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- Greek historian and man of letters, he was the son of a well-born Athenian named Gryllus. Xenophon approached manhood during the last turbulent years of the Peloponnesian War (431-404), in which he himself took part as a cavalryman; and perhaps he was also present at the sea battle of Arginusae (406). He got to know Socrates and became his keen admirer, though probably not his pupil, since he possessed no aptitude for philosophy himself. Xenophon was a man of right-wing political tastes, with a simple belief in the virtues of strong leadership; he probably found life uncomfortable when the short-lived oligarchic revolution came to an end and democracy was restored in Athens (403). In any case, he moved away from the city. In 401 his Boeotian friend Proxenus invited him to join the expedition (anabasis, march up country) of Cyrus the Younger who was in rebellion against his brother King Artaxerxes II of Persia. After Cyrus had been defeated and killed at Cunaxa (401), Xenophon was elected a general and played a major part in the evacuation of the Greek expeditionary force to Trapezus (Trabzon, northeastern Turkey). Then, after a brief period of service with the Thracian king Seuthes, he offered himself and his troops to Thibron--a general from Sparta, which was at war with Persia--and engaged as his ally, in operations that continued under Thibron's successor Dercylidas (399-397). In Xenophon's absence, however, at the time when Socrates had just been executed and his associates were discredited, the Athenians formally pronounced a sentence of exile upon him, involving the confiscation of his property. In 396-394 he fought against the Persian satrap Pharnabazus in the service of Agesilaus, king of Sparta (398-361), to whom he formed a strong attachment; and when Agesilaus was called home in 395 at the outset of the Corinthian War (in which Sparta was pitted against Thebes), Xenophon took part in the battle of Coronea (394), thus fighting against his own Athenian compatriots, who were in alliance with Thebes. Subsequently, he settled with his family at Sparta. He was presented by the Spartans with an estate at Scillus in Elis (northwestern Peloponnese) where he spent the next two decades living the life of a literary country gentleman, dividing his time between hunting and writing. The Spartans appointed him as their envoy (proxenos) to look after such of their citizens as visited Olympia nearby. When, after its defeat by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra (371), Sparta lost possession of Scillus, Xenophon and his family moved to a new residence on the isthmus of Corinth. However, relations between Athens and Sparta having now improved, the Athenians repealed his condemnation to exile (c. 365), and it seems likely that he returned to Athens and lived there. In 362 his sons Gryllus and Diodorus (by his wife Philesia) were members of an Athenian contingent fighting with the Spartans against the Thebans at Mantinea, and Gryllus was killed. Xenophon was probably on a visit to Corinth when he died.
- Captain (later Vice Admiral) William Bligh will be remembered as the infamous captain of the HMS Bounty. He went to sea at the age of 15 as sailing master to the famous explorer Captain James Cook on his 2nd voyage round the world (1772-4) aboard the HMS Resolution. It was he who discovered bread-fruit at Otaheite (Tahiti). In 1787, then lieutenant, he was chosen by Sir Joseph Banks to command the Bounty on a voyage to Tahiti to collect plants of the bread-fruit tree and introduce them to the West Indies. On the return voyage, on 28 April 1789, first mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny, and Bligh and 18 of his supporters were cast adrift in an open boat without charts. The mutineers went back to Tahiti. Bligh was an excellent navigator and managed to 'captain' his boat to Timor in the East Indies. They landed there in June after having travelled nearly 4,000 miles across the Pacific. There he met British authorities and sailed back to England, to be exonerated for his conduct and promoted. In 1791 he set sail for the Society Islands. In 1794 he received the medal of the Society of Arts and in 1801 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. Bligh served under Lord Nelson in command of the Glatton at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. He then became a colonial administrator in Australia. He was made Governor of New South Wales in 1805 which was a penal colony. He was deposed in 1808 and imprisoned (1808-10) by mutinous soldiers during the so-called 'Rum Rebellion' inspired by John MacArthur. On his return to England, Bligh was exonerated of all blame. He was promoted to Rear-admiral in 1811 and Vice-admiral of the Blue in 1814, he was not, however, given any important command. He effectively retired in 1811.
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The only child of 2 Atlanta school teachers. He dropped out of college and was considering a career in the music industry as a promoter. In his teens he had even constructed a working radio station in the basement of the family home. At the age of 23 he was still living with his parents. He is now remembered for a 2 year reign of terror in Atlanta, Georgia that involved at least 23 homicides and became known as the "Atlanta Child Murders". It began on July 28, 1979 with the discovery of his first victim. All his victims were black and the majority were male children and adolescents. There were only 3 female victims and 6 adult victims. The youngest was 7 and the oldest was 27 years old. Several of the bodies were pulled out of the Chattahoochee River, so the FBI staked it our. On the night of May 22, 1981 a police officer heard a 'splash' near the Chattahoochee River bridge. The police stopped the owner of the car who turned out to be Wayne Williams. He was now the primary suspect in the case. Scientific experts found that fibers from the carpet in the Waynes home were found on some of the victims. They also found fibers from the trunk of their 1979 Ford and 1970 Chevrolet on some of the bodies. On Februrary 27, 1982 Wayne Williams was convicted on 2 counts of murder and sentenced to a double life sentence.- Additional Crew
English artist. Sickert was born in Munich, the eldest son of the Danish painter Oswald Adalbert Sickert. The family moved to London in 1868. After a short period as an actor, Sickert studied art at the Slade School and then under James Whistler in Chelsea when, like Whistler, he took to etching. In 1883 he met Degas in Paris, who became the greatest influence on his style and attitude to art. Though often described as an Impressionist, he was only so to the same limited extent as Degas, constructing pictures from swift notes made on the spot, and never painting in the open air. His later work became broader in treatment and lighter in tone, a late innovation being the Echoes', in which he freely adapted the work of Victorian illustrators. He worked in Dieppe from 1885 to 1905, with occasional visits to Venice, and produced music-hall paintings and views of Venice and Dieppe in dark, rich tones. Although well known in Europe, he did not achieve recognition in the UK until the 1920s. His writings were collected in 1947 under the title A Free House. His works, broadly Impressionist in style, capture subtleties of tone and light, often with a melancholic atmosphere, their most familiar subjects being the rather shabby cityscapes and domestic and music-hall interiors of late Victorian and Edwardian London. Ennui (about 1913; Tate Gallery, London) is a typical interior painting. In his Camden Town' period (1905-14), he explored the back rooms and dingy streets of North London. His zest for urban life and his personality drew together a group of younger artists who formed the nucleus of the Camden Town Group, which played a leading role in bringing post-Impressionism into English art. Some of his paintings viz. 'The Ripper's bedroom' made some Ripperologists suspect him of being the elusive 'Jack the Ripper'. Most of this is based on pure speculation.- Velma dropped out high school in her junior year. She eloped with her first husband at the age of 17 and settled down in Paxton. In 1964 her husband was injured in a car crash and lost his job. He began to drink heavily eventually becoming an alcoholic. Velma had him committed to Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh. Meanwhile she worked at a local mill and took prescription tranquilizers for 'peace of mind'. Her husband 'mysteriously' burned to death in his bed in 1969 while smoking. Her second husband died within 6 months of their marriage. Velma was hospitalized 4 times for drug overdoses. Yet she still remained dutifully religious amd taught Sunday school at the Pentecostal church. Velma began to incur debts and wrote hot checks to cover them. In 1974 she killed her own mother, Lillie, with insecticide so that she could fake her signature on a $1,000 loan. She poisoned two of her employers and a lover over the next few years. The relatives of her lover did not belive that he could have just died from 'acute gastroenteritis' and so a full autopsy was performed. It was found that he had been poisoned with arsenic which could mimic acute gastroenteritis. Autopsies on her 2nd husband revealed the same. Velma Barfield confessed to her crimes. In court the jury deliberated for an hour and found her guilty of first degree murder. She was sentenced to be executed in 1984.
