Elizabeth Blackwell was the world’s first woman doctor. Blackwell had to struggle all her life to practice medicine.
Elizabeth was born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England. In 1832, her family emigrated to America. Elizabeth helped to support the family by teaching and, in 1838, the year of her father’s death, she opened a school in Cincinnati. In her free time she read medical books. It was difficult for her to get training as a doctor but eventually she entered Geneva Medical School in New York State. The men who taught medicine didn’t think it was right for a woman to be a doctor. She was the only woman in a class of 150. Two years later Blackwell was the best student in her class. In 1849 she became the first female doctor in the United States.
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Diana, Princess of Wales was the most charismatic and publicly adored member of the British royal family. From 1981 to 1996, she was the first the wife of Prince Charles of Wales, heir to the British throne. She was widely known as Princess Diana, Lady Diana and Lady Di. In 2002, according to the survey, Diana took the third place in the list of one hundred greatest Britons in history. She became the most photographed woman in the world.
Diana, Princess of Wales was born Diana Frances Spencer on July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the third of the Lord and Lady Althorp’s four children. Her parents got divorced when she was very young. In 1976 the Earl Spencer married Raine Legge, the daughter of British romance novelist Barbara Cartland. His children and their stepmother had a stormy relationship. Diana went to a private girls’ school in Switzerland. When she returned to England, she worked as a kindergarten teacher.
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Georges d’Anthes went down in history primarily as a murderer of great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. After the deportation from Russia, he made a brilliant political and business career and died at the age of 83.
Georges Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthes was born on February 5, 1812 in Colmar, Upper Rhine, France.
His ancestors were Scandinavians from the island of Gotland, in the XVI century they moved to Germany. In 1720 they appeared in France. In 1730, the great-grandfather of Georges opened armory manufacture in Alsace and 10 years later he received a heraldic title.
Georges was the third child in the family and the eldest of the sons.
D’Anthes was the relative of Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova. His grandmother, Countess Gattsfeld, was the wife of a Russian diplomat Count Musin-Pushkin, a distant relative of Musina-Pushkina, grandmother of Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova.
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James Barry was a famous English physician, a military surgeon who served in South Africa. At the end of his career he served as inspector general. He did not only treat wounded and sick soldiers of the British Army, but also improved the lives of indigenous people. Dr. Barry has become a hero of documentaries and fiction. English writer Patricia Duncker wrote a novel “James Miranda Barry” dedicated to Dr. Barry.
His real name was Margaret Ann Bulkley. Yes, he was a woman. Dr. James Barry became the first woman in England to go to medical school.
No one knows Dr. Barry’s real name, her birth date, or her family’s background. Some records show that she was born in 1795 in London.
James Barry’s classmates made fun of her because she didn’t have a beard and she was only five feet tall. But no one thought she was a girl. At the age of 20, Barry graduated from the University of Edinburgh as a Doctor of Medicine.
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Louis XIV was an important king in the history of France. He was called “the Sun King.” He brought the French monarchy to its peak of absolute power and made France the dominant power in Europe. His reign is also associated with the greatest age of French culture and art.
Louis was born on September 5, 1638 at Saint-Germain into the family of Louis XIII and his wife, Anne of Austria.
On May 16, 1643, his father died and Louis became King of France at the age of five. The country was governed by his mother as regent and at the age of 17 he ruled the country alone. However, he was carefully guided by Cardinal Jules Mazarin, who had been the protege of Cardinal Richelieu. After the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661 the young king declared that he would rule on his own, without assigning a first minister.
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Harry Houdini was an American illusionist and philanthropist. Today his name remains synonymous with incredible demonstrations of stage magic and daredevil escapes. Houdini was the greatest stage magician of all time.
Ehrich Weiss (his real name) was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest. According to the documents, the future magician was born in Budapest, although Houdini claimed that his birthplace was in Wisconsin. His parents emigrated to the United States on July 3, 1878, when Ehrich was four years old. He was the youngest of three sons of Rabbi Samuel and Cecilia (Steiner) Weiss (the couple also had a daughter, Gladys).
The family settled in the town of Appleton (Wisconsin), where his father – Samuel Meyer Weiss (1829-1892) became a rabbi in Zion Reform Jewish Congregation.
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Henry Brown was born a slave in 1815 in Virginia. He spent his early life on a rural tobacco plantation. In 1830 he was moved to Richmond.
He married a fellow slave and they had three children. One day the owner of his wife decided to sell her and the children to a different slave owner and they were sent to North Carolina.
It was then that Brown determined to escape from slavery. He decided to send himself by mail to one of the northern states, where there was no slavery. At the end of March 1849 with the help of a friendly merchant Henry packed himself in a wooden box which was sent by Adams Express Company, known for its efficiency and confidentiality. Brown took food and some water with him. During the trip his box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, wagon again, railroad, ferry, railroad, and finally delivery wagon.
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