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The Biography Portal

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An unauthorized biography is one written without such permission or participation. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter. (Full article...)

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Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

A 1750 portrait of Mason

George Mason (December 11, 1725 [O.S. November 30, 1725] – October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.

Mason was born in 1725 in present-day Fairfax County, Virginia. His father drowned when a storm capsized his boat while crossing the Potomac River in 1735 when Mason was about nine years old. His mother managed the family estates until he came of age. In 1750, Mason married, built Gunston Hall, and lived the life of a country squire, supervising his lands, family, and slaves. He briefly served in the House of Burgesses and involved himself in community affairs, sometimes serving with his neighbor George Washington. As tensions grew between Great Britain and the North American colonies, Mason came to support the colonial side, using his knowledge and experience to help the revolutionary cause, finding ways to work around the Stamp Act of 1765 and serving in the pro-independence Fourth Virginia Convention in 1775 and the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776. (Full article...)
Image 2

Portrait by Gerard Soest between 1657 and 1660

Francis Willughby (sometimes spelt Willoughby, Latin: Franciscus Willughbeius) FRS (22 November 1635 – 3 July 1672) was an English ornithologist, ichthyologist, mathematician and an early student of linguistics and games.

He was born and raised at Middleton Hall, Warwickshire, the only son of an affluent country family. He was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was tutored by the mathematician and naturalist John Ray, who became a lifetime friend and colleague, and lived with Willughby after 1662 when Ray lost his livelihood through his refusal to sign the Act of Uniformity. Willughby was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1661, then aged 27. (Full article...)
Image 3

Scarab seal inscribed with
"the son of Ra, Sheshi, given life"

Maaibre Sheshi (also Sheshy) was a ruler of areas of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. The dynasty, chronological position, duration and extent of his reign are uncertain and subject to ongoing debate. The difficulty of identification is mirrored by problems in determining events from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the arrival of the Hyksos in Egypt. Nonetheless, Sheshi is, in terms of the number of artifacts attributed to him, the best-attested king of the period spanning the end of the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate period; roughly from c. 1800 BC until 1550 BC. Hundreds of scaraboid seals bearing his name have been found throughout the Levant, Egypt, Nubia, and as far away as Carthage, where some were still in use 1,500 years after his death.

Three competing hypotheses have been put forth for the dynasty to which Sheshi belonged. The first hypothesis is supported by Egyptologists such as Nicolas Grimal, William C. Hayes, and Donald B. Redford, who believe that he should be identified with Salitis, founder of the 15th Dynasty according to historical sources and king of the Hyksos during their invasion of Egypt. Salitis is credited with 19 years of reign and would have lived sometime between c. 1720 BC and 1650 BC. The second hypothesis is supported by Egyptologist William Ayres Ward and the archaeologist Daphna Ben-Tor, who propose that Sheshi was a Hyksos king and belongs to the second half of the 15th Dynasty, reigning between Khyan and Apophis. Alternatively, Manfred Bietak has proposed that Sheshi was a vassal of the Hyksos, ruling over some part of Egypt or Canaan. The very existence of such vassals is debated. The final hypothesis says Sheshi could be a ruler of the early 14th Dynasty, a line of kings of Canaanite descent ruling over of the Eastern Nile Delta immediately before the arrival of the Hyksos. Proponents of this theory, such as Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, credit Sheshi with 40 years of reign starting ca. 1745 BC. (Full article...)
Image 4

August Meyszner wearing the rank
of SS-Oberführer in 1938

August Edler von Meyszner (3 August 1886 – 24 January 1947) was an Austrian Gendarmerie officer, right-wing politician, and senior Ordnungspolizei (order police) officer who held the post of Higher SS and Police Leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from January 1942 to March 1944, during World War II. He has been described as one of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's most brutal subordinates.

Meyszner began his career as an officer in the Gendarmerie, served on the Italian Front during World War I and reached the rank of Major der Polizei by 1921. He joined the Austrian Nazi Party in September 1925 and became a right-wing parliamentary deputy and provincial minister in the Austrian province of Styria in 1930. Due to his involvement with the Nazis, Meyszner was forcibly retired in 1933 and arrested in February 1934, but released after three months at the Wöllersdorf concentration camp. That July, he was rearrested following an attempted coup, but escaped police custody and fled to Nazi Germany, where he joined the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) and then the Allgemeine SS. After police postings in Austria, Germany and occupied Norway, Himmler appointed Meyszner as Higher SS and Police Leader in Serbia in early 1942. He was one of few Orpo officers to be appointed to such a role. (Full article...)
Image 5

John Douglas, photograph published in 1890

John Douglas (11 April 1830 – 23 May 1911) was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall. He was trained in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester. Initially he ran the practice on his own, but from 1884 until two years before his death he worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants.