- Valmiki was the composer of the first Sanskrit poem (the Adikavya) known the world over as the epic Ramayana (Story of Lord Rama), hence he is called the Adikavi or First Poet - the Poet of Poets of India. He was born along the banks of the Ganges in ancient India to a sage by the name of Prachetasa. His birth name was Ratnakara. He apparently got lost in the jungles as a child and was found by a hunter who raised him as his own son. When he grew up he became a hunter like his foster father but also took to being a bandit to supplement his livelihood. Once it so happened he met the Maharishi Narada and tried to rob him. However Narada convinced him of the evil of his ways and converted him into a 'Brahmarishi' or religious scholar. He narrated the story of Rama (Ramayana) to him and asked him to write it down for posterity. Ratnakara did penance for many years and an ant-hill grew around him. Hence his new name 'Valmika' which in Sanskrit means an ant-hill. He came out of the anthill and penned the great epic sometime between the 4th and the 2nd century BC. "As long as there are rivers and mountains in the world, people will read the Ramayana."
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Tulsi Das was a Brahmin Hindi poet and religious reformer. Tulsi Das lived most of his life as an ascetic at the sacred site of Varanasi (Benares) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. According to legend, he had a dream in which Lord Rama commanded him to write a version of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana (originally written by Valmiki in a language that the common people could understand. His version, the Ramcaritmanas, remains the most popular religious and epic poem in the whole of Hindi literature.- Latin poet and dramatist, who was born at Mercato Saraceno in Umbria. Some authorities credit him with upto 130 comedies however only 21 are certain. These include: Amphitryo Jupiter, Asinaria (Comedy of Asses), Aulularia (Pot of Gold), Bacchides, Captivi (Prisoners of War), Casina, Cistellaria (Casket-Comedy), Curculio (The Weevil, the name of a parasite in the play), Epidicus, Menaechmi (The Two Menaechmuses), Mercator (Merchant), Miles Gloriosus (Braggart Warrior), Mostellaria (Ghost), Persa, Poenulus (Little Carthaginian), Pseudolus, Rudens (Rope), Stichus, Trinummus (Three-Dollar Day), Truculentus and Vidularia (Tale of a Traveling Chest). Plautus borrowed his plots from the Athenian New Comedy, the leading exponent of which had been Menander. It dealt with the personal preoccupations of ordinary men and women. His New Comedy plots were highly elaborate, consisting largely of numerous confusions, misunderstandings, surprising turns of fortune, and, above all, a great deal of amusing trickery. Plautus achieved immense popularity as a playwright, and repeatedly brought his spectators to their feet in enthusiastic applause. His comedies were revived time after time during the subsequent centuries of antiquity. He influnece can be seen in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, as well as in many of the plays of Ben Jonson.
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Ted Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Philippi, West Virginia. He was a well respected actor who portrayed many different characters during his film and television career. His most notable role was Lurch, the faithful butler on the television series The Addams Family (1964). His most memorable dialogue as Lurch would be, "You rang?", whenever someone summoned him. Due to his large size, (6ft. 9in.) he portrayed larger than life characters. His deep voice, was used for narrations and for dubbing certain character's voices. His acting career spanned three decades. Ted Cassidy died in 1979 from complications following open-heart surgery. His live-in girlfriend had his remains cremated, then buried in the backyard of their Woodland Hills home.- Latin biographer and antiquarian. His family was of a knightly rank and probably came from Hippo Regius (Annaba in Algeria). Suetonius taught literature at Rome for a while. He also practiced law and then served on the staff of Pliny the Younger in c. A.D. 110-12. Suetonius then held a post as "Secretary of Studies". Under Emperor Trajan he became director of the imperial libraries and was finally placed in charge of Trajan's correspondence (117AD). From 119 to 122 he was a member of the Imperial service and secretary to the Emperor Hadrian. In 122, however, he was dismissed from his post for disrespectful behavior toward the empress Sabina. It was during Trajan's reign that he began to write his biographies. In 'the Lives of Illustrious Men' he wrote biographies of Roman literary personalities (21 grammarians and 16 orators, 33 poets and 6 historians. These include short biographies of Virgil, Passienus Crispus (stepfather of Nero), Terence, Horace, Lucan, Tibullus, Persius and Pliny the Elder. His most authoritative work however was the 'De Vita Caesarum' (Lives of the 12 Caesars - from Julius Caesar to Domitian). His style was mainly a straight narrative interrupted by subject matter that dealt with the different characteristics of his subject. Suetonius loved to write about scandalous affairs.
- His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Indian religious writer and guru, is the founder/acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He founded ISKCON in New York City in 1966. Prabhupada produced many scholarly translations of ancient Vedic religious texts and made them accessible to the English speaking Western world. His most famous work is "Bhagavad Gita As It Is". His guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, before he died in 1936, had advised him to spread Krishna consciousness to the English speaking countries. In August, 1965, aboard the commercial ocean liner Jaladhuta, he left Calcutta, India, for the United States, landing in Boston in September, 1965. By teaching devotion to Krishna as the universal religion, he did much to assist the spread of Vaishnavism in the West. He initiated over 5000 disciples and established over 100 Hare Krishna (ISKCON) centers.
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Versatile Greek poet and tragic dramatist. He was the son of Sophilus, a wealthy arms manufacturer. Sophocles studied tragedy under Aeschylus, whom he subsequently defeated in the dramatic festival of 468 BC, thus gaining his first victory at these competitions. He became a general under Nicias and after the failure of the Athenian expedition to Syracuse (413) was appointed one of the special commissioners to deal with the emergency. He was a priest of Amynos, a god of healing, and offered his own house as a place of worship for the healing deity Asclepius until his temple was ready. In addition, he founded a literary and musical society. His descendants were also tragedians - his son Iophon and grandson Sophocles the younger. Unlike his rival Euripides, he had very early acquired a favorable public. About 130 plays were attributed to him, (7 of which were subsequently reckoned spurious). In the dramatic competitions he probably won 24 victories--that is to say, 24 of his tetralogies (each comprising 3 tragedies and a satyr play) were successful. Seven of his tragedies have survived viz. Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, the Trachinian Women, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus (his last play performed in 401 after his death). Sophocles died just before the catastrophic end of the Peloponnesian War.- Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota (Sioux) holy man and war chief, was born in 1831 near the Grand River in what is now the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was named after his father, who was killed by Crow warriors--the Crow tribe being a longtime enemy of the Lakota--in an ambush. In the mid-1860s, during what became known as Red Cloud's War, Sitting Bull led the Sioux in a series of attacks on US Army posts and civilian wagon trains in the Powder River area of the Dakotas. Although other Indian tribes signed a peace treaty with the US government ending the war in 1868, Sitting Bull refused to and continued his attacks on military and civilian targets into the 1870s. He attacked crews building railroads across the Indian territory and miners who were panning for gold in the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Sioux. His attacks prompted the US government to send federal troops to the area, under the command of Col. George Armstrong Custer, to stop them. In 1875 the US Interior Department ordered all Sioux living outside the area known as The Great Sioux Reservation to move onto it, and any who did not would be declared "hostile" and could be forcibly removed to the reservation. Rather than persuading Indians to follow the Department's orders, this policy resulted in several tribes previously hostile to each other, such as the Cheyenne and Kiowa, to unite in alliance with the Sioux against the army, although many chiefs who had previously fought the army--such as Red Cloud, Gall and Spotted Tail--decided it was in their best interests to take their followers and live on the reservation.
In 1875 the Cheyenne and several Sioux clans joined forces to resist the army's attempts to place them on the reservation. They used Sitting Bull's camp as their main assembling point, as did many other Indians who had bolted from the reservation. As more and more Indians arrived the camp expanded in size, until there were an estimated 16,000 Indians living there. It was this camp that Custer stumbled across on June 25, 1876. His attack on the camp, and the subsequent defeat and annihilation of his command, became known as the Battle of the Little Big Horn, named for the river that ran through the camp. Contrary to popular opinion, however, Sitting Bull had nothing to do with the defeat of Custer's forces--his task was to organize a defense of the camp, and it was other chiefs who led the counterattack on Custer.
