Venetian painter.
- Little of my work has survived, although I was one of the most influential painters of my time.
- The importance of my work lies in its treatment of landscapes.
- I imbued landscape painting with strong atmosphere and moods to which the detail is subordinated.
- My work was imitated by artists who came after me.
- My documented works include The Tempest and The Three Philosophers.
- I was an 18th and 19th century English writer.
- I became one of the most prominent and popular members of the bluestocking circle around Dr Samuel Johnson.
- This world was captured in my good-natured poem Bas Bleu in 1786.
- My works include tragedies, one of which Percy in 1777, was produced by my friend Garrick and earned me no less than 750 pounds sterling.
- The greater part of my work, however, consisted of ‘improving’ works aimed at reforming the morals and domestic economy of the poor.
- Contemporary accounts describe me as a ‘sharp, witty and tough-minded writer who made a lot of money from her books and left over 30,000 pounds to charity’.
- I was born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire, in 1870. My birth name was Vladimir Ulyanov.
- Born into a middle-class family, I embraced socialist politics from a young age, serving a period of exile from Russia for my beliefs.
- In 1917 I established Bolshevik control of Russia after the overthrow of the Tsar and Provisional Government, and in 1918 became the Head of State of the Soviet Union.
- With the assistance of Leon Trotsky, I defeated the White counter-revolutionary forces in the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), but was forced to moderate Soviet polices to allow the country to recover the from affects of constant war.
- I suffered a stroke in 1922, leading to a power struggle among my potential successors, and died in 1924.
- I was born on the Isle of Wight, England, in 1635.
- I was passionate about scientific inquiry from a young age, but struggled to support my work until I became Surveyor to the City of London after the great fire of 1666.
- I formulated the law of elasticity, proposed an undulating theory of light, introduced the term cell to biology, and proposed the inverse square law of gravitational attraction.
- I also developed a number of scientific instruments and mechanical devices, and designed a number of buildings in London.
- My achievements led me to be dubbed by one historian as “England’s Leonardo Da Vinci”.
- I was born in Ohio, United States, in 1820.
- A member of a prominent political family, I graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840.
- When the American Civil War (1861-1865) began, I served with distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861). In 1864, I was appointed commander of Union Forces in the West.
- I set out with 60,000 men on the famous “March to the Sea”, from Atlanta to Savannah in Georgia, then north through the Carolinas, during which I crushed Confederate forces and broke local morale by instructing the destruction of occupied territory.
- I later served as commander of the U.S. army from 1869 to 1884.
December 2019
- I was born in Rome, Roman Republic, in 100 BCE.
- I joined the army at a young age and served with distinction, before returning to Rome and acting as a legal advocate.
- With Pompey and Crassus, I established the First Triumvirate, a political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Between 58 and 51 I fought the Gallic Wars, invaded Britain and acquired immense power.
- Following a civil war with Pompey, which culminated in Pompey’s defeat at Pharsalus in 48, I became dictator in Rome.
- I was murdered on the Ides (15th) of March in a conspiracy led by Brutus and Cassius.
- I was born in Bardsey, England, in 1670.
- Educated at Trinity College Dublin, I was a fellow student of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), and despite initially enrolling at London’s Middle Temple, I quickly forsook the law for literature.
- My first novel, published in 1692, was unsuccessful, but a year later I published the comedy “The Old Bachelor” to much acclaim. I subsequently penned “The Double Dealer” (1694), “Love for Love” (1695) and “The Way of the World (1700).
- My works were comedies of manners, sharply displaying the narrow world of fashion and gallantry.
- Such was my popularity the prime minister was one of the pall-bearers at my funeral in 1729 and I was buried at Westminster Abbey.
- I was born in Hanan, China, in 259 BCE.
- A prince of the Qin royal family, I became King of Qin in 247 BCE at the age of 13.
- I conquered all the other Chinese Warring states and in 221 BCE changed my title to “Emperor,” one that would be used by subsequent Chinese rulers for over 2,000 years.
- Under my rule, the Chinese state was marked by rapid cultural and intellectual change. I initiated a number of significant construction projects, including the beginnings of the Great Wall of China and the mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army.
- The zeal and reforms of my reign have been a major factor in the cultural unity that China has maintained ever since.
- I was an Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
- My first important satirical works, published in 1704, were The Battle of the Books, a defence of the merits of classical literature against the claims of the moderns and A Tale of a Tub, an attack on religious extremism.
- In politics, I began as a Whig but soon became a staunch Tory.
- I became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin in 1713 and published several denunciations of how the Irish poor were treated by their overlords.
- My masterpiece is Gulliver’s Travels published in 1726.
- On my death I left money to establish a hospital for imbeciles and was much mourned by the Irish people.
November 2019
- I was a 16th century English dramatist.
- My most important work was the revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy, written at the time of the Spanish Armada.
- This was very popular at its time serving as the template for Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.
- I was a closd associate of the more famous English dramatist Thomas Marlowe.
- I died in poverty in 1594.
- This was after being tortured for denying the divinity of Christ.
- I was a 16th and 17th century Italian composer, string player and choirmaster.
- A creator of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, I was a key transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque music
- I was court musician to the Duke of Mantus from 1590 to 1612.
- I became master of the chapel of St Mark’s in Venice, a position I held until my death.
- My works include the operas Orfeo (1607), The Coronation of Poppea (1642) and Vespers (1610)
- I was born in New York, United States of America, in 1892
- I had been fascinated by aeroplanes from a young age and in 1912 I dropped out of the U.S. Naval Academy to focus on aeronautical engineering. I later became the first person to receive a degree in aeronautical engineering from M.I.T.,
- I designed and built the Cloudster in an attempt to create the first plane to fly non-stop across the United States. While it failed in this attempt, the Cloudster was a pioneer in being the first aeroplane with a payload greater than its own weight.
- In 1921 I created my own aircraft company and began a long rivalry with William Boeing (1881-1956).
- While my company was far more successful early on, it lagged Boeing in the jet age, and I retired in 1957.
- I was born in Hefei, China, in 1823.
- As a young age, I moved to Beijing to follow my father in taking the Confucian examinations.
- First with my father, and later independently, I played a key role in countering the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) and I rose through the ranks under my mentor Zeng Guofan (1811-1872).
- In 1870, I was appointed governor-general of the capital province, Zhili and during this time I served as a grand secretary and superintendent of trade for the north.
- Through these roles, I built up considerable influence through which I used to pioneer technological modernization and to defend Chinese interests. My diplomatic acumen led to me being dubbed by Westerners as “the Yellow Bismarck”.
October 2019
- I was born in New York, United States of America, in 1843.
- A member of a prominent intellectual family, I attended Harvard Law School before settling in London in 1876.
- While at Harvard I had begun contributing stories and book reviews to magazines, and in 1875 I published my first major novel, Roderick Hudson.
- It was my next novel, however, Daisy Miller (1878) that brought me international fame. Later novels included The American (1877), Washington Square (1880), and influential later works, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904).
- While my later words were little read during my lifetime, they have subsequently been recognised as forerunners of literary modernism.
- I was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1850.
- I demonstrated no literary talent or ambition until aged 36 when, after the death of my mother and husband in quick succession, I began writing to overcome depression.
- My first stories were published in 1889, the beginning of a successful period where nearly 100 of my short stores were published in leading national magazines.
- I gained a reputation as a gifted author specializing in the depiction of Louisiana and its inhabitants. I wrote two novels, At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), though these were less well-received by contemporaries.
- I died aged 53 in 1904. After my death, my reputation grew to the extent that I am now considered one of the leading authors of my time, and a forerunner of American twentieth-century feminist authors.
- I was born in Berlin, Prussia in 1769.
- I was educated at Frankfurt, Göttingen and Hamburg Universities where I studied a range of subjects including botany and the natural sciences. In 1790 I travelled abroad and published my first works in botanical and chemical journals.
- In 1796, on the death of my mother, I received a large inheritance. This allowed me to travel considerably. Significant expeditions I took during my life included spending five years in the Americas from 1799 and a journey to Russia and Central Asia in 1829.
- I used these journeys to make several stunning observations in disciplines such as botanic geography, meteorology and even climate change.
- I am considered one of the great speculative scientific travellers of the nineteenth century.
- I was born in Delft, Dutch Republic, in 1632.
- At a young age, I was apprenticed to a textile merchant, where I first encountered magnifying glasses, used in the textile trade to count thread densities. I later established a business as a linen-draper.
- I began to take an interest in the microscopic and became a largely self-taught scientist. In 1673, I reported my first observations, identified bee parts, a human louse and a fungus, to the British Royal Society.
- In 1676, I observed water closely and discovered tiny organisms, the first bacteria observed by man. The discovery was initially greeted with widespread disbelief.
- I am often considered the father of microbiology.
- A German physiologist, I was professor at the University of Kiel for six years until 1924.
- After this I was director of the physiology department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology and in the 1930s a professor at Heidelberg university.
- My work on the metabolism of the muscles won me, jointly, the 1922 Nobel Prize for physiology.
- Forced to leave Germany in 1938 I continued my work in France.
- In 1940 I escaped to the United States where I was a professor at Pennsylvania University.
September 2019
- I was a French 15th century painter born in Tours.
- Comparatively little is known of my early life.
- I visited Rome in the mid 1440s when pope Eugenius IV commissioned a portrait.
- Returning to Tours, I opened a prosperous workshop and in 1475 received the official title of king’s painter.
- In my miniatures I combine Italian influences such as architectural perspectives and ornamental detail, with the more northern traits of realistic and unidealized portrayal.
- I was born in 1729 in the Province of New York.
- I served in the Seven-Years War, acceding to the rank of lieutenant in the colonial militia, became a member of the Continental Congress and later served in the Continental Army during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
- In 1777 I became governor of New York and held the post for over 20 years. I argued against ratification of the US Constitution and acted as a prominent anti-Federalist and leader of the Democratic-Republicans.
- In 1805, I became vice-president to Thomas Jefferson, a position I maintained on the accession of James Madison to the presidency in 1809.
- I died in 1812, while still vice-president. I am considered a key founding father.
- I was born in Corralejo, Spanish Mexico, in 1753.
- I studied for the priesthood, was ordained at the age of 25 and afterwards held a long teaching position in Morelia. After I was removed from my teaching post, I acted as a parish priest.
- After the French invasion of Spain in 1808, I advocated for independence from Spain. On September 16, 1810 I issued the “Cry of Dolores”, calling for the end of Spanish rule, for racial equality, and for redistribution of land.
- My speech effectively launched the Mexican War of Independence (1810–21). I gathered an army of nearly 100,000 poorly armed and untrained civilians, mainly poor farmers, and attacked Spanish authorities.
- This army was defeated and I was captured and executed. While my revolt ended in failure, the date of my “Cry of Dolores” speech is now celebrated as Mexican Independence Day.
- I was born in 1599 in Nottinghamshire, England.
- In 1624 I was elected as an MP for Nottingham. In the following years I held several posts including High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Lieutenant of the Tower of London.
- In 1642 at the outbreak of the English Civil War, I raised a royalist horse regiment and fought in the King’s army at the Battle of Edgehill.
- In 1643, I was appointed to lead the King’s campaign in the North West, primarily defending Chester from Parliamentarian attack.
- I am considered a brutal but often effective commander. After the defeat of the Royalist cause, I took exile in Paris, where I died in 1652.
August 2019
- I was born in Chillan, Chile, in 1778. I never met my father, a former Viceroy of Peru.
- I studied in London from 1795-1798 before joining a group of men plotting to free South American from Spanish rule.
- I inherited my father’s estates and, after playing a prominent part in the revolution of 1810-11, became Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean army.
- Despite early military setbacks against the Royalists, I eventually led an army that crossed the Andes to liberate Chile.
- My success led to me being declared dictator of Chile in 1817, but my rule later proved unpopular and I was forced to resign and retire to Peru in 1823.
- I was born in the Forbidden City, Beijing, in 1654.
- I was the son of a Qing Dynasty emperor and took control from the eunuch of the Thirteen Offices at the age of 15.
- My reign is considered one of the greatest in Chinese history. I annexed Outer Mongolia and Tibet, settled the border with Russia, opened four ports to foreign trade and encouraged the introduction of Western arts and science.
- I travelled extensively and was an avid reader and poet. I commissioned a great dictionary and a national atlas.
- My reign was so respected that my grandson later abdicated so that our reigns would be of equal length.
- I was born in Paris, France, in 1859, into a Jewish family.
- I was a promising scholar from a young age, studying at the Lycée Condorcet.
- I developed innovative ideas about how immediate experience is more significant than rationalism for understanding reality. I notably applied the idea that the human experience of time passing was distinct from the scientific measurement of time.
- My work led to considerable fame and I was the first ever Jewish member of the Académie Françoise.
- I died in 1941 from a cold that I caught while queuing to register as a Jew, having refused the Vichy government’s offer of an exemption from the requirement.
- I was born in Chillan, Chile, in 1778. I never met my father, a former viceroy of Peru.
- I studied in London from 1795-1798 before joining a group of men plotting to free South America from Spanish rule.
- I inherited my father’s estates and, after playing a prominent part in the revolution of 1810-11, became commander-in-chief of the Chilean army.
- Despite early military setbacks against the Royalists, I eventually led an army that crossed the Andes to liberate Chile.
- My success led to me being declared dictator of Chile in 1817, but my rule later proved unpopular and I was forced to resign and retire to Peru in 1823.
- I was a 19th century French soldier born in Limoges.
- I served with great distinction in Algeria and Morocco between 1836 and 1844.
- My victory over the emperor of Morocco’s forces gained me the title Duc d’Isly.
- In the revolution of February 1848, I commanded the army in Paris.
- The following year I died in the French capital of cholera.
July 2019
- I was an 18th century Irish physician who served as an army surgeon.
- I was dismissed in 1808 for taking part in a duel.
- I was on the Bellerophon when Napoleon came on board and accompanied him as a private physician to St Helena.
- I took part in the ex-French emperor’s squabbles with Sir Hudson Lowe and was forced to resign in 1818.
- A letter I wrote to the British Admiralty asserted that Lowe had ‘dark designs’ against Bonaparte, thus fuelling later suspicions that he had been poisoned.
- My book Napoleon in Exile published in 1822 created a sensation.
- I was a 19th century French anarchist
- Born in Vroncourt, I taught in Paris.
- I spent many years advocating revolution and was imprisoned numerous times.
- I lived in London for ten years and returned to Paris to specialise in the publication of anarchist propaganda.
- I wrote Memoires in 1886 and a variety of other works having as their central theme the destruction of the status quo.
- I was born in Virginia in 1777, during the American War of Independence.
- I trained as an attorney before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1810. I was later a U.S. Senator.
- I developed the concept of the “American System” which involved introducing tariffs, a national bank and federal subsidies for infrastructure investments.
- I was a major promoter of compromise efforts to maintain national unity over the issue over slavery, endorsing both the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise of 1850.
- I ran unsuccessfully for President on three occasions, in 1824, 1832 and 1844.
- I was born in London, United Kingdom, in December 1789.
- In 1821 I married a physician, but he died shortly after, and I used my new-found independent income to support a number of good causes.
- I campaigned for the abolition of slavery and became acquainted with several American abolitionists, including Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- Since childhood, I had dreamed of establishing a college for Women, and in 1849 I donated the money to establish Bedford College, London. Among its first noted students were Barbara Bodichon and George Eliot.
- I played a fundamental role in pioneering women’s education and was a noticed “romantic radical”.
June 2019
- I was born in Yorkshire, Great Britain, in 1733.
- I trained as a minister and later served as a tutor and librarian.
- These roles allowed me to time to devote to pioneering scientific research, which included work on electricity, the invention of soda water and oxygen.
- I was also a noted philosopher, historian and theologian. My writings in this area contributed to developments in English grammar and laid the foundations for utilitarianism.
- As a religious dissenter and passionate liberal, I supported the French Revolution (1789). For this I was subject to vitriolic criticism, my home was destroyed. I spent the rest of my life in the United States.
- I was born in Zhao, northern China, in 310 BCE.
- As a young man, I studied in Qi, northeast China, where I was exposed to some of the leading figures in Chinese philosophy and government theory.
- I promoted a type of Confucianism that involved ethics, metaphysics, political theory and philosophy of education
- I travelled through a variety of Chinese states, often serving as an adviser, but my chances of implementing my own to theories of government were denied when my patron in my final position was assassinated.
- My works have survived and were a significant influence in the development of the doctrines of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).
- I was born in London, England, in 1533.
- I was the youngest daughter of King Henry VIII (1491-1547) of England.
- Succeeding my Catholic sister Mary I (1516-1558), I re-established a moderate form of Protestantism as the state religion.
- My reign was dominated by Catholic intrigue and the threat of war with Spain, culminating in the successful defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
- The arts and national culture flourished during my reign, notably in the works of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
- I was born on the family estate near Lake Ilmen, Russia.
- I was destined for a military career, but my father lost the entire family fortune through speculation, and I was sent instead to Moscow to study under famed Russian pianist Nikolai Zverev (1832-1893).
- In 1892 I graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a gold medal. My first concerto was performed in the same year.
- While my work was generally well received, I was subject to bouts of depression when it was not, notably after the premiere of my first symphony.
- I made my first visit to the United States in 1909 and remained abroad after the October Revolution. I settled in the United States in 1936.
May 2019
- I was a French statesman born in Paris.
- I was a moderate Republican deputy from 1874.
- I became under-secretary for instruction and war.
- Between 1885 and 1893 I was vice-president and president of the French chamber of deputies.
- I served as premier of France on two separate occasions.
- Later I became president of the Republic before resigning in 1895.
- I was elector palatine of the Rhine between 1610 and 1623.
- I was king of bohemia between 1619 and 1620 – for one winter, hence the sobriquet applied to me.
- I had been chosen by the Protestant Bohemians as ruler after the deposition of the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II.
- My selection was the cause of the Thirty Years War.
- I was defeated by the army of the Catholic league at the Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, in November 1620.
- Following this defeat I fled to Holland where I remained until my death.
- I was an itinerant Hebrew poet, born in Austria-Hungary.
- I travelled to Palestine and worked as secretary to the wife of British General Oliphant.
- I later lived in England and the United States.
- I was a Zionist and champion of restoring Hebrew as a modern spoken language.
- I wrote The Hope in 1878, which became the Zionist Anthem for over 50 years.
- In 1948, this became Israel’s national anthem.
- I was born in Włocławek, Russian Empire, in 1872.
- I joined the Imperial Russian Army, serving during both the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and the First World War (1914-1918). By 1916 I was in command of the 8th Army Corps.
- During the Russian Revolution (1917), I supported the attempted counter-revolution, the Kornilov Affair, before escaping during the October Revolution.
- In 1918 I assumed leadership of the White Volunteer Army in South Russia as part of the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). Under my command the army came extremely close to capturing Moscow, but my leadership was blighted by scandal, principally concerning the Army’s treatment of Jews.
- In 1920 I relinquished command and was later exiled to France.
- I was born in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1837.
- A gifted scientist, my poverty and lack of classical education meant I did not publish my doctoral dissertation until 1873 when I was 36.
- My dissertation concerned the non-ideality of real gases and pointed the way to all modern methods of gas liquefication. It was one of the most important papers of its kind ever published.
- I received immediate academic appreciation and in 1877 became a professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, where my teaching skills were often praised.
- In 1910 I was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
April 2019
- I was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1793.
- A passionate Quaker and outstanding preacher from an early age, I became an abolitionist and in 1833 established the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.
- In 1840 I was among several women who were refused attendance to the World Anti-Slavery Convention, an event which sparked my interest in women’s rights.
- In 1848 I attended the Women’s Rights Convention in New York, one of the first meetings in America on the theme of equal rights for Women.
- For the rest of my life, I was a prominent leader in both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements, founding the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the 1860s.
- I was born in Boeotia, Greece, in 46 CE.
- I was educated in Athens, and often visited Rome, but spent most of my life in Boeotia.
- I was a biographer and essayist, with my best-known work being Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, which contained biographies of 23 Greek and 23 Roman historical figures.
- My writings are known for their narrative awareness and literary excellence, though my uncritical use of sources means the historicity varies significantly.
- Europeans discovered my writings in the sixteenth century, and they were believed to be a source for the Roman plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
- I was born in Moscow in 1440.
- I was the son of Basil II, Grand Duke of Moscow, under which Moscow had sought independence from the Mongols, who had controlled much of Russia since the thirteenth century.
- After my father’s death in 1462, I became Grand Duke. In 1480 I defeated the Golden Horde Khanate and finally secured freedom from the Mongols.
- I also waged successful wars on many frontiers, such as annexing Novgorod, paving the way for the expansion of Moscow and the birth of a united Russia.
- I was the first Grand Duke to make systematic plans for expansion, tripling the territory of Moscow. I laid the foundations on which Russian leaders would build in the following centuries.
- I was born in Valentano, Italy, in 1545.
- I was from a distinguished and illustrious aristocratic family; my great-grandfather was Pope Paul III (1468-1549).
- I served as Spain’s governor-general of the Netherlands from 1578-1592. I demonstrated inspired diplomatic acumen and ruled with a tolerance and restraint unusual in my era.
- I was a successful military leader, leading Spain to a string of victories as part of the wider Revolt of the Netherlands (1566-1648), cementing Spanish control in the largely Catholic southern provinces.
- Historians have described me in glowing terms. I have been called “a genius”, “able and resourceful” and “easily the first captain of his age”.
March 2019
- I was crowned king of the Franks in the 8th century.
- In my 46 year reign I wielded the barbarian kingdoms into a Christian empire.
- This stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
- I saved Pope Leo III from being deposed.
- In gratitude the Pope made me emperor of the Roman Empire in the West in 800.
- I administered this empire successfully and encouraged the spread of learning throughout this vast reign.
- I was a 12th century scientific writer.
- I was abbess of the Benedictine convent of St Disobede, near the Rhine, from 1136.
- I wrote a mystical treatise Liber Scivias in 1141.
- Then followed an encyclopedia of natural history Liber Simplicis Medicinae.