Douglas's output included new churches, restoring and renovating existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a variety of other buildings, including shops, banks, offices, schools, memorials and public buildings. His architectural styles were eclectic. Douglas worked during the period of the Gothic Revival, and many of his works incorporate elements of the English Gothic style. He was also influenced by architectural styles from the mainland of Europe and included elements of French, German and Dutch architecture. However he is probably best remembered for his incorporation of vernacular elements in his buildings, in particular half-timbering, influenced by the black-and-white revival in Chester. Other vernacular elements he incorporated include tile-hanging, pargeting and the use of decorative brick in diapering and the design of tall chimney stacks. Of particular importance is Douglas's use of joinery and highly detailed wood carving. (Full article...)
Image 6

Matthew Stanley Quay (/kweɪ/; September 30, 1833 – May 28, 1904) was an American politician of the Republican Party who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1887 until 1899 and from 1901 until his death in 1904. Quay's control of the Pennsylvania Republican political machine made him one of the most powerful and influential politicians in the country, and he ruled Pennsylvania politics for almost twenty years. As chair of the Republican National Committee and thus party campaign manager, he helped elect Benjamin Harrison as president in 1888 despite Harrison not winning the popular vote. He was also instrumental in the 1900 election of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president.

Quay studied law and began his career in public office by becoming prothonotary of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 1856. He became personal secretary to Governor Andrew Curtin in 1861 after campaigning for him the previous year. During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army, commanding the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment as a colonel. Quay received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He acted as Pennsylvania's military agent in Washington before returning to Harrisburg to assist Curtin and aid in his re-election in 1863. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1865 to 1868. (Full article...)
Image 7

Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 – August 11, 1868) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, being one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against black Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, leading the opposition to U.S. President Andrew Johnson. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War, he played a leading role, focusing his attention on defeating the Confederacy, financing the war with new taxes and borrowing, crushing the power of slave owners, ending slavery, and securing equal rights for the freedmen.

Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a club foot, which left him with a permanent limp. He moved to Pennsylvania as a young man and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He interested himself in municipal affairs and then in politics. He was an active leader of the Anti-Masonic Party, as a fervent believer that Freemasonry in the United States was an evil conspiracy to secretly control the republican system of government. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education. Financial setbacks in 1842 caused him to move his home and practice to the larger city of Lancaster. There, he joined the Whig Party and was elected to Congress in 1848. His activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes, and he did not seek reelection in 1852. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party and was elected to Congress again in 1858. There, with fellow radicals such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as the war came. (Full article...)
Image 8
Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 by Moritz Nähr at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper

Gustav Mahler (German: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈmaːlɐ] ; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect, which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

Born in Bohemia (then part of the Austrian Empire) to Jewish parents of humble origins, the German-speaking Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. (Full article...)
Image 9

Mann's 1950 Bowman football card

Robert Mann (April 8, 1924 – October 21, 2006) was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL). A native of New Bern, North Carolina, Mann played college football for the Hampton Pirates in 1942 and 1943 and the Michigan Wolverines in 1944, 1946 and 1947. Playing the end position, he broke the Big Ten Conference record for receiving yards in 1946 and 1947. After not being selected in the 1948 NFL draft, Mann signed his first professional football contract with the Detroit Lions, where he stayed for two seasons. He later played for the Green Bay Packers for parts of five seasons until 1954. Mann broke the color barrier for both teams.

Mann led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,014 in the 1949 season. He was asked to take a pay cut after the season and became a holdout when the Lions opened practice in July 1950. He was traded to the New York Yanks in August 1950 and released three weeks later. Mann charged that he had been forced out of professional football for refusing to take a pay cut. He signed with the Green Bay Packers near the end of the 1950 NFL season and was the team's leading receiver in 1951. He remained with the Packers through part of the 1954 season. After his football career, Mann became a lawyer and practiced in Detroit. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1988 and died on October 21, 2006, at the age of 82. He was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. (Full article...)
Image 10

Group Captain Ian McLachlan as Officer Commanding No. 73 Wing at Goodenough Island, New Guinea, preparing to vote in the Australian federal election, c. August 1943

Air Vice Marshal Ian Dougald McLachlan, CB, CBE, DFC (23 July 1911 – 14 July 1991) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in Melbourne, he was a cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, before joining the Air Force in December 1930. After serving in instructional and general flying roles, he took command of No. 3 Squadron in December 1939, leading it into action in the Middle East less than a year later. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he returned to Australia in 1942 to command air bases in Canberra and Melbourne. The following year he was posted to the South West Pacific, where he led successively Nos. 71 and 73 Wings. Having been promoted to group captain, he took charge of Southern Area Command in 1944, and No. 81 Wing in the Dutch East Indies the following year.