Custer's defeat led the US army to assign thousands of troops to the area to track down and capture Sitting Bull, and over the next year or so many Sioux chiefs surrendered their bands due to the intense pressure from the army. Sitting Bull, however, refused to surrender and in 1877 led his band across the border into Canada, where he knew the US army could not reach him. However, conditions in Canada deteriorated for the Indians, with cold and hunger taking their toll. On July 19, 1881, he crossed back into the US and led his band of nearly 200 Indians to Fort Buford, South Dakota, and surrendered. Initially taken to Fort Yates, near the Standing Rock Reservation, Sitting Bull's band was transferred to Fort Randall, where they were kept for almost two years as prisoners of war. They returned to Standing Rock in 1883.
The next year Sitting Bull was given permission to leave the reservation to join the "wild west show" of Buffalo Bill Cody, aka "Buffalo Bill", and he became an audience favorite. He returned to the reservation after only four months with the Cody show, however. By that time he had become somewhat of a celebrity and many whites visited the reservation hoping to see him. He turned a tidy profit charging his "fans" to have their pictures taken with him.
In 1890 a movement known as the "Ghost Dance" swept the Standing Rock reservation. Part of the movement's message was to encourage Indians to defy the authorities and leave the reservation. The Indian Agency administrators were concerned that Sitting Bull, who was still considered a leader among the Sioux and wielded great influence over them, was planning on taking as many Indians as he could and flee the reservation. They ordered the tribal police to arrest and jail him to keep that from happening. On December 15, 1890, a force of more than 40 Indian police arrived at Sitting Bull's house. As they prepared to take him away, nearby Indians who had heard what was happening began to gather around the house. Sitting Bull refused to go with the police, and the crowd became angry. Reportedly a Sioux onlooker grabbed a rifle and fired it at the officer in charge, hitting him. The officer then pulled his weapon and shot Sitting Bull in the chest, and another officer fired a round into his head. The crowd then attacked the police, who fought back, and in the ensuing mêlée eight Indian police and seven Indians in the crowd, along with Sitting Bull, were killed. - Writer
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Austrian neurologist and 'father of psychoanalysis'. Freud was born to Jacob Freud, a Jewish wool merchant, and Amalia (neé Nathansohn). The family settled in Vienna when Freud was young. In 1873 he started medicine at the University of Vienna, at which time he adopted the shortened form of his name, "Sigmund." Freud served a year of compulsory military service and got his M.D. in 1881. He then stayed on for another year as a demonstrator in the physiology laboratory. From 1882 to 1886, he worked as an assistant at the General Hospital in Vienna. During this period, Dr. Josef Breuer related to Freud how he had treated a young woman suffering from hysteria with 'talking cures' while in a state of self-hypnosis. This is considered the prototype of psychoanalysis. Late in 1885, Freud went to Paris on grant to study at the Salpetriere, a mental hospital, with the famed French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. Charcot had pioneered the treatment of nervous disorders by hypnosis. On Freud's return to Vienna in 1886 he took up his post as lecturer in neuropathology at the university and also established a private practice in nervous diseases. In 1887 he established a close friendship with Wilhelm Fliess, the Berlin otolaryngologist, with whom he discussed his work and ideas. Fleiss is called "the midwife of psychoanalysis". In 1891 he and his family moved to an apartment at Berggasse, 19. Here for the next 45 years Freud did most of his psychoanalytical treatments on his patients. Freud's first published work was entitled 'On Aphasia, a Critical Study' (1891). Freud first used the term "psychoanalysis" for his new treatment in 1896. Some of his other famous works include: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Selected Papers on Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses (1909) and The Interpretation of Dreams (1913). Freud was appointed "Professor Extraordinary" of Neurology at the University in 1902. The same year he had also begun to meet informally at Berggasse, 19, with a group of medical colleagues interested in learning about the new discipline. In 1909 Freud was invited to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, with Carl Jung and Sandor Ferenczi, to speak about his theories. An avid cigar smoker he developed cancer of the jaw in 1923. He underwent operations, radiotherapy and the discomfort of an oral prosthetic device that to some extent affected his speech. In 1930 the city of Frankfurt awarded Freud its Goethe Prize for work that had "opened access to the driving forces of the soul." He was elected in 1936 a corresponding member of the Royal Society of London (in the company of Newton and Darwin). The growing danger of anti-Semitism and Nazi persecution made it apparent that the Freuds would suffer the fate of other Jews if they stayed in Vienna. With the help of US government officials Freud, his wife and daughter Anna were allowed to leave Austria. It was Freud's wish to "die in freedom," and so he did in his new home at 20 Maresfield Gardens, which is now the Freud Museum.- Actor
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Tamil superstar from a poor family in Tamil Nadu, India. His father worked on the railways.
On the day of his birth his father, Chiniah Pillai, follower of Mahatma Gandhi, was jailed for participating in the Independence movement in Nellikuppam (Tamil Nadu, India). He was frequently in and out of jail, and was raised by his mother, Rajamani Ammal.
He joined theatre groups when he was young. He earned his screen name 'Sivaji' after acting in C.N. Annadurai's play 'Sivaji Kanda Indhu Rajyam', a historical play on the Maratha Emperor Shivaji.
He made his film debut in Parasakthi (1952) as Gunasekharan. He became an icon of the DMK party who made DMK films (founded by C.M. Annadurai).
He entered politics in the mid-50s where he joined the Congress party and then defected to support the opposition Janata Dal.
He is most well know for his mythological and patriotic portrayals, like in his most famous films like Karnan(mythological) and Veerapandiya Kattabomman (patriotic).
His main rival was MGR (M.G. Ramachandran) and together they dominated the Tamil film industry in the 1960s and 70s.- Stunts
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Shane Dixon, the son of Delmer and B.J. Dixon of Ponca City, Oklahoma, is probably best known for his stunt acting - car and motorcycle stunts, karate, boxing, studio fights, car hits, mini trampoline, weapons, horseback, westerns, fire gags and air rams. This stuntman-actor graduated from Po-Hi in 1973. He was President of Stunts Unlimited. Shane passed away in 1999 due to complications caused by cancer. He was a wonderful man of God and a Christian.- "Sarita", the mummified body of a seven-year-old girl was found atop the 18,070-foot Andean peak Sara Sara in southern Peru. She was sacrificed more than 500 years ago as an offering to the Inca Sun god. Sarita was discovered in September 1996 by Dr. Johan Reinhard, (Mountain Institute in West Virginia), and José Antonio Chavez, (Catholic University in Arequipa, Peru), atop a platform on the mountain's east face. The sex of the mummy was identified by the presence of a shawl pin worn only by women. Found in a fetal position, Sarita had been placed on the platform along with three gold and silver statuettes and a small bundle of coca leaves, traditional offerings to the mountain gods. She was a 'capaccocha' or human sacrifice. Human sacrifices, particularly those of children, were made in times of famine, epidemic, and military defeat, or on the summer and winter solstices, the most sacred events of the Inca ceremonial calendar. Because Sarita had been left on the sun-drenched east face of the mountain, her body had decomposed more than another mummy named Juanita also found in the Peruvian Andes.
- English explorer who commanded two Antarctic expeditions, 1901-04 and 1910-12. Born to John and Hannah Scott. Born into a naval family he became a cadet at the age of 13 and entered the navy in 1882. He married famous English sculptor, Kathleen Bruce in 1908. His son Peter was born in 1909. In 1910 he set for antarctica on the ship Terra Nova. With Scott on the final expedition were Edward Wilson (1872-1912), Laurence Oates, H R Bowers, and E Evans. The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge was founded in 1920 out of funds donated by the public following Scott's death, as a memorial to him and his companions. It houses a small museum and library, and carries out research into all aspects of the Antarctic and Arctic regions. On 18 January 1912 he reached the South Pole, shortly after the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, but on the return journey he and his companions died in a blizzard only a few miles from their base camp. His journal was recovered and published in 1913.
