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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 the 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 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

1922 self-portrait

George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 - April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913-1944). More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts. Gilbert Seldes' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century. Herriman's work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Charles M. Schulz, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson, and Chris Ware.

Herriman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mixed-race Creole parents, and grew up in Los Angeles. After he graduated from high school in 1897, he worked in the newspaper industry as an illustrator and engraver. He moved on to cartooning and comic strips--a medium then in its infancy--and drew a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character, Krazy Kat, in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910. A Krazy Kat daily strip began in 1913, and from 1916 the strip also appeared on Sundays. It was noted for its poetic, dialect-heavy dialogue; its fantastic, shifting backgrounds; and its bold, experimental page layouts. (Full article...)
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Roy Kilner in 1925

Roy Kilner (17 October 1890 - 5 April 1928) was an English professional cricketer who played nine Test matches for England between 1924 and 1926. An all-rounder, he played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1927. In all first-class matches, he scored 14,707 runs at an average of 30.01 and took 1,003 wickets at an average of 18.45. Kilner scored 1,000 runs in a season ten times and took 100 wickets in a season five times. On four occasions, he completed the double: scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the same season, recognised as a sign of a quality all-rounder.

Kilner first played for Yorkshire as a batsman before the First World War, establishing a regular place in the side. After being wounded in the war, he returned in 1919 to a Yorkshire side which was short of bowlers. As a result, Kilner began to practise his bowling to the point where he became highly regarded as a slow left-arm bowler. His aggressive batting and warm personality made him a popular player with both cricketers and spectators. His form brought selection by England in 1924 and a visit to Australia for the Ashes tour of 1924-25. Although the second most successful bowler of the tour, his bowling subsequently declined in effectiveness, and did not trouble batsmen on good pitches. He was selected during the 1926 Ashes but dropped for the final Test. Kilner went on several coaching trips to India during English winters, and on one of these, in 1928, he contracted an illness; on his return to England, he died aged 37. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people and there was widespread sadness at his death. (Full article...)
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Portrait from the workshop of François Clouet, c. 1560

Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de' Medici, pronounced [kate'ri:na de 'm?:dit?i]; French: Catherine de Médicis, pronounced [kat?in d? medisis]; 13 April 1519 - 5 January 1589) was an Italian noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 until 1559, by marriage to King Henry II, and mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" as she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.

Catherine was born in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. In 1533 at the age of fourteen, Catherine married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Catherine's marriage was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII. Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded much influence over him. Henry's death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail 15-year-old King Francis II. When Francis II died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old son King Charles IX and was thus granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life and outlived her by seven months. (Full article...)
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Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel
1919 portrait by James Peter Quinn (1870-1951)

General Sir Henry George Chauvel, (16 April 1865 - 4 March 1945) was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War. He was the first Australian to attain the rank of lieutenant general and later general, and the first to lead a corps. As commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, he was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and fastest pursuits in military history.

The son of a grazier, Chauvel was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a unit organised by his father, in 1886. After the family moved to Queensland he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1890, and saw service during the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. He became a regular officer in 1896, and went to the United Kingdom as part of the Queensland contingent for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In 1899 he commanded one of two companies of Queensland Mounted Infantry that were Queensland's initial contribution to the Boer War. After the war, he was closely involved with the training of the Australian Light Horse. (Full article...)
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Dan Leno in the 1880s

George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 - 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from 1888 to 1904.

Leno was born in St Pancras, London, and began to entertain as a child. In 1864, he joined his parents on stage in their music hall act, and he made his first solo appearance, aged nine, at the Britannia Music Hall in Coventry. As a youth, he was famous for his clog dancing, and in his teen years, he became the star of his family's act. He adopted the stage name Dan Leno and, in 1884, made his first performance under that name in London. As a solo artist, he became increasingly popular during the late 1880s and 1890s, when he was one of the highest-paid comedians in the world. He developed a music hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working-class characters to illustrate his stories. In 1901, still at the peak of his career, he performed his "Huntsman" sketch for Edward VII at Sandringham. The monarch was so impressed that Leno became publicly known as "the king's jester". (Full article...)
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Toshack c. 1947

Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack (8 December 1914 - 11 May 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler known for his accuracy and stamina in the application of leg theory, Toshack was a member of Don Bradman's "Invincibles" that toured England in 1948 without being defeated. Toshack reinforced the Australian new ball attack of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

Born in 1914, Toshack overcame many obstacles to reach international level cricket. He was orphaned as an infant, and his early cricket career was hindered because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression. The Second World War prevented Toshack from competing at first-class level until he was into his thirties. In 1945-46, the first season of cricket after the end of the War, Toshack made his debut at first-class level and after only seven matches in the Sheffield Shield he was selected for Australia's tour of New Zealand. In Wellington, he opened the bowling in a match that was retrospectively classed as an official Test match. Toshack became a regular member of the Australian team, playing in all of its Tests until the 1947-48 series against India. He took his career-best match bowling figures of 11 wickets for 31 runs (11/31) in the First Test but began to suffer recurring knee injuries, and a medical board had to approve his selection for the 1948 England tour. Toshack played in the first four Tests before being injured. After a long convalescence, he attempted a comeback during Australia's 1949-50 season, but further injury forced him to retire. He was a parsimonious bowler, who was popular with crowds for his sense of humour. (Full article...)
Image 7

Posthumous portrait by Georgios Jakobides, 1914

George I (Greek? , Geórgios I; 24 December 1845 - 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination in 1913.

Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen, and seemed destined for a career in the Royal Danish Navy. He was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the unpopular Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire and the Russian Empire. He married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1867, and became the first monarch of a new Greek dynasty. Two of his sisters, Alexandra and Dagmar, married into the British and Russian royal families. King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Emperor Alexander III of Russia were his brothers-in-law, and George V of the United Kingdom, Christian X of Denmark, Haakon VII of Norway, and Nicholas II of Russia were his nephews. (Full article...)
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Sir Edgar Speyer by Sir William Orpen, 1914

Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet (7 September 1862 - 16 February 1932) was an American-born financier and philanthropist. He became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of the Speyer family's international finance house, and a partner in the German and American branches. He was chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL, forerunner of the London Underground) from 1906 to 1915, a period during which the company opened three underground railway lines, electrified a fourth and took over two more.

Speyer was a supporter of the musical arts and a friend of several leading composers, including Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. He was chairman of the Classical Music Society for ten years, and he largely funded the Promenade Concerts between 1902 and 1914. His non-musical charitable activities included being honorary treasurer of the fund for Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition. For his philanthropy he was made a baronet in 1906 and a Privy Counsellor in 1909. (Full article...)
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Jinnah in 1945

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Urdu pronunciation: [mm.m?d? ?li: dn:?:?], Gujarati pronunciation: [m(?)m?d? ?li di]; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 - 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, and then as the Dominion of Pakistan's first governor-general until his death. He is revered in Pakistan as the Quaid-i-Azam ("Great Leader") and Baba-i-Qaum ("Father of the Nation"). His birthday is observed as a national holiday in Pakistan.

Born at Wazir Mansion in Karachi, Jinnah was trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in London, England. Upon his return to British India, he enrolled at the Bombay High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political career, Jinnah advocated Hindu-Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, in which Jinnah had also become prominent. Jinnah became a key leader in the All-India Home Rule League, and proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. In 1920, however, Jinnah resigned from the Congress when it agreed to follow a campaign of satyagraha, which he regarded as political anarchy. (Full article...)
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The Shunzhi Emperor (Fulin; 15 March 1638 - 5 February 1661) was Emperor of the Qing dynasty from 1644 to 1661, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succeed his father, Hong Taiji (1592-1643), in September 1643, when he was five years old. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon (1612-1650), the 14th son of the Qing dynasty's founder Nurhaci (1559-1626), and Jirgalang (1599-1655), one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Qing imperial clan.

