Osama bin Laden was the Islamic fundamentalist leader and leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda. He was a harsh critic of the United States and its policies.
Usama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His father, Mohammad bin Laden, was one of the country’s wealthiest business leaders. Osama had more than 50 brothers and sisters. At the age of 17 he married a Syrian girl. She was to be the first of several wives.
In 1979 he earned a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul-Aziz University.
In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Bin Laden, like many other Muslims, rose to join the jihad declared against the attackers.
In 1988 he and the Egyptians founded Al Qaeda (The Base). Their goal was to protect the religion of Islam and Muslim people. Later Al Qaeda became known as a radical Islamic group.
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Sitting Bull was a chief of an Indian tribe Hunkpapa, who tried to keep U.S. settlers from taking over Indian lands. He is known for his role in the battle of the Little Bighorn. His name in his native Dakota language sounds like Tatanka Iyotake, Bison, sitting on the ground.
Sitting Bull was born in 1831 near the Grand River. As a boy he was called Slow (Hunkeshni). Subsequently, Sitting Bull became a renowned warrior.
Outstanding Hunkpapa chief had a lot of followers among all the tribes of the Lakota. Since 1863 he fought against US troops. He led the Indian tribes, who opposed resettlement. When US Army General Henry Hastings Sibley attacked hunting Lakota in June 1863, Sitting Bull led the Lakota group to avenge the soldiers.
When another tribe of the Sioux, under the direction of leaders Red Cloud and Frantic Horse started a war against the construction of the railroad through their territory, Sitting Bull took part in it. Red Cloud War lasted from 1866 to 1868 years. Sitting Bull refused to join the peace agreement and continued attacks on the armed forces of the whites. His authority among all the tribes of the Sioux had increased, so a number of historians believe that during this period he was elected supreme leader of the Sioux.
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Ralph Bunche was a U.S. diplomat who won the Nobel peace prize in 1950. He became the first African American Nobel laureate. He was the highest American official in the United Nations.
Ralph Johnson Bunch was born on August 7, 1904, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a barber and his mother was a musician. His parents died when he was 13 years old. His grandmother took Ralph and his young sister and moved to Los Angeles, California. As a schoolboy Ralph worked as a janitor, carpet-layer, and seaman.
Ralph was a good student and a good athlete. In 1934 he earned a doctorate in government and international relations at Harvard University. Later he taught at Howard University in Washington, D.C. From 1928 to 1942 Bunche was a member of the department of political science at Howard University.
In 1930 he married Ruth Harris, one of his students. They had three children.
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John Brown Russwurm was an African American and Liberian journalist, educator, and governor. He was co-editor of the first African American newspaper. He became governor of Maryland-in-Liberia after his emigration to Africa.
John Russwurm was born on October 1, 1799 in Jamaica. His parents were a Creole woman and a white American father. In 1807 the boy was sent to Canada for schooling. In 1812, John and his father moved to Portland, Maine. In 1813 his father married Susan Blanchard. John’s father died in 1815.
Russwurm attended Hebron Academy in Maine.
In 1826 John graduated from Bowdoin College. His stepmother and her new husband helped him to pay for his education. So he became one of the first three blacks to graduate from an American college.
In 1827, Russwurm moved to New York and joined Samuel Cornish to edit Freedom’s Journal. It was the first newspaper published by and for blacks. In February 1829 Russwurm announced support for colonization. The black subscribers abused on Russwurm and let the newspaper die. So John went to Liberia where he worked as the editor of the Liberia Herald. Then he was elected to office and served as secretary of the colony.
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Ralph Abernathy was an American civil rights leader. He was the best friend and trusted assistant of Martin Luther King Jr.
Ralph David Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama. He was one of 12 children. His father was the son of a slave. In 1948 he became a minister in the Baptist church.
In 1950 he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Alabama State University and a Master’s degree in sociology from Atlanta University in 1951.
In 1951, at the age of 26, Abernathy became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
A few years later he met Martin Luther King, Jr. They began fighting laws that kept blacks and whites separated.
In 1955 Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress from Montgomery, refused to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger and she was arrested. Abernathy and King organized a protest of the Montgomery bus system. This protest helped start the civil rights movement.
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John Brown Gordon was an American businessman and politician. He was one of the politicians who dominated Georgia after the Reconstruction period. He was an American General, a member of the Civil War, one of the trustees of General Lee. After the war he was a determined opponent of Reconstruction and, presumably, one of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia in the 60s. Gordon was a member of the Democratic Party, US Senator from 1873 to 1880 and from 1891 to 1897. From 1886 to 1890 he was the 53rd Governor of the State of Georgia.
John B. Gordon was born on February 6, 1832, in Upson County. He was the fourth child of twelve. Many members of Gordon’s family took part in the American War of Independence.
He studied at the University of Georgia.
Together with his father he was engaged in investing in coal mines of Tennessee and Georgia. He was a practicing lawyer. In 1854, he married Rebecca Haralson, daughter of Hugh Anderson Haralson. Their marriage was long and happy.
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John Brown was an abolitionist, who wanted to end slavery in the United States. Opponents of slavery admired him, but others considered him a dangerous criminal. He was one of the first white abolitionists who fought for the abolition of slavery.
John Brown was born on May 4, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He was the second son of Owen Brown, a tanner, and Ruth Mills Brown. As a child he moved to Ohio. Brown studied briefly for the ministry but quit to learn the tanner’s trade.
In 1820 John married Dianthe Lusk. She gave birth to 7 children. Lusk died in 1832. A year later he married Mary Ann Day, who bore 13 children. Only 12 of Brown’s 20 children survived.
In 1836, the Browns family moved to Ohio to Franklin Mills. He suffered heavy financial losses during the economic crisis in 1837. So he tried many different ways to make money. However, on September 28, 1842, John Brown was declared bankrupt. In 1843 four of his children died of dysentery.
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