Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was born in 1748. Many of his paintings portrayed classical Roman and Greek events.
Jacques-Louis David was very into the French Revolution and was a  friend of Robespierre. Jacques-Louis tried to redo the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as it was royalist and had refused his paintings. He died in 1825 of a carriage accident.

John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley was born in 1738. His mother owned a tobacco shop. Around when he was born his father died and his mother remarried.His son became the Lord Chancellor. One of his paintings ,Watson and the Shark, was of Watson ,an orphan and a future mayor of London, being rescued from a shark.

Tokugawa Iemitsu

Tokugawa Iemitsu was born in 1604. He had a fierce rivalry with his brother, Tokugawa Tadanga. He decided to close Japan to most foreigners in 1630's when he had to deal with christian uprisings starting in 1549. Only a few traders were allowed into a small port town to trade with the Japanese and if a Japanese person left Japan he would not be allowed back in.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots was born in 1542. Henry VIII proposed that Mary marry Prince Edward , Henry VII's son, Which was broken off when Henry got upset that the Scots were trading with the French. Mary was then engaged to the French Dauphin and spent the next thirteen years of her life in France. After her time spent in France, Mary went to England as she believed she was next in line for the throne. Alas it was not to be, as she was put in the Tower of London. In 1587 she was executed for committing treason and plotting against Queen Elizabeth.

Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb was born in 1658. Aurangzeb made himself king by killing his brothers. He was a devout Muslim and killed or imprisoned those who weren't Muslims. He was one of the last Mogul Emperors before India was conquered by Europe.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was a very curious man. He was part of the uprising against the kings of France but then he went and made himself emperor! He did create a large empire that is true, but he was overthrown at the Battle of Waterloo! After that horrible defeat Napoleon was banished to a sea side villa where he promptly started causing trouble again.Finally after all that fuss Napoleon was banished to an island on the coast of France where he died.

Mary I of England

Mary I of England was the successor to her brother Edward IV. She was the daughter of  Cathrine of Aragon and Henry VIII. During her fathers tumultuous changes in religion, she stayed true to her beliefs. When she gained power she was nicknamed Bloody Mary for burning (what she believed to be) heretics at the stake.
She never birthed a child, although she tried many times.

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe was born in 1546. He had one of the funnier theories about the Solar System. His theory was that the Earth was at the center, the Moon and Sun revolved around it and the rest of the planets revolved around the Sun. Tycho Brahe also had a metal nose as he lost part of his nose in a duel.

Louis XIV

Was born September 5 , but Died on September 1( Which is always cool if historical people die around their birthday). He was called the sun king because he played Apollo in a really long ballet. Louis XIV was king of France and lived in marvelous splendor including the Palace of Versailles.

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was born 1819. She became queen because of the line of inheritance and that her relative's who became rulers didn't have any children. She ruled for a long time and while she was queen the British Empire was one of the largest on earth. She married Prince Albert who she loved dearly. When he died she was heart broken and for years she did not have any public appearances.

Henry the Navigator

King Henry the Navigator was a King of Portugal, who had explorers round the Cape of Good Hope, the farthest any European had gone yet! He also started a university in the capital of Lisbon covering all the major sciences.
One of his ancestors was an English king, King James II.

Matthew C. Perry

 Matthew C. Perry landed in Japan in 1853 officially starting the opening of Japan to the rest of the world(although missionaries and traders came to japan beforehand). When he was directed to go to Nagasaki(the port open to the Netherlands) he refused and threatened to blow stuff up if the Japanese would not read his letter from the President , he even demonstrated with a few buildings.  A year latter he returned and the Japanese had done what the letter asked.  Matthew C. Perry died of Liver Cirrhosis due too too much drinking.

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was the first  American to win a Nobel Peace prize. As a child he was sickly and had asthma but when he got older, he took up boxing and became very fit. He was a president of the U.S. and had 6 children. When he wanted to be elected again ,he started the Bull Moose party. The reason I thought he was interesting was that he had quite a lot of pets.

Boudica

Boudica was a Celtic queen who rebelled against the Romans invading Britain, with her daughters. She was said to be tall and very intelligent. Around AD 61 she with the aid of other Celtic tribes struck out at the Roman outpost of Camulodunum, where they defeated the poorly armed Roman infantry. She was  probably defeated at the battle of Watling Street.

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut gained control of Egypt and took control of it from the Pharaoh she was a regent for . In fact Hatshepsut even donned the male,Egyptian, Pharaoh beard piece. She brought much wealth to Egypt by way of expeditions into Nubia and beyond. many great buildings and statues were built in her time. But when she died someone, perhaps a Pharaoh decided to remove her from history by chiseling her image out of walls, destroying her statues, and hiding her buildings.

Cleopatra VII

Cleopatra VII is the Cleopatra most people speak of, Also her reign was in the Roman times so it probably wasn't what you would stereotype as Ancient Egypty. She came to power when her father died leaving her and her brother Ptolemy XIII as joint rulers. What was curious about it that was also just plain weird thought probably not uncommon in ancient times was the fact she was married to him (Ptolemy XIII, Her own brother)! After only a couple years of joint rule she claimed power for herself and erased mentions of him off of coins and official documents, but her down fall happened soon after that. She had a son with Julius Caesar named Ptolemy Caesar and had 3 children with Mark Antony and protested Augustus's reign.