- This encyclopedia gave Latin and German names for the species described, as well as their medicinal uses.
- This learned text is the earliest surviving scientific book by a woman.
- I was born in Michoacán, New Spain, in 1765.
- Early in life I drove mules before joining the priesthood.
- From 1810, I became a brilliant guerrilla leader in the struggle for Mexican independence, initially overseeing insurgents in the south of the country (1810-1813).
- In October 1814, I convened a ‘sovereign congress’ at Chilpancingo, which declared independence from Spain.
- Isolated and trapped by royalist forces, I was captured and executed in Mexico City in 1815. I am considered one of the founders of the radical liberal tradition of Mexican politics.
- I was born into an aristocratic Athenian family in 638 BCE.
- I was elected archon (a chief magistrate) in 594 BCE, appointed to reform the Athenian constitution.
- As a leader, I sought to compromise between the principles of democracy and oligarchy and repealed several draconian laws.
- I set free all those who were enslaved for debt, admitted more people to Athenian citizenship and reformed the currency.
- I wrote significant amounts of poetry and in later years spent ten years travelling.
February 2019
- I was born in Kesh, near Samarkand, in 1336.
- I declared myself Mongol Khan in 1370 and raised a large army of nomadic Turks and Mongols.
- In a series of brutal conflicts, I conquered nearly all Persia, Georgia, and the Tatar Empire and subdued all the states between the River Indus and lower Ganges.
- I conquered Damascus and Syria from the Mamluk sovereigns of Egypt, then defeated the Turks at Ankara (1402), taking the Sultan as prisoner.
- I died while marching to conquer China in 1405. I was the last major nomadic conqueror of the Eurasian Steppe.
- I was born in Constantinople, Byzantine Empire, in 1088.
- I succeeded by father as Byzantine Emperor in 1118.
- My tendency to rely on trusted servants, rather than family members, led to disquiet and I was forced to depose my sister and brother for plotting.
- My energetic rule was largely distinguished by military and diplomatic success. My victory over the Patzinaks (1122) in the Balkans ended a longstanding threat to the Empire, while in the east I recovered territory in Cilicia.
- I was killed during a hunting accident while on a campaign in 1143.
- I was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1879.
- From my schooldays I was fascinated by Irish language and culture, and after studying at the Royal University of Ireland, I joined the Gaelic League and edited its newspaper.
- In 1915 I joined the secretive fraternal organisation the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and became a member of its supreme council.
- During the Easter Rebellion of 1916, I was commander-in-chief of the forces of the Irish Republic and leader of the Provisional Government.
- For my role in the rebellion, I was court-martialled, condemned to death, and executed at Kilmainham Jail in May 1916.
- I was born in Miletus, Anatolia, in the fifth century BCE.
- An immigrant to Athens, I became a prominent intellectual in the city.
- I was regularly lampooned in Greek comedy and satire but was later held in high regard by Socrates (?-399 BCE) and his followers.
- I served as an inspiration to the Athenian statesman Pericles (495-429 BCE) and became his partner after his separation from his Athenian wife.
- My life is of interest to historians as I am one of the few women discussed in the histories of Ancient Greece.
January 2019
- I was a German physicist, born and educated at Konigsberg.
- I became professor of physics at Breslau, Heidelberg and Berlin
Universities. - Working with Professor Bunsen I developed the spectroscope, by which
caesaium and rubidium were later discovered. - I enunciated two basic laws on electricity, named after me.
- These are used to calculate current and voltage in complex electrical
circuits. - I was the first to explain the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum.
- I was a prince of Japan, army officer, politician and prime minister.
- I was responsible for the Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902.
- I successfully advocated the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 and 1905.
- I was instrumental in the annexation of Korea in 1910.
- Not surprisingly, I was in favour of re-armament, was against political parties and liked oligarchic rule.
- My third ministry as prime minister only lasted seven weeks.
- I was born in Indiana, United States of America, in 1859.
- I moved to Texas, where I drove cattle, and later to Colorado, where I attempted gold mining.
- At the age of 43 I began writing; my authentic accounts of American life in the days of the open range and westward expansion became immensely popular.
- My most famous work was the The Log of a Cowboy (1903), which depicts a five-month drive of cattle from Texas to Montana. It is considered a classic of western fiction.
- My other works include The Outlet (1905), Wells Brothers (1911) and The Ranch of the Beaver (1927)
- I was born in November 15 CE, in modern day Cologne, Germany.
- A member of a Roman imperial family, my father was celebrated general Germanicus (15 BCE-19 CE) and I was the younger sister of Caligula (12 CE-41 CE).
- Through astute maneuvers, I became a dominant figure in Rome, helped by my role as a wife of the Emperor Claudius (10 BCE- 54 CE) and mother of the Emperor Nero (37 CE- 58 CE).
- In 39 AD I was exiled for a period for plotting against Caligula, while it was widely believed that I killed Claudius with poison.
- I took on the role of regent for Nero when he ascended to the throne aged 16. As he began to exert his authority, we clashed, and I was murdered on his instruction in 59 CE.
- I was born in Cumbria, England, in 1766.
- I grew up in a poor Quaker family and began work as a teacher and tutor aged twelve.
- Despite never receiving formal university instruction, I engaged in advanced scientific research. My interests included meteorology, colour blindness and gasses.
- I am best remembered for my pioneering study in atomic theory. Works such as A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808) were hugely influential in the development of ideas concerning the atom.
- By the end of my life, my reputation was so great that unusually a statue was erected to me before I died.
December 2018
- I was born in Ulyanovsk, Russia, in 1870.
- The son of a Tsarist civil servant, I became a Marxist revolutionary in the 1890s, co-founding the Russian Social Democratic Party.
- By 1903 I emerged as the leader of the Bolshevik faction and oversaw the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917.
- I served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and helped establish a one-party communist state.
- I died in 1924. My legacy was contested by my successors and remains so to this day.
- I was born in 894 CE in England.
- The grandson of King Alfred the Great (849-899), I ascended to the throne of the Kingdom of Wessex in 925 CE.
- A brilliant military leader, within a few years I unified the kingdoms of England, becoming the first king of all England.
- I pioneered legal reforms which greatly altered the way crime was considered. I also developed a pragmatic and unique approach to foreign policy.
- I am the earliest English monarch for which a portrait survives.
- I was born in 1810 in Warsaw, Poland.
- From a young age I was a famed pianist, composer and child prodigy.
- I was mostly based in Paris, where I mingled with the cream of Parisian society and performed for aristocrats and royalty. My talents led to me being dubbed “the Raphael of the piano”.
- In 1838 I absconded to Majorca with French novelist George Sand, with whom I had a long and stormy affair.
- Having suffered from a young age from a wasting disease, likely tuberculosis, I died aged just 39 in 1849.
- I was a 19th century German physiologist.
- I invented graphic methods of recording events within the body.
- I proved that the circulation of the blood is purely mechanical and involves no occult vital forces.
- I invented the kymograph, a rotating drum on which a stylus charts a continuous record of blood pressure and temperature.
- My pioneering work was in many ways the prototype for today’s blood monitoring systems.
November 2018
- I was a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
- I acquired by nickname and reputation at the Battle of Bull Run as a result of the steadfastness that my brigade exhibited when resisting the Northern attack.
- In 1862, I organized the Shenandoah Valley campaign and supported Robert E Lee’s invasion of Maryland.
- I helped to defeat Union General Joseph E Hooker’s army at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia.
- In this encounter I was fatally wounded by my own men in the confusion of battle.
- I was a Greek soldier born in the sixth century.
- I became a vassal of King Darius I of Persia and accompanied him on his Scythian expedition of C 514.
- I returned to Athens in 493 and played a key role in the Greek victory against the Persians at Marathon in 490.
- The following year I attacked the island of Paros to seek to revenge a perceived grievance.
- Failing in this I was, remarkably, captured and required to pay a fine of 50 talents.
- I died in prison of a wound received at Paros before paying the levy.
- I am a Greek sophist from Abdera in Thrace.
- My religious scepticism was due, I declared, to my ignorance of the existence of the gods.
- This reflected my perception of the ‘obscurity of the subject and the shortness of human life’.
- I am remembered for the maxim ‘Man is the measure of all things, of the existence of the things that are, and the non-existence of the things that are not’.
- My teaching was aimed at the encouraging good and efficient conduct.
- I am portrayed in Plato’s dialogue, bearing my name.
- I was an 13th and 14th century Scottish monk.
- I was a leading figure of medieval scholasticism.
- In many regards I turned against the entrenched beliefs of Aquinas.
- I rejected the idea of a necessary world preferring the concept of God as absolute freedom capable of spontaneous activity.
- The church rejected my ideas, hence the contemporary word extrapolated from my name. In the medieval controversies over universals I advocated nominalism.
- I belonged to the Franciscan order and was known as Dr Subtilis.
- I am a 19th century Swiss manufacturer born in Germany.
- I was an artisan and inventor
- I experimented with supplementary milk products for babies.
- I established a plant in Vevy for making condensed milk
- I sold out my interest in 1875 but the name was retained.
- The now famous company did not enter the chocolate market until 1904. Today it is the world’s largest manufacturer.
October 2018
- I was born in China in 683 CE.
- I established a reputation as a holy man. I became a Buddhist monk and attended the royal court, where I held the role of seer.
- I devised a new calendar, first adopted in 724 CE, and wrote several astronomical and mathematical works.
- My masterpiece was an astronomical celestial globe which featured a clockwork escapement mechanism. This was the first in a long tradition of Chinese astronomical clocks.
- Unfortunately, the globe was used only briefly. The bronze and iron parts corroded, and it was consigned to a museum.
- I was born on the island of Ceos, Greece.
- I studied medicine in Athens, and later founded a school of anatomy at Alexandria.
- I built up a comprehensive understanding of anatomy, gaining insights from the dissection of animals and post-mortems of humans.
- I traced arteries and veins to the heart, recognised the distinctions between sensory and motor nerves and rejected the Aristotelian understanding of digestion.
- Due to these insights, I am often considered one of the founders of modern medicine.
- I was born on the island of Ceos, Greece.
- I studied medicine in Athens, and later founded a school of anatomy at Alexandria.
- I built up a comprehensive understanding of anatomy, gaining insights from the dissection of animals and post-mortems of humans.
- I traced arteries and veins to the heart, recognised the distinctions between sensory and motor nerves and rejected the Aristotelian understanding of digestion.
- Due to these insights, I am often considered one of the founders of modern medicine.
- I was born in West Africa in 1753.
- I was sold into slavery at the aged of seven and transported to America, where I was purchased in 1761 by John Wheatley.
- I quickly learnt to read and write. I wrote my first poem in 1767.
- I was taken by John Wheatley to London where a collection of my poems was published under the title Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773.
- Freed in 1778, I am considered one of the most famous poets of the revolutionary period.
September 2018
- I was born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in 1754
- I entered the army in 1775 and volunteered for service in America.
- I served actively under the army leadership of Clinton and Howe, rising to the post of lieutenant colonel, commander of the British Legion, by 1779.
- A dashing and competent officer, I nevertheless developed a reputation as a ruthless killer. This was partly due to my role as the leader of the British Calvary in the Charles Town expedition of 1780.
- I returned to England in 1782 and, while I reached the rank of general, I never again held an important combat command.
- I was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1865.
- I was involved in the anti-British Fenian movement before moving to South Africa in 1896.
- On the outbreak of the Boer War (1899 – 1902), I led the formation of an Irish brigade and demonstrated my prowess with explosives by blowing up every railway bridge from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg.
- After the conflict, I moved to Paris and married the Irish actress and nationalist Maude Gonne (1866-1953).
- I took part in the Easter Rebellion (1916) against Britain. I was captured and executed on 5 May 1916.
- I was born in Edo, modern Tokyo, in 1760.
- At a young age I was apprenticed to a wood-engraver, under whom I mastered the conventional surimono or commemorative paintings and book illustrations.
- I quickly abandoned the traditional styles of engraving for coloured woodcut designs of the ukiyo-e school, which treated commonplace objects in an expressionist manner.
- I became the undoubted master of the ukiyo-e. I was particularly adept at landscapes, with my 36 Views of Mount Fuji (1826-1833) gathering renown.
- My work greatly influenced the French Impressionists.
- I was an Ancient Greek soldier.
- I became a vassal of Darius I of Persia.
- I accompanied the king on his Scythian expedition of circa 514 BCE.
- I returned to Athens in 493 and masterminded the Greek victory against the Persians at Marathon in 490.
- The following year I attacked the island of Paros in an act of private animosity but failed in this and was captured.
- I died in prison from a wound received in this ill-fated venture.
August 2018
- I was an Italian 18th century composer born in Venice.
- I was a judge of the Venetian republic, a member of the Council of Forty and later held offices at Pola and Brescia.
- I am remembered for my Estro poetico armónico and an eight volume collection of settings for 50 of the Psalms of David.
- History has also judged me favourably for my oratorio La Quattro Stagioni and for my keyboard and instrumental sonatas.
- I also wrote the satirical II Teatro alla moda.
- My brother also published a number of cantata, sonatas and concertos under the pseudonym Eterico Stinfalico.
- I was born in London, United Kingdom, in 1603.
- I migrated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1631, where as a radical nonconformist I refused to associate with the Anglican Puritans.
- A year later I moved to the separatist Plymouth Colony, but my unorthodox views, such as my staunch belief in the separation of church and state, led to me being exiled from the colony.
- One of my key beliefs was in addressing native Americans as equals, and in the spring of 1636 I founded the town of Providence on land explicitly purchased, not seized, from the Narraganset people.
- Providence and the colony of Rhode Island became a refuge for those whose religious beliefs were persecuted elsewhere, such as Quakers and Anabaptists.
- I was born in Newhouse, United Kingdom, in 1856.
- I began work aged seven, but was rigorously educated at home by my parents and became a lifelong trade unionist.
- I was the first independent Labour Member of Parliament, winning West Ham (South) by a majority of 1,232 in 1892.
- I was instrumental in the founding of the modern Labour Party, and in 1906 became the first chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
- I sought to organise international socialist opposition to war in 1914 but the Labour Party decided to back the war, which disillusioned me greatly, and I died a year later.
- I was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1911.
- Inspired by science fiction, I developed during my childhood an interest in rocketry and in 1928 began amateur rocket experiments.
- In 1934 I united with two others to form the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, based out of Caltech. In 1943 this became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which developed into a centre for missile research and early space experiments.
- In 1952 I died in suspicious circumstances, aged a mere 37, six years before JPL became part of the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
- Despite never seeing the formation of NASA, my founding of the JPL and my advocacy of space exploration has resulted in me being considered one of the most important figures in the history of U.S. space travel.
- I was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, in 1858.
- In 1879 I married Richard Marsden Pankhurst, a women’s right advocate and lawyer.
- In 1889, my husband and I founded the Women’s Franchise League, and then in 1903 I founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).
- My initial leadership of the WSPU targeted the Liberal government, before I lead the transition to extreme militancy, such as use of arson, from July 1912.
- In 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918), I called off the suffrage campaign.
- In subsequent years I lectured and resided in North America. I died in 1928, a mere two weeks after The Representation of the People Act was passed, which established voting equality for men and women.
July 2018
- I was born in Paris, France in 1715.
- Descended from a long line of prominent physicians, I was made farmer general at the request of the queen in 1738 but resigned my post in 1751 in favour of retiring to my ancestral house at Voré.
- There I wrote the poem Le Bonheur(Happiness) and my celebrated philosophical work De l’esprit (On the Mind), which immediately became infamous for its attack on morality based on religion.
- De l’esprit aroused formidable opposition, it was ordered burned in public and the Sorbonne condemned it.
- I also held that all men were equally capable of learning, a belief that led me to argue against Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s (1712-1778) educational theories.
- I was born in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, in 1752.
- I entered the British Army in 1770 and commanded a regiment during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
- I entered Parliament in 1790 before being appointed the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada in 1792.
- As Governor, I laid the foundation for the provinces later development through the introduction of common law, trial by jury and the promotion of the Church of England.
- In 1796 I was forced to return to Britain due to ill-health. I am considered a hugely influential figure in the development of both Ontario and wider Canada.
- I was born in Albany, New York.
- In 1755, I raised a company of troops and fought at the Battle of Lake George, part of a campaign by the British to expel the French from North America, in the French and Indian War.
- I was a member of the colonial assembly from 1768.
- In 1775, I was a delegate to the Continental Congress, also known as the Philadelphia Congress; a convention of delegates called together from the thirteen colonies.
- Out of this I was appointed the first of four major generals in the fledgling country.
- I was born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1867.
- In 1885 I left Prussia to avoid military service and, being naturally fit and strong, became a circus athlete.
- At the urging of a friend I travelled to London to take part in a strongman competition, which I won.
- Soon after I was touring Europe and North America as a strongman, even being featured in a short film that showed me conducting ‘muscle display performances’ (modern day flexing).
- Later I concentrated on opening public gyms, developing understanding of strength and conditioning and developing exercise equipment. I am considered to be the ‘father of modern bodybuilding’.
June 2018
- I was born in Bithynia, Asia Minor, in 250 CE.
- I had a relationship with Constantius I (250-306 CE), Roman co-emperor, though it is unclear if I was his wife.
- I was the mother of the emperor Constantine I (272-337 CE), known as “the Great”.
- I was a notable figure in the history of Christianity, acting as a Christian influence on my son and famously making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in later life.
- For my piety I am considered a saint across many Christian denominations, including Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican.
- I was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1898.
- I moved to Munich in 1917 and began writing theatre criticism and drama.
- My interest in combining music and drama led to a collaboration with Kurt Weil, notably in the highly poplar “The Threepenny Opera”, an adaption of John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera”.
- Fearing persecution under the Nazis for my socialist beliefs, I left Germany in 1933 and lived in Denmark, Sweden and later the United States.
- The drama I wrote in exile used techniques of theatrical alienation and included “Mother Courage” and “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”.
- I was born in Shiraz, Persia, in 1210 CE.
- I traveled widely through the Middle East and many of my experiences were incorporated into my writing.
- I was a prolific poet, famed for my lucid style, simple language and idealism.
- My works were among the earliest of Persian literature to be translated into foreign languages.
- In the 17th and 18th centuries my writings won recognition in Europe and America with readers including Ralph Emerson, Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.
- I was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain, in 1495.
- I took part in the Spanish conquest of Central America, before participating in Francis Pizzaro’s (1471-1541) expedition in Peru where I befriended Inca King Atahualpa (1502-1533).
- I was made governor of Cuba in 1536, with the expectation that I would conquer North America.
- I landed on the Florida coast in 1549 and reached North Carolina before returning through modern day Tennessee and Alabama.
- In 1541 I led another expedition, this time reaching the Mississippi, though the journey was a disappointment as little gold, silver or other treasure was found. I died on the banks of the Mississippi.
May 2018
- I was born in Picardy, France, in 1760.
- I became an advocate in the Paris Parlement in 1785, and four years later summoned the crowd outside the Palais Royal “to arms”.
- After the storming of the Bastille, I began to publish the famous journal Révolutions de France et de Brabant, attacking the old regime.
- I became a close associate of fellow revolutionary George Danton (1759-1794).
- My support of Danton’s politics of clemency angered Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) and led to my arrest and execution by guillotine in April 1794.
- I was an 18th and 19th century Scottish geologist and physicist.
- Born in Edinburgh, I lectured in natural philosophy at the famous university there.
- In 1828 I invented a prism, named after me, which uses the doubly refracting property of Iceland Spar, and which proved vital in the evaluation of polarized light.
- I devised a novel and new means of preparing thin sections of rocks for examination under the microscope.
- My reluctance to be published meant that my valuable discoveries remained essentially unknown for many years.
- I was born in Grafton Regis, England, in 1437.
- Born into a middling aristocratic family, I married Sir John Grey of Groby, a Lancastrian, but he was killed at the Second Battle of St. Albans in 1461 and I was widowed.
- While supplicating King Edward IV (1442-1483) for the return of my estates, Edward fell in love with me and we were married privately in 1464.
- The marriage was controversial. Edward was the first King of England since the Norman Conquest to marry a commoner, and the elevation of my family angered Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, so influential he was dubbed ‘the kingmaker’.
- After Edward’s death in 1483 and the ascension of Henry VIII in 1485, my influence diminished and I spent my final years in a nunnery in Bermondsey.
- I was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1126.
- I was an expert in Islamic law and theology, as well as Arabic grammar and poetry.
- In 1153 I was invited to the court of the Almohad caliphs in Morocco, where I worked as a judge and physician and wrote important works on medicine, law and philosophy.
- I wrote a series of commentaries on Aristotle that introduced medieval scholars to the works of the Greek philosopher.
- My writings had a huge influence on European scholarship.
- I was born in 500 CE in Cyprus.
- I was the daughter of a circus bear keeper and early in my life was a comic actress.
- In 523 CE I married Justinian (482 – 565) and when he became emperor of Byzantium became empress.
- I was a talented ruler in my own right, with my advice quelling the Nike Riots of 532 and likely saving the empire.
- I am regarded as an advocate for women’s rights who used my position to help society’s most oppressed.
April 2018
- I was born in Picardy, France, in 1509.
- I prepared for a career in the church in Paris, but in 1533 experienced a “sudden conversion” to the reformed faith.
- In 1534 I wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion, rejecting papal authority in favour of the justification by faith alone.
- I settled in Geneva in 1536, where I sought to create a society in which the demands of “godly behaviour” were strictly enforced by church and civil authorities.
- I am considered one of the most influential Protestant figures.
- I was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, in 1878
- Born into a middle class family, I was privately schooled to develop my skills in physics, and eventually graduated from the University of Vienna.
- As a women, I struggled to gain respect in the field. My first research position at the University of Berlin was unpaid and I was prohibited from working with male scientists.
- I specialised in radioactivity and was a key collaborator with famed physicist Otto Hahn (1879-1968)
- My contribution to nuclear physics was significant, but I controversially did not share in the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for nuclear fission which was was awarded exclusively to Hahn.
- I was born in Uttarakhand, British India, in 1830.
- When I left school I travelled extensively with my father, notably in Tibet, where I learnt the language and customs.