- Serial killer who single-handedly committed the most number of murders in a single day - 8. He was the 7th of 8 children born to Robert Speck and Gladys Sterner. His father died when he was 6 and his mother moved the family to Dallas. While there he had 37 arrests for drunk and disorderly behaviour and burglary. He worked as a garbage man for a while. In 1965 he was caught trying to assault a woman at knife point. He was sentenced to 490 days and released as a parole violator. In March 1966 he was separated from his wife and went to Monmoth, Illinois where he has some distant relatives. By then he had become an alcoholic and harboured homicidal threats against his wife. He worked as a merchant seaman on the ore barges that plied the Great Lakes. Speck suffered from Satyriasis (sexual addiction in men) and though he is remembered now for his 8 victim tally on one bloody night he was resposible for 4 other killings that occurred over a period of 3 months before that. This truly makes him a serial-killer and not just a mass murderer. His first killing took place on April 10, 1966. Most of his victims were women who were abducted, raped and either strangled or stabbed to death. His oldest victim was 65. On July 10, 1966 he moved to Chicago. Speck needed money to get passage on a vessel bound for New Orleans. On the 'infamous' night of July 13/14, 1966 he approached Jeffrey Manor a 2 storey townhome at 2319 East 100th Street. It served as a dormitory for nursing students from South Chicago Community Hospital. He was high on downers and inebriated when he knocked on the door. The door was opened by a young Filipino nurse who was immediately taken hostage at both gun and knife point. Speck then aroused 5 other students and herded all 6 of them into one room where he bound and gagged them. Over the next hour 3 more nurses came back to their dormitory and Speck now found himself with 9 potential victims. Speck then came to his brutal decision - he would just dispose of them. He took them one by one, like lambs for slaughter, into adjacent rooms, where he stabbed, strangled and at times raped them. While this was going on the remaining nurses tried to crawl under beds or escape. Speck finished killing 8 out the 9 nurses. He had lost count and the lone survivor of the carnage - the Filipino nurse who had let him in, had managed to crawl away in the darkness and hide in a dark corner in another room. She waited there until 5 in the morning before she came out and screamed for help. The nurses were young who ranged in age from 20 to 24. When the police examined the corpses and noticed the use of square knots they suspected their killer might be a seaman. The lone survivor gave a description of the pock-marked Speck, including a tattoo on his left forearm that said 'born to raise hell'. On July 17, 1966 Speck was found in his crashpad and admitted to Cook County Hospital. He had tried to overdose on drugs to commit suicide. He was recognized by the doctors as the possible killer and the authorities were alerted. In April 1967 he was convicted of multicide and sentenced to death in August, 1967. However in 1972 the verdict was overturned when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. His sentence was commuted to consecutive life terms amounting to 400 years. While in prison Speck considered sex change and even got regular injections with female hormones so that he could gradually change his appearance. He died in 1991 after serving only 19 years.
- Richard Ramirez was a drifter from Texas who ended up in Los Angeles (the serial killer capital of the world) in the early 1980s when 5 serial killers where committing crimes independent of each other.
Ramirez worked as a car mechanic and did odd jobs while in Los Angeles. He was fascinated with "satanism" and would play the rock band AC/DC's song "Night Prowler" on his stereo for hours on end. His first murder occurred in June 1984. His modus operandi was to break into his victim's house late at night through an unlocked window. Then he would threaten them in their beds with either a gun or another weapon. He would either shoot or club his victims to death and then mutilate their bodies. His oldest victim was 84 and his youngest only 6 years. In between his murders he would sometimes just abduct young girls, sexually molest them and then let them go. He began killing again on March 17, 1985. This time one of his victims survived and gave police a description her assailant--tall, Hispanic, curly hair, bulging eyes and wide-spaced, rotting teeth! The police began to check with local dentists because they believed their killer needed to have major dental work done. Most of Ramirez's initial targets were in and around the Montery Park area of Los Angeles. On March 27, 1985, in Whitier he beat a man to death and then carved out his wife's eyes and took them with him. On May 29 he left satanic pentagrams on one victim's body and on the walls. On July 20 he killed a total of 5 victims in 2 different locations. On August 8 authorities released information to the public that they were looking for a new serial killer dubbed "The Night Stalker". Ramirez then left Los Angeles for San Francisco, and the killings soon began there. On August 28 al stolen car from one of the "Night Stalker" murders was recovered near Mission Viejo. Police found fingerprints on the backside of the rear-view mirror. They matched Ramirez's, whose prints were on file because he had previously been arrested for traffic and drug violations. The police believed they had their killer.
They checked at places where Ramirez was known to have worked and found that he closely matched surviving victims' descriptions of the killer. On August 30, 1985 his mugshot made its way to the television and newspapers. On August 31 he was recognized by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood as he was walking down a street. They chased him and, though he tried to escape by attempting to steal a car, they caught him. Someone called police, and by the time they arrived the crowd had almost beaten him to death.
On September 29, 1985, he was charged with, among other felonies, 14 murder and 22 sexual assault charges. When Ramirez appeared in court he had a pentagram drawn on his palm that he proudly displayed and proclaimed, "Hail Satan!" Jury selection began on by July 22, and he went on trial. On September 20, 1989, he was found guilty of 13 murders and 30 felonies. He was sentenced to death. - Actor
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Rajinikanth has been a superstar in the Tamil movie industry since the 70s. He is one of the highest earning actors in Asia. Primarily starring in Tamil movies, he has also worked in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Hollywood movies. He was born in Bangalore (India), and was employed as a bus conductor before he joined the Madras Film Institute. He made his debut in Katha Sangama (1976) and became a star with Apoorva Raagangal (1975) . His unique acting style is characterized by trademark gestures such as flipping a cigarette in the air and catching it with his mouth. He played varied roles successfully and is considered as an actor who can easily perform action, drama, and comedy. He is not very popular for his dancing, which is considered a crucial art for actors in Indian Movies. His performances in movies such as Mullum Malarum (1978), Aarilirunthu Arubathuvarai (1979), Johny Ustad (1980) in the 70's and 80's to movies such as Kabali (2016) recently, are considered to be examples of his acting abilities. His performances as an action-superstar overshadow his critically acclaimed performances in these movies. The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016 for his contributions to the arts. At the 45th International Film Festival of India (2014), he was conferred with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year".- He was born into the feudal royal family of Travancore (now part of the state of Kerala in South India). Varma's contribution to iconography and lithographs in Indian painting is significant. He apprenticed under the court painter Ramaswamy Naicker and even studied under the tutelage of the Dutch painter Theodore Jensen. Varma was very popular among the British authorities in having him do their portraits. He is more well known today for his paintings of scenes from Indian mythology that have an 'academic' style. In 1894 he mass produced his olegraphs at Lonavala. His paintings had a significant impact on Indian theatre. The Sangeet Natnak used his style of rendering for their stage backdrops that was quickly imitated by others. The poet and novelist Kerala Varma (1845-1914) has written extensively about him.
- Prem Nazir is considered to be the biggest star in Malyalam film history. He graduated from St. Berchman's College in Changanassery, Kerala. He started acting for the Excel company and most of his films were for the Udaya and Merryland Studios. He portrayed the ideal male in most of his films.
- Greek biographer and philosopher who was born c. 46 AD in Chaeronea, Boeotia, central Greece. Son of Aristobulus. In A.D. 66 he was in Athens, studying physics, mathematics natural science, and rhetoric - though the subject which held the greatest interest for him was ethics. He lectured in Rome on philosophical and rhetorical subjects. Plutarch went on fairly extensive travels to Egypt, Asia Minor and other parts of Greece. He was given a honorific position by Trajan and made a procurator by the emperor Hadrian. Athens granted him citizenship, and a life priesthood was bestowed on him at Delphi where he helped revive the shrine there. He also held numerous municipal posts in Chaeronea. A discipline of Romans like Plato and Aristotle, he nevertheless had his own views of humanity and expressed them in his works. He was a prolific and varied writer who produced two extensive collections of essays, Moralia (Morals) and Vitae parallelae (Parallel lives; translated simply as Lives). The latter includes biographies on Alexander the Great, two mythical or legendary monarchs, Romulus and Numa, and Mark Antony among others. The biography of the divine Heracles, Scipio the Younger, and Scipio the Elder are missing. He probably died c. 120-25 CE.