Raised to acting air commodore in 1946, McLachlan served as senior air staff officer for the British Commonwealth Air Group in Japan until 1948. After leading North-Eastern Area Command in 1951–53, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and posted to Britain, where he attended the Imperial Defence College. Promoted air vice marshal, he returned to Australia in 1957 as Air Officer Commanding Training Command; in this role he carried out two major reviews focussing on the RAAF's educational and command systems. He was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1959 to 1961, and then Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, D.C., until 1963. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1966, McLachlan's final post before retiring in 1968 was as Air Member for Supply and Equipment. He was a consultant to Northrop after leaving the RAAF, and lived in Darling Point, Sydney, until his death in 1991. (Full article...)
Image 11

Moosally (at podium) speaks at a ceremony on USS Iowa on January 4, 1990, to unveil a plaque commemorating the 47 crewmen killed in the turret explosion on April 19, 1989.

Fred P. Moosally (born 4 October 1944) is a former captain in the United States Navy. During his naval career, Moosally served in many different assignments, including commander of a destroyer and the battleship USS Iowa. Moosally was captain of the Iowa when the center gun of one of the ship's main gun turrets exploded on April 19, 1989, killing 47 crewmen.

During the investigation into the cause of the explosion, Moosally testified that the Navy had assigned personnel of inferior quality to the Iowa. The investigation found that Iowa had been operating with severe deficiencies in safety and training procedures, for which Moosally was disciplined. The Navy stated that the deficiencies were unrelated to the turret explosion. (Full article...)
Image 12
Debussy c. 1900 by Atelier Nadar

(Achille) Claude Debussy (French: [aʃil klod dəbysi]; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande. (Full article...)
Image 13
Arms of Sir Robert de Umfraville, KG: Gules a cinquefoil within an orle of eight crosses pattée or.

Sir Robert de Umfraville KG, Lord of Redesdale (c. 1363 – 1437) was a knight in late-medieval England who took part in the later stages of the Hundred Years' War, particularly against Scotland. The de Umfraville family had been influential in northeast England for centuries and also held major estates in Yorkshire. His ancestors were mormaers of Angus, and his nephew married into the Percies, a powerful local marcher family with whom de Umfraville was closely associated. Much of Sir Robert's career continued on the same path as his ancestors, being primarily focused on defending the border with Scotland, which had been in a state of near-permanent warfare since the late thirteenth century.

Robert de Umfraville fought under three English kings. Beginning his career under Richard II, he probably fought at the Battle of Otterburn with Henry "Hotspur" Percy in 1388. After Richard was deposed by Henry IV in 1399, de Umfraville loyally served the new Lancastrian regime, waging both offensive and defensive military operations against the Scots. Where necessary, he was also an effective diplomat, taking part in many embassies to Scotland and negotiating treaties. With the exception of Henry V's resumption of the Hundred Years' War in 1415—when de Umfraville travelled with the king to France, where he may have taken part in the Battle of Agincourt—all his military activity was on the Scottish border. He was famed for his martial prowess; one contemporary chronicler, John Hardyng, who was in de Umfraville's service, lauded him as the perfect knight. De Umfraville's successes in the north attracted praise and reward from the king. One campaign deep into Scottish territory resulted in his destroying Peebles and its market; he brought back so much booty that he was popularly nicknamed "Robin Mendmarket". (Full article...)
Image 14

Duke in September 1971

Charles Moss Duke Jr. (born October 3, 1935) is an American former astronaut, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot. As Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days.

A 1957 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Duke joined the USAF and completed advanced flight training on the F-86 Sabre at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where he was a distinguished graduate. After completion of this training, Duke served three years as a fighter pilot with the 526th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. After graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in September 1965, he stayed on as an instructor teaching control systems and flying in the F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, and T-33 Shooting Star. (Full article...)
Image 15

Stained glass window, depicting the death of Penda at the Battle of the Winwaed, Worcester Cathedral

Penda (died 15 November 655) was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbrian king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.

Nine years later, he defeated and killed Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald, at the Battle of Maserfield; from this point he was probably the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time, laying the foundations for the Mercian Supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. He repeatedly defeated the East Angles and drove Cenwalh the king of Wessex into exile for three years. He continued to wage war against the Bernicians of Northumbria. Thirteen years after Maserfield, he suffered a crushing defeat by Oswald's successor and brother Oswiu and was killed at the Battle of the Winwaed in the course of a final campaign against the Bernicians. (Full article...)