- I became an explorer for the British authorities, where I was merely known as “Pundit No. 1”.
- In 1866 I began a two-year trek across the Himalayan Mountains, where I surveyed the height and positions of numerous peaks in the Himalayan range, and many of its rivers, during a 1,500-mile trek.
- When I retired in 1876, the Royal Geographical Society declared me “the man who has added a greater amount of positive knowledge to the map of Asia than any individual of our time.”
- I was a 16th century Dutch religious leader.
- After the suppression of the Anabaptists, I organised the less fanatical remnants into a religious group known as the Mennonites.
- From Holland and north Germany colonies were introduced by Catherine the Great into Russia.
- Many Mennonites emigrated to America after their privileges such as exemption from military service was withdrawn.
- Mennonites were primarily concerned with a Christian life rather than dogma.
- Among their beliefs are adult baptism, a refusal to bear arms, take oaths or serve in public office.
March 2018
- I was a Swiss painter born in the mid-18th century.
- I altered my surname to sound more Italian.
- I was briefly a minister of religion.
- I studied art in Berlin.
- English portrait painter Joshua Reynolds encouraged my work, which conveyed a similar perspective of imagination and movement.
- I was an 18th century English high-profile criminal.
- I was the son of an engraver.
- I specialised in forging Shakespearian manuscripts.
- These were so good they deceived highly skilled experts.
- I eventually confessed to my fraudulent activities.
- I was less well known as a poet and writer of gothic novels and other works.
- I was born in Wessex, modern day England, in 894 CE.
- I became king of the Anglo-Saxons in 942 CE, and later king of the English in 927 CE.
- I spread Anglo-Saxon control over much of the British isles, forcing the submission of the northern kings, including the king of Scotland, and eliminating opposition in Cornwall.
- I consolidated control with a number of reforms, including strengthened law codes, the regulation of currency and the consolidation of urban settlements.
- I died in 939 CE and was buried in Malmesbury Abbey.
- I was born in 1466 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
- The illegitimate son of a priest, I too was ordained in 1492 and studied in Paris. From 1499 I began traveling and writing on a number of topics.
- Much of my early work centred on my perception of backwardness in the church, notably my famous satire ‘The Praise of Folly”, first published in 1509.
- Despite this, I remained a committed Catholic during the Reformation and in my famous “The Freedom of Will” attacked the views of Martin Luther.
- I died in Basel in 1536. I am often cited as a leading Renaissance humanist.
- I was born in London, United Kingdom, in 1757.
- From a young age I had a passion for painting. I studied as an apprentice graver and spent a short period at the Royal Academy, though I disagreed with many of its principles.
- In 1784 I set up a print shop, but the business failed and I spent most of my career as an illustrator and engraver.
- In 1789, I published “Songs of Innocence”, an illustrated collection of poems. This was followed by “Songs of Experience” in 1794. Both addressed metaphysical concepts and the corruption of human nature.
- Largely unknown in my own lifetime, I am now considered a visionary poet and one of the titans of English literature and art.
February 2018
- I was born in Luoyang, China, in 927 CE.
- I joined the army and quickly rose through the ranks, acting as commander of the palace guards and military governor, among other roles.
- By 960, the strength of my position was such that I staged a coup d’etat and forced Emperor Kong to abdicate the throne in my favour.
- During my subsequent reign, I had noted military success, conquering the states of Southern Tang, Later Shu, Southern Han and Jingnan.
- My reign initiated the Song Dynasty that lasted for over three centuries.
- I was born in Watervliet, New York, in 1824.
- Born into an elite family, I trained as a lawyer before eventually migrating to California in 1852 at the height of the California Gold Rush.
- Here I used by considerable (and sometimes unscrupulous) business nous to became a successful merchant and wholesaler.
- In 1868 I became president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, a post which, with my other business interests, granted me incredible power in California.
- I served as Governor of California (1862-1863) and as US Senator (1885-1893).
- I was born in London, United Kingdom, in 1810.
- The daughter of civil servant and author William Stevenson, I spent most of my childhood in rural Cheshire.
- In 1832 I married a unitarian minister and moved to Manchester, where I would spend the rest of my life.
- I developed my prodigious writing talent and penned a number of works including social satire, novels and biography.
- Living and working in inner city Manchester with my husband, I observed up close many of the city’s social problems and this strongly influenced my writing.
- I was an Ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer.
- Born in Cyrene, I became head of the great library at Alexandria.
- I was regarded as the most versatile scholar of my time, known as ‘penthalos’, or ‘all rounder’.
- I measured the obliquity of the elliptic and the circumference of the earth with considerable accuracy.
- In mathematics, I invented a method for listing prime numbers, and a mechanical method of duplicating the cube.
- Despite the plethora of work I undertook across a range of subjects, only fragments of this remain.
January 2018
- I was an 18th century English-born American mystic.
- I was the illegitimate daughter of a Manchester blacksmith.
- In 1762, I married an Abraham Stanley, also a blacksmith.
- In 1758, I joined the ‘Shaking Quakers’, or ‘Shakers’, who saw in me the second coming of Christ.
- Jailed in 1770 for street preaching, I emigrated with my followers to the USA in 1774.
- In 1776 I founded at Niskayuna, near Albany New York, the parent Shaker settlement.
- I was born in Suffolk, England, in 1587.
- Fearing persecution from King Charles I for my Puritan beliefs, I gave up a successful law practice and valuable assets to immigrate with my family to New England in 1630.
- Before departure I was elected Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I served as governor over twelve terms between 1631 and 1645.
- While still onboard ship I wrote “The Model of Christian Charity”, which stated the goal of the new settlement was to establish a model Puritan community.
- My method of leadership was authoritarian by modern sensibilities, I opposed democracy for instance, but compared to other Massachusetts leaders I was a moderate leader.
- I was born in Amherst County, Virginia, in 1785.
- In 1801, after a camp meeting conversion, I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. I became a travelling preacher at 17, a deacon at 20 and a presiding elder at 22.
- My impromptu, hell-fire sermons and colourful exploits made me well-known throughout my 50 years preaching in the midwest.
- I was twice elected to the Illinois General Assembly. In 1846 I ran for U.S. Congress as the Illinois Democratic candidate, but was defeated by Abraham Lincoln.
- I was known by many nicknames including “Backwoods Preacher, “God’s Plowman” and “Kentucky Boy”.
- I was born in England in 1428.
- Raised in a powerful aristocratic family, I was one of the most powerful nobles in England by the mid 1450s.
- During the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), I fought first on the Yorkist side, helping King Edward IV seize the throne in 1461.
- My relationship with Edward deteriorated and I later switched to the Lancastrian side, restoring King Henry VI to the throne in 1470.
- I was eventually killed at the Battle of Barnet (1471). My influential role in deposing two kings led me being dubbed “the Kingmaker”.
December 2017
- I was born in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1814.
- I practised law and held minor public offices before becoming Attorney General under President James Buchanan.
- A Democrat who was passionate about states’ rights, I nevertheless adamantly opposed slavery.
- In 1862 I was appointed Secretary of War by Abraham Lincoln. Although I had no military experience and often disagreed with Lincoln, I served effectively.
- After being present at Lincoln’s deathbed, I served under his successor Andrew Johnson. Johnson’s attempt in 1867 to remove me from office precipitated his impeachment.
- In 1869 I was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ulysses S. Grant, but died before taking my seat.
- I was born in Belmonte, Portugal, in 1567.
- Heir to a long tradition of service to the Portuguese Court, I commanded the second major expedition to India that left Portugal in March 1500.
- During the expedition I took possession of Brazil for the Portuguese crown. While often credited with being the first European to sight Brazil, its likely Spanish explorers got there first.
- The expedition suffered a number of misfortunes. While I reached India, I returned to Portugal in June 1501 with only four ships, nine fewer than set out.
- Though King Manuel was satisfied with the achievements of the expedition, Vasco da Gama remained the leader of Indian expeditions and I retired to my estate in Beira Baixa.
- I was born in Weymouth, United Kingdom, in 1887.
- I was educated at Trinity College Oxford before serving as lecturer at Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory at the University of Manchester.
- My groundbreaking research advanced understanding of the atom. I demonstrated that the major properties of an element are determined by the atomic number, and established the relationship between the atomic number and the charge of the atomic nucleus.
- At the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) I joined the British Army. My regiment served at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915), where I was shot and killed.
- My death deprived the world of one of its most promising experimental physicists. Many have speculated that if I had survived I would have received the 1916 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- I was a 17th century Russian nobleman.
- As a young man I was a page at the Polish court, I was discovered having a sexual liaison with a nobleman’s wife and sent home naked upon my horse.
- I then joined the Cossacks, and in 1867 was elected hetman, or the group’s leader, of the Ukraine.
- I won the confidence of Peter the Great, who made me Prince of the Ukraine.
- When Peter curtailed the freedom of the Cossacks, I entered into negotiations with King Karl XII of Sweden.
- My expectation was that an independent crown of the Ukraine could be established, but this did not eventuate.
- My story became the theme of poems, notably by Englishman Lord George Byron, as well as plays, novels, opera and paintings.
November 2017
- I was an 18th century French diplomat.
- Through the patronage of Madame de Pompadour, I became ambassador to Rome and Vienna.
- I later was appointed French foreign minister.
- In this position I was at the heart of affairs during the Seven Years.
- Indeed, I signed the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which confirmed France’s losses, such as in Canada and India, of the preceding years.
- I instituted popular reforms in the navy and army and assisted in the suppression of the Jesuits.
- I was a 14th century Arab philosopher, historian and politician, born in Tunis.
- I held various political positions in Spain but largely abandoned these in 1375.
- In 1382, I went to Cairo where I became a professor and chief judge.
- My major work was an epic history of the Arabs, Kitah al-ibar.
- This was followed by the influential Maqaddimah – Introduction to History.
- This book outlined a cyclical theory of history where nomadic peoples became civilized, reached a peak of culture, were then corrupted by their success, and in turn were destroyed by another more vigorous nomadic culture.
- I was born in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1747.
- Poorly educated, I worked as a farm labourer until the outbreak of the American War of Independence (1775-1783). I joined the local militia and rose to Captain of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army.
- In 1780 I returned to western Massachusetts which was suffering economic hardship after the war, exacerbated by high taxation and controversial debt collection. I was elected to local office in 1782.
- I was a key leader of the armed uprising that broke out in western Massachusetts, and the rebellion carries my name. In January 1787 I led an attack on the Federal arsenal at Springfield but was repulsed by the militia.
- Eventually pardoned, as were all other rebels, I lived in New York until my death in 1825.
- I was born in 1562 in Westminster, London.
- A skilled player of the lute and composer, In 1588 I received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Oxford.
- I held a number of prestigious posts in Europe, including lutenist to King Christian IV of Denmark (1598-1606) and “musicians for the lutes” for King James I of England.
- While greatly shaped by musical tradition, I was also inspired by the different styles developing within Europe. I composed over 80 innovative pieces for lute, including “In Darkness Let Me Dwell” (1610) and “From Silent Night” (1612).
- My prolificacy and proficiency were matched only by my popularity. I was one of the most famous musicians of my time and my “Lacrimae, or Seaven Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans“ (1604) became one of the most widely known compositions of the age.
- I was born in Les Cayes, in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, in 1785.
- Educated in France, I emigrated to the United States in 1803, settling on a family farm in Pennsylvania.
- Artistic and possessing an interest in nature from an early age, I spent the next two decades travelling through the Mississippi River Basin working on my great project, the creation of an album of paintings of every species of bird then found in the United States.
- When the project was published in England in 1827 as “The Birds of America”, I became world famous.
- I spent my later years cultivating my image as the “American Woodsman”, painting the nation’s mammals and other wildlife.
October 2017
- I was born in Werowocomoco, modern day Virginia, in 1596.
- I was the daughter of Powhatan (1545-1618), the chief of a network of tribal nations in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing south-eastern Virginia.
- In 1607 I came to the attention of the settlers of the fledgling British settlement of Jamestown and encountered John Smith after his capture by Powhatan.
- In 1613, I was captured and held hostage by British settlers, and during a prolonged captivity converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca. In 1614 I married the prominent colonist John Rolfe (1585-1622).
- A powerful symbol of Anglo-Indian harmony, in 1615 I was brought to England along with my husband and our young child and attained celebrity status. In 1617, while preparing to return to Virginia, I died of unknown causes.
- I was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, in 1821.
- Despite having little formal education, I made a fortune as a planter, slave trader and real estate investor and became a Memphis town alderman in the 1850s.
- On the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865), I enrolled in the Confederate Army and rose through the ranks to become brigadier-general. My daring raids behind enemy lines became particularly famous.
- I am often considered to be the best natural-born solider from either side in the war, with Union General William T Sherman famously describing me as “that devil”.
- My life after the war is the subject of controversy, as I joined the Ku Klux Klan and may have been the first Grand Wizard of the Klan.
- I was born in Decize, France, on August 25 1767.
- The son of a retired cavalry officer and a notary’s daughter, I spent six months in prison as a teenager but found a calling in the French Revolution.
- In 1792 I was elected to the National Convention, the youngest deputy elected, and quickly rose to be a leader of the French First Republic.
- A close ally of Maximilian Robespierre (1758-1794), I served on the Committee of Public Safety and became an architect of the Reign of Terror. My actions here led to me being dubbed “the Archangel of Death”.
- I was arrested in the violent events of 9 Thermidor and executed on 28 July 1794.
- I was an 18th Polish-Lithuanian military engineer.
- I fought in the American War of Independence.
- In particular, I participated in the Battle of Bemis Heights on the American side.
- Later I was military commander of the unsuccessful Polish national revolt of 1794.
- I ultimately became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States.
- I took up residence in French Revolutionary France where I remained.
September 2017
- I was the son of a Liverpool merchant who was sufficiently affluent to send me to Eton and Oxford.
- I had an illustrious political career spanning some 60 years.
- Queen Victoria said that when I spoke to her, it was as if I was addressing a public meeting.
- When I died I was buried in Westminster Abbey and one of my pallbearers was the Prince of Wales.
- I held my high position on no fewer than four occasions and was still working at this when aged 84.
- I controversially would go out in to the streets of my capital city to ‘rescue fallen women.’
- I was a Norwegian explorer.
- My first voyage was to Greenland in 1892.
- In 1895, in the vessel the Fran, I unsuccessfully tried to reach the North Pole but reached 86 degrees North, which was then a record.
- I assisted in promoting the separation of Norway from Sweden, and from 1906 to 1908 I was Norwegian foreign minister in London.
- Returning to exploration, after 1920 I was active in war relief work for refugees and others.
- I received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.
- I was born in Paris, France, in 1864.
- I trained as an actress at the Comédie-Française in 1881, but abandoned my acting career to marry George Laguerre (1858-1912), whom I later divorced.
- I began writing for Le Figaro and was asked to cover the 1896 International Feminist Congress, originally with the view to writing a humorous article. The Congress fundamentally changed my political views.
- I became a feminist and was for a time the vice-president of the LFDF, the prominent women’s rights organisation.
- I established the first women’s daily newspaper in the world, La Fronde, and campaigned for better working conditions for women and for female suffrage.
- I was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814.
- Fascinated by inventions and theirinventors and financed by my father, I began developing firearms and ammunition in the early 1830s.
- In 1836 I took out my first patent for a revolver. Business was initially slow, but when the Texas Rangers ordered 1000 revolvers in 1847 for the Mexican War (1846-1848), my fortunes turned around dramatically.
- My company grew from strength to strength, aided by the settlement of the western frontier and outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865). I financed an immense armoury in Hartford.
- On my death in 1862, I was one of the wealthiest men in America.
August 2017
- I was born in Paris, France in 1805.
- From an aristocratic family, I became active in politics and a well known figure in Parliament, though I was distrusted by both sides of the political divide.
- Seeking an excuse to leave France, I travelled extensively, principally in the United States but also the United Kingdom and British North America.
- After the February 1848 Revolution, I returned to France and held a number of roles in the Second Republic, notably Minister of Foreign Affairs, before retiring after Louis-Napoléon (1808-1873) became Emperor.
- I am best known know for my written works, notably Democracy in America and The Old Regime and Revolution.
- I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1878.
- The son of poor parents yet rich grandparents, this inspired my socialist beliefs.
- A natural writer, my first four novels were well received but commercial failures. This changed when my investigations into the Chicago meat-packing industry, published in 1906 as ‘The Jungle’, made me a household name.
- I became a key figure in progressive circles, and came to know a number of influential figures, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin.
- I continued to publish investigative works and novels, including Brass Check (1919), Oil! (1927) and The Wet Parade (1931), but attempts to obtain elected office were less successful.
- I was born in Mongolia in 1214.
- The grandson of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), I became Mongol Emperor in 1260.
- An energetic ruler, I completed my grandfather’s conquest of northern China, though an attempt to invade Japan ended in disaster.
- I established myself in Cambaluc, modern day Beijing, the first foreigner to ever rule in China. I adopted the Chinese mode of civilisation, encouraged learned men and established Buddhism as the state religion.
- The size of my empire and the splendor of my court famously inspired the Venetian explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324), who spent 17 years in my service.
- I was born in London, United Kingdom, in 1872.
- Raised in a middle class family, I attended the Universities of Oxford and London and trained as a teacher.
- I was attracted to the ideas of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), commonly known as the Suffragettes, and joined in 1906.
- I became adept at directing militant action, including organising marches against rival political meetings, throwing stones at opponents and breaking into parliament. I was arrested on multiple occasions.
- In 1913 I was killed when hit by a competing horse during the Epsom Derby horse race. The circumstances of my death, and whether it was suicide or tragic accident, remain the source of much conjecture.
- I was a Chinese revolutionary leader and statesman.
- I was the son of a Christian farmer.
- I was the founder of the Guomindang of Nationalist party in 1894.
- I was provisional president of the Republic of China in 1912 after playing a vital part in deposing the emperor.
- I established an independent republic in South China based in Canton in 1921.
- My ‘three people’s principles’ of nationalism, democracy and social reform were applauded across many political boundaries.
July 2017
- I was a Scottish 19th century lawyer and theorist of social evolution.
- Educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, I studied at Cambridge before being called to the Scottish bar in 1857.
- I became parliamentary draughtsman for Scotland in 1871.
- I am chiefly remembered for my theories of totemism and the evolution of familial organisation.
- I coined the terms ‘exogamy’ and ‘endogamy’ which are still in use today.
- In the book Primitive Marriage, in 1865, I proposed an evolution from primitive promiscuity, through a stage of matriarchy, to patrilineal descent.
- I was a French clinician and pathologist, born in Ali, Champagne.
- I trained in medicine in Paris and practiced for seven years in Russia.
- There my powerlessness in the face of a diphtheria epidemic convinced me that my medical knowledge was woefully inadequate.
- I returned to Paris and began a rigorous program of medical re-education, collecting thousands of case histories and performing hundreds of autopsies.
- This resulted in my important treatise on tuberculosis and typhoid fever. This important work was a forerunner of the modern drug trial.
- I was an outstanding teacher, and foreign students particularly valued my clinical lectures.
- I was born in Glendon, New South Wales, in 1847.
- From 1879 I lived in Sydney, where I became a committed feminist and in 1891 founded the Womanhood Suffrage League.
- I campaigned energetically, not just on the franchise but a range of issues including protective legislation, shorter hours for shop assistants and the raising of the age of consent.
- I famously refused all offers of marriage, noting that ‘life is too short to waste on the admiration of one man.”
- While I never ran for Parliament, I established the League for Political Education after the franchise was obtained, and remained a pacifist throughout the First World War (1914-1918).
- I was both in Henrietta, New York State, in 1825.
- A member of the Congregational Church, I spoke at their meetings from a young age and obtained a degree in theology from Oberlin College in 1850.
- I was initially refused ordination due to my gender, but eventually became Pastor of the Congregational Church in South Butler, New York State. I was the first female minister in the USA.
- I campaigned for the abolition of slavery and women’s right, and gained worldwide attention when refused permission to speak at the World’s Temperance Convention, despite being an official delegate.
- After the American Civil War I devoted myself to the issue of Prohibition and became well-known as a cogent and powerful public speaker.
June 2017
- I was born in Karnal, British India, in 1895.
- After studying in Aligarh and Oxford, I become politically active, my initial belief in Indian Nationalism later giving way to a form of Muslim nationalism.
- In the years before the Second World War (1939-1945) I became a prominent member of the All-India Muslim League and a close confidant of leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948).
- In 1947 I became the first Prime Minister of independent Pakistan, and after the death of Jinnah in 1948, the nation’s dominant figure.
- My refusal to declare Pakistan an Islamic state and attempts at better relations with India provoked anger among extremists, and I was assassinated in 1951.
- I was born in western Georgia, Russian Empire, in 1886.
- Born into a noble family, I nevertheless became politically radical and held a number of roles in the Bolshevik Party, including Commissar of Ukraine during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922)
- A supporter of Joseph Stalin, I moved to Moscow in 1926 and held key positions, including Chair of the Central Control Commission. In 1930 I became a member of the Politburo.
- I fell out with Stalin over the Great Purges, the political repression from 1936-1938. During the Purges my brother was tortured and shot.
- In 1937 I committed suicide. Soviet state media attempted to cover this up and instead described that I died of heart failure.
- I was born in Dundee, United Kingdom, in 1857.
- I married aged 20 and moved to the United States, but my marriage soon broke up and I was required to support myself doing domestic work for Edward Pickering, Director of the Harvard College Observatory.
- I soon began working in the Observatory itself, frequently collaborating with Pickering, and I identified over 200 variable stars and catalogued numerous novae and other astronomical phenomena.
- In 1898 I was appointed Curator of Astronomical Photographs, supervising a team of 12 women.
- I am widely recognised as the leading female astronomer of my time, and in 1906 was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- I was born in Kalkar, modern day Germany, in 1721.
- The son of a Calvary captain, I was mentored by the margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt, before entering the Prussian cuirassier regiment in 1740.
- I won respect for my role in the War of Austria Succession (1740-1748), where my skill, courage and horsemanship was highly regarded.