- One of the greatest Greek philosophers (considered the greatest Greek writer of prose by some), Plato, was born into an aristocratic Athenian family. He met Socrates around 407 BC and became his disciple in philosophy. Socrates was executed in 399 BC. Plato and fellow disciples took refuge under Euclid in Megara. Following that for a period of 12 years Plato traveled extensively to Egypt, Sicily and Italy. He met Dionysius I of Syracuse in 390 BC. And the Pythagorean mathematician Archytas of Taras (Tarentum) while in Italy, who was a follower of the semi-legendary Pythagoras of Samos (6th Cent. B.C.). He began teaching pupils near the grove of Academus outside Athens in 388 BC. His school was named Academy after the place. Plato was summoned to the court of Dionysuis II of Syracuse by Dion, the ruler's uncle, in 366 BC, and by Dionysius II himself in 362 BC. Plato's philosophical and literary activities extend over a period of 50 years. His main works falls into 2 categories viz. letters and dialogs. The 13 letters are mainly addressed to Dionysus the Tyrant of Syracuse and deal with political advice. The 26 dialogs fall into 3 broad categories - early, middle and late based on his travels. The more well known include the Protagoras, Gorgias, Ion, the Republic (where he attacks the power and pretension of literature), Cratylus, Phaedrus, Sophist and Laws. His death is reported by some authorities as having occurred at a wedding feast or while he was writing. He was buried at the Academy.
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Hellenistic Jewish philosopher. He hailed from Alexandria, Egypt, where he was a leading member of the Jewish community. A prolific author, his work brought together Greek philosophy and Jewish scripture, and greatly influenced subsequent Greek Christian theologians like St. Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Most of his works consist of commentaries on the Pentateuch, many of which survive in the original Greek. In c.40AD he headed a deputation to the mad Emperor Caligula to plead with him on behalf of Jews who refused to worship him, as he records in De Legatione.- British serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe, who is infamous as the 'Yorkshire Ripper' was born under fairly normal surroundings. His father John Sutcliffe was a mill owner. Sutcliffe was very attached to his mother Kathleen. He was a loner in school and his grades were generally poor. Sutcliffe quit school at 15. He loved to visit the local wax museum where he was fascinated by specimens that showed the effect of venereal disease on the body.
He worked as a municipal gravedigger and mortuary assistant for a while. During this period he was known to steal things from the bodies he was burying. Some of his early tendencies towards necrophilia may have stemmed from here. He would later tell authorities that it was during this time that he started hearing the voice of God coming from a grave telling him to 'rid the world of harlots'. He attempted his first murder in 1969 with a home made weapon - a sock filled with bricks. On two occasions his victims escaped.
On Oct 30, 1975 however he had perfected his modus operandi. He used a ball peen hammer to bludgeon his victim to death. Then he stabbed them with a chisel or screwdriver to mutilate their bodies. He killed mainly in the cities of Leeds, Bradford and in the West Yorkshire area but two were in Manchester. His victims were all women. Though many were prostitutes, several were not - the only common factor being they were lone women who were out late at night. The age range of his victims was 16 to 47. One of his victims was even killed in her own apartment. In one case, Sutcliffe actually revisited the crime scene a week later to further mutilate the body before it was finally found by the police.
Sutcliffe was a schizoid personality who was able to remain a devoted husband at home while still committing his brutal crimes outside. The largest manhunt in British history was launched to catch the man who was dubbed "The Yorkshire Ripper". It involved interviewing 250,000 people and searching 20,000 houses. In June 1979 the police were sidetracked when they received a hoax tape and letters from someone claiming to be the Ripper. Sutcliffe was among those dismissed at this point as a suspect because he did not have the 'Wearside accent' of the hoax tape.
The last 'Ripper' murder took place on 17 Nov 1980. There had been 13 victims with at least eight attempted murders. On January 2, 1981 Sutcliffe was arrested by two Sheffield police officers on routine patrol for displaying false number plates on his Rover car. (The number plates actually belonged to a Skoda.) Peter Sutcliffe had stolen the plates from a scrapyard in nearby Dewsbury. He had a prostitute in his car with him at the time. He requested permission to 'pee' before going to the station. While he was being questioned at the station, one of the arresting officers decided to go and check the bushes where Sutcliffe had urinated. He found a hammer and chisel behind some shrubbery.
Sutcliffe quickly confessed to his crimes. he said he harbored a vendetta against prostitutes after one of them had swindled him of money and given him a venereal disease. On May 22, 1981 he was declared guilty of committing 13 murders and sentenced to spend not less than 30 yrs in prison. - Actor
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Malayalam actor who had his roots in theatre. A major actor-playwright in the post-WW2 era with more than 90 plays. He ran the Pratibha Arts Club, an influential theatre group based in Ernakulam. In cinema, he was famous for playing villains. He has also directed, scripted and provided lyrics for movies. His best-known perfromance is in Nirmalayam (1973) as the priest torn between religious responsibilities and the amoral duplicity of those around him.- American short story writer and novelist, was born the son of Andrew Robertson, a ship captain on the Great Lakes, and Amelia (Glassford) Robertson. Morgan went to sea as a cabin boy and was in the merchant service from 1866 to 1877, rising to first mate. Tiring of life at sea, he studied jewelry making at Cooper Union in New York City and worked for 10 years as a diamond setter. When that work began to impair his vision, he turned to writing sea stories, placing his work in such popular magazines as McClure's and the Saturday Evening Post. Robertson never made much money from his writing, a circumstance that greatly embittered him. Nevertheless, from the early 1890s until his death in 1915 he supported himself as a writer and enjoyed the company of artists and writers in a small circle of New York's bohemia. Robertson was found dead of heart disease in an Atlantic City hotel room.
- A native of Bhadeli, a village near the city of Bulsar, in what is now the state of Gujarat, Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was born on leap years day in 1896, the oldest of the 6 children of Ranchhodji Desai, a teacher, and Vajiaben (or Maniben) Desai. He was educated at Bombay University, and he was a civil servant for 12 years before embarking on a long and varied political career. He joined Congress in 1930, but was twice imprisoned as a supporter of Mahatma Gandhi's Civil Disobedience Campaign before becoming Revenue Minister in the Bombay government (1937-39). He was again imprisoned (1941-45) for his part in the 'Quit India' movement, before again serving as Bombay's Revenue Minister (1946) and later, Home Minister and Chief Minister (1952). Four years later, he entered central government, first as Minister for Commerce and Industry (1956-58) then as Finance Minister, resigning in 1963 to devote himself to party work. He was a candidate for the premiership in 1964 and again in 1966, when he was defeated by Indira Gandhi. Deputy premier and Minister of Finance in her administration, Desai resigned in 1968 over differences with the premier. In 1974 he supported political agitation in Gujarat, and the following year began a fast in support of elections in the state, being detained when a state of emergency was proclaimed. After his release in 1977 he was appointed leader of the Janata Party, a coalition opposed to Mrs Gandhi's rule, and he finally became Prime Minister after the elections that same year. The Janata government was, however, characterized by much internal strife, and Desai was forced to resign in 1979.
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A professional singer at the age of three, Mel Torme was a genuine musical prodigy. As a teenager, he played the drums in Chico Marx's band and earned the nickname "The Velvet Fog" because of his smooth, mellow tenor voice. In the 1940s, he formed his own group, the Mel-Tones, one of the first jazz-influenced vocal groups. As a solo musician, he had a number one hit in 1949 called "Careless Hands" and several lesser hits. He also acted in films and wrote several books, including biographies of Judy Garland and Buddy Rich. Torme's career included some songwriting, too. One of his most well-known compositions, "The Christmas Song", was written in midsummer as Torme relaxed by the pool.- In 1988 he landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport (Paris, France) after being denied entry into England because his passport and United Nations refugee card had been stolen. He was not allowed into France and he did not want to return to Iran (his home country) from where he was fleeing as a political refugee. He ended up living in Terminal One of the airport for over 16 years. His dilemma was used as the basis for two movies: Tombés du ciel (1993) and The Terminal (2004).