Tchaikovsky

Wrote and Created the Nutcracker. He also wrote the ballets for Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. In 1891 he conducted the inaugural symphony for New York Carnegie Hall. He died in 1893 He was a Russian.

Virgil

Virgil was a Roman who wrote the Aeneid, a story based off of Homers Odyssey and Iliad. The Aeneid is about Aeneas, who is one of the Trojans who survived the ransacking of Troy and was a famous Trojan leader and how after much traveling and danger found the land of Italy, settled there, and was an ancestor of Romulus and Remus.

Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer was born May 21, 1471 out of eighteen children. He was amazing at making book prints as show in Apocalypse which shows the Four Horsemen and is a highly detailed full page print. He tried to make prints that would allow monks and teachers to explain Christianity to others. He also created a beautiful centerpiece in which he only did the main panel on it but had others copy his guiding sketches out exactly.

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth  I is one of my favorite historical rulers because she did what others thought could not be done. The ruled Alone! Many people back then thought that women were weak and sensitive, but Queen Elizabeth I proved that she could rule a country without the help of a king or other men. During her time the country flourished and had William Shakespeare who wrote some of the worlds greatest plays.

Well? Is Magic Real.(A Short Story)

At the end of the day I accepted the Truth. It was hard but how else to explain that Magic was real? My cat had remarked how she had no idea why we made silly faces at her when she laid on her back. I wanted to answer but thought I was going crazy. I enjoy reading about magic and pretending to do it but facing the real thing? Terrifying. Later, I went up to my cat and asked, "Do you talk?", she stared at me as if something odd had just happened and opened her little mouth and said, "Meow Meow". I thought I heard her talk but did I?

Bruegel

was an Italian painter. He painted pictures of people at work and play. His mother - in - law was also an artist and probably taught his children to draw after his death. there are less than 45 Authentic Brugel Paintings.

Dante

Was an Italian poet who wrote a book called the Divine Comedy. Later on this book was split into three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Inferno was about him being lead through the seven Rings of Hell by the Roman poet Virgil. Purgatorio was about him being lead by Virgil again up the Mountain of Purgatory to Heaven. Paradiso is about Heaven. Dante wrote books on the world and its people because the categories in his books can almost always classify us.

Berlioz

He first went to Paris to study Medicine which he did not enjoy and then was disgusted by it because of dissecting a dead body. To his parents dismay he abandoned medical studies to do music. He created a symphony called Symphonie fantastique, which a friend rewrote to play on piano.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo's dad saw his son was good at drawing and made him an apprentice of a painter named Ghirlandaio. He lived with the Medicis for a while and learned to sculpt. Once he got famous the pope, Pope Julius II, had him paint the celing of the Sistine Chapel. He is famous for sculpting David, a statue meant to look like David from the Bible story of David and Goliath.

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci was born in 1454, in Portugal. He was usually accredited for the discovery that America is actually a new continent. But the letters that he probably wrote and made him quite famous were probably accounts based on his voyages and may not have been written by him. One fact I found interesting was that Christopher Columbus held no ill will towards Vespucci. The letters I just talked about pointed to him having 4 voyages but there is not must information on the fourth or if there was even a fourth voyage.

Beethoven

was born in 1770. He was very talented at the piano and had 9 symphonies. In his last symphone he introduced singers in symphonies. He was known for being very eccentric. The 9th symphonie is usally called Ode to Joy.

Montezuma II

Was the emperor of the Aztec Empire when at its highest.

Mozart

Was a child prigody. Wrote his first piece of music at the age of 5. His father taught him to be a great musician. He excelled at violins and keyboards. He spent much of his life in vienna and proved to be excellent at operas. He died at the age of 35.

I like this quote

Reality continues to ruin my life.
- Bill Watterson

Murasaki Shikibu

Wrote The Tale of Genji. She was part of the Fujiwara clan who were dominant in Japan at the time. She was a lady in waiting there probalbly for the empress. The most amazing thing about her probably was that she wrote one of the worlds first novels.

Home Alone.

Do you let your child stay home alone? Many parents may not.

Children are not given enough responsibility these days so, if they were left alone they might not know what to do.

Children should be left home alone, but given instructions and know how to call you for help or get a neighbor.Only do this if you think your child is ready.

It's your job to give your child responsibility. But will you?

Kublai Khan

Was a grandson of Genghis Khan and wished to open up delegations to Europe with the Polo family which included Marco Polo who became an advisor to Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan twice tried to invade Japan but failed. He was famous for encoraging learning in China/Mongolia.

Suleyman the Magnificent

Suleyman the Magnificent ruled for 46 years. He was a ruler of the Ottoman Empire. To his people he was known as Qanuni or Lawgiver because he reformed the Ottoman Empires laws. He was a scholar, poet, and a patron of his empire. I think one great thing he did was rebuild Istanbul. He also was a great military leader.