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... that 19th-century Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski authored hundreds of works, including more than 200 novels?
... that Sinéad O'Connor said that tearing up her mother's picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live put her "back on the right track"?
... that American educator Janet Sorg Stoltzfus established the first foreign school in northern Yemen?
... that Zimbabwean musician Joshua Sacco and his band used to perform songs at ZANU–PF election rallies before he became a party member?
... that Drew Golz, who was Baseball Academic All-American of the Year and Soccer Academic All-American of the Year, became the first male student athlete to be named Academic All-American of the year for two sports at the same time?
... that sisters Alyssa and Gisele Thompson are the first high school students to sign a name, image, and likeness deal with Nike?

General images

The following are images from various biography-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions, the first Western autobiography ever written, around 400. Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century. (from Autobiography)
Image 2James Boswell wrote what many consider to be the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1791. (from Biography)
Image 3Third volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans printed by Jacob Tonson (from Biography)
Image 4John Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, was one of the earliest English-language biographies. (from Biography)
Image 5Einhard as scribe (from Biography)
Image 6A scene from the Baburnama (from Autobiography)
Image 7Cover of the first English edition of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, 1793 (from Autobiography)
Image 8Eminent Victorians set the standard for 20th century biographical writing, when it was published in 1918. (from Biography)

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Selected portrait

Image 1
Salman Khurshid
Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Salman Khurshid is an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress. He serves as the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of External Affairs. Previously Khurshid served as Minister of Law and Justice.
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Image 2
Aminah Cendrakasih
Photograph credit: Tati Studio; restored by Chris Woodrich
Aminah Cendrakasih (born 29 January 1938) is an Indonesian actress. She started in films in her teens, her first starring role being in 1955. She continued acting into her seventies, appearing in almost 120 feature films during her career, as well as in several television roles. In 2012, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bandung Film Festival, and received another at the 2013 Indonesian Movie Awards.
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Image 3
Rory Kennedy
Photograph credit: Lyndie Benson
Rory Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker and the youngest child of U.S. senator Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Born six months after the assassination of her father, her life has seen many tragedies. As a director and producer, she has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, nuclear radiation, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. Her films have been featured on many TV networks, and her 2014 documentary Last Days in Vietnam was nominated for an Academy Award.
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Image 4
Cary Grant
Photograph: RKO publicity photographer; Edit: Chris Woodrich
Actor Cary Grant (1904–86) in a publicity photo for Suspicion (1940). Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and "dashing good looks", Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. During his 34-year career he acted in over 50 films, including The Eagle and the Hawk, Bringing Up Baby, and North by Northwest.
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Image 5
T206 Honus Wagner
Image credit: American Tobacco Company
The T206 Honus Wagner is a rare baseball card depicting Honus Wagner (February 24, 1874 – December 6, 1955), a dead-ball era shortstop considered one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911. Only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public, and as a result of the card's rarity and popularity, prices have soared. In 2007, a collector paid $2.8 million for one, making it the most valuable baseball card in history. This specimen belongs to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
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Image 6
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
Photo credit: Royal family of Bhutan
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is the fifth and current Bhutan Dragon King and head of the Wangchuck dynasty. He became king on 14 December 2006, and was officially crowned on 6 November 2008. The young king began his unusual reign overseeing the democratization of Bhutan, stating that the responsibility for this generation of Bhutanese was to ensure the success of democracy.
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Image 7
Peter Levy
Photo credit: John Byford
Peter Levy (b. 1955) is a British television and radio presenter, currently host of the BBC regional news programme Look North, broadcast from Hull to East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. He also hosts The Peter Levy Show on BBC Radio Humberside. Born in South West England, Levy moved to Yorkshire in his teens. After a stint in London as an actor, during which time he appeared on Man About the House, he returned to Yorkshire in 1975 to become a disc jockey before joining Look North in 1987.
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Image 8
Edward VI of England
Artist: Unknown, probably of the Flemish School
A portrait of Edward VI of England, when he was Prince of Wales. He is shown wearing a badge with the Prince of Wales's feathers. It was most likely painted in 1546 when he was eight years old, during the time when he was resident at Hunsdon House. Edward became King of England, King of France and Edward I of Ireland the following year. He was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first ruler who was Protestant at the time of his ascension to the throne. Edward's entire rule was mediated through a council of regency. He died at the age of 15 in 1553.
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Image 9
Lies Noor
Photograph credit: Djakartawood Studio; restored by Chris Woodrich
Lies Noor (c. 1938 – 1961) was an Indonesian actress. She first appeared on film in Pulang (Homecoming) in 1952, while she was still at school. She rose in popularity with a string of successful films, and was able to command high fees for her roles. In the mid-1950s, having married and had a child, she took a break from her career to care full-time for her son. After returning to acting in 1960, however, she developed encephalitis the next year and died in hospital two days later. This photograph of Noor was taken around 1956.
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Image 10
Sitting Bull
Photo credit: D.F. Barry
Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man. He is notable in American and Native American history in large part for his major victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against Custer's 7th Cavalry, where his premonition of defeating them became reality. Even today, his name is synonymous with Native American culture, and he is considered to be one of the most famous Native Americans in history. Years later, he also participated in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, where he frequently cursed audiences in his native tongue as they applauded him.
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Image 11
Nataliya Gotsiy
Photo credit: Peter Duhon
Ukrainian fashion model Nataliya Gotsiy modeling for Cynthia Rowley, Spring 2007 New York Fashion Week. She was the winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World 2004 search. She has appeared on the cover of French Elle and Italian Marie Claire and modeled for Behnaz Sarafpour, Christian Lacroix, Diane von Furstenberg, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries van Noten, Gucci, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, and Vivienne Westwood, among others.
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Image 12
Lillian Gish
Photo credit: Bain News Service
A portrait of Lillian Gish from 1921. Gish was one of the first female movie stars, called "The First Lady of the Silent Screen", starting in 1912 and continuing to appear in films until 1987. The American Film Institute named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time and awarded her a Life Achievement Award, making her the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. Remarkably, she never won an Academy Award for her work, although she did receive a Special Academy Award in 1971.
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Image 13
Mary of Teck
Photo credit: Bain News Service
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of King George V as well as the Empress of India. Before her accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales. By birth, she was a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, with the style Her Serene Highness. To her family, she was informally known as May, after her birth month. Queen Mary was known for setting the tone of the British Royal Family, as a model of regal formality and propriety, especially during state occasions. She was the first Queen Consort to attend the coronation of her successors. Noted for superbly bejewelling herself for formal events, Queen Mary left a collection of jewels now considered priceless.
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Image 14
Sonia Sotomayor
Photograph: Steve Petteway
Sonia Sotomayor is an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. She was nominated in 2009 by President Barack Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and the third woman to be appointed to the Court.
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Image 15
Enrico Caruso
Photo: Bain News Service; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) was an Italian tenor who was one of the most famous male opera singers in history. He sang to great acclaim at major opera houses around the world, and spent 18 consecutive seasons as the lead tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He was one of the first major classical vocalists to make numerous recordings (more than 260), and his 1902 recording of "Vesti la giubba" was the first to sell over a million copies. His records sold so well that the Collector's Guide to Victor Records asks, "Did the phonograph make Caruso, or did Caruso make the phonograph?"
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edit