- Indian scholar, author, journalist and politician. Azad's father was Muhammad Khairuddin, a Sufi (mystic) saint. After the Revolt of 1857, his father went to Mecca where he married the daughter of Shaikh Mahomed Zahir Wetri. Maulana Azad was born in 1888 in Mecca. His early years were spent in Arabia. In 1898, his father settled in Calcutta and took his family with him. By then, Azad was fluent in Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi. In 1905, Azad's father sent him to Egypt to study at the Al Azhar University in Cairo, the most famous institution of learning in the Moslem world. He returned to India in 1907 and became interested in the Indian nationalist movement. In 1909, after his father's death, Azad, with the help of a dictionary and a grammar, studied English. In those days, he had leanings toward the anarchists and terrorists and had already become an object of suspicion, watched by the Criminal Intelligence Department. During World War I, he advocated a programme of non-cooperation with the British, which influenced Mohandas K. Gandhi and for which he was imprisoned. He was elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1940 and was also president of the Congress Party during negotiations for India's independence. After independence, he was in charge of the ministry of education.
- Applewhite was born in Spur, Texas the son of a Presbyterian Minister. He graduated from high school in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1948. Applewhite briefly enrolled to study as a Minister but changed his mind and went into Music. In 1952 he graudated from Austin College. He then did a brief stint in the US army corps from 1954 to '56. By 1959 he had obtained his Masters in Music from the Univ. of Colorada at Boulder. He was hired as choral director at Univ. of Alabama in 1961. From 1966 to '70 he taught music at Houston's Univ. of St. Thomas. Applewhite even played leading roles at the Houston Grand Opera. However, in 1970 he was dismissed for 'health reasons of an emotional nature'. He even underwent some psychotherapy but of no avail. By 1972 he had divorced his wife and was estranged from his 2 children. During this period in his life he met divorceé Bonnie Lu Nettles a former nurse and mother of 4 who was now interested in astrology. The 2 lived as common-law partners and moved to Las Vegas and Oregon looking for 'spiritual awakening'. In 1974 Applewhite was jailed in Texas for auto theft and credit card fraud. In the period after his release Applewhite and Nettles began calling themselves "the Two" and "Bo" and "Peep" (respectively) and also "Do" and "Ti" (like the musical notes). They began to collect a group of disillusioned followers preaching that the body was just a 'container' and that a great big 'mother ship' would come from outer space to collect the true believers before the end of the world. The press initially dubbed them as a 'UFO cult'! In 1985 when Bonnie died from cancer, Applewhite said that she had been collected by the 'mother ship' and only her container (body) was left behind. By 1993 they were called 'Total Overcomers Anonymous'. On January 17, 1994 when an earthquake rocked California they claimed that it was a sign that the end was near. Applewhite and his followers now needed another sign. They got it, in March 1997 when comet Halle Bopp appeared in the night skies. Applewhite along with 38 other followers made a videotape recording their last messages for loved ones. At their 'ranch' - Rancho Sant Fe (30 miles north of San Deigo, California) they committed mass suicide by consuming vodka laced with phenobarbital and covering their heads with plastic bags. They were all dressed in black with new nike shoes - a uniform by which the 'aliens' who would pick them up could identify them by. They were found a few days later in their bunk beds. Applewhite would not have said it was suicide - they had simply "moved on".
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Singer Maria Trapp was born on January 26, 1905, aboard a train, as her mother hurried from their village in the Tyrol to the hospital in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Augusta (nee Rainer), died shortly after Maria was born, and her father, Karl Kutschera, died when she was 6 years old. As a guardian to Maria, the court appointed a man whom she has described as a passionate socialist and a violent anti-Catholic. Although she had been baptized, she grew up outside the Church until she was 18. She was, at that time, in her final year at the State Teachers College for Progressive Education in Vienna. To atone for her earlier life, Maria Kutschera decided to enter a convent. She was accepted as a candidate for the novitiate at the Nonnberg Benedictine Convent at Salzburg, where she considered herself a black sheep because of her tomboyish ways, her willful and independent nature, and her lack of religious training. She was teaching fifth graders at the convent when she was sent by the Mother Abbess as a governess to the children of Baron Georg von Trapp. The Baron, a much-decorated World War I submarine commander, had retired with his 7 children to a villa in Aigen, near Salzburg, after the death of his wife. Maria quickly won the affection of the lonely family with her lively, outgoing disposition and the songs, games, and customs of her Tyrolean girlhood. At the end of nine months, she expected to return to the convent and take the veil. When the Baron proposed marriage, she was torn between her religious devotion and her attachment to the family. With the blessing of the Mother Abbess at Nonnberg, however, she married the Baron on November 26, 1927. After the marriage, the family often sang together, especially during their traditional observance of religious festivals. As a result of the economic disorders that plagued Europe in the early 1930s, the Baron lost his fortune, and to earn a living, the family turned their large home into a guest house for students and clergymen. A special dispensation from the Archbishop of Salzburg permitted them to have a chapel where Mass could be celebrated in their own home. At Easter 1935, the Reverend Franz Wasner (now Monsignor Wasner) came to the Trapp home as a guest and officiating priest. An accomplished musician, he listened critically to the family's informal singing and then immediately took charge of their musical education, becoming their conductor as well as their personal chaplain. He remained with them during their entire career as entertainers. In August 1936, when they happened to be heard by Lotte Lehmann, who insisted that they enter a choral competition at the Salzburg Festival. After winning the contest, they received invitations to give concerts and broadcasts. They began their first European tour at the end of 1937, as the Trapp Family Choir. In March 1938, Austria was taken over by the Nazis. With only a few possessions, they fled across the mountains to St. Georgen, Italy. There they made arrangements with an American concert manager, who advanced them enough money for their passage to New York. The first American concert of the Trapp Family Choir took place at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, in October 1938. Over the next few years, they did several traveling shows. In 1942, they spent their summer vacation in Stowe, Vermont. They found the Green Mountain countryside a peaceful retreat that resembled their native Austria, and before the summer ended, they had purchased a 660-acre farm on a hillside offering an expansive view. During a European tour in the summer of 1950, they appeared at the Salzburg Festival. There they were greeted and feted royally and paid a visit to their former home, which had been turned over to missionaries of the Society of Precious Blood after having been used as a Nazi headquarters during World War II. In 1955, the group disbanded permanently after a farewell tour climaxed by three Christmas concerts at Town Hall. Since then, Maria wrote about her life, which became fictionalized in plays (1959) and the popular movie The Sound of Music (1965). She spent the last days of her life as a resort owner with her children and grandchildren in Vermont.- Indian founder transcendental meditation, born in Allahabad, UP, India in 1917. He abandoned his scientific studies to become a follower of Guru Dev. He founded the science of creative intelligence and, as an exponent of the relaxation technique called transcendental meditation, he became one of the first Eastern gurus to attract a Western following. He first introduced his meditation technique, based on a literal interpretation of yoga concepts and the use of mantras, to the West in 1958, and went on to found the Spiritual Regeneration movement, aimed at saving the world through meditation. He taught that 'life is bliss'. This concept has developed into a worldwide network of meditation centers with an estimated four million practitioners. The Beatles were among his 'celebrity' disciples.