From 1643 to 1650, political power lay mostly in the hands of Dorgon. Under his leadership, the Qing Empire conquered most of the territory of the fallen Ming dynasty (1368-1644), chased Ming loyalist regimes deep into the southwestern provinces, and established the basis of Qing rule over China proper despite highly unpopular policies such as the "hair cutting command" of 1645, which forced Qing subjects to shave their forehead and braid their remaining hair into a queue resembling that of the Manchus. After Dorgon's death on the last day of 1650, the young Shunzhi Emperor started to rule personally. He tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. In the 1650s, he faced a resurgence of Ming loyalist resistance, but by 1661 his armies had defeated the Qing Empire's last enemies, seafarer Koxinga (1624-1662) and the Prince of Gui (1623-1662) of the Southern Ming dynasty, both of whom would succumb the following year. The Shunzhi Emperor died at the age of 22 of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that was endemic in China, but against which the Manchus had no immunity. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who had already survived smallpox, and who reigned for sixty years under the era name "Kangxi" (hence he was known as the Kangxi Emperor). Because fewer documents have survived from the Shunzhi era than from later eras of the Qing dynasty, the Shunzhi era is a relatively little-known period of Qing history. (Full article...)
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James Thomas Aubrey Jr. (December 14, 1918 - September 3, 1994) was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, with his "smell for the blue-collar," he produced some of television's most enduring series on the air, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Under Aubrey's leadership, CBS dominated American television, leading the other networks NBC and ABC, by nine points and seeing its profits rise from $25 million in 1959 to $49 million in 1964. The New York Times Magazine in 1964 called Aubrey "a master of programming whose divinations led to successes that are breathtaking". Aubrey had replaced CBS Television president Louis G. Cowan, who was dismissed after the quiz-show scandals. Aubrey's tough decision-making earned him the nickname "Smiling Cobra" during his tenure. (Full article...)
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Smith as a flying officer c. 1943

The future Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, interrupting his studies at Rhodes University in South Africa to join up in 1941. Following a year's pilot instruction in Southern Rhodesia under the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was posted to No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, then stationed in the Middle East, in late 1942. Smith received six weeks' operational training in the Levant, then entered active service as a pilot officer in Iran and Iraq. No. 237 Squadron, which had operated in the Western Desert from 1941 to early 1942, returned to that front in March 1943. Smith flew in the Western Desert until October that year, when a crash during a night takeoff resulted in serious injuries, including facial disfigurements and a broken jaw. Following reconstructive plastic surgery to his face, other operations and five months' convalescence, Smith rejoined No. 237 Squadron in Corsica in May 1944. While there, he attained his highest rank, flight lieutenant.

In late June 1944, during a strafing attack on a railway yard in the Po Valley in northern Italy, Smith was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Parachuting from his aircraft, he landed without serious injury in the Ligurian Alps, in an area that was behind German lines, but largely under the control of anti-German Italian partisans. Smith spent three months working with the local resistance movement before trekking westwards, across the Maritime Alps, with three other Allied personnel, hoping to join up with the Allied forces that had just invaded southern France. After 23 days' hiking, he and his companions were recovered by American troops and repatriated. (Full article...)
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Oliphant in 1939

Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin "Mark" Oliphant, (8 October 1901 - 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapons.

Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Oliphant graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1922. He was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1927 on the strength of the research he had done on mercury, and went to England, where he studied under Sir Ernest Rutherford at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. There, he used a particle accelerator to fire heavy hydrogen nuclei (deuterons) at various targets. He discovered the respective nuclei of helium-3 (helions) and of tritium (tritons). He also discovered that when they reacted with each other, the particles that were released had far more energy than they started with. Energy had been liberated from inside the nucleus, and he realised that this was a result of nuclear fusion. (Full article...)
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Gaga at the inauguration of Joe Biden in 2021

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( STEF-?n-ee JUR-m?-NOT-?; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenager, singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied at Collaborative Arts Project 21, through New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, before dropping out to pursue a career in music. After Def Jam Recordings canceled her contract, she worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where she signed a joint deal with Interscope Records and Akon's label, KonLive Distribution, in 2007. Gaga rose to prominence the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its chart-topping singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album was later reissued to include the EP The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro".