- As a Calvary general I truly came into my own during the Seven Years War (1756-1763), where I successfully led forces at the Battle of Prague (1757) Zorndorf (1758) and Kunersdorf (1759) among others.
- After the Treaty of Hubertusburg (1763), Frederick the Great promoted me to the role of Inspector General of the calvary in Silesia.
- I was a Spanish 17th century painter.
- I was known by the sobriquet or nickname of Spagnoletto, or little painter.
- I studied in Spain and Italy, and in 1616 eventually settled in Naples.
- In Italy, I became court painter to the viceroys.
- I embraced Caravaggio’s style of the contrasts in lighting, and painted such subjects as The Massacre of St Bartholomew with striking realism.
May 2017
- I was a German humanist who lived in the 15th and 16th century.
- I mastered Greek and Hebrew, the latter from a Jewish physician.
- I became the principal promoter of these two languages in Renaissance Germany.
- I protested successfully against the destruction of Jewish books.
- By my writing and teaching, I encouraged intellectual tolerance.
- I was a 19th century American poet born at Portland, Maine.
- Educated at Bowdoin College, I became professor of modern languages there and later at Harvard.
- Craigie House in Cambridge, Massachusetts is preserved as a literary shrine to me.
- I was best in long narrative poems such as Evangeline, Hiawatha and The Courtship of Miles Standish.
- My enormous reputation has declined recently as much of my poetry is now perceived as somewhat superficial.
- Twice widowed, my second wife, with whom I had six children, was tragically burned to death.
- I was born in Wotton Underwood, United Kingdom, in 1712.
- Born into an influential political family, I was first elected to the British Parliament in 1741.
- In Parliament I was firmly associated with Cobhamite faction, a group of supporters of Whig politician Richard Temple, the 1st Viscount Cobham.
- From the 1750s I held a string of Government positions, culminating in becoming Prime Minister in 1763.
- My time as Prime Minister is marked by attempts to control spending and the introduction of the Stamp Act, a tax on the American colonies which sparked much opposition.
- I was born in Stradbally, Ireland, in 1892.
- Educated at University College Dublin, I joined the Sinn Fein nationalist movement after the events of the Easter Rebellion (1916).
- I supported the 1921 peace treaty with Great Britain that created the Irish Free State, and in 1922 was appointed to the position of Minister for Home Affairs amidst the Irish Civil War (1922-1923) between Irish republicans.
- I initiated repression of the remaining IRA forces, overseeing the execution of 77 dissident republicans during the Civil War.
- While I won many plaudits for my skills and achievements, including establishing the Irish police force, my unpopularity with violent Republicans led to my murder in 1927.
April 2017
- I was born in Anqing, China, in 1879.
- At a young age I excelled at the Chinese civil service examinations, but my experience of the examination process convinced me of the irrelevance of the traditional Chinese system.
- I became a social and political reformer and played a prominent role in the Chinese intellectual revolution (1915-1921), also known as the New Culture Movement.
- Impressed by events in Russia, I converted to Marxism and was a founder of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. For the next seven years I was its most prominent leader.
- In 1929 I was expelled from the party after disputes with the Comintern on how best to deal with the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party).
- I was born in Vermont, United States of America, in 1813
- I moved to Jacksonville, Illinois aged 20, where I quickly rose through the ranks of the Illinois Democratic Party and in 1843 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
- I was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, where I was prominent in the bitter debates about the development of slavery. I was the main proponent of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
- In 1858, I famously went up against Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) for a place in the U.S. Senate, where I prevailed. The debates for this contest are among the most famous in U.S. history.
- I was nominated as the Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1860, but this time lost to Lincoln in a landslide.
- I was born in Nola, Italy, in 1548
- At the age of 17 I entered the Dominican Order at a monastery in Naples, and became an ordained priest in 1572.
- While I was renowned for my intellect, my views were unorthodox, and after freely discussing the Arian heresy I fled.
- I spent a number of years travelling, holding teaching positions across Europe and developing my theories, many of which anticipated modern science. Best known is my theory of the infinite universe.
- Beginning in 1593, I was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition and branded an impenitent and pertinacious heretic. I was burnt at the stake in 1600.
- I was born in Fuendetodos, Spain, in 1746
- I trained as a painter from aged 14. I moved to Madrid in 1775 and from 1786 was a court painter to the Spanish crown.
- After suffering an unspecified illness in 1793, I went deaf, and my work became darker and more pessimistic in tone.
- I was greatly affected by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain during the Peninsula War (1808-1814).
- I am often described as the first artist to create works of art for their own sake, and therefore an originator of modern art.
March 2017
- The son of a noble family I achieved a position of great significance in the late 12th century.
- Aged just 37, my interventions, arising from my high office, were often ill-advised.
- Despite this, I became one of the most successful of those who held this position in exercising my office’s right of intervening in temporal affairs.
- I deposed the Emperor Otto IV, excommunicated King John of England and promoted the 4th Crusade.
- I played a leading role in advancing the bloody crusade that crushed the Albigensians in France.
- I presided at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
- I was the hero poet of the Gaels
- The son of Fingal, I was said to have lived in the third century.
- Between 1762 and 1763, a James Macpherson published what were claimed to be my poems.
- These were based on the exploits of Fingal and his family, translated from the Gaelic.
- The famed Dr Samuel Johnson was dubious of this claim, and the poems have generally been considered spurious.
- I was the son of a prosperous businessman who owned textile mills in Prussia and a factory in England.
- I began working in the family firm in Manchester in 1841.
- In my spare time, however, I met with workers and studied the economic conditions of people in England.
- The result was the book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
- At about this time, I began a lifelong friendship with fellow writer and philosopher Karl Marx.
- Together we produced enormously influential books on capitalism and communism.
- I was a US political leader.
- I was born in Primrose, Wisconsin.
- In Congress I served as a member for six years.
- I was elected Wisconsin governor in 1900.
- As a US senator, I became a leader of the national progressive movement, running for president on the Progressive ticket in 1924.
- In 1913 my memoirs appeared ‘Autobiography, A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences’.
- I was an 18th century French musician and chess player.
- I composed many operas.
- I came from a well known musical family.
- Through my Anylyse du jeu des ehecs in 1749, I became one of the most famous names in the early history of chess.
- My ‘Philador’s Defence’ is an example of my tactical mastery of the game.
February 2017
- I was born in Fromenteau, France, around 1422.
- From a family of lesser nobility, I originally held a position in the household of Isabel of Lorraine, related by marriage to King Charles VIII (1403-1461).
- Noted for my beauty, I was introduced to the King aged 20, and from 1444 was his mistress.
- I was the first to be publicly acknowledged as the ‘official’ mistress of the king, a position of significance in the Ancien Regime.
- Soon after the birth of my fourth child with Charles, I died of dysentery aged only 28.
- I was born in Greenwich, United Kingdom, in 1850.
- I emigrated to Australia at aged 15, and spent five years exploring New Guinea before being appointed to a role at the Sydney Observatory in 1878.
- I developed a passion for aeronautics. In 1893 I created the box-kite to produce a wing form used in early aircraft, and a year later four tethered kites successfully lifted me five metres from the ground.
- My later work on curved wing surfaces presaged the wing shape of the Wright Brothers’ 1903 aeroplane.
- I also developed other projects, including wave-driven ships and a one-wheel gyroscopic car.
- I was born in 1841 in Foster, Rhode Island, of poor origins.
- I began my political career in 1869 as a Republican local council member, becoming a member of the US House of Representatives in 1878 and US Senate in 1881.
- By the turn of the 20th century I largely controlled the Senate for the Republicans on domestic issues, ruthlessly defending big business and tariffs. I held significant influence over U.S. Presidents, in particular William Howard Taft (1857-1930) in 1909-1910.
- I became known as an expert on fiscal policy, and laid the groundwork for the creation of the Federal Reserve system.
- Unwilling to face meeting ordinary voters after the Seventeenth Amendment dictated the Senate be publicly elected, I retired in 1911.
- I was born in Basra, Iraq, around 965 CE.
- I wrote a work on optics, not disseminated in Europe until the 13th century, giving the first account of the nature of the human eye, as well as atmospheric refraction and reflection from curved surfaces.
- My interest in this area extended to the construction of spherical and parabolic mirrors.
- I later focused on mathematics, and wrote on Apollonius of Perga’s theory of conics and Euclid’s work on parallels.
- Such were my skills that it was said that I spent a period of my life feigning madness, to escape a boast I had made that I could personally prevent the flooding of the River Nile.
January 2017
- I was born in Devon, United Kingdom, in 1790.
- Of humble origins, I became a chemist’s boy and then a tin-man’s apprentice.
- I was a follower of the famed political theorist Thomas Paine (1737-1809), and sold the prohibited radical weekly Black Dwarf throughout London in 1817.
- I went on to publish and supply a number of prohibited radical texts, including those of Paine, Robert Southey and William Hone. I also wrote my own texts, most notably the work Political Litany.
- As a consequence of my writing and printing I spent a series of periods in prison.
- I was born in Amasya, Ottoman Empire, in 1467, the son of Sultan Bayezit II.
- In 1512 I dethroned my father and executed him, along with my brothers and nephews.
- As Sultan I engaged in major imperial expansion, conquering Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz, and securing control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
- I introduced new codes of criminal law, expanded trade and oversaw the transfer of government from Edirne to Istanbul.
- I became known as “the Grim” and “the Resolute.”
- I was a Swiss manufacturer.
- An artisan and inventor, I experimented with supplementary milk products for babies.
- I established a plant in Vevey for making condensed milk.
- I sold out my interests in the business in 1875. But the name of the commercial enterprise was retained.
- The company that bears my name did not enter the chocolate business until 1904.
- This business remains one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers.
- I was a French dancer, born in Brussels.
- I was one of the most famous figures in the early history of ballet.
- I came from a well connected family and received early encouragement.
- My whole career, from my first appearance in Paris in 1726 to my retirement in 1751, was a succession of triumphs.
- I appeared in about 80 ballets and I was lauded by artists and writers of the time including Voltaire.
- I was said to have introduced the now commonplace short ballet skirt.
December 2016
- I was an American politician born in South Carolina.
- I became a lawyer, but the US Congress soon beckoned where I served between 1811 and 1817.
- Strongly nationalistic, I was a vigorous supporter of the war of 1812 and protective tariffs.
- I was an ardent proponent of ‘nullification’, where states could declare Federal laws unconstitutional, if they felt themselves fundamentally threatened.
- I was considered one of the greatest American orators.
- US President Andrew Jackson said one of his greatest regrets was that he did not have me hanged.
- I was an Italian poet of the 19th century
- I have been portrayed by authorities as the greatest Italian lyricist since the 14th century.
- My parents distrusted my liberal ideas and I fled as soon as I could from their conservative views.
- I prepared an edition of Cicero’s works for a Milan publisher.
- My main collection of poems, I Canti, published in 1836 has been translated into English many times.
- I was an Austrian inn keeper and patriot.
- I fought against Napoleon.
- When my native Tyrol was transferred by Napoleon from Australia to Bavaria, I organised and led a local uprising in 1809.
- Twice in that year I drove out the Franco Bavarian troops.
- In October 1809 I once again led Austrian forces in an uprising, but the enemy were in overwhelming force.
- I was forced into hiding, betrayed and shot.
- I was Electress of Hanover
- I was descended from James I of Great Britain.
- This lineage accounted for accession to the British throne of my son George I.
- This set up the Hanoverian dynasty in England.
- In 1658 I married Ernest Augustus, who became elector of Hanover.
- I became heir presumptive to the crowns of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland under the Act of Settlement 1701.
- I was a first millennia Carolingian emperor.
- I was made co-emperor by my father and succeeded to the throne the following year.
- In 816 the pope went to Rheims and placed the crown upon my head, an assertion of papal supremacy.
- My first acts as emperor were aimed at reducing court waste; even my own sisters were sent to convents.
- My attempts to partition the empire after my death between my three sons caused profound discord.
- Matters became worse when my second wife gave birth to a son, later known as Charles the Bald.
November 2016
- I was born in Athens in 495 BCE.
- A member of a wealthy and prominent Athenian family, my father was the politician Xanthippus (525-275 CE).
- I entered politics from a young age, and by my mid 30s I was recognised as a leader in Athens.
- I guided Athens through the transformation to full participatory democracy for all male citizens, supervised construction of the Acropolis and pursued a policy of Imperial expansion that led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).
- Such was my influence that I was described as “the first citizen of Athens”.
- I was born in Wapping, London, in 1725.
- After being impressed, I served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and later captained a number of slave vessels.
- In 1748, in the midst of a storm which threatened the ship, I prayed for deliverance and began my conversion to evangelical Christianity.
- In 1764 I was ordained priest and served in Olney, Buckinghamshire, where I also wrote two famous hymns, “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.”
- Despite and likely due to my lucrative previous career as a slaver, I became an ardent abolitionist. I died shortly after Britain’s abolition of the African slave trade in 1807.
- I was born in Badakhshan, Central Asia, around 1501.
- A member of a prominent family, I entered the service of the Mughal Emperor Babur (1483 – 1530) and played an significant role in early Mughal conquests of India.
- Under the reign of Babur’s successor Humayun (1508-1556) I rose to occupy some of the major offices of the empire. I also led a number of successful military campaigns, notably the reconquest of Hindustan in 1556.
- Such was my closeness to Humayun that after his death I was selected as Regent over his young son, the new Emperor Akbar (1542-1605).
- By the early 1560s my influence declined as Akbar sought to assert his authority. I was assassinated by a member of the Sur Dynasty, a rival to the Mughals, in 1561.
- I was born in Anglesey, Great Britain, in 1675.
- Born to modest circumstances, my mathematical abilities were spotted at a young age and thanks to the support of patrons I rose to become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1712.
- My early work focused on the mathematics of navigation, culminating in the “New Compendium of the Whole Art of Navigation” in 1702.
- I am best known for my “Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos”, published in 1706. This was a mathematical guide for beginners that introduced the symbol π (Greek letter Pi) to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
- In 1711 I published “Analysis per quantitatum series, fluxiones ac differentias”, which introduced the dot notation for differentiation in calculus.
October 2016
- I was born in Anling, China, in 45 CE.
- The daughter of a prominent local family, I married at age 14 but my husband died while I was still young.
- I never re-married, instead I devoted myself to scholarly pursuits. I worked on the history of the Xi (Western) Han dynasty, “Han Shu”, one of the best-known histories ever written and a pioneering work in its field.
- I also wrote a number of poems and essays, the most famous of which is “Lessons for Women”, an influential work on the role of women.
- To this day I am widely lauded as one of the first major female Chinese intellectuals, and certainly the first known Chinese female historian.
- I was born in Nottinghamshire, Great Britain, in 1731.
- I trained as a physician at Edinburgh, later settling in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
- I became interested in natural philosophy, and in 1765 was one of the founding members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a pioneering group of industrialists and intellectuals.
- In 1791 I wrote “The Botanic Garden”, a best-selling popular scientific work written in rhyming couplets.
- In 1796 I developed original ideas on evolution in my work “Zoonomia: Or, the Laws of Organic Life”. These were later a seminal influence on my grandson.
- I am an Anglo-Irish engineer.
- I invented a steam turbine which revolutionised marine propulsion.
- The Turbinia in 1897, the first turbine powered ship, achieved the unprecedented speed of 36 knots.
- Also concerned with optics, I manufactured a 34 inch and 76 inch telescope.
- The turbine engine I invented was named after me.
- I was an Italian patriot born in Genoa.
- I was outraged at the absorption of the Genoese republic into the kingdom of Sardinia in 1815.
- As a result I joined revolutionary university students.
- In 1829 I became a member of the Carbonari, a secret republican society.
- I was one of the leaders of the Risorgimento – the Reawakening – during which I strove to unite Italy and free her from Austrian rule.
- My work of Italian unification was largely completed by Giuseppe Garibadi.
- I was greatly admired by Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George and Gandhi.
September 2016
- I was an 18th century Irish editor and critic.
- I abandoned the law for literature and moved to London, where I became a friend of Samuel Johnson.
- My great edition of Shakespeare appeared in 1790 and the revised version published in 1821 was highly acclaimed.
- I also exposed the literary forgeries of William Henry Ireland and Thomas Chatterton.
- I was commemorated by a special society in 1907 which studies Elizabethan drama.
- I was born in Mikawa, Japan, in 1542.
- The son of the Lord of Mikawa, I succeeded him at a young age and allied with powerful leader Oda Nobunaga. I spent much of my early life demonstrating my military prowess on campaigns with Nobunaga during a period of civil war in Japan.
- When Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582, I began to demonstrate my independence, headquartered at the small port of Edo (modern day Tokyo).
- Civil War erupted again in the 1590s, and when I defeated my main rival at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), I become the most powerful figure in Japan.
- In 1603 the Emperor granted me the historic title of shogun, recognising my de facto control of Japan. As Shogun, I worked to restore stability after years of conflict and encouraged foreign trade. My dynasty would last over two centuries after my death.
- I was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1809
- My mother had been a slave, but she was freed as a young age, and I grew up a free man.
- I immigrated to Liberia in 1829, part of the movement to establish a country on the African continent for former African American slaves and their free black descendants.
- I opened a store in Monrovia, and later engaged in politics, rising in prominence to become the first Black American President (1848-1856) when Liberia became independent on July 27, 1847.
- After office I acted as a General in the Liberian army, before being serving as President (1872-1876) for a second time.
- I was born in Cổ Trai, Vietnam, in 1483.
- The son of a fisherman, I took up a career as a military officer, and under the patronage of Ly Uy Muc, became an influential figure in the Vietnamese royal court.
- In 1516 I helped put down a major rebellion, but not until after the capital was seized and a number of the Ly Royal dynasty, including the Emperor, had been killed.
- Seizing the opportunity in the weakness of the Ly, in 1527 I usurped the throne and proclaimed myself Emperor, establishing a new dynasty.
- Many leading figures remained loyal to the Ly, and even though I obtained legitimation from the Ming Emperor in Beijing, I lost control of the whole of Vietnam by 1633. My descendants however continued to rule in the north after my death.
- I was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, in 1782.
- After studying at Yale University, I entered Congress in 1811 as a nationalistic Democrat and War Hawk.
- A noted orator, I served as secretary of war (1817-1825) and vice-president (1825-1832).
- Serving in the Senate from 1832, I became the foremost exponent of slates rights and defender of slavery; as Secretary of State (1844-1845) accomplished the annexation of Texas.
- In 1847 I introduced a series of resolutions that demanded the territories be opened to slavery, but as my health failed I reluctantly agreed to the Compromise of 1850.
August 2016
- I was born in Scotland in 1752.
- I moved to London in 1774, where I worked as a shoemaker, married the daughter of a carpenter and in 1791 opened my own shoemaker’s shop in Piccadilly.
- After absorbing various political writings and sharing the reformist hopes inspired by the French Revolution, I founded the London Corresponding Society (LCS) in 1792, which worked for the restoration of English liberties.
- While acting as Secretary and Treasurer the LCS garnered support from likeminded organisations across the country, acting as the leading society for English Radicals in the 1790s.
- My prominence made me a target however, and in 1794 I was arrested and tried for High Treason. While I was acquitted, my incarceration had been long and expensive, and I largely retired from political activity after my release.
- I was born in London, England, in 1584.
- I spent my youth at sea and eventually trained as a pilot.
- Between 1612 and 1616 I participated in a number of voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to discover the mythical Northwest Passage
- While this unsurprisingly failed, I am credited with the discovery of the Arctic bay and island which now bear my name. I was also the first individual to attempt to determine longitude at sea by lunar observation.
- I died in 1622 after being wounded during a joint Anglo-Persian attack against Portuguese forces in the Persian Gulf.
- I was born to a family of scholars in Xingyi, Guizhou, in 1837
- As a precocious student I excelled from a young age, passing my first civil service examination aged 12 and completing them all by age 26.
- Between 1862 and 1882 I worked as an educational scholar, but after this rose steadily to become a national leader in China, achieving the post of grand secretary and grand councilor by 1907.
- A noted reformer, my achievements in various roles include a comprehensive reform of the Chinese education system, moves to industrialise regions under my control and some reforms to the Chinese army in Nanjing.
- A major feature of my career was an apparent immunity to major political setbacks, even managing to survive the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 with credit.
- I was born in Berkley County, South Carolina, in 1732.
- Originally destined to be a farmer, in 1861 I earned some military experience in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and in 1775 was elected to the provincial legislature.
- At the outbreak of the American War of Independence (1775-1783) I was appointed captain of a South Carolina regiment but faced early disappointment as British forces gained the upper hand, cementing their success at the Battle of Camden (1780).
- This was just the beginning however. I retreated to the South Carolina swamps and with a small mobile force successfully led harassing operations on British supply lines and communications for the rest of the war.
- My success using these tactics have led many to christen me one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare, and I am known by the nickname “Swamp Fox.”
Click for answer
July 2016
- I was born on June 21 1826 in Florence, to a wealthy Irish aristocratic family.
- A popular individual in the court of Queen Victoria, I gained significant fame after I published my pioneering comic travelogue, “Letters from High Latitude”, in 1856.
- Despite my new found fame, I concentrated on a career in public service, serving as a British diplomat in Syria before joining the Liberal government in 1864, going on to serve in a number of cabinet positions.
- After my stint in government I served in a string of diplomatic roles, showing great skill as governor-general of Canada (1872-1878) before I later achieved my greatest diplomatic ambition of becoming viceroy of India (1884-1888).
- After retiring from the diplomatic service in 1896 I suffered a string of tragedies. I was embroiled, though largely blameless, in a major financial scandal and then my heir was killed in the Second Boer War (1899-1902).
- I was born into the royal family of the Kingdom of Ndongo, modern day Angola, in 1583.
- During the reign of my brother, the Portuguese Empire invaded Ndongo and reached the capital, humiliating the King. In 1621 I skillfully negotiated a peace treaty with the Portuguese.
- Portugal reneged on the terms however, after which my brother committed suicide and I assumed the throne as regent, forbidden to formally take the throne as a woman.
- I demonstrated considerable military skills, overseeing with Dutch help major victories against Portuguese forces in 1644 and 1647.