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Major Malayalam actor and director of the 60s and 70s. Graduated from Benares Hindu University and later took a diploma in acting from the National School of Drama. He often played the sad and suffering lover. He gained major acclaim after Chemmeen (1965) which established him as a character actor. After that he acted regularly in independent productions. His fist directorial venture was 'Priya' (1970) which received major critical acclaim. Founded the Uma Studio in Trivandrum (Kerala, India).- US gangster and racketeer. Born Charles Salvadore Lucania in Sicily, he emigrated with his family to the US in 1906. In 1907 he started shoplifting. He was given his nickname by childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky for his luck with betting on racehorses, but it also could have applied to the many times he avoided imprisonment and prosecution as a Mafia "godfather" who operated successfully and profitably in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1928 and 1930 the Castellammarese War broke out between the gangs of Giuseppe Masseria (aka Joe the Boss) and Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano sent some men to "rough up" Luciano, and when they caught him they not only beat and stabbed him, but addition severed the muscles of his right cheek, leaving him with a droop in his right eye. He was left for dead under the Brooklyn Bridge. However, he lived up to his nickname and survived. Recovering, he sided with Maranzano in the conflict. By 1931 Masseria had been assassinated and Maranzano had won. He named himself "boss of bosses" (capo di tuti capo), but that title proved to be short-lived. Luciano and Lansky's had their men visit Maranzano in his office, disguised as government agents, and assassinated him. Luciano followed that with anywhere from 40 to 90 additional murders during the series of killings that came to be called the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers". Luciano was now the undisputed boss of a "new" Mafia. His business included narcotics-peddling, extortion and, especially, prostitution, including everything from low-rent streetwalkers to high-priced call girls. Luciano, one of the most powerful figures in organized crime, was arrested 25 times between 1919 and 1936 but convicted only once. When three prostitutes finally agreed to give evidence against him, he was arrested (1936) and found guilty of compelling women to become prostitutes. Even from prison, he retained control of his Family, setting up the Crime Syndicate of Mafia Families. During World War II he helped U.S. military intelligence through his Mafia connections in Italy and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the US. In 1946 he was released from prison and deported to Italy as an undesirable alien. He returned to Naples, Italy, where he lived out his life in luxury. Luciano died of a heart attack at Naples Airport. He was only posthumously allowed to return to the USA, where he was buried at St John's Cemetery in New York.
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Le Prince was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion picture camera born in Metz, France. His father was a major of artillery in the French Army and an officer of the Légion d'honneur. When growing up, he reportedly spent time in the studio of his father's friend, the pioneer of photography Louis Daguerre, from whom he may have received some lessons on photography and chemistry before he was 10 years old. His education went on to include the study of painting in Paris and post-graduate chemistry at Leipzig University. He then moved to Leeds, England in 1866, after being invited to join John Whitley, a friend from college, in Whitley Partners of Hunslet, a firm of brass founders making valves and components. In 1869, he married Elizabeth Whitley, John's sister and a talented artist, and the two of them started a school of applied art, the Leeds Technical School of Art, and became well renowned for their work in fixing coloured photographs on to metal and pottery. In 1881, Le Prince went to the United States with his family where he began experiments relating to the production of 'moving' photographs, designing a camera that utilised sixteen lenses, which was the first invention he patented. After his return to Leeds in May 1887, he built a single-lens camera in mid-late 1888 used to shoot his motion-picture films. It was first used on 14 October 1888 to shoot what would become known as Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) and Accordion Player (1888). He later used it to film Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888). In September 1890, he was preparing for a trip to the United States, supposedly to publicly premiere his work and join his wife and children. Before this journey, he decided to return to France to visit his brother in Dijon. Then, on 16 September, he took a train to Paris but, having taken a later train than planned, his friends missed him in Paris. He was never seen again by his family or friends. The last person to see Le Prince at the Dijon station was his brother. The French police, Scotland Yard and the family undertook exhaustive searches, but never found him. Le Prince was officially declared dead on 16 September 1897.- One of the tallest actors ever, he held various odd jobs before his debut on the silver screen. He worked for Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Ardens Dairy (in California,) as a Cowboy for Public Relations and at Knotts Berry Farm, (in California) also as a Cowboy. It was while he was working as a doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood that his height was noticed and because of it he was chosen for the role of Gort. He also hosted a children's TV show in the Los Angeles area in the 50s called 'The Gentle Giant'. He was not a very strong man for his size. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.
- Alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, son of Marguerite Frances Claverie Oswald. He never knew his father, Robert Edward Lee Oswald, who had died 2 months before his birth of a heart attack. Oswald had 1 older full brother and another half-brother (from his mother's first marriage). Young Oswald was placed in a Lutheran orphanage at the age of 3, but he was removed when his mother left for Dallas in January 1944 and married her 3rd husband Edwin A. Ekdahl. Oswald left school in 1954. He was in the US Marines until 1959 when he was discharged due to hardship as his mother was suffering from physical problems. Oswald was interested in Marxist ideologies and lived for some time in the USSR (1959-62). He unsuccessfully tried to get Soviet citizenship. When he was initially denied and as his visa was about to expire he even attempted suicide. In 1961 he married a Russian woman, Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova, (Marina Oswald) and was allowed to stay indefinitely. However by October 1963 Oswald moved along with his wife and daughter back to the States, and settled in Dallas. Oswald began to publicly express his opinions about Communist regimes like Cuba and China by distributing pamphlets. He was working for the Texas School Depository, a 6 story building located in the now 'infamous' Dealey Plaza area of Dallas, Texas. On November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy's motorcade passed by the building it is believed that Oswald was in the building. He may shot the president from the 6th floor and then concealed the rifle behind some crates. Whether he acted alone or not is still an ongoing debate. Oswald apparently left the depository when pandemonium broke out after the incident. He then headed home where he picked up a pistol. Oswald returned to the Depository where he is believed to have fired 4 bullets into police officer J.D. Tippit who approached him to ask him a question. Oswald then ran into the Texas Theatre where the double bill: War Is Hell (1961) and Cry of Battle (1963) was playing. He had not bought a ticket and the authorities cornered him in the theatre and quickly took him into custody. On 23 November 1963 he was charged with the murder of President Kennedy, whom he was alleged to have shot from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository, as the President passed by in a motor cavalcade. Oswald however vehemently denied his involvement in both the Kennedy assassination and the shooting of officer Tippit. On November 24, 1963 just 2 days later, while authorities were transferring Oswald to the county jail, he was shot dead by night club owner Jack Ruby (1911-67), live before the cameras. Ruby claimed he was avenging Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie Kennedy Onassis). Claims were made that Oswald had links with the US secret service and with the Mafia. But it seems that there are more conspiracy theories than facts.
- Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism. Lao-Tzu, whose name means "old boy" or "old master," was the chief archivist for the imperial court of the Chou dynasty. Many Sinologists believe that he is the historian whom Confucius consulted about ceremonies. According to legend, as an old man, Lao-Tzu left Chou for the seclusion of the mythical K'un-lun mountains, never to be seen again. Before leaving, however, he allegedly communicated his ideas to a border guard, who subsequently compiled the 'Tao-te Ching' (the Classic of the Way and Its Virtue). The 'Tao-te Ching' is by far the most-translated Chinese literary work. The Tao-te Ching outlines all the basic philosophical and mystical beliefs of Taoism, which, for several brief periods throughout history, was the official religion of China. Central to these beliefs is the understanding of the Tao, the universe's underlying pattern, which can neither be described in words nor properly fathomed in thought. "Tao is nonbeing, which is the mother of being, which in turn produces all things". In the Tao te Ching Lao-Tzu wrote of the importance of seeking to comply with the "Tao." "The virtue of the Tao governs its natural way," Lao-Tzu wrote. "Thus, he who is at one with it, is one with everything which lives, having freedom from the fear of death".
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This African American actor attended Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started his junior year at 6' 5" and finished it at 6' 9"! He played basketball throughout his high-school years and won a scholarship. He averaged 18 points a game and 10 rebounds! He played basketball during college, but not when it would interfere with his major at George Washington University in Washington, DC, which was Theatrical Arts. During his college years, he met Jay Fenichel with whom he would later make musical productions. Upon graduation, Fenichel moved to Los Angeles and Hall moved to Venezuela to play basketball.
After a year, Hall lost interest and relocated to Los Angeles, California. Along with Fenichel, the duo put together two night-club acts/musicals. One was a semi-autobiographical two-man musical, "In Five," and the other was a two-man show called "The Worst of Friends," both of which played in night clubs throughout the LA area. They also had a promotional business where they did promotional acts in department stores for new products.