Gaga's five succeeding studio albums all debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies in its first week. The title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week. Following her EDM-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), and its lead single "Applause", Gaga released the jazz album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett, and the soft rock album Joanne (2016). She also ventured into acting, playing leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015-2016), for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the critically acclaimed musical drama film A Star Is Born (2018). Her contributions to the latter's soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Grammy Award in one year. Gaga returned to her dance-pop roots with her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), which yielded the number-one single "Rain on Me". She followed this with her second collaborative album with Bennett, Love for Sale, and a starring role in the biographical crime film House of Gucci, both in 2021. (Full article...)
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Herbert James Maryon, OBE, FSA, FIIC (9 March 1874 – 14 July 1965) was an English sculptor, conservator, goldsmith, archaeologist and authority on ancient metalwork. Maryon practiced and taught sculpture until retiring in 1939, then worked as a conservator with the British Museum from 1944 to 1961. He is best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, which led to his appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

By the time of his mid-twenties Maryon attended three art schools, apprenticed in silversmithing with C. R. Ashbee and worked in Henry Wilson's workshop. From 1900 to 1904 he served as the director of the Keswick School of Industrial Art, where he designed numerous Arts and Crafts works. After moving to the University of Reading and then Durham University, he taught sculpture, metalwork, modelling, casting, and anatomy until 1939. He also designed the University of Reading War Memorial, among other commissions. Maryon published two books while teaching, including Metalwork and Enamelling, and many other articles. He frequently led archaeological digs, and in 1935 discovered one of the oldest gold ornaments known in Britain while excavating the Kirkhaugh cairns. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Did you know... - show different entries

... that Swedish writer Hedda Anderson began her literary career at the age of 58, following her husband's death in 1888?
... that Margaret A. Mahoney, who in 1949 became the majority leader of the Ohio Senate, is still the only woman to hold the top leadership role?
... that former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial in 1997?
... that NCJW activist Florence Lewis was invited by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 to a White House discussion on how women's organizations could help solve civil rights issues?
... that professional athletes protested by refusing to play in response to high-profile police shootings of Black people in 2020?
... that the leader of the Japanese band Friends was chosen via a game of Uno?
... that sculptor Antonio Berti designed the bronze casket used to house the wooden coffin of Pope Pius XI?
... that Turkish accordion-playing street musician Madam Anahit also appeared in a number of films as an extra?
... that abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock considered the greatest painting in North America to be a mural of Prometheus at Pomona College by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco?
... that the head of military leader and "holy man" Sanin Husain was used to decorate a market?
... that actor Don Johnson and other investors reportedly planned to restart production of the Renaissance Tropica, an electric car which appeared in an episode of Nash Bridges?
... that Javier Bardem is the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award, which he won for his performance in No Country for Old Men?