- I was never able to completely remove Portuguese influence from the region, and in 1657 I signed a peace treaty so as to concentrate on domestic concerns. I died peacefully in 1663.
- I was born in Mariopoul, Russia in 1897.
- The son of a British diplomat, I was educated in France and Germany but displayed an incredibly eccentric British patriotism.
- Despite being under age I enlisted in the British Army during the First World War (1914-1918), where I became famous for my many achievements, such as capturing the village of Vesle on my own before handing it to a New Zealand army about to attack it on mass.
- After describing the interwar period as “immensely boring”, I served as an intelligence officer in Syria and Vichy France before being captured by Vichy forces. While captured I went on a 13 day hunger strike to protest against the “slovenly appearance of the guards who are not fit to guard an English officer.”
- Despite my military feats, I always had an uneasy relationship with superior officers; in 1940 I spent time in the Tower of London for threatening a superior who had refused to allow me to fly to France to fight.
- I was born in Castleblaney, Ireland, in 1892
- In 1917 I joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), serving with distinction in the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921), rising to become director of the Army in 1921.
- After the conflict I become the commissioner of the newly formed Irish police, earning great credit for installing discipline and purpose into the new force.
- I became increasingly involved in far-right and anti-communust politics, and in 1933 I became the leader of the Army Comrades Association, popularly known as the “Blueshirts”, a far right street organisation.
- After this was banned, I formed an Irish brigade to fight for the fascist forces of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and towards the end of my life sought to build Irish links with Nazi Germany.
June 2016
- I was an ancient Greek theologian and anti-pope.
- I lived in Rome and defended the doctrine of the Logos.
- My views brought me into conflict with Callistus, who became pope in 217.
- One of my works, a refutation of heresy, was discovered at Mt Athos in 1842.
- A work I published in 202 became the earliest extant Christian work of its kind.
- I was born in Castleblaney, Ireland, in 1892
- In 1917 I joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), serving with distinction in the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921), rising to become Director of the Army in 1921.
- After the conflict I become the commissioner of the newly formed Irish police, earning great credit for installing discipline and purpose into the new force.
- I became increasingly involved in far-right and anti-communust politics, and in 1933 I became the leader of the Army Comrades Association, popularly known as the “Blueshirts”, a far right street organisation.
- After this was banned, I formed an Irish brigade to fight for the fascist forces of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and towards the end of my life sought to build Irish links with Nazi Germany.
- I was born in 1855 in the United States.
- My father was a member of a comparatively small religious group.
- I chose the same profession as my father.
- My early employment was with a prominent US manufacturer, with whom I subsequently had a falling out.
- I then established a long standing business arrangement with a Belgian company.
- My surname became one of the most famous brand names in the world.
- I was born in New York City, USA, in 1852
- I studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, and in Vienna.
- A Professor at John Hopkins University from 1886, I established the first surgical school in the United States.
- I successfully developed a cocaine injection for local anesthesia, but in the process became an addict and had to be rehabilitated before returning to my role at John Hopkins.
- I was a surgical pioneer, developing new surgical techniques for cancer and inguinal hernia, as well as using rubber gloves and sterile conditions in surgery for the first time.
- I was born in Athens in 495 BCE to the aristocratic Alcmaeonid family.
- I used my skill, oratory and family influence to rise to a leadership role, acting as virtually an uncrowned king.
- Politically a radical, I helped push through constitutional reforms that brought about full Athenian democracy (462-461 BCE).
- A major opponent of Sparta, it was my unremitting opposition which led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).
- To my death I remained a passionate advocate for Athens democratic principles and system of government.
May 2016
- I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1750.
- I studied law in London before returning to South Carolina and serving with distinction in the Revolutionary War.
- I became Governor of South Carolina (1787-1789) and ambassador to Great Britain (1792-1796).
- In 1705 I negotiated a key treaty with Spain, which established territorial and traffic rights on the Mississippi River.
- I later served as a Federalist in the US House of Representatives (1797-1801) and acted as a major-general during the War of 1812.
- I was born in Hungary in 1051, the great-nephew of King Edward the Confessor of England.
- Considered a contender for the English throne at Edward’s death, I was passed up for Harold Goodwinson, but when Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings I was declared King but never crowned.
- I tried several times over later years to seize back the English throne to no avail.
- I also attempted to conquer parts of Italy, took part in the First Crusade (1098) and likely was a member of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I’s elite Varangian Guard.
- I was eventually pardoned by Williams’s fourth son King Henry I (1069-1135) and died aged 75 in Scotland.
- I was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, in 1885.
- I studied philosophy in Budapest and began an academic career, teaching in both Budapest and Berlin.
- The First World War (1914-1918) and Russian Revolution (1917) challenged my views and I became a committed Marxist, publishing the influential History and Class Consciousness in 1923.
- My Marxist ideas were controversial; I developed the idea that far from being inevitable, revolution had to be consciously striven for through the combined efforts of the working class and the Communist Party.
- I am widely considered one of the founders of Western Marxism and the pre-eminent Marxist intellectual of the 1930s and 1940s.
- I was born in 1545 among the Bran people and was a member of one of the royal families of Gabon, Africa.
- Despite my royal heritage I was captured and sold into slavery in Mexico.
- In 1570 I led a group of salves in escaping to the highlands near Veracruz, where I established a successful maroon community.
- I became the Spanish authorities most feared rebel and maroon leader, so much so that the authorities agreed a peace with me in 1618, allowing legal self-rule of the Maroon settlement.
- My exploits led to me being later decreed a “national hero of Mexico”.
April 2016
- I was born in Eshowe, Zulu Kingdom, in 1826.
- The son of King Mpande (1798-1872), I distinguished myself in battle from an early age and was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Zulu from 1861.
- When the Anglo-Zulu War broke out in 1879, I oversaw some initial stunning victories, including at the Battle of Isandlawana (January 1879), considered one of the most humiliating defeats in British history.
- The War ended in defeat for the Zulu however; I was captured by British forces and Zulu lands were annexed.
- While I successfully petitioned the British to permit me to return as King in 1882, it involved a severely emasculated monarchy and, after a period of civil war, I died in 1883.
- I was born in Florence, Italy, in 1449.
- The son of Pietro I Medici and grandson of Cosimo de’ Medici, I succeeded as head of the family upon the death of my father in 1469.
- Skilled but autocratic, I made Florence the leading state in Italy despite attempts to overthrow me, most notably by forces inspired by Pope Sixtus IV (1414-1484) in 1478.
- I was a skilled lyric poet and an enthusiastic sponsor of the Renaissance. I was described by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) as “the greatest patron of literature and art that any prince has ever been”.
- Known as “the magnificent”, the fragile peace of Italian city states collapsed after my death in 1492.
- I was born in Foshan, China, in 1893.
- From the age of 7 I started learning the Chinese Martial Art of Wing Chun, learning from famed master Chan Wah-Shun (1836-1909).
- A police officer by day, I maintained my study on Wing Chun, informally training others in the Foshan area.
- As a member of the Kuomintang, I fled China in 1949 after the Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War (1946-1950), settling in Hong Kong.
- Here I opened a Wing Chun school, becoming the first martial arts master to train students publicly, and my skills were renowned worldwide with the fame of Bruce Lee, who studied under me in 1953.
- I was born in Tenochtitlán, modern day Mexico City, in 1466.
- Born into a royal family, I succeeded my uncle as Aztec Emperor in 1502.
- I helped Aztec control reach its greatest extent, stretching to modern day Honduras and Nicaragua, but faced growing resentment at my demands for tribute and human sacrifices.
- Under my rule the first contact between Aztec civilisation and Europeans took place, with the Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) allying with my domestic enemies to threaten my rule and control of T
- Ultimately I was killed when Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlán in 1520. Whether I was killed by Cortés or my own disenchanted people remains a matter for debate.
March 2016
- I was born in Winnfield, Louisiana, in 1893.
- A bright and strong willed child, through forcefulness and graft I passed the bar exam aged 21 without a single diploma.
- I became active in Louisiana politics, attacking vested interests and big oil, and in 1928 I was elected governor of Louisiana by the largest margin in state history.
- As governor and later US senator, I launched a string of unprecedented initiatives to provide education and economic opportunity for the poor, most notably the “Share our Wealth” campaign during the Great Depression.
- My national popularity encouraged me to run for President in 1936, but I was assassinated by the relative of a political enemy in September 1935 aged 42.
- I was born in Beijing, China, in 1654.
- The son of the Shunzhi Emperor (1638-1661), I became emperor at the age of 8, and ruled personally from the age of 16.
- I stressed traditional morality, cultivating my image as an ideal Confucian leader, and demonstrated literary feats such as a pioneering dictionary, encyclopedia and Ming history.
- I oversaw a string of conquests, including Outer Mongolia (1696), Taiwan (1683) and Western Mongolia and Turkestan (1715 onwards).
- The fifth emperor of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, I am widely considered one of China’s great Emperors and was the longest reigning in history.
- I was a famous 18th Century English actor.
- I made my stage debut in the play Incognito.
- I tried my luck as a wine merchant but failed at this endeavour.
- I purchased a two thirds interest in the Drury Lane Theatre.
- I wrote several plays and also made adaptations from Shakespeare and others.
- I was born in Brielle, the Netherlands, in 1598.
- I worked my way through the ranks of the Dutch navy and in 1639 lead a fleet to victory over a superior Spanish force at Gravelines, a feat I repeated at the Battle of the Downs later that year.
- I was honoured by knighthoods from Louis XIII of France in 1640 and Charles I of England in 1642.
- My favour with England was short lived as I commanded Dutch forces at the Battle of Goodwin Sands in the first engagement of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654).
- My forces were defeated by a superior English fleet off Portland, and finally off Terhejide, near Schevingen, where I was killed.
- I was born in 1889 in Worthington, Indiana.
- A precocious poker talent as a child, I was described by contemporaries as “the smartest boy in the county”.
- In 1912 I moved to Washington DC, where I initially worked as a telegraph clerk. Here I taught myself code-breaking and was dismayed at the simplicity of some of the American codes.
- With war at hand, I persuaded the US government to employ me as a professional cryptographer, and established the “Black Chamber” code breaking team, which had success both during and after the First World War (1914-1918).
- Concerned that the Black Chamber was snooping on too much information, the US government closed it in 1929. After this I published two successful books, one on code breaking and one on poker, and acted as a consultant to foreign governments.
February 2016
- I was born Scylaceum, Calabria, in 490 CE.
- I began my career as a councillor to my father, the Roman Governor of Sicily, and was renowned as a legal expert from a young age.
- I was secretary to the King of the Ostrogoths, Theoderic the Great (454-526), later his sole council and after Theoderic’s death served as chief minister to Queen Amalasontha (495-535).
- I later travelled to Constantinople, where I concentrated on religious questions and also pondered the divisions between East and West.
- My work “Institutiones” is an encyclopaedic course of study for the monks of the Vivarium, which I founded and to which I retired.
- I was born in 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, England.
- At the age of 20 I emigrated to the United States. At this time I changed my name to what I considered to be its original Anglo-Saxon form.
- I developed an interest in photography, but remain obscure until 1868, when my photographs of Yosemite Valley, California, won international recognition.
- I started experiments in photographing motion in the early 1870s, though this work was interrupted when I was tried for the murder of my wife’s lover. I was eventually acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide.
- Returning to focus on my earlier research in the 1880s, I developed the zoopraxiscope, an important forebear of modern cinema, which became a sensation at the 1893 Worlds Fair and cemented my reputation as a major innovator.
- I was the son of Egyptian Pharaoh Senusret II and his wife Khenemetneferhedjet I.
- On the death of my Father in 1878 BCE I became Pharaoh as the fifth monarch of the twelfth dynasty of the middle kingdom.
- My reign came at a time of major prosperity and power for Ancient Egypt. I extended the southern border at Nubia and built a number of imposing fortresses there.
- My reign also saw significant changes in the hierarchies of government and the material culture of Egypt.
- I reigned for nearly forty years until my death in 1839 BCE.
- I was born into a Beijing military family in 928 CE.
- I rose to become a general and then became the First Emperor of the Chinese Song dynasty in 960 CE, after being installed by the palace guard.
- I worked to reunify China after the post -Tang disintegration, and after securing the north I defeated each southern state in succession and reasserted control of Annam.
- I treated defeated warlords leniently and directed power into civilian administration by subduing military political influence and retiring army commanders to country estates.
- My reign lasted until 976 CE when I died in suspicious circumstances.
January 2016
- I was a Russian soldier, the son of a Cossack farmer.
- I fought as a Cossack private in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905).
- Also as an NCO in World War One.
- After the Russian Revolution, I became a Bolshevik and raised a Cossack unit to fight the White forces on the Don.
- I was made a marshal in 1935.
- In 1941 I commanded the South West sector against the German invasion.
- I was an English anesthetist and epidemiologist born in New York.
- I was a young general practitioner when cholera first struck Britain in 1831-32.
- My experience then convinced me that the disease was spread through contaminated water.
- I conducted some brilliant epidemiological detective work which saved lives.
- I traced much of the problem of impure drinking water to then Thames.
- I was a pioneer anesthetist and gave chloroform to Queen Victoria for the birth of one of her nine children.
- I was a German painter and sculptor.
- I was born in Lubeck.
- A surviving reference from the 1460s to me suggests that I was highly esteemed among German artists.
- In 1477 I carved and painted the great cross for Lubeck cathedral.
- I conducted major assignments outside of Germany, including Denmark and Sweden.
- In Sweden, I produced a huge monument for the St Nicholas church depicting St George killing the dragon.
- I was an Irish poet born in Dublin.
- The son of a grocer, I was educated at Trinity College and the Middle Temple.
- My translation of Anacreon in 1800 proved a great success, followed by Poems in 1801.
- My musical talent as a singer, procured me admission to the best society.
- I was paid well for my literary work but had ‘a generous contempt for money’.
- In my lifetime, I was as popular as my friend Lord George Byron.
December 2015
- I was a French soldier and scholar.
- I was born in Lille.
- As governor of Senegal I greatly extended the frontiers of the province.
- In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, I commanded the army of the north
- After the war, I was dispatched by the French government to Egypt to study
the monuments.
- I was born in Worcester County, Maryland, in 1779.
- The son of a US naval officer, I followed in his footsteps by enlisting in the US Navy and quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the youngest ever person to reach the rank of captain.
- I served with distinction during the War of 1812 and Barbary Wars, with my success in the latter leading me to be christened the “Conquerer of the Barbary pirates”.
- I was a leading figure in fashionable Washington society, and was a revered figure in my own lifetime, often considered the first post-revolutionary war hero.
- I was killed in 1820 during a duel with a disgruntled fellow officer, James Barron (1768-1851).
- I was born in Libya in 250 CE
- I pursued a career in the church and I trained in Antioch and became a presbyter in Alexandria.
- In 319 I caused scandal when I claimed that in the doctrine of the trinity, the Son was not co-equal with the Father, but only the first finite being created by the Father.
- I was deposed and excommunicated in 321 by a synod of bishops in Alexandria, but my views resonated with many and threatened the unity of the early Christian church.
- Such was the controversy that the Council of Nicea (325) was called to settle the issue. The council reaffirmed the original church teachings, though I was later recalled from exile in 334.
- I was born in 1155, the son of King Henry II of England.
- In 1170, I was crowned King while my father was still alive, and am known by the suffix “the Young King”.
- In contrast to my father, I did not take much interest in the day to day running of the realm, though I won great fame throughout Europe for my combat skills in tournaments.
- I rebelled against my father on a number of occasions, most notably during the Civil War of 1173-1174, and during one such campaign in 1183 I died of dysentery, aged 28.
- Despite this, father Henry II was famously said to have remarked “He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more.”
- I was born in Changsha, China, in 1874
- In 1903 I founded the Huaxinghui (Society for the Revival of China), a group dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing government, but after failed revolution attempts was forced to flee to Japan.
- In 1905 I jointly founded the revolutionary society Tongmenghui with Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925) and acted as Sun’s second in command.
- I was involved in a number of failed revolts until successfully leading the Wuchang Uprising (1911), which instigated the Xinhai Revolution and the end of the Qing Dynasty.
- I was instrumental in the conflict which immediately followed, but I was defeated by forces loyal to Yuan Shikai (1859-1916) and forced again into exile. Though I returned to China in 1916, I died shortly after.
November 2015
- I was born in Newfoundland, Canada, in 1738, the son of a governor.
- I joined the British Army and served with distinction during the Seven Years War (1756-63), being promoted to major-general in 1772.
- Sent to America in 1775, I fought at Bunker Hill, and in 1776 was repulsed in an attack on Charleston.
- After Burgoyne’s surrender in 1778, I succeeded Howe as Commander-in-Chief, and in 1780 captured Charleston and the entire Southern army.
- After Cornwallis’ capitulation at Yorktown in 1781 I resigned my command and returned to England, where I wrote my memoirs and served as a Member of Parliament.
- I was born in a village in Lombardy, Italy, in 1881.
- I came from a humble sharecropping family and was the fourth of fourteen children.
- I was ordained to the priesthood on August 10 1904 and served in a number of posts over a long career, before being made a cardinal on January 12 1953.
- To the surprise of many I was elected Pope on October 28 1953. As Pope I initiated a number of reforms, notably calling the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
- I was known for my humility and humor, once famously stating “anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one.”
- I was a Greek tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily.
- I greatly improved and embellished the city and extended my domain over large areas of Sicily.
- 148 letters supposedly bearing my name were proved spurious in the 17th century.
- After holding power for 16 years I was overthrown.
- I was allegedly roasted alive in my own invention, the brazen bull.
- I was born the year after major revolution in Europe.
- A celebrated navy man, I said that building a fleet was ‘the work of a generation’.
- Having built up an enormous naval fleet for my country, I became a strong supporter of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- I wrote my memoirs in the year after the conclusion of World War One.
October 2015
- I was born in Homer, Ohio, in 1838.
- After a poor childhood and unhappy youthful marriage, my sister and I became the first women stockbrokers in 1868, opening a successful firm on Wall Street.
- I became involved in political issues and the Socialist group Pantarchy, where I advocated workers rights, free love and gender equality.
- An accomplished speaker, I won broad support from the women’s suffrage movement and in 1872 became the first woman nominated for the presidency, on the ticket of the Equal Rights party.
- In 1876 I emigrated to Britain, where I married for a third time.
- I was born in Mongolia in 1214, heir to the Mongol Empire in China.
- An energetic prince, I acceded to the throne in 1860 but was forced to fight my siblings soon after in the Toluid Civil War (1260-1264).
- As Emperor I adopted Chinese modes of civilisation, encouraged men of letters and culture and enshrined Buddhism as the state religion.
- I established myself at Cambaluc (modern day Beijing) as the first foreigner to ever rule in China.
- At its greatest extent my Empire extended as far as the River Danube, and the splendor and luxury of my court became legend.
- I was born in Vosges, France, in 1827.
- I studied medicine in Strasbourg and Paris, where in my spare time I carried out research in my private laboratory.
- In a landmark discovery, I established in 1865 that tuberculosis was a contagious disease, though my findings were ignored by the scientific community.
- I also discovered that certain bacteria could attack other bacteria, and created the term “antibiotic”.
- After my death I was posthumously awarded the Leconte Prize in honour of my findings.
- I was born in Southampton, Hampshire, in 1859.
- I joined the Royal Navy and rose up the ranks, becoming Third Sea Lord in 1908 and Commander-in-Chief by the start of the First World War (1914-1918)
- My main engagement was the Battle of Jutland (1916), for which I was heavily criticised, though it was later accepted that my actions made the German High Seas Fleet ineffective for the rest of the war.
- Promoted to First Sea Lord, I helped organise defences against German submarines and in 1919 was made Admiral of the Fleet.
- I finished my career as Governor-General of New Zealand (1920-1924).
- I was born in Aragon, Spain, in 1746.
- My father was a painter, and I quickly followed his profession, being apprenticed to a local artist aged 14. In 1763 I went to Madrid to study under Francisco Bayeu.
- My career quickly developed and in 1775 I began designing for the Royal Tapestry Factory, followed by being appointed court painter to Charles IV in 1786.
- In the winter of 1792 I became seriously ill and was left totally deaf, which altered my career dramatically. My previous Rococo style was replaced by dark subjects and a more expressionistic emphasis.
- In 1824, I was forced to going into exile due to political upheavals, and I died in France in 1828.
September 2015
- I was a social reformer, born in Ireland in 1796.
- During the calls for political reform in the early 1830s, I emerged as an advocate of rights and democracy for Ireland, and in 1832 I was elected member of parliament for Cork.
- After losing my seat in 1835, I set my sights on mainland Britain, where I became a leading radical, campaigning across the country for political reform, universal male suffrage and improved working conditions.
- My charismatic and incendiary speeches brought thousands, and I became one of the leading figures of Chartism – a political and social reform movement rooted in the working classes.
- After Chartism went into a sharp decline after 1848, my own health suffered, and I was declared insane and sent to an asylum, where I died in 1855.
- I was born in Bologna, Italy, in 1874.
- I studied at the Technical Institute of Livorno, and started experimenting with a device to convert electromagnetic waves into electricity.
- My first successful experiments in wireless telegraphy were made at Bologna in 1895, and by 1899 I had erected a wireless station at La Spezia and formed a telegraph company in London.
- In 1898 I transmitted signals across the English channel, and in 1901 across the Atlantic, and later established a worldwide radio telegraph network for the British government.
- In 1909 I shared the Nobel Prize for Physics.
- I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1735.
- A silversmith and copperplate printer, I was one of the party that destroyed the tea in Boston harbour in 1773, and was head of a secret society to spy on the British.
- On 18 April 1775, the night before Lexington and Concord, I started out for Concord, where arms were secreted and patriot forces could be mobilised.
- I was captured and then turned back by a British patrol, and my mission was eventually completed by Dr Samuel Prescott (1751-1777).
- Nevertheless, my actions during the “midnight ride” have been revered, notably by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).
- I was born in Hanley, England, in 1500.
