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Category Archive: Politics

Jefferson Davis – military and political leader

Jefferson Davis - military and political leader

Jefferson Davis – military and political leader


Jefferson Davis was an American military and political leader, the first and only President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point; six years he served as a lieutenant in the army, and later returned there as a volunteer to participate in the US-Mexican War, where he commanded a regiment. He was Minister of War under President Pierce and Senator from Mississippi.
Davis, owner of a large cotton plantation and a large number of slaves, was well known as a supporter of slavery. He opposed separatism, but supported the idea of the sovereignty of states. On February 18, 1861 Davis took office as President of the Confederate States of America.
By 1881, he completed work on his memoirs entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.
Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3, 1808 in Kentucky in a farmer’s family.
In 1828 he graduated from the military academy at West Point and was sent to the 1st Infantry Regiment with the rank of second lieutenant.
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Indira Gandhi – Indian prime minister

Indira Gandhi - Indian prime minister

Indira Gandhi – Indian prime minister

Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician, Prime Minister of India in 1966-1977 and 1980-1984. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and mother of Rajiv and Sanjay.
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, who later became the first Prime Minister of India after the country’s independence in 1947, took the first steps in politics in the Indian National Congress (INC). At the age of two Indira met Mahatma Gandhi. Since childhood she participated in the demonstrations, repeatedly served as a courier for the fighters for independence.
In 1934, Indira entered the People’s University, which was created by famous poet Rabindranath Tagore. However, after her mother’s death in 1936, she had to interrupt her studies and go to Europe. In 1937, she entered Somerville College, Oxford University in England, where she studied management, history and anthropology. After the beginning of the Second World War, Indira decided to return home.
In 1941 Indira returned to India, and in 1942 she married Feroze Gandhi. They had two children: Rajiv (born on August 20, 1944) and Sanjay (born on December 14, 1946).
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Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla – Father of Mexican Independence

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla - Father of Mexican Independence

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla – Father of Mexican Independence

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary leader, who marked the beginning of the war for independence from Spanish rule. He was the national hero of Mexico, known as the “Father of the Fatherland” (Padre de la Patria).
Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor was born on May 8, 1753 in Penhamo, Guanajuato. He was the second of four sons in the family. Their mother died in 1762, shortly after the birth of the youngest child. Miguel grew up in the hacienda where his father served as a manager.
In June 1765 twelve-year-old Miguel and his brother Jose Joaquin went to Valladolid (now Morelia) and entered the Jesuit College of St. Nicholas, where he studied Latin, law, rhetoric, classical writers, philosophy, theology and other religious disciplines. There he read History of Ancient Mexico (Historia antigua de México) by the Mexican historian Francisco Klavihero.
In 1767, by decree of King Charles III of Bourbon, the Jesuits were expelled from Spain and the colonies. Because of this the college was closed for several months, but in December it was reopened.
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Susan Brownell Anthony – famous suffragette

Susan Brownell Anthony – famous suffragette

Susan Brownell Anthony – famous suffragette

Susan Brownell Anthony was one of the leaders of suffragettes. In the 1900s women in the United States fought to gain equal rights with men. She was an American activist and fighter for civil rights of women, who played one of the key roles in the US suffragette movement in the XIX century. In addition, she fought for social equality and against slavery.
Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts in a Quaker family. She was one of seven children. At the age of three the girl could read and write. When she was 6 years old her family moved to Battenville, New York.
After school, Anthony worked as a teacher and experienced the problem of gender inequality: women’s salary was a quarter of the men’s one.
In 1845 the family moved to Rochester. Her father worked with important abolitionists.
Susan traveled widely, spoke at public meetings, and began to take an interest in women’s issues.
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Cardinal Richelieu – French statesman

Cardinal Richelieu - French statesman. Philippe de Champaigne

Cardinal Richelieu – French statesman. Philippe de Champaigne

Cardinal Richelieu was also known as Red Cardinal. He was Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, an aristocrat and statesman of France. From 1616 to 1617 he was a secretary of state and head of government (chief minister of the king) from 1624 until his death. Richelieu, among other things, was very prolific playwright and his plays were published in the first royal printing house. Historians have viewed Richelieu as either a patriot or a tyrant, and he was later vilified in Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel The Three Musketeers (1844).
Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu was born on September 9, 1585 in Paris. He was the fourth of the five children into a family of Francois du Plessis, the lord of Richelieu, and Suzanne de La Porte.
Armand studied grammar and philosophy at the College de Navarre. Later he entered military academy. In 1603 he began serious study of theology.
At the end of 1608 Richelieu arrived in Lucon and became an assiduous bishop.
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Patrick Henry Pearse – Irish poet

Patrick Henry Pearse - Irish poet

Patrick Henry Pearse – Irish poet

Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish poet, educator, lawyer and revolutionary nationalist. He was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. From his youth he was an active participant of Celtic Revival, wrote poems in Gaelic. In 1908, he became the founder of St. Enda’s College. In 1913 he became a participant and one of the founders of the Irish Volunteers and later joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). In 1916 Patrick actively participated in the preparation of the uprising against British rule. He is one of the authors of the Proclamation of Independence of Ireland. In fact, Pearse was proclaimed president of the Provisional Government and Commander in Chief of the republican troops.
Patrick Henry was born on November 10, 1879 in Dublin. His father, James Pearse, an Englishman, worked as a bricklayer and sculptor. In the 1850s he founded his own business associated with building and finishing works. Patrick had two sisters and a brother. In addition, James Pierse had four children (Emily, James, Agnes and Amy – the last two daughters died in infancy) from his first marriage. His mother, nee Margaret Brady, was Irish. Since childhood Patrick was fascinated by Irish language as well as the legends and stories about Irish heroes.
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Patrick Henry – American patriot

Patrick Henry - American patriot

Patrick Henry – American patriot


Patrick Henry was an American orator and revolutionary, who helped shape the first government of the United States. He helped to write the first constitution of the state of Virginia. He was an active fighter for independence. His powerful speeches about liberty and self-government still inspire people today.
Patrick Henry was born on May 29, 1736 in Virginia, into a family of lesser gentry.
He married Sarah Shelton and was the father of six children. She died in 1775. Two years later he married Dorothea Dandridge, who was half his age.
In 1760 he became a lawyer. Soon he began speaking out against the British government. In 1763, Henry was a lawyer at the trial of the tobacco tax, the outcome of which had a great influence on the development of the movement for the independence of the American colonies. He strongly believed that the American colonies should be free of British rule.
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