On this day – November 14

Births

1765 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (d. 1815)
1840 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)
1889 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (d. 1964) (pictured)
1900 - Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)
1908 - Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator and anti-communist (d. 1957)
1948 - King Charles III
1954 - Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State

Deaths

1716 - Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician (b. 1646)
1831 - Georg Hegel, German philosopher (b. 1770)
1844 - John Abercrombie, British physician (b. 1780)
1915 - Booker T. Washington, American inventor, educator, and author (b. 1856)
1916 - Saki, British writer (b. 1870)

More of today's anniversaries...

In the news

13 February 2024 – Estonia–Russia relations: Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas is reportedly placed on the Russian Interior Ministry's register of wanted people due to the country's removal of Soviet War Memorials, making Kallas the first known government leader to be added to a wanted list by Russian authorities. (The Guardian)
4 February 2024 – 66th Annual Grammy Awards: Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year for Midnights, becoming the first artist to win the award four times. She also announces the release of a new album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19. (Variety)
27 January 2024 –: Venezuela's Supreme Court ratifies a ban from seeking any political office for 15 years on María Corina Machado, opposition leader backed by the United States. (Le Monde) (The Economist)
24 January 2024 –: The Constitutional Court of Thailand acquits former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat for owning shares in the defunct media company iTV, thereby allowing Limjaroenrat to resume serving as a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives. (AP)
23 January 2024 –: North Korea demolishes the Arch of Reunification in Pyongyang after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ruled out peaceful reunification with South Korea. (NDTV); The Senate of the Philippines' committee on women conducts a public hearing regarding the alleged abuses within the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Three women, two Ukrainian nationals and one Filipino, accuse church leader Apollo Quiboloy of sexually abusing them. (CNN Philippines)

Updated: 6:33, 14 February 2024

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Quote of the week

"I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul."

— Émile Zola

In "J'accuse…!", L'Aurore 13 January 1898

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