- The reputation I gained at Oxford led to the attention of Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), who made me his chaplain.
- My zeal in King Henry VIII’s service after the demise of Wolsey earned me promotion, and in 1540 I became Bishop of London.
- I was imprisoned between 1549 and 1553 however, for refusing to recognise royal supremacy during the reign of King Edward VI (1537-1553).
- I was restored to office on the accession of Mary I (1516-1558), but following Elizabeth’s (1533-1608) accession I again refused the oath of supremacy, and died in prison.
August 2015
- I was born in 742, the son of Pepin the Short.
- After becoming King of the Franks in 771, I defeated the Saxons and the Lombards, fought the Arabs in Spain and took control of much of Christian western Europe.
- In 800, I was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III.
- In later years, I consolidated my vast empire, building palaces, churches and civil buildings while promoting Christianity, education and the arts.
- My reign was an attempt to consolidate order and Christian culture among the nations of the West, but my Empire did not long survive my death in 814.
- I was born in Bar-le-Duc, France, in 1615.
- I was the daughter of Claude of Lorraine. In 1534 I married Louis of Orleans, but after he died in 1537 I married James V of Scotland.
- When James died in 1542, I was left with one child, Mary Queen of Scots.
- During the troubled years that followed, I acted with wisdom and moderation in my role as Queen Mother, and in 1554 acceded to the regency.
- I let my French political allies have considerable power in court however, leading to the resentment that resulted in Protestant nobles raising a rebellion in 1559. I died at Edinburgh Castle in 1560.
- I was born in Huanggang, China, in 1908.
- After training as a soldier, I became a leader in the Chinese Communist Party and a marshal of the Red Army.
- During the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) my leadership was pivotal in a string of Communist victories, including the Lioshen and Pingjin Campaigns.
- After the war I initially avoided politics, but later became minister of defence in 1959. In 1968 I replaced Liu Shaoqui (1898-1969) as the heir apparent to Mao Zedong (1893-1976).
- In 1971, after a political struggle, I was killed in a plane crash in Mongolia while attempting to seek refuge in the USSR.
- I was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1466.
- After six years in an Augustinian monastery, I became private secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, and in 1492 a priest.
- In 1498 I moved to England, where I became professor of divinity and Greek at Cambridge.
- After publishing my first satire in 1509 (Encomium Moriae), my masterpiece, Colloquia, appeared in 1519 and was an audacious attack on the abuses of the church.
- From 1521 I lived in Basel, where despite being engaged in continual controversy I enjoyed great fame and respect.
July 2015
- I reorganized the Persian Empire and consolidated its frontiers.
- In 515 BCE I crossed the Bosphorus and led an army against the Scythians.
- The revolt of the Greek cities of Asia Minor caused me to undertake the first Persian invasion of Greece in 490.
- In this conflict, the Persians were defeated at Marathon.
- I succeeded Cambyses.
- I was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1871
- I studied languages and music at Trinity College Dublin and the Sorbonne, whilst also travelling to study in Germany and Italy.
- I starting working as a playwright, influenced by W.B. Yeats among others, and in 1901 completed the manuscript of my first major work, “The Aran Islands”.
- Other plays I penned included “The Shadow of the Glen” and “Riders to the Sea”. My masterpiece was “The Playboy of the Western World”, which sparked disturbances after its 1907 Dublin premiere due to its critique of Irish Catholic nationalism.
- I died at the age of 37 in March 1909.
- I was born in Paris, France, in 1792, to a poor family.
- When I was 11 I intervened to save a rich schoolboy during a fight, and was rewarded by the schoolboy’s parents with prestigious schooling at the Lycée Charlemagne, where I excelled.
- I became a teacher of philosophy, later becoming Professor at the Sorbonne before being relieved from the role for begin too Liberal during the Bourbon restoration (1820-1830).
- During the July Monarchy (1830-1848) I became a prominent educator and statesman, helping to design the French primary school system.
- I also established philosophy as a major intellectual pursuit of the French secondary and higher schools.
- I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1806.
- I had a poor background but read widely and studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1827.
- By 1832 I had turned my attention solely to writing, with my strong personality and prodigious output enabling me to quickly establish a literary career.
- My most notable achievements are my historical novels, including “Guy Rivers” (1834) and “The Yemassee” (1835), though my work also included verse and editing literary magazines.
- I am often considered the dominant literary personality of the antebellum South.
- I was born in Degel, modern day Nigeria, in 1781
- I was one of the 37 children of Othman dan Fodio (1754-1817), the Muslim leader who founded the Sokoto Caliphate.
- I became a leading military commander and later Sultan, completing conquests in Zamfara and Gobir and later unsuccessfully attempting to subjugate Bornu.
- I was a prominent scholar, writing over 80 volumes concerning areas as disparate as theology, history, medicine and local government.
- These ideas provided the intellectual and ideological basis for the Sokoto Caliphate, which lasted until 1903.
June 2015
- I was born at Braywich, Ireland, in 1750 into a military family.
- At aged 17 I was made colonel of the family regiment, the Dillon’s Regiment, one of the Irish Brigades which served the King of France.
- When France went to war with Britain in 1778, I was sent to North America, where I served with distinction at Siege of Savannah and was promoted to General.
- Elected to the Estates-General in 1789, I continued to serve during the French Revolution, skillfully leading the Army of the North during the 1793 campaigns.
- At the height of the Terror I was falsely accused of collaborating with the enemy, and was tried and condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal.
- I was born in Guangdong province, China, in 1814
- Though my family was poor, they educated me, but I on numerous occasions failed the examination for the prestigious shengyuan
- While studying in Guanzhou, I acquired a religious tract “Good Words for Exhorting the Age”, which strongly influenced my thinking.
- I experienced a number of religious visions, including one where I was urged to slay demons, and interpreted these as evidence that I was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.
- I gathered a group of followers and was proclaimed “Heavenly King” during the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), but died in July 1864 as my heavenly kingdom was being attacked by Qing soldiers.
– I was born in Guangdong province, China, in 1814.
– Though my family was poor, they educated me, but I on numerous occasions failed the examination for the prestigious shengyuan degree.
– While studying in Guanzhou, I acquired a religious tract “Good Words for Exhorting the Age”, which strongly influenced my thinking.
– I experienced a number of religious visions, including one where I was urged to slay demons, and interpreted these as evidence that I was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.
– I gathered a group of followers and was proclaimed “Heavenly King” during the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), but died in July 1864 as my heavenly kingdom was being attacked by Qing soldiers.
Click for answer
- I was born in Kirkilston, Scotland, in 1870.
- Trained as a surgeon, I worked for the British African Merchants Committee in Anomabu, modern day Ghana, where I soon started slave-trading on my own account.
- I steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a successful administrator and rich slaver, before virtually my entire wealth was seized by a privateer while being shipped to Florida.
- Humiliated and bankrupt, I tried my hand at a range of employments including as a wine merchant, pirate and bookseller, to little success.
- I am best known for my History of Dahomy (1793), written while operating there as a colonial administrator, which notwithstanding its pro slavery rhetoric is considered a landmark work of its period.
May 2015
- I was born in Berlin in the 17th century
- During my childhood I was greatly affected by the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War.
- I lived for some time in Holland where I studies at the University of Leiden.
- In foreign affairs I pursued a policy of shifting alliances.
- By the 1685 Edict of Potsdam, I granted asylum to all the French Huguenots expelled from France.
- I was born in Pforzheim, Baden-Wurttemberg.
- I was a leading exponent of ‘philosophical anthropology’.
- I proposed an empirical examination of all human cultures and historical periods.
- I believed that human sciences have an essential involvement with the worldviews of their objects.
- My main works were published in 1920, 1948 and 1966.
Click for answer
- I was born in Hammondsport, New York, in 1878
- Originally a bicycle mechanic, I established a motorcycle factory in 1902, and in 1905 set a world speed record of 137 mph on a motorcycle of my own design
- I also designed motors for airships, working with Alexander Graham Bell among others, and in 1908 achieved the first public one kilometre flight in the USA
- In 1911 I invented the aileron and flew the first practical example of a seaplane
- During the First World War (1914-1918) I produced military aircraft such as the JN-4 (Jenny), the Navy-Curtiss flying boat and Liberty engines
- I was born in Genoa, Italy in 1805
- I trained as a lawyer, where I became an ardent liberal, founding the Young Italy Association in 1833
- Expelled from France, I travelled around Europe advocating insurrection and republicanism
- In 1848 I became involved in the Lombard revolt, and collaborated with Garibaldi in attempting to keep the struggle alive in the Alps
- During the key events of 1859-1860, my supporters and I attempted in vain to build the new Italy in the tradition of republicanism
April 2015
- I was born in Teate Marrucinorum, the modern city of which is Chieti, Italy in 76 BCE.
- In the Civil War against Pompey I fought for Caesar, being at his side at the decisive moments that began the conflict.
- In 39 BCE I commanded in Spain, and was appointed by Marcus Antonius to settle the veterans on the lands assigned to them, saving Virgil’s property from confiscation.
- I founded the first public library in Rome, and was the patron of Virgil and Horace.
- My orations and written history of the civil wars, a strong foundation for later Roman historians, have largely be lost apart from a few fragments.
- I was born in Westerham, England in 1741
- Commissioned an army officer in 1741, I distinguished myself serving during the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and against the Jacobites in Scotland (1745-46)
- I was sent to Canada during the Seven Year’s War (1756-1763), where in 1758 I was prominent in the capture of Louisburg
- I commanded the famous capture of Quebec in 1759, scaling the cliffs to defeat the French on the Plains of Abraham, where I was killed
- My performance in Quebec led to considerable posthumous fame, where I was dubbed “The Conquerer of Canada”
- I was born in Alagoas province, Brazil, in 1827
- I fought in the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), where I attained the rank of Captain, Colonel and later Field Marshal
- In 1886 I was appointed governor of the province of Rio Grande do Sul, where I began to associate with the growing Brazilian republican movement
- Amidst increasing dissent, in 1889 I headed the revolt which overthrew Emperor Pedro II, becoming the first President
- I was not a natural political leader, however, and by 1891 had been forced out of office
- I was born in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1885
- I studied at Krakow and then Bern, after which I became a journalist
- I helped organise the German Communists during the Spartacus uprising of 1919, and was later imprisoned as a consequence
- I went to the Soviet Union, where I became a leading figure in the Communist International, but my increasing distrust of extremist tactics lead many to doubt my commitment
- In 1927 I was charged as a Trotsky supporter, and expelled from the Russian Communist party. I was later a victim of Stalin’s show trials
- I was born on the 24th of August 1759 in Hull, England the son of a wealthy merchant.
- I studied at Cambridge University.
- In 1780 I became a member of parliament for Hull and later represented Yorkshire.
- My lifestyle changed when I became an evangelical Christian in 1790.
- I introduced many anti-slavery and social reformation motions to Parliament.
- My campaign to end slavery was ultimately successful.
Click for answer
March 2015
- I was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1604
- I was taken early to Amsterdam, where I became chief rabbi at the mere age of 18 in 1622
- In 1626 I succeeded in setting up the first printing press in the Netherlands.
- Between 1655 and 1657 I was in England, where I secured from Oliver Cromwell the readmission of the Jews
- I wrote important works in Hebrew, Spanish, Latin and English, including my ‘Humble Address’ directed to Cromwell
- I am a philosopher, born in Copenhagen, Denmark
- I studied at Copenhagen, and came to criticise speculative systems of thought, such as Hegel’s, as irrelevant to existence-making choices.
- In my early career I primarily published writings under pseudonyms, allowing me to present a variety of viewpoints which interacted with each other.
- In 1846, I published ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’, which attacked all philosophical system building and formulated the thesis that subjectivity is truth.
- My work became a major influence on twentieth century existentialism.
- I was born in Nerac, France, in 1881.
- I passed through Ecole Navale in 1899, attaining flag rank in 1929.
- I in turn became minister of the navy, vice-president of the council of ministers and secretary of state for foreign affairs.
- During the Vichy regime I was admiral of the fleet, vice-premier, foreign minister and minister for national defence.
- After concluding an armistice with the Allies, I was assassinated in Algiers by an anti-Vichy agent on Christmas Eve 1942.
Click for answer
- I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1803.
- I studied at Harvard and become a teacher before becoming in 1829 a pastor of a Unitarian Church in Boston, but my unorthodox views forced my resignation.
- In 1833 I travelled to Europe and visited Thomas Carlyle, thereafter corresponding with him for 38 years.
- In 1834 I moved to Concorde, Massachusetts, where I wrote my prose rhapsody ‘Nature’ in 1836, and many poems and essays, notably ‘The Conduct of Life’ in 1860.
- I was a bold advocate of spiritual individualism.
February 2015
- I was born in the Chinese state of Lu, modern Shantung, in 551 BCE.
- Largely self educated, I married at 19, became a local administrator, and in 531 BCE began my career as a teacher.
- In 501 BCE I as appointed Governor of Chung-tu, then minister of works, and later minister of justice.
- My ideas for social reform made me popular with the people, but my enemies made me leave Lu and I travelled widely with a number of disciples.
- I later edited ancient writings, and memorabilia containing my sayings and doings were compiled shortly after my death.
- I was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1800.
- I studied medicine at Heidelberg, where I turned to chemistry and studied with Berzelius, with whom I maintained a lifelong friendship.
- I taught at Berlin and Kassel, before becoming professor of chemistry at Gottingen in 1836.
- I isolated aluminium (1827) and beryllium (1828) and conducted the first synthesis of an organic compound from an inorganic substance (1828).
- My work is marked as a turning point in the study of organic chemistry.
- I was born in Shao-hsing, China, in 1881.
- I studied as a doctor, but by 1913 I was professor of Chinese literature at the National Peking University and National Normal University for Women.
- In 1926 I became a professor at Amoy University, and later dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Sun Yixian University, Canton.
- As well as teaching, I had a significant career as an author, with ‘The True Story of Ah Q’ being my most successful book, translated into many languages.
- A revolutionary hero, I was posthumously adopted by the Chinese Communists as a pioneer of Socialist Realism.
- I am a King of Scots, the second son of Robert III.
- After my elder brother David was murdered at Falkland in 1402, I was sent for safety to France, but was captured by the English and remained a prisoner for 18 years.
- Once released in 1424, I dealt ruthlessly with potential rivals to my authority, including those who had reigned in my name during my captivity.
- I brought state finance under my direct control, curtailed the powers of nobles and improved the administration of justice for common people.
- I was assassinated in 1437 by a small group of dissidents, led by Sir Robert Stewart.
January 2015
- I am a Buddhist explorer and diarist, born in Chen-Lu, China.
- Inspired by early travelers, in 629 CE I made an epic journey to India for Buddhist Scriptures, a journey that would take 16 years.
- I crossed the Gobi and Xinjiang, traversed modern Afghanistan, and visited all the major historical sites in Northern India
- I returned to China carrying 150 pieces of Buddha’s body, 657 books and the recipe for sugar.
- My vivid account, published in 646 CE, is a major source for 7th century Asia.
- I am a soldier and diplomat, born in Vienna, Austria.
- I entered the army in 1787, and in the War of the Second Coalition (1792-1802) distinguished myself at Hohenlinden in 1800.
- As ambassador to Russia when Austria declared war on France in 1809, I took part in the defeat at Wagram.
- After peace was declared, I conducted the negotiations for the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise of Austria in 1810.
- When Austria later turned again on Napoleon, I commanded the allied armies which won the Battles of Dresden and Leipzig in 1813.
- I am a revolutionary, born in Meldola, Italy.
- I was initiated early into secret societies, and in 1844 was sentenced at Rome to the galleys, amnestied, and then imprisoned for political plots.
- In 1853 I was shipped by the Sardianian government to England, where I joined the Young Italy movement and formed a friendship with Guiseppe Mazzini.
- In 1857, I made an unsuccessful attempt in Paris to assassinate Napoleon III by throwing a bomb under his carriage.
- As a consequence of the attack, which killed 10 bystanders and injured over 100, I was arrested and executed.
- I am a Poet and Soldier, born in Shropshire, England.
- After studying at Shrewsbury Technical School, I left England to teach English in Bordeaux in 1913, where I first began to write.
- After enlisting as a soldier in the First World War (1914-1918), I was wounded and sent to recuperate near Edinburgh. Here I met Siegfried Sassoon, who encouraged my poetry writing.
- My poems, expressing a horror of the cruelty and futility of war, were first collected in 1920 by Sassoon.
- I was killed in action on the Western Front, a week before the armistice.
- I am a Chinese military officer.
- Between 138 BCE and 125 BCE, I was sent westwards by Han Emperor Wudi to ally with Bactria (modern Balkh, Afghanistan) to protect the Silk Road against the Huns.
- On my return, I was put in charge of the foreign office, and was dubbed the ‘Great Traveler’.
- I successfully returned westwards in 115 BCE, and my expeditions helped generate Chinese interest in the west, demonstrated by Ban Chao over a century later.
- My writings, preserved in Sima Qian’s Shi Ji (100 BCE), remain a major source for this era in Central Asian history.
December 2014
- I was born on April 1710 in Brussels.
- I was a trained French ballerina who made her Paris Opera debut in 1726.
- I was admired for my speed and agility and for executing jumping steps previously performed only by male dancers.
- My name was adopted by a British Ballet society in 1930.
Click for answer
- I was born in Denison, Texas, in 1890.
- I trained at West Point, and by 1939 had become chief military assistant to General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines.
- In 1942 I commanded Allied forces for the amphibious assault on French North Africa.
- My greatest contribution to the war effort was my talent for ensuring smooth co-ordination between Allied staff, and in 1944 I acted as the Supreme Commander of the 1944 cross-channel invasion of the continental mainland.
- In 1952 the popularity I had gained in Europe propelled me to victory in the US Presidential elections standing as a Republican, and I was re elected in 1956.
- I was born in Paris in 1431.
- While at university in Paris, I had to flee after fatally wounding a priest in a street brawl in 1455.
- I joined a criminal organisation, the ‘Brotherhood of the Coquille’, where I wrote poetry and ballades in its secret code.
- Pardoned in 1456, I returned to Paris and wrote two of my most famous poems, ‘Le Petit Testament’ and ‘Le Grand Testament.’
- During this time I was known to have committed several crimes, and in 1463 i received the death sentence, though it was later commuted to life in prison.
- I was born in Plymouth, Devon, in 1767.
- I joined the army and in 1789 I emigrated to Australia, where I became leader of the settlers in New South Wales.
- I inspired the Rum Rebellion (1808-1810), in which British soldiers mutinied and imprisoned the governor, William Bligh.
- I was banished to England in 1810, but returned in 1816 and made a vast fortune in the wool trade.
- I was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1825 and 1832.
November 2014
- I was born into a poor Nanjing family in 1328, and orphaned at 16.
- I was a Buddhist novice, beggar and White Lotus secret society member before gaining influenced as a Red Turban rebel.
- Setting up my own local organisation, I seized Nanjing in 1356, overran the Yangtze basin and then took Beijing and overthrew the Yuan dynasty in 1368.
- I established the Ming (‘brilliant’) dynasty at Nanjing, and took the reign name which translated to ‘vast military power.’
- While ruler, I drove the Mongols out of China and bloodily suppressed secret societies and subversives, setting up a special police with torture prisons, and concentrated vast power in my hands.
- I was born in Avalon, France, in 1140.
- While a priest at the Grande Chartreuse (1160-1170), I was called to England by Henry II to found a Carthusian monastery in Witham, Somerset.
- I became Bishop of Lincoln in 1186, where I fought against the strict forestry laws and defended the Jews against rioting mobs.
- I refused to pay taxes to Richard I to finance wars, a significant event in constitutional history, and began rebuilding Lincoln cathedral.
- I was canonised in 1220.
- I was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1889.
- I began experimenting with building helicopters in 1909, but shelved my work due to lack of money and experience, turning to aircraft instead.
- In 1913 I built and flew the first four engined aeroplane.
- In 1919 I emigrated to the United States, becoming a US citizen in 1928, and founded an aeronautical engineering company which eventually became the United Aircraft Corporation.
- I built a number of successful flying boats, but my crowning achievement came in in 1939, when I developed the first successful helicopter, the VS-300.
- I was born in Walthamstow, Greater London, in 1834.
- Educated at Marlborough College, I studied for holy orders at Oxford, but renounced the Church, studied architecture and then became a professional painter (1857-1862).
- In 1861, after designing and furnishing my marital home, I founded a design firm which revolutionised the art of house decoration and furniture in England.
- I believed that the excellence of mediavel arts and crafts were destroyed by Victorian mass-production, a view which led me to join the Social Democratic Foundation in 1883.
- I was also a writer, with my most famous work The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Nibelungs inspired by trips to Iceland.
October 2014
- I was born in London in 1759
- I trained as a lawyer and doctor, but espoused radical ideas which closed of advancement in Britain, so in 1794 I emigrated to the United States with Joseph Priestly.
- I practised both law and medicine in Pennsylvania, but also became a pamphleteer in favour of Thomas Jefferson
- I then became an academic teaching chemistry, holding posts at Carlisle College (1811-1815), the University of Pennsylvania (1815-1819) and South Carolina College, where I served as President.
- My libertarianism led me to become a defender of states rights, and my political views were widely disseminated across America.
- I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1898.
- I began a singing career in the modest circuit of vaudeville tents and small theatres.
- I soon gained recognition as one of the prominent African-American artistes of my day, thanks to my magnificent voice and blue-based repertoire.
- I made a series of recordings throughout the 1920s, accompanied by leading jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, and these are considered classic blues statements.
- I was nicknamed ‘Empress of the Blues.’ and later starred in the 1929 film, ‘St Louis Blues.’
- I was born in Ales, Sardinia in 1891.
- I studied at Turin University, helped found a left-wing paper (‘The New Order’) and was active in promoting workers’ councils in factories.
- Dissatisfied with moderate, reformist Socialism, I helped establish the Italian Communist Party in 1921, which I represented at the Third International in Moscow in 1922 and in 1924 became leader of the party in parliament.
- When Benito Mussolini banned the party, I was arrested and spent the rest of my life in prison.