While working on the set of the series 227 (1985), he met his co-star, Alaina Reed-Hall, who played Rose Lee Holloway. They married--both on the set, and in real life. Predator 2 (1990) was released December 1990, and in April 1991, he died of AIDS, which he contracted through a blood transfusion a few months before.- Along with his adopted cousin Angelo Buono Jr. he was part of "the Hillside Stranglers" pair. Bianchi's mother was a prostitute who gave him up for adoption as an infant. By the age of 11 he was having problems at school with his conduct and frequent tantrums. He tried for the police force but was rejected by the Glendale and Los Angeles Police Departments. In 1971 he wrote to a girl-friend claiming he had killed a man, but she did not take it seriously. From 1971 to 1973, 3 girls were killed in Rochester that became known as the 'Alphabet Murders' because the first and last initials of the their names were the same! Bianchi was later suspected of being responsible. In 1976 he moved down to Los Angeles where he lived with his adopted cousin (Angelo Buono). Ten women were killed between Oct 17 and December 9, 1977. The Hillside Stranglers displayed the bodies on hillsides near freeways to taunt the authorities. They impersonated policemen and preyed on prostitutes and female motorists. Their victims were tortured, raped and finally garroted. One of their prospective victims was Catharine Lorre (daughter of actor Peter Lorre) who testified that she had been approached by 2 policemen. The authorities now knew they were dealing with a pair of killers. In 1978 Bianchi went to Bellingham, Washington where he worked as a security guard. On January 11, 1979 2 women who had gone to meet him for a house-sitting job were found dead. Bianchi had been their last contact. His house was searched by the police and they found items stolen from his security guard posts. He was finally tied to the Hillside slayings in June 1979. In jail Bianchi feigned multiple personality. He agreed to testify against his cousin Buono and was facing 10 counts of murder. His cousin was arrested in Oct 1979. In June 1980 he received a letter from Veronica Lynn Compton (23) a poet, playwright and aspiring actress who wanted his opinion on new play regarding a female serial-killer. Compton it seems was fascinated with necrophilia. She agreed to go to Bellingham, strangle a woman there and deposit Bianchi's semen at the scene to confuse the police into thinking that the real killer was still on the loose. On September 16, 1980 she got a book from Bianchi, in prison, within which was concealed a glove containing his semen. On October 3, 1980 she was arrested for attempted murder. Bianchi's trial went on from November 1981 to November 1983. He was finally found guilty of 9 counts of murder and sentenced to 9 life terms without parole.
- American gangster, bank robber and kidnapper, Kate Barker (aka Ma Barker) was the leader of a notorious gang known as the Bloody Barkers. She and her husband George Barker and their four sons Herman (b. 1894), Lloyd (b. 1896), Arthur (b. 1899, known as 'Doc') and Fred (b. 1902) roamed through the American Midwest, robbing, killing and kidnapping. The gang accumulated $3 million from their raids, and large rewards were offered for their bodies. In 1927 Herman committed suicide to avoid capture. Doc and Ma were killed at Lake Weir, Florida, in a 45-minute shootout with the FBI in 1935. George Barker buried them in Welch, Oklahoma. In 1939 Fred was killed trying to escape from Alcatraz Prison. Lloyd was killed by his wife in 1949.
- Possibly the most influential Sanskrit dramatist who lived between 425 and 500 AD in India. He is best known through his drama Sakuntala (translated into English by Sir William Jones in 1789), titled after the name of its heroine which recounts a story contained in the Indian Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. His other famous dramas include Malavikagnimitra (Malavi and Agnimitra) and Vikramorvasi (Urvasi Won by Valor). He also penned the epic poems Raghuvansa (Dynasty of Raghu) and Kumarasambhava (Birth of the War God) and the short lyrical poem Meghaduta (The Cloud Messenger). Much of his life is quite an enigma.
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Indian mystic and poet. He tried to unite Hindu and Muslim thought and preached the essential unity of all religions. His disciple Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism. Kabir was brought up by a Muslim weaver and later influenced by a Hindu ascetic, Ramananda. He took the best tenets of both Hinduism and Islam and preached his own religion called sahaja-yoga ('simple union'). From Hinduism, he took the ideas of transmigration and the law of karma and from Islam, he accepted the idea of one God and the equality of all men before God.- Latin satirical poet, was born some time between A.D. 50 and 70 and died after 127. He may have come from Aquinum (Aquino) in central Italy. He was the son or ward of a rich freedman (a class he attacks in his writings) and practiced declamation until middle age - which seems likely enough in view of the characteristics of his literary style. Like his friend Martial, who praised his eloquence, Juvenal was for some time extremely poor and lived at Rome as a dependent of wealthy men; but in due course he acquired a small property at Tibur (Tivoli). Several ancient sources state that he was banished for a time for causing offense to the actor Paris, a favorite of the emperor Domitian (81-96). The banishment was said to have taken the form of a military appointment to Egypt, where he died. None of these details, however, are certain, although the knowledge of Egyptian customs he displays in his writings makes it probable that he had a personal knowledge of the country. Juvenal left 5 books of hexameter satires, comprising 16 poems.
- John Wayne Gacy was born in 1942 and grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His father, John Stanley Gacy (1900-1969), was an alcoholic and beat him frequently during his violent rages. As Gacy grew up, he began to develop a identity crisis - doubting his own masculinity. At the age of 11, he suffered a blow to the head from a swing. Over the next five years, he had frequent blackouts until doctors found a clot in his brain that was removed with medications. Following that, he would feign 'heart problems' for attention.
He graduated from business college and started to work as a shoe salesman. Gacy married a co-worker worker, whose family owned a KFC in Waterloo, Iowa and began to work there as Manager. He gradually earned the respect of the local Jaycees. In May 1968 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a young male employee. Gacy actually hired a thug to beat up the witness, which failed, and only increased the charges against him. He plead guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to 10 years. Gacy was a model prisoner and was paroled in 1970 after serving only 18 months.
He then moved to Chicago where he began his life anew as a building constructor. Gacy became popular with his new neighbors and colleagues. He would throw theme parties and often dress up as 'Pogo the Clown' for children's parties and charity shows. Gacy was also involved with the Democratic party and even had his picture taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter (wife of former President Jimmy Carter).
On February 12, 1971 he was once again charged with sexual misconduct towards a young man. The witness did not show up in court and the charges were dropped. He finished his parole on October 18, 1971. Gacy committed his first murder on January 3, 1972. His modus operandi would be to drive around town looking for young male runaways, ex-jailbirds or even male prostitutes. Gacy's victims ranged in age from 9 to 20 years. He would flash them a 'badge' or a 'gun' pretending to be an officer of the law and 'arrest' them. Gacy would then befriend them and take take them home where he showed them tricks with 'magic handcuffs'. Once he had subdued his victim he would torture, sodomize and garrote them. Then he would bury them in a crawl space beneath his house. When he ran out of space he began to dump bodies in neighboring rivers. After he divorced his second wife in 1976 the killings escalated as he had the house to himself. On October 25, 1976 he committed a double homicide! In December 1977 he actually let one of his victims leave after he had 'done' with him.
On December 12, 1978 he killed his 33rd and last victim; a 15-year-old boy, named Robert Piest, who lived in his neighborhood. This was Gacy's one big mistake. The victim had told someone he was going to see his "contractor" about a job and was never seen again. The "contractor" turned out to be Gacy. When the police dropped by his house they noticed the smell from the decomposing corpses underneath. When they saw his police record, it wasn't hard for them to get a search warrant of his house. A total of 29 bodies were extracted from the crawlspace and five more from the nearby river, of which 9 remain unidentified. Gacy was judged sane by the court psychiatrists and in 1980 was charged with 21 counts of life for murders committed before June 21, 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death sentence. For the 12 committed since then he got the death sentence. - Director
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Malayalam director who studied economics at a college near Kottayam. His grandfather educated him and gave him his first camera. He worked as an insurance salesman in Bellary. Then he went to FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) and studied under Bengali director Ritwik Kumar Ghatak. He started with a student film. His first film was Vidyarthikale Ithile Ithile (1971) made in Tamil. He also wrote his own films. He later lived a nomadic lifestyle in the 70s and depended on support from his friends and colleagues. He suffered from alcoholism and died an accidental death.