Biography

Saturday, 24 January 2026

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Ludwig van Beethoven
Maximilian Friedrich's successor as Elector of Bonn, Maximilian Franz, appointed Beethoven as court organist and also paid for his visit to Vienna in 1792.
During these years, he was introduced to several people who became important in his life. He often v ...
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Amadeus Mozart
Mozart was the first great professional composer to write popular music (dances, divertimentos, serenades headed by "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik").
He left behind more than 50 symphonies, dozens of concertos for piano, violin, flute and other solo ...
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Ernest Hemingway
During World War I, Hemingway sought to be sent to the Italian front.
In December 1917, after being rejected by the U.S. Army due to poor eyesight, he was sent to the Ita ...
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Hypatia
Because of the circumstances of her death, Hypatia has been called a "martyr of science".
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Roland Garros
Garros was the first to shoot down an aircraft with a machine gun mounted on the fuselage.
Early in World War I, the possibility of mounting a forward firing machine gun on a fighter aircraft ...
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Michelangelo
Wanting to learn more about human anatomy, he secretly performed autopsies in the hospital (Santo Spirito Monastery).
As a token of his gratitude, Michelangelo carved a wooden crucifix for the monastery, which is the only polychrome wooden sculpture in the artist's oeuvre.
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Christopher Columbus
In May 1492, Columbus arrived at the port of Palos in Andalusia, where the town provided him with two caravels: Niña and Pinta, and leased a larger ship, the caravel "Santa Maria," as his flagship.
On August 3, 1492, the three ships set sail with a crew of about 90 men and, after a brief stopover at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, set course westward. Columbus' first expedition had begun.
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Salvador Dali
He loved ripping money off of naive people.
The closest friend, confidant and muse of the artist Amanda Lear recalls that John Lennon's widow, Y ...
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Tadeusz Kosciuszko
After the death of Catherine II, Kosciuszko was freed from captivity by her successor, Tsar Paul I Romanov.
The price he had to pay for freeing 20.000 Poles from Russian prisons and gulags was to take an oath of allegiance and pledge not to return to Poland.
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Ernest Hemingway
Contrary to prevailing legend, Hemingway was not the first person in liberated Paris, nor did he liberate the Ritz Hotel.
While there, he reconciled with Gertrude Stein and visited Pablo Picasso and Sylvia Beach.
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