- Here I published around 30 notebooks of reflections which were published posthumously, which now are regarded as one of the most important political texts of the century.
- I was born in 1494 in Chinon, France
- After a period with the Franciscan order, I studied medicine at Montpellier, and became a physician at Lyon.
- Here I began the sequence of books for which I am remembered, starting with the comic and satirical ‘Pantagruel’ (1532) and ‘Gargantua’ (1534), published under a pseudonym
- Both were highly successful, though condemned by the Church for their unorthodox ideas and mockery of religious practices.
- In 1546 I published ‘Tiers Livre’ under my own name. It was again condemned and I fled to Metz, where I continued to practice medicine.
- I was born near Slonim, Lithuania, in 1746
- Although a captain in the Polish army, I volunteered my services to Benjamin Franklin during the American Revolution, arriving in Philadelphia in 1776 and commissioned as a colonel in the engineers.
- I made major contributions at Saratoga, Hudson River and in the Carolinas campaign, and was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1783.
- In 1784 I returned to Poland, and achieved fame for my defence of Dubienka against a superior force of Russians in 1792, and in 1794 became head of the national movement.
- I established a provisional government, but was defeated at Maciejowice (1794) and taken prisoner until 1796.
- The tallest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko, was named after me.
September 2014
- I was born in 1795 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
- I was admitted to the bar in 1820, entered the US Congress as a Democrat in 1825 and became Governor of Tennessee in 1839.
- In 1845 I became President of the United States, holding the role until 1849.
- During my Presidency, Texas was admitted to the Union, and after the Mexican War (1846-1847), the USA acquired California and New Mexico.
- I condemned the anti-slavery agitation, and was committed to states’ rights, a revenue tariff and an independent treasury.
- I was born in 1762 in Hebron, Connecticut
- I built up a large business in timber and saw mills, and acted as consulting engineer on the Bellows Falls Canal.
- From 1790, my brother and I became interested in steam navigation, and built a series of paddle wheel steamboats.
- Despite support and investment from Congressman Robert R Livingston (1746-1813), none of the steamboats were a commercial success.
- I took out over 20 patents, including the American Water Burner, which while mocked by contemporaries, was a precursor of the successful water-gas process used fifty years later.
Click for answer
- I was born in Devon, England, in 1650
- I was commissioned in the Guards in 1667, and further promoted in 1668 when I married Sarah Jennings, an attendant of Princess Anne.
- On James II’s accession in 1685, I was elevated to a Barony, but later defected to the side of the Prince of Orange, serving the Protestant cause in Ireland and Flanders.
- Under Queen Anne I was appointed supreme commander of British forces in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), and I became captain-general of Allied armies. My military flair resulted in several impressive victories.
- I got embroiled in domestic politics from 1708 onwards, which eventually led to my downfall and I was dismissed on charges of embezzlement.
- I was born in Antium, near Rome, in 37 CE
- I owed my name and position to the driving ambition of my mother, who engineered my adoption by the Emperor Claudius, therefore putting me as his successor as emperor.
- Initially my reign was good, aided by the sound advice of my mother, the Praetorian Prefect Burris and the philosopher Seneca.
- When these three fell from favour, however, I became more interested in sex, singing and chariot-racing, and neglected the affairs of state, allowing corruption to set in.
- My tyrannical and haphazard rule was brought to an end when I was overthrown by the army and forced to commit suicide.
August 2014
- I was born in Paris, France, in 1754.
- Educated for the Church, I was ordained in 1779, appointed Bishop of Autun in 1788, and made President of the Estates General in 1790.
- I lived in Britain and the USA until after the fall of Robespierre, when I returned to France and acted as foreign minister under the Directory (1797-1807) and helped consolidate Napoleon’s position as Consul (1802) and then Emperor (1804).
- Alarmed by Napoleon’s ambitions, I resigned in 1807 and led the anti-Napoleonic faction.
- I became foreign minister under Louis XVIII, reaching the pinnacle of my career when I represented France with great skill at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815).
- I was born in Philadelphia, United States, in 1861.
- I studied in Zurich, and became a partner in my father’s Swiss embroidery import business.
- I returned to the USA in 1889 and worked in the family mining business in Colorado and New Mexico before moving to the headquarters in New York City in 1895.
- I was a director of many companies and a founder of the Yukon Gold Company in Alaska before retiring from business in 1919.
- I am best known for my collection of imported Modernist paintings, establishing a foundation and temporary Museum for these before a permanent one was built in 1959.
- I was born in London, England, in 1880.
- I studied at Eton College, joined the British Army and served in South Africa.
- In 1910 I joined Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic Expedition in charge of the ponies, and was one of the party of five to reach the South Pole in 1912.
- On the doomed journey back I was weakened by severe frostbite, and convinced that my condition would fatally handicap my companions prospect of survival, I walked out into a blizzard and sacrificed my life.
- My famous last words, ‘I am just going outside, I may be some time’, have become a symbol of quiet heroism.
- I was born in Colesberg, South Africa, in 1825.
- With my fellow Boers I trekked to Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, where I won a reputation for cleverness and courage.
- In the First Boer War (1881) I was appointed head of the provisional government, and in 1883 I was elected President of the Transvaal, a position I held until 1902.
- After the discovery of Gold on the Rang, I strove to protect Boer independence, refusing civil rights to migrant workers and resisting encroaching British power by appealing for funds and arms from Germany.
- Powerless to stop British control of the region during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), I left for Europe, where I later died in Switzerland.
July 2014
- I was born in West Overton, Pennsylvania, in 1849.
- I had little education, but grasped at post Civil War expansion by forming a company to supply the Pittsburgh steel mills with coke, and was a millionaire at 30.
- I became Chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company in 1889, reorganizing it to become the largest steel manufacturer in the world.
- A tough employer, I was stabbed during a steel strike in 1892, but recovered.
- I built up the a collection of fine art, which I bequeathed to New York City, and also endowed hospitals, schools and a large park in Pittsburgh.
- I was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1707.
- I studied mathematics in Basel under Jean Bernoulli, and then became Professor of -Physics and then Mathematics at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
- In 1741 I moved to Berlin as director of mathematics and physics at the Berlin Academy, but returned to St Petersburg in 1766.
- I lost my sight in one eye in 1738, becoming completely blind in the late 1760s.
- I am considered a major figure from eighteenth century mathematics, publishing over 800 different books and papers on every aspect of pure and applied mathematics and physics.
Click for answer
- I was born in Ipswich, England, in 1475.
- I studied at Oxford, was ordained in 1478 and was appointed chaplain to King Henry VII in 1507.
- Under King Henry VIII, I became Bishop of Lincoln, Archbishop of York and a Cardinal in 1515.
- Acting as Lord Chancellor between 1515 and 1529, I pursued legal and administrative reform and became Henry VIII’s leading adviser, managing the day to day affairs of government.
- When I failed to persuade the pope to grant Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon, I was impeached and my property forfeited. Arrested on a charge of high treason, I died while travelling to London.
- I was born in Malmesbury, Cape Colony, South Africa in 1870
- I studied at Cambridge, became a lawyer and fought in the Second Boer War (1899-1902)
- I entered the South African House of Assembly in 1907 and held several cabinet posts.
- After the outbreak of the First World War, I was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet, led campaigns against Germany in Tanganyika and became Prime Minister in 1919.
- I was a significant figure at the Versailles Treaty negotiations, and instrumental in creating the League of Nations.
- I was born in 1118 in London.
- I studied in London and Paris, then took up canon law at Bologna and Auxerre.
- In 1155 I became Chancellor under King Henry II, the first Englishman since the Norman conquest to hold high office.
- In 1162 I became Archbishop of Canterbury, and vigorously served the church, regularly coming into contact with Henry over the church’s relationship with the state.
- After years of disagreement with Henry, I was murdered in Canterbury cathedral on 29 Dec 1170 by four of the King’s knights.
June 2014
- I was born in 1846 in Avondale, Ireland
- I studied at the University of Cambridge, and in 1875 was elected to Parliament
- I was an ardent believer in Irish Home Rule and gained popularity in Ireland by my willingness to use obstructive parliamentary tactics.
- In 1878 I was elected president of the Irish National Land League, and in 1886 allied with the Liberals in support of Prime Minister William Gladstone’s Home Rule bill.
- I remained an influential figure until 1890, when I was cited as a co-respondent in a divorce case and was forced to retire.
- I was born of a wealthy Roman family in 475 CE.
- I studied at Athens, which granted me the skills in Greek needed to later publish widely read translations of the work of Aristotle and Porphyry.
- I became consul in 510 CE during the Gothic occupation of Rome, and later chief minister to the ruler Theodoric.
- In 523 CE, however, I was accused of treason, and after a year in prison I was executed.
- It was while I was in prison that I wrote Consolation of Philosophy, which for the next millennium was probably the most widely read book after the bible.
- I was born in 1635 in Llanrhymney, Wales.
- I was kidnapped in Bristol as a child and shipped to Barbados, where I joined the buccaneers.
- I led many raids against the Spanish and Dutch in Central America and the West Indies, most famously sacking Porto Bello and Panama in 1671.
- In 1672 I was arrested and transported to London to placate the Spanish Empire.
- When war broke out again with Spain I was knighted, and later moved to Jamaica, where I became a wealthy planter and deputy governor.
Click for answer
- I was born in 1827 in Darmstadt, Germany
- I studied engineering and architecture at Darmstadt, before emigrating to the United States in 1849.
- In 1852 I invented a form of truss which became widely used on US and other railway bridges, as well as to support roofs of buildings.
- I carried out pioneering studies of transportation costs, arguably inaugurating the discipline of railway economics.
- In 1878 I was made president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
May 2014
- I was born in Lodève, France, in 1653
- As a young priest I entered court service in 1679, became almoner to Louis XIV in 1683, and tutor to the future Louis XV in 1715.
- I replaced the Duc de Bourbon as chief minister in 1726, and effectively controlled the government of Louis XV until 1743.
- Through skillful diplomacy I limited French involvement in the War of Polish succession (1733-1738), restoring the nations prestige as a mediator.
- My moderation gave France the peace its parlous finances required, and I carried out significant economic and legal reforms.
- I was born in 1859 into a wealthy British-Irish family.
- I trained as a doctor, gaining a degree in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1881, while also writing short stories.
- I worked as a surgeon on a whaling boat and later as a medical officer on the SS Mayumba steam ship travelling to West Africa.
- I lived for a while in Portsmouth, where my career as a writer flourished, publishing A Study in Scarlet in 1887.
- My principal character, detective Sherlock Holmes, became hugely popular and featured in 4 novels and 56 short stores.
- I was born in Amiternum, modern day Abruzzo, Italy, in 86 BCE.
- A member of the Roman senate, my licentiousness caused my expulsion from this chamber in 50 BCE.
- I was restored to senatorial rank in 47 BCE, and served in the Africa Campaign.
- I was Governor of Numidia from 46-44 BCE, but while in this role I engaged in much oppression and extortion, creating famous beautiful gardens in Rome with the proceeds.
- In my retirement I wrote a number of important histories, such as the Bellum Catalinae and the Bellum Jugurthinum.
- I was born in Vilna in the Russian Empire.
- In 1897 I was exiled to Siberia for political agitation, returning in time to take part in the 1905 revolution.
- After the October Revolution I became a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee and chairman of the Soviet Secret police, where I engaged in brutal suppression.
- I was chairman of the supreme economic council from 1924-1926.
- I died in 1926 after giving an impassioned speech attacking Leon Trostky.
- I graduated from Yale University in 1805.
- After studying the institutions for the deaf in Europe, I founded the American Asylum for Deaf Mutes.
- This was the first instance of US government aid for the disabled.
- In 1865, Amos Kendall founded a small school for the deaf which is now a University named after me.
April 2014
- I am the daughter of a silk manufacturer and his second wife, born in Marseille, France.
- I was briefly engaged to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1795
- Later, I married Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte in 1798.
- I became Crown Princess and later Queen of Sweden.
- I spent my last years as Dowager Queen.
- I am a soldier and scholar born in Lille, France.
- I was appointed Governor of Senegal in 1854, greatly extending the frontiers of the province between 1858 and 1861.
- I fought in the Franco-Prussian War, commanding the Army of the North, but was defeated near St Quentin in 1871.
- After the peace I was dispatched by the French government to Egypt, where I studied the monuments.
- I wrote on Numidian and Phoenician inscriptions, and later the anthropology of Algiers and the French Sudan.
- I am an industrialist and government official, born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- I emigrated to the United States aged 21, and soon mastered bicycle and auto parts production.
- I started running assembly line production for Ford in 1913, before being recruited by arch rivals Chevrolet in 1922, where I was a huge success.
- I became President of General Motors in 1937.
- In 1940 I resigned to aid the war effort, and in 1942 became Lieutenant General to supervise production for the War Department.
- I am a political philosopher and essayist born in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Largely self-taught, in my early life I engaged in a variety of menial occupations.
- In 1741 I moved to Paris, where I came to know Diderot and wrote my first works.
- In 1757 I went to Luxembourg, where I wrote my masterpiece, ‘the Social Contract’.
- My views on monarchy and government institutions were unpopular with many and I was forced to flee to Switzerland, and later Britain, where I wrote most of my Confessions.
March 2014
- I am a composer born in London, England.
- I studied in London and Leipzig, and became an organist in London.
- I began my association with the theatre in 1867, and from 1871 collaborated on the comic operas HMS Pinafore (1878) and Pirates of Penzance (1879).
- I also composed a grand opera, Ivanhoe, in 1891, and other cantatas and ballads.
- I was knighted in 1883.
- I am a writer born in Lebedyan, Russia
- In 1914 I wrote a novella satirising the lives of Army officers and was subsequently tried for ‘maligning the officer corps.’
- Between 1916 and 1917 I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, where I wrote two satires on the British.
- In 1920 I wrote My (We), a fantasy set in the 26th century which prophesied the Russian totalitarian state.
- Hounded by Russian authorities, in 1931 I left Russia with the aide of Maxim Gorky and settled in Paris.
- I am a Roman philosopher, dramatist and statesman.
- My philosophical works are concerned with the wise conduction of life in the spirit of Stoicism.
- The nine tragedies I wrote are the only surviving dramas from the Roman Empire.
- I was the childhood tutor of Nero, and served as his adviser after he became emperor in 54 CE.
- I was accused of participation in a conspiracy to overthrow Nero and committed suicide at the emperors demand.
- I was born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on June 6, 1584.
- In 1619, I passed the civil service exams and was appointed to the minor post of magistrate in Shaowu County, Fujian.
- I grew to have a military career, assigned in charge of guarding Shanhai Pass and eastern Liaoning.
- My greatest military achievement was to orchestrate the defeat of Nurhaci and the Manchu army in the Battle of Ningyuan.
- I died in shame, however, when I was executed for colluding with the enemy, though the truth of these charges remains debatable to this day.
February 2014
- I am a French epigrammatist, moralist and man of letters.
- I went to Paris to take part in the battles of the Fronde, but as I would recount later, my role in the struggles was largely unsuccessful.
- I received a gunshot wound to the head in 1652, which impaired my sight and led me to withdraw from public life for three years.
- At the death of my father, I succeeded to the title of duke in 1653.
- My chief literary work, the Maximes, is considered a masterpiece of French literature.
- I was born in Cumana, Spanish Granada, in 1796 and went on to have a military career.
- I won significant fame and respect for my military leadership, notably at the Battle of Pichincha in 1822.
- I became Simón Bolívar’s lieutenant and helped free Bolivia from Spanish Rule through the Battle of Ayacucho in 1825.
- I became the second president of Bolivia from 1826, but as a result of domestic pressure was forced to resign in 1828.
- I was assassinated on 4 June 1830 at Berruecos by political rivals.
- I was a British general and career soldier
- I had extensive military experience, serving in the Seven Years War
- In 1774 I took charge of Massachusetts, where I enforced the Coercive Acts
- In the same year I attempted to disarm colonial militias and confiscate their weapons.
- My actions contributed to the Battle of Lexington and I was withdrawn from my post soon after.
- I was born in Morrisania, New York.
- I was admitted to the bar in 1771 and went on to become assistant in the Finance Department between 1781-1785.
- In 1787 I was a member of the convention that framed the US Constitution.
- I spent the years 1791-1798 abroad, firstly as an agent for Washington in the United Kingdom and then as US minister to France.
- I served in the US Senate from 1800-1803.
January 2014
- I am the son of Chinese Emperor Zhang
- I ascended to the throne at the age of nine and ruled for seventeen years.
- My years in power were dominated by internal strife, principally between consort clans and eunuchs at the imperial court.
- My reign is often considered to mark the beginning of the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
- Chroniclers describe me as a caring and gentle.
- I studied in Vienna and became professor of physics at Prague in 1867.
- My experimental work contributed heavily to aeronautical design and the science of projectiles.
- My writings greatly influenced later physicists, notably Alfred Einstein.
- My name has given to a unit of velocity and to the angle of a shock wave in the direction of motion
- I also engaged in philosophy, with my writings helping lay the foundation of logical positivism.
- I was born in Domfront, France.
- I came to England during the restoration of Charles II in the entourage of the Duke of Richmond.
- Soon after I took to the road and became a successful highwayman
- I gained a popular reputation, especially for my gallantry towards women.
- I was eventually caught while drunk, and hanged at Tyburn in 1670.
- At an early age I joined the Navy, before studying medicine at Leyden, Paris and Oxford.
- I taught anatomy at Oxford and music at Gresham College
- I held estates in South West Ireland and was made Surveyor-General of Ireland by Charles II
- I was briefly a Member of Parliament for East Looe
- I become respected as an economist, publishing Treaties on Taxes in 1662.
- I was born into lesser nobility in Normandy
- During the French Revolution I embraced modern republican ideas
- I admired Brissot and the Girdondins, but distrusted the Montagnards and Jacobins
- I famously stabbed Jean-Paul Marat to death as he lay in the bath
- I was executed by the French revolutionary state on 17 July 1793.
December 2013
- I began my career as a minor civil servant in Nanyang
- I became chief astronomer and then palace attendant at the Imperial court
- I calculated the value of π (pi)
- I understood the earth was spherical, using it to explain the shortening and lengthening of days
- I also engaged in writing, with my fu and shi poetry highly renowned by contemporaries.
- I was the son of a poet and a godson to Queen Elizabeth I.
- I was educated at Eton College and Kings College, Cambridge.
- I was a courtier and author under Elizabeth II, though I frequently attracted criticism for my risque writings.
- I developed the first mechanical flushing toilet, installing one at my manor in Kelston.
- I later served in Ireland as an army officer during the Nine Years War.
- I was Emperor of China in the first century CE.
- I founded the Eastern Han Dynasty.
- When I first became Emperor I only controlled certain parts of China, but through suppression and conquest I came to rule a majority of it by my death.
- I was famed as an inspired military strategist.
- I was an army officer who served in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia in the First World War.
- In the Second World War I led the 14th ‘forgotten’ army to victory in Burma.
- I was Chief of the British Imperial General Staff from 1948 to 1952.
- I was a highly successful Governor-General of Australia in the 1950s.
November 2013
- I am a daughter of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria.
- I married the homosexual brother of King Louis XIV of France.
- I played an important part in the negotiations of the secret Treaty of Dover in 1670, between Charles II and King Louis.
- There were strong rumours that my death was caused by poisoning.
- I served as Prime Minister of Portugal for a total of twenty seven years in the eighteenth century.
- I am well regarded for my decisive leadership in the wake of the deadly earthquake in Lisbon in 1755.
- I was a considerable reformer in economic and social matters, and abolished slavery, being one of the first European leaders to do so.
- I also pursued secularist policies, undermining the power of the Portuguese Inquisition.
- I was an Australian soprano born around the middle of the 19th century.
- I had my operatic debut in Brussels.
- I became prima donna at Covent and sang throughout Europe and America.
- I sang no Mozart roles.
- I retired before the Great Depression and had a famous dessert name after me.
- I was a 19th century American novelist born in New York.
- I had to leave school aged 15 due to my father’s bankruptcy.
- I was a briefly a teacher before becoming a sailor.
- I lived for some months among the cannibals of the Maquesas Islands.
- My most famous work is regarded as one of the great works of American literature.
October 2013
- I was an ancient Greek theologian and anti-pope.
- I lived in Rome and defended the doctrine of the Logos.
- My views brought me into conflict with Callistus, who became pope in 217.
- One of my works, a refutation of heresy, was discovered at Mt Athos in 1842.
- A work I published in 202 became the earliest extant Christian work of its kind.
- I was an Ancient Greek mathematician
- I studied under Theodorus of Cyrene and at the academy with Plato
- I was the principal character in the Sophist.
- Euclid says that I was the first mathematician to write upon the five regular solids.
- It is possible that I discovered the octahedron and the dodecahedron.
- I was an Indian poet.
- I was influential for my spiritual and mercurial work and music.
- I became the first Indian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
- I was awarded a knighthood in 1915,
- Four years later I returned this in protest at mistreatment of Indians during the Amritsar massacre.
- I was a Greek philosopher of ancient times.
- I was born in Abdera, Thrace.
- My atomic theory stimulated the intellectual reflections of many future thinkers.
- I left a vast array of varied writings, sadly, almost all of which is at second hand.
- I was known as ‘the laughing philosopher’, due to my amusement at the weakness of humankind.
- I was a French monk living in the 11th and 12th century.
- I was one of the many preachers in Germany and France who awakened enthusiasm for the 1st Crusade.
- In 1096, I led a group of fanatical peasants across Hungary into Asia Minor.
- I joined the main body of Crusaders who captured Jerusalem in 1099.
- On my return to Europe, I founded a monastery at Huy in the Low Countries where I died.
September 2013
- I was a 17th century politician.
- I was speaker of the House of Commons for over 15 years.
- I served in this high office over three separate periods.
- I was famous for refusing King Charles 1 access to the Commons.
- I was dragged from the speakers’ chair when Oliver Cromwell forcibly dissolved the Long Parliament in 1653.
- I was a 19th century Italian poet.
- I have been described by experts as the greatest Italian lyricist since the 14th century.