General images

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

Image 1Einhard as scribe (from Biography)
Image 2John Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, was one of the earliest English-language biographies. (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 4Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions, the first Western autobiography ever written, around 400. Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century. (from Autobiography)
Image 5James Boswell wrote what many consider to be the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1791. (from Biography)
Image 6Cover of the first English edition of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, 1793 (from Autobiography)
Image 7A scene from the Baburnama (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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Image 1
Muammar Gaddafi
Photograph: Jesse B. Awalt/US Navy
Muammar Gaddafi (c. 1942 – 2011) was a Libyan revolutionary and politician. Taking power in a coup d'etat, he ruled as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011, when he was ousted in the Libyan Civil War. Initially developing his own variant of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism known as the Third International Theory, he later embraced Pan-Africanism and served as Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010.
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Image 2
Lucy Arbell
Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Adam Cuerden
Lucy Arbell (8 June 1878 - 21 May 1947), was a French mezzo-soprano whose operatic career was largely centred in Paris. Her career was particularly associated with the composer Jules Massenet, who created a number of operatic roles for her before his death in 1912. This carte de visite of Arbell was created by the French photographer Nadar.
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Image 3
Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir
Photo credit: Underwood and Underwood
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (left) and nature preservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, stand together on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background can be seen Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. During this trip in 1903, Muir convinced Roosevelt to add Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to the park, which had been established in 1890.
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Image 4
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 5
L-to-R: Allan Pinkerton, Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand
Photo credit: Alexander Gardner
Allan Pinkerton (left), President Abraham Lincoln (center), and Major General John A. McClernand (right). This photo was taken not long after the Civil War's first battle on northern soil in Antietam, Maryland on October 3, 1862. Pinkerton was the head of Union Intelligence Services at the time. He also, allegedly, foiled an assassination attempt against Lincoln. His wartime work was critical in Pinkerton's development, which he later used to pioneer the American private detective industry when he formed the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
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Image 6
Mark Twain
Photo credit: Unknown
A portrait of American writer Samuel Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, in his later years. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain enjoyed immense public popularity, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. Fellow author William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".
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Image 7
Robert William Thomson
Image credit: Illustrated London News
The obituary of Robert William Thomson as it appeared in the Illustrated London News on 29 March 1873. Thomson was the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, the elliptic rotary steam engine and locomotive traction engine, the portable steam crane, and numerous other inventions. The obituary preceding his is for Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington.
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Image 8
Pedro II of Brazil
Photo: Mathew Brady/Levin Corbin Handy
Emperor of Brazil Pedro II was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, his father Pedro I's abrupt abdication and flight to Europe in 1831 left him as Emperor at the age of five. Inheriting an Empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. On , 1889, he was overthrown in a coup d'état by a clique of military leaders who declared Brazil a republic. However, he had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the monarchy's future prospects, despite its overwhelming popular support, and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy.
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Image 9
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Photo credit: NASA
Elizabeth II is the Queen regnant of sixteen independent states and their overseas territories and dependencies. Though she holds each crown and title separately and equally, she is resident in and most directly involved with the United Kingdom. She is currently the second longest serving head of state in the world.

The 16 countries of which she is Queen are known as Commonwealth Realms, and their combined population is over 129 million. In practice she herself wields almost no political power in any of her realms.
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Image 10
Vincent van Gogh
Painting credit: John Russell
Vincent van Gogh is an oil-on-canvas portrait by Australian painter John Russell, dated 1886. It depicts Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, who became lifelong friends with Russell after meeting him at Fernand Cormon's atelier in Paris, which they both attended. Painted in a realist and academic manner, the portrait shows hints of the impressionist techniques with which they began experimenting in the latter half of the 1880s. It is the earliest of three portraits painted of Van Gogh by his contemporaries, the other two being Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887) and Paul Gauguin's The Painter of Sunflowers (1888). Van Gogh seems to have been particularly attached to Russell's portrait, which Russell gifted to him as a mark of their friendship. The painting passed from Van Gogh to his brother Theo and then to their family; it is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
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Image 11
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Image credit: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a 19th-century French sculptor and painter who sought to inject movement and spontaneity into his works. This engraving, done to commemorate him after his death, shows his sculpture Flore below him, and others of his works above. In his time, some of his works, particularly La Danse, were criticised as indecent, but today his sculptures are exhibited in major museums of art worldwide.
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Image 12
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 13
Peter Oliver (painter)
Portrait: Peter Oliver
An 8.8-centimetre (3.5 in) tall self-portrait of the English miniaturist Peter Oliver (1594-1648). He often worked with watercolours.
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Image 14
Enoch Powell
Photograph: Allan Warren
Enoch Powell (1912-98), a professor of Ancient Greek by age 25 and brigadier during World War II, took up politics in the late 1940s and in the 1960s was selected for several cabinet positions. In 1968, he gave the "Rivers of Blood" speech about the dangers of immigration to the United Kingdom and of proposed anti-discrimination legislation.
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Image 15
Malcolm X
Photo credit: Ed Ford, New York World-Telegram and Sun
Malcolm X was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Born Malcolm Little, he changed his surname to "X" as a rejection of his "slave name". Tensions between him and the Nation of Islam caused him to break from the group in 1964. He claimed to have received daily death threats and his house was burned to the ground in February 1965. One week later, Malcolm X was assassinated, having been shot in the chest by a sawed-off shotgun and 16 times with handguns. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted.
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