- My parents distrusted my liberal ideas and I fled as soon as I could from their conservative views.
- I prepared an edition of Cicero’s works for a Milan publisher.
- My main collection of poems, I Canti, published in 1836 has been translated into English many times.
- I was an Italian instrument maker.
- I was from a prominent family in Cremona.
- I was a student of the renowned Nicolo Amati.
- My two sons became involved in my business.
- I made perhaps the most famous violins in the world.
- I was an Italian patriot born in Rome.
- The son of an innkeeper, I was trained as a lawyer.
- I headed a mission to Avignon to secure constitutional reforms from Pope Clement VI.
- I was proclaimed Tribune in the late 1340s but used despotic power to maintain law and order, and seven months later I was forced to flee.
- I was later killed by an enraged mob in Rome.
August 2013
- I was a German field-marshal.
- After many years of military service I was Prussian minister of war.
- I effected significant re-organisation of Prussia’s military.
- This enabled swift victories in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
- I was 76 at the time of my death.
- I was an Irish poet born in the late 18th century.
- I published several collections of elegant songs and verses.
- I was marred in 1811.
- I gained a strong European reputation with my series of oriental verse tales published in 1817
- I spent most of my life in Wiltshire, England.
- I was a 19th century US inventor.
- I was born in Charleston, Massachusetts and graduated from Yale in 1810.
- I served as the first president of the National Academy of Design, which I helped to found.
- I produced the first adequate electric telegraph and was granted $30,000 from congress to continue my work.
- The system of communication I invented bears my name.
- I was a Russian physicist.
- My work spanned the late 19th century and early 20th century.
- I proved by experiment and then by measured the minute pressure that light exerts upon a physical body.
- I was a professor at Moscow University for almost 20 years.
- My work confirmed Maxwell’s theoretical determination.
- I was a 17th century French mathematician and philosopher.
- I was born near Tours and served in the army of Prince Maurice of Orange.
- I became famous for the phrase, ‘I think, therefore I am’.
- I believed that the entire material universe could be explained in mathematical physics.
- In 1649 I visited the court of Queen Christina of Sweden, and shortly after I died.
July 2013
- I was an 18th century Polish patriot.
- I fought in the American War of Independence.
- In particular, I participated in the Battle of Bemis Heights on the American side.
- Later I was military commander of the unsuccessful Polish national revolt of 1794.
- I then settled in French Revolutionary France where I later died.
- I was born in Padua, Italy.
- I was Rector of the University of Paris in the early years of the 14th century.
- I wrote a political treatise partially based on Aristotle’s writings which resulted in me having to flee Paris.
- I was excommunicated by Pope John XXII.
- I took refuge at the court of Louis of Bavaria in Munich, where I remained for the rest of my life.
- I was born in Edinburgh and studied medicine there.
- I moved to the Kimberley in South Africa.
- I was made administrator of the South Africa Company at Fort Salisbury.
- I later became a prominent South African politician and was created a baronet by the British Government.
- I am perhaps most famous for the raid I mounted in the last decade of the 19th century.
- I was born in the US near New Orleans.
- I first appeared on the stage in New York in 1859.
- I had several husbands and literary friends including Charles Dickens.
- I was the highest earning actress of my time.
- One of my more famous roles was in Mazeppa. In this role I appeared largely in a state of undress, bound on the back of a wild horse.
June 2013
- I was born of Scottish parents in Moscow.
- I wrote from an early age.
- A poem I wrote in 1837 on the death of Alexander Pushkin caused my arrest.
- Much of my work was not published until after my death whereby I received posthumous fame.
- I had a duel with the son of the French Ambassador.
- I died from a second duel.
- I was an English missionary born in the 17th century.
- I studied at Cambridge.
- I left England on religious grounds and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
- I began to preach to the Indians at Nonantum and translated the Bible into their language – the first bible published in America.
- I was known as ‘the Apostle to the Indians’.
- I was a statesman and financier born in Geneva.
- Initially a banker’s clerk, I moved to Paris in the 1760s.
- I was made director of the French treasury and director-general of finances.
- I engaged in heavy borrowing while concealing a big state deficit.
- I was dismissed, then recalled, and dismissed again; which provoked events which lead to the storming of the Bastille.
- I was an astronomer born in Toxteth, Mersyside.
- I studied at Cambridge and was ordained in 1639.
- I was curate at Hoole, Lancashire.
- There I made the first recorded observation of the transit of Venus, which I had predicted.
- I calculated an improved value for the solar parallax.
May 2013
- I was a Latin poet and satirist, born in Italy.
- The son of a freed slave I was educated at Rome and Athens.
- Through the influence of Virgil, I came under the patronage of Maecenas, a minister of Octavianus.
- I was given a farm in the Sabine Hills, where I devoted myself to writing.
- I became the unrivalled lyric poet of my time.
- I was an internationally successful singer who began his career in the 1950s.
- I married a preacher’s daughter when I was 16.
- I subsequently married again, and divorced my first wife a month later.
- For my 1958 London tour, I was accompanied by my third wife who was aged 13, who was also my cousin.
- Widespread public outrage in the UK forced the tour to close after only two concerts.
- I was a leader in the First Crusade.
- I sold or mortgaged many of my lands to finance a large army for the expedition.
- In 1099, after the capture of Jerusalem, I was elected advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.
- My subsequent victories helped to consolidate the crusaders’ hold on Palestine.
- My dukedom was that of Lower Lorraine.
- I was an Irish Church reformer.
- Between 1129 and 1137, I was Abp of Armagh.
- In 1139, I was appointed legate of Ireland.
- I worked relentlessly for reform of the Irish Church on continental lines.
- My friend, St Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a highly regarded biography about me.
- I was an American born in the 19th century, one of five sisters and two brothers.
- My husband was a British Conservative MP.
- I won my husband’s seat in the British Parliament, after he was elevated to the House of Lords.
- I had strong views on temperance, women’s rights and child welfare.
- I was the first woman to speak in Britain’s House of Commons.
- I was a Roman noble.
- I distinguished myself in the Second Samnite War.
- I captured and colonized Luceria in 316 BC.
- My son, of the same name, won a famous victory in the Third War at Aquilonia in 2293 BC.
- This paved the way for peace in 290 BC.
April 2013
- I was an English colonial administrator.
- Appointed by the Earl of Carlisle, I arrested the governor of Barbados.
- In 1630, I was made governor of Barbados.
- After much political intrigue, I was arrested in 1640.
- I surrendered the island the British parliament’s representatives in 1652.
- I was a Bulgarian communist leader.
- I fled to Moscow after the bombing of Sofia cathedral.
- During World War Two I managed the Khristo Botev radio station which broadcast to Bulgaria.
- I became Bulgaria’s Prime Minister after the war.
- My political downfall began with Stalin’s death in 1953.
- I was a French economist and free trader.
- I published important studies in applied economics.
- I was an adviser to Emperor Napoleon III.
- I helped negotiate the Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1860.
- It was my hope and belief that major development such as the treaty would bring about a more liberal French commercial policy
- I was a Sicilian Greek poet.
- I lived in the third century BCE.
- I was the first writer of pastoral verse.
- I visited Alexandria and was patronised by Ptolemy Philadelphus.
- My works comprise Bucolis, Mimes, and Epics, Lyrics and Epigrams.
March 2013
- I was an English Philosopher, born in Derby.
- From the age of 17 to 26 I worked as an engineer on the London and Birmingham railway.
- I resigned this post on receiving a bequest.
- I was a friend of Darwin, C H Lewis, Huxley and Tyndall.
- I am probably most well known for my work Synthetic Philosophy.
- I was a Roman senator from Bithynia.
- I was twice a consul.
- I produced a history of Rome from its origins to my own day.
- The work of 80 books took ten years to research and 12 to write.
- My work survives in encapsulated form in summaries of Byzantine authors.
- I was a Medieval Polish historian.
- As a royal official I had access to all the Polish chronicles and various archives.
- I made numerous missions to Italy.
- I became an exponent of humanist historiography.
- My critical histories are regarded today as an invaluable reference material on this era.
- I was an Athenian tyrant.
- I fought successfully against Megara.
- Using my bodyguard, I seized the Acropolis.
- I ruled with wisdom and success, assisted the poor, and helped fortify and beautify Athens.
- I am traditionally acknowledged to have been the first to collect Homer’s poems.
February 2013
- I was a Swiss painter, born around the mid 18th Century.
- I modified my surname to be more Italian sounding.
- I was briefly a minister of religion.
- I studied art in Berlin.
- Joshua Reynolds encouraged my work which has a similar feel of imagination, movement and distortion.
- I was an English forger born in the 1770s.
- I was the son of an engraver.
- I specialised in forging Shakespearian manuscripts.
- These were so good they convinced acknowledged experts.
- I eventually confessed to my fraudulent activities.
- I was a Japanese soldier and statesman.
- I assisted Nobunaga and Hideoyoshi in overcoming the feudal nobility.
- I established my own Tokugawa family in 1598, a hereditary shogunate.
- The shogunate lasted until 1867.
- In foreign trade I relied on the English and Dutch and kept William Adams at my court as an advisor on shipbuilding and navigation.
- I was born in the middle of the 19th century.
- I was employed by a Russian grand duke.
- I was chef du cuisine to the general staff of the Rhine Army during the Franco-Prussian War.
- Famous hotelier Cesare Ritz persuaded me to work for him.
- I invented Bombe Nero and Flaming Ice and am regarded as one of history’s greatest in my field.
January 2013
- I was an English religious leader.
- I was a Methodist evangelist for many years.
- I initially established a mission in Whitechapel around the middle of the 19th century.
- Members of my family became involved in the religious and charitable organisation I formed.
- The organisation lives on today and operates around the world.
- I was a Spanish or Italian navigator.
- I was born in Genoa, the son of a master weaver.
- I eventually found royal sponsors for my epic voyages of exploration.
- My son was appointed viceroy of the Indies and made a Duke.
- I was one of the greatest explorers.
- I was a French novelist.
- I wrote primarily in the 19th century.
- I was the originator of ‘scientific’ romances.
- The enormous success of my novels was partly because of their plausibility.
- I inspired such later science fiction writers as H G Wells.
- I was a Gallic chieftain.
- I was defeated by Julius Caesar.
- I was taken in triumph to Rome and executed there.
- I died in the fifth decade BC.
- I am remembered today in a popular French literary form.
- I was a European Royal.
- I lived predominantly in the 19th century.
- I promoted economic development and military expansion.
- I brutally crushed a peasant rebellion in 1907.
- My wife wrote prolifically and successfully under a pseudonym.
- I was born in the mid 19th century.
- I left home at 13 with five shillings in my pocket, riding a one-eyed horse.
- In 1886 I purchased my first grazing station in Australia.
- By skillful dealing in horse and cattle I was able to purchase vast numbers of stations or ranches.
- By the early 20th century I controlled lands greater in area than the whole of England?
December 2012
- I was a French satirist of the 16th century.
- My father was an advocate.
- My childhood years were spent in a monastery and then later studied medicine.
- I became a prolific book writer renowned for my bawdy mirth.
- My works are renowned today for their wit, commonsense, satire and wisdom.
- I was an Ottoman emperor.
- I succeeded my father when the empire was militarily strong both on land and sea.
- I instituted a series of reforms to improve justice and ensuring freedom of religion.
- In 1529 I unsuccessfully besieged Vienna.
- During my reign Ottoman power abroad and culture at home reached their peak.
- I was born in Essen in the second decade of the 19th century.
- I succeeded my father who had begun a small iron forge in 1810.
- At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London I put on show a flawless solid ingot of cast steel weighing over 8000 pounds.
- I became a dominant force in the industrial development of Germany’s Ruhr territories.
- I became the foremost arms manufacturer not just in Germany but the world.
- I was a Russian born geographer savant and revolutionary.
- In 1857 I commenced five years service and exploration in the corps of pages.
- In 1872, I began an association with the extreme element of the International Workingman’s Association.
- I was imprisoned in 1874, but escaped and fled to England two years later, where I resided for many years.
- In 1917 I returned to Russia to participate in the long awaited Russian revolution.
November 2012
- I was one of the most accomplished generals in Byzantine history.
- I was especially capable as a commander of heavy cavalry, well ahead of my time.
- I saved the Emperor Justinian’s life and throne in 532 by putting down an uprising in Constantinople.
- Among my conquests include the Vandal state in North Africa and the re-conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.
- I later successfully defended Constantinople against a sudden attack by the Huns.
- I was a Russian politician.
- I was educated in France.
- I was a member of Tsar Alexander I’s Unofficial Committee.
- In my time in France I was exposed to Jacobin political philosophy.
- I became convinced of the need to use autocratic powers to reform society to improve the conditions of Russian peasants.
- I was an Egyptian lawyer.
- I became a journalist and editor of Al-Liwa.
- I lobbied for the immediate British evacuation of Egypt.
- In 1907, I organized the establishment of the Egyptian Nationalist Party.
- I was the first popular nationalist and became an inspiration to others in my country.
- I was a self-educated English Baptist.
- I was a strong advocate of the temperance movement.
- I was for a time involved in the publishing industry.
- In the 1840s I pioneered railway excursions.
- I later founded the famous travel agency which bears my name.
- I was an American general born in Missouri.
- I served in Cuba, the Philippines.
- I invaded Mexico to capture Pancho Villa.
- I was supreme commander of US forces in the First World War.
- I won the Pulitzer Prize for my memoir of my experiences in the war.
October 2012
- I was a Greek theologian.
- I lived in Rome and held strong anti-pope views.
- I was a defender of the doctrine of the Logos.
- One of my works was discovered in 1842 at Mount Athos.
- My commentary in the year 202 is the earliest extant Christian work of its kind.
- I was an English Queen consort.
- I married in the middle of the 13th Century.
- I was reported to have sucked poison form the battlefield wound of my husband.
- On my death my husband erected crosses at each place where the funeral procession rested.
- I was a Roman Emperor.
- I was born at Antium.
- My Mother was the niece of Claudius.
- I was blamed for the fire with destroyed the greater part of Rome.
- I regarded myself as an artist, and my dying words were, ‘What an artist dies in me’.
- I was a Russian playwright and writer of short stories.
- I took a medical degree in the 1880s but devoted my life to literature.
- My early stories were humorous but not unusually brilliant.
- After 1889, I produced a series of masterpieces.
- My plays often showed a complete break with tradition; they have no definite heroes and heroines.
September 2012
- I was an American abolitionist.
- I settled in Kansas and became the leader of the anti-slavery movement there.
- In 1859 I established a central retreat for slaves.
- As part of my campaign I captured and held prominent citizens.
- I was taken by Government troops led by Robert E Lee, convicted of murder, conspiracy and treason, and hanged.
- I was the son of Pope Alexander VI and an ambitious political schemer.
- I was made cardinal by my father in 1492.
- I was papal legate in Naples and France.
- On my father’s death I lost power and influence.
- I escaped from prison in Spain and was killed in fighting for the King of Navarre.
- I was a British physician and scholar.
- I graduated at St Andrews and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1704.
- I taught mathematics in London.
- I was physician to Queen Anne.
- As a friend on writers Pope and Swift, I was famed for my wit and writings.
- I am a famous 19th Century English naturalist and author.
- I joined a famous surveying voyage of South America and the Pacific.
- I married my cousin who was from an illustrious family.
- One of my daughter’s died as a child, causing me to reject my religious beliefs.
- I am renowned for one particular book which on publication was an instantaneous literary success.
- I was an American aviator.
- My father was a congressman.
- During World War Two I advised Ford Motors and United Airlines but flew unofficially on 50 combat missions.
- In the late 1930s I met Hitler and Goering and expressed strong views about German military superiority.
- The event for which I am most famous for occurred in May 1927 which revolutionized world aviation.
August 2012
- I was a French engineer.
- I designed the structure for New York’s Statue of Liberty.
- I designed the locks for the first Panama Canal, which subsequently embroiled me in controversy.
- Later in my life I conducted pioneering research into aerodynamics and the use of wind tunnels.
- My most famous construction was built to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution and stands today as one of the most recognisable features of Paris.
- I was a Sicilian Mathematician.
- My contrivances helped delay the Romans’ capture of Syracuse.
- My inventions included the pulley, the screw, and a form of pump.
- Among my discoveries was how to calculate circumference from radius.
- I was a courtier of Hiero of Syracuse.
- I was an English baronet, the sixth to hold the title.
- My wife was the daughter of a prominent member of the British aristocracy.
- I became a politician, first a Conservative, then Labor.
- I founded a radical Right Wing Group in Britain.
- I was detained under Defence Regulations during World War Two.
- I was born in Massachusetts in the early years of the 19th Century.
- I fought for women’s rights and equality.
- I dedicated much of my adult life battling for the right to vote for women and African Americans.
- I died in my mid-80s.
- During my life I saw four states introduce equal voting rights for women.
- I was a famous English actor of the 18th Century.
- I made my first stage appearance in the play Incognito.
- I tried my luck as a wine merchant but this did not succeed.
- I purchased a two thirds interest in the Drury Lane Theatre.
- I wrote several plays and also made adaptations from Shakespeare and others.
July 2012
- I was emperor of a major European dynasty.
- During the early years of my reign a centralised bureaucracy was established in my country.
- When I was in my 30s my country lost a disastrous war with Prussia.
- One of my hunting lodges had some 5000 animal heads as trophies mounted on the walls.
- The assassination of one of my nephews and his morganatic wife was the event which triggered World War One.
- With Socrates and Aeschylus, I was one of the three great Ancient Greek writers of tragedy.
- I was viewed as a master of characterization.
- Many viewed me as a bad boy and upstart.
- In modern times, my works were particularly popular and appreciated in the 19th Century.
- My plays were performed up until the present time.
- I was born in the fifth century BC.
- I spent my early years following the profession of my father, that of sculptor.
- I served in the army and distinguished myself with my bravery and endurance.
- I became a renowned if controversial philosopher.
- My chief disciple was Plato.
- I was a medieval Scandinavian monarch
- I was converted to Christianity in Normandy.
- I established a Christian legal system in my country.
- After my death, a cult grew up around me.
- I was canonized as a saint in the 12th century.
June 2012
- I served in Egypt and the Sudan.
- I served in the Boer War at a very senior level.
- I was later appointed British Commander in Chief in India.
- I featured in a famous recruiting poster.
- I drowned when sailing to Russia.
- I was a German statesman and a prominent chemist and engineer.
- I played a major role from 1915 onwards in countering the effects of the Allied blockade.
- In the 1920 I entered Government and served on a number of important committees.
- In 1922 I was assassinated by a group of youths belonging to an anti-semitic organisation.
- In 1933 the graves of the murderers, who were subsequently murdered, were accorded State honors by the Nazi Government.
- I was the son of a Christian convert.
- I graduated as a doctor.
- I became a political revolutionary.
- I was captured in England by my countrymen, but freed after the intervention of the British Prime Minister.
- I became the first President of my country as a republic.
May 2012
- A German, I spent my early years as an Augustinian friar.
- I made a trip to Rome and what I saw made me move to great action.
- I later became a Professor of Theology.
- The Pope issued a Bull against me.
- I married an ex-nun.
- I was the illegitimate son of a minor English aristocrat.
- I played a distinctive and highly publicized role in World War One.
- Despite my world-wide fame, after the war I sought obscurity and enlisted in my country’s air force under a different name.
- I died recklessly, as I had chosen to lead my life.
- I was born in 1855 in the United States.
- My father was a member of a comparatively small religious group.
- I chose the same profession as my father.
- My early employment was with a prominent US manufacturer, with whom I subsequently had a falling out.
- I then established a long standing business arrangement with a Belgian company.
- My surname became one of the most famous brand names in the world.
- I was born on a Michigan farm.
- An industrialist, I gave my workers a guaranteed minimum wage, and a share of profits, at a time when this was most uncommon.
- I founded my own newspaper that became known for its controversial views.
- A key member of the administration of President John F Kennedy was chief executive of the company I founded.
- I was the son of a Liverpool merchant who could afford to send me to Eton and Oxford.
- I had an illustrious political career spanning some 60 years.
- Queen Victoria said that when I spoke to her, it was as if I was addressing a public meeting.
- When I died I was buried in Westminster Abbey and one of my great political opponents was one of my pallbearers.
- I controversially would go out in to the streets of my capital city to ‘rescue fallen women.’
April 2012
- I was born the son of a poor nobleman.
- At the age of 15 I began work as a public servant in charge of grain stores.
- After the death of my mother I returned home and mourned her for three years, as was the custom.
- I then began studying the ancient history and literature of my country.
- I later became a teacher and philosopher.
- My teachings are still referred to centuries after my death.
- A soldier, I spent my early years in South America, but won my fame in another country.
- I played a key role in uniting my country.
- In 1862, I led a march on the most famous city in my country.
- Many of my followers wore a distinctly colored shirt.
- A military man, I wrote a book in 1903 that argued that troops need the will to attack at all costs.
- My father was a civil servant.
- I was appointed my country’s Chief of the General Staff in 1918.
- I died just before the start of the Great Depression.
- I was the son of an education official, and trained as a lawyer.
- I was exiled for three years in the last years of the 19th century.
- I changed my name to one that became known around the world.
- I changed the face of world politics in the 20th Century.
March 2012
- A soldier, I studied at a University in my country, and then at Cambridge University.
- I originally qualified as a lawyer.
- I jointly founded a political party in 1905.
- I became Prime Minister of my country following the death of my predecessor.
- I was born the year after major revolution in Europe.
- A famous navy man, I said that building a fleet was ‘the work of a generation’.
- Having built up an enormous naval fleet for my country, I became a strong advocate of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- I wrote my memoirs in the year following the end of World War One.
- I was an officer of engineers in the British Army
- I commanded a very small force against overwhelming odds.
- My second in command was an artillery office who had the same rank, but came from an illustrious military family.
- At this encounter many Victoria Crosses were won.
- I was primarily responsible for very high tariffs in my country.
- During my time in office I put my country on the gold standard.
- A journalist once described me as ‘on the whole decent, on the whole dumb…’.
- I reached the highest office in the land, but my term in office was tragically